Fahrenheit Suites, Kuala Lumpur

I decided to stay one night at Fahrenheit Suites at Kuala Lumpur as there was a 50% discount off, being newly launched at SGD $120. This is the same building where KL Plaza was, now refurbished as Fahrenheit 88 (opposite Pavilion) at Bt Bintang in KL. I thought it would be a suite like those of Dorsett, but it was more like an apartment suite. It is actually a convert apartment used to be called KL Courts. There are still some renovation going on, so don’t expect a pose entrance to a “suite”. It more like visiting your mom apartment in KL.

Actually for one person, the place is pretty huge! So if you are one of those who afraid of big empty houses at night, I don’t recommend trying to stay there. Its a bit weird because they had to turn a normal 2 bedroom apartment into a one bedroom suite, so you will notice that another bathroom and bedroom is locked. For those with wilder imagination by oneself, you will start wonder what lies behind those doors!

Really Random Thoughts on Elections 2011

Many people would think that given the size of the people attending the opposition rallies and online chatter against PAP and for the opposition, this coming election will be a big win for them. On the contrary, as we have seen in the previous elections, this may not be true. The good news this year is that there are probably even more people who may be supporting the opposition and even more people willing to voice their opposition. The opposition may not win big this year, but given the trend and giving it 10 to 20 years, we will surely see even more qualified candidates joining opposition parties and even more voters swinging their votes over to the opposition. Things may not happen this year, but wheel are set in motion and change will come if we are patience enough.

The problem with PAP dominance is that barriers to entry are made very high for the opposition. Election boundaries are constantly redrawn to shift voting patterns in favor of the PAP. Community centers under the People’s Association are used to ferry uncles and aunties with free food to attend PAP rallies and I thought they are supposed to be non-partisan? Broadcast and print media are servants to the PAP, not to investigate what is facts, but to tell Singaporeans want PAP wants them to know. The police, security forces and judiciary, by virtue of the laws bulldozed by PAP in the parliament, are but loyalists of the PAP, used by them to spread fear and to control and maintain power. Civil servants, whether they like PAP or not, will probably have to vote for PAP, mostly really out of fear.

Then there are votes who vote out of fear and lack of empathy and indifference.

Fear because they fear voting in the opposition will make things more difficult for them in the estate. Their estate prices may drop subsequently and new amenities for their estate will take a back seat in favor of PAP wards. Some fear that if they voted for the opposition and if the PAP won, their names will be noted and getting any help from the PAP after that may prove to be difficult. This is the reasons why the PAP is playing the fear and regret card in the news media. They know a lot of citizens responds to these messages well and will not dare to make the wrong move. The same fear card was used by Vivian on the gay issue, in order to secure votes from the anti-gay voters in his constituency, probably right wing fundamentalist religious people.

For those who are indifferent or lacks empathy, its probably harder to convince them otherwise. These people have a good quality of life for themselves and their families. They want everything to remain the same after the elections so that they can continue to have their maids and occasional holidays. To them, as long as their life have no major upsets, there are no causes to fight for. They don’t care to know about civil rights or don’t have any idea or don’t care why people are jailed by ISA. They think that over time PAP will make those changes or accommodations and there is no need to fight against PAP for it.

The same mentality gets some gay people over the call to abolish the penal code 377a. Some, have their partners, build their little nest and go about their usual daily routines. Others are happy to have their parties, sex and drugs. They don’t want anyone upsetting their way of life by calling for the repeal and upsetting the government with a backlash. They believe that the government will abolish that in time to come. Upsetting them too early will compromise their current contented way of life. And so they prefer that nobody fights for gay equality and upsets the government and leave it to them to work on it as a when they pleases.

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Many people harp on the Mas Selamat incident, with the focus on the toilet escape. It makes sense, of course, but for me this is missed by a mile.  For me, the incident should be more about the accountability of the Internal Security Acts.  Whether Mas Selamat is a terrorist or not, I strongly believe that he should be given a fair trial in an unbiased hearing. Being in ISA custody, was he given a fair trial and hearing, was he tortured? Could he be a political dissenter rather than a would-be terrorist? We are all already aware of how ISA has been used by the government to subvert challenges to their power, even the average person on the street have an irrational fear that if they talk too loud against the government, they may need to have a kopi session the next day. Mind you this is not the PAP tea session. I constantly hear gay people talk about how they worry about their jobs being compromised or being monitored if they speak too loud for gay rights because of the fear of ISA. This is precisely why ISA needs to be abolished to be replaced by a structure more accountable to the people and not subject to the abuse of power by the PAP. The ISA just gives PAP too much leeway to abuse their power without proper checks and balances and it must go.

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Coming to the gay issue, its a good thing to know that in general most people don’t really care if an MP is gay or not. Does that mean a gay MP will take about nothing but a gay cause? Does that mean a Muslim or Buddhist MP will talk about just their own religious cause? Or a woman MP will focus only on women’s issues? This is truly really fear mongering at its peak. But this does show to us how strongly the PAP team regarded the SDP team. Every time we see smear campaign coming from PAP, we know that its because they fear those that they smear. Already, we hear talks and rumors about potential drastic steps PAP are prepared to conjure up in order to destroy the SDP chances or credibility in contesting for the GRC. I have no idea what that maybe or if they will indeed carry that out, we can only wait and see.  Given that PAP have full control of the police forces and security forces, i.e. spying on citizen, it is not hard to think of the kind of information they can gather to make this possible.

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I know we are all frustrated by the sight of so many foreigners in Singapore and about job security, however, please don’t use them as the bogeyman or make a joke out of them. They are flesh and blood people who works hard for their own livelihood and family and don’t deserves us screaming for them to get out or us joking about them. The focus should be on the issues of our policies and how it impacted Singaporeans and what we can do improve the situation.

Also, one thing we must remember is that these so called foreign talents are really a huge and diverse group. The frustration are not necessary the same and they are not all necessary taking away jobs from Singaporeans. I suspect the most visible groups and those that some of us are frustrated about are the lower skills foreigners. However, we sometimes need to ask ourselves, how many Singaporeans want to do those jobs that they are doing? I wonder even if with a minimal wage scheme and with policies to encourage employers to hire Singaporeans first for those jobs, how many really want to be a house maid, road sweeper, rubbish collector or construction worker? If anything, we should thank them for building the houses we live in, keep our estate clean and taking care of your children or old folks when you are too busy earning for a living.

As for jobs that so-called went the way of the foreigners, honestly I have no idea what people are talking about. Not that it is non-existence, but for people in different industry, this may be either a perceived or actual problem.  Taking my own experience in the IT industry interviewing people for some IT positions. I found that the general quality of Singaporean candidates to be not as good as compare to their foreign counterparts interviewing for the same jobs. Some could not articulate their thoughts properly or show enthusiasm or passion for the the industry that they are in and worst of all the one-question-one-answer interviewee. It can be quite frustrating having to face such candidates and so don’t blame me for not recommended any Singaporeans for those positions and giving them away to better foreign candidates.

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Whether or not, this is a watershed election, in the future, I want a Singapore where gay and transgender people are free from fear of being themselves,  where they get equal opportunities to work and social help without having to hide or be ashamed of themselves and where the media are allow to portrait positive images, movies and articles of gay and transgender folks.

I want a Singapore where citizens are free from fear of speaking out in public, where lawyers can comment on the law, where news media actually carry real news about Singapore, where ISA and 377a are abolished, where all detainees of the ISA and those exiled are given a fair hearing and fair compensation if they were wrongly accused, where the RCs and CCs are not beholden to the PAP but to its citizens and where those we really need our help or have fallen into the cracks are help by the government to bring their lives back in order, where population is not increase just to catch up with GDP growth and finally, a Singapore where I can truly be able to say it is my country and not one that PAP allowed me to be in.

The (watch)men in white

Among those of us who were more active in gay rights in Singapore in the earlier days, we used to joke about how we could always ask the internal security dept (ISD) for our emails if they ever got lost or deleted. It was somehow a known assumption then that the government has been monitoring our activities and correspondences. Moles and attempted infiltration to keep the government aware of what is going on is probably a common theme. We, of course, know that whenever that is a large gathering, clueless plainclothes polices were sent to spy on us, often being singled out very quickly or having to endure long talks about gay sex (perhaps) or relationship or worst still gay poetry and art!

One of the joke in the gay email list SiGNeL was that we should all sign off our postings with “LKY”. The purpose was so that every posting gets captured by the ISD and the poor intelligence people have to read through all of our postings to find out that it has nothing to do with “LKY” other than the signature. This will certain keep them very busy!

Why can’t R-21 films be screened in HDB heartland cinemas?

The recent news about why R-21 films in the HDB heartland really goes to show what happens when people stop using their brains.

Want do we mean that society is not ready to have R-21 films close to home? If R-21 films are such bad influences shouldn’t they be simply banned in the first place? Who do the people think can watch R-21 films? 13/14 year old kids? Aren’t these films restricted to minors?

Also such a survey speaks nothing about misinformation or prejudice of the respondents. If you ask the same audience if they agree to allow foreign construction/migrant workers to rent their rooms or rent a flat next door to them, you may see the same or even more percentage not wanting this to happen. Does that mean that our ministry should prevent any of the workers from staying in HDB heartlands?

If 21 year old boys can be serve in the army to learn to kill an enemy, hold a gun, throw a grenade, fire a tank and command a company of men, what can R-21 films do that the army have not taught?

If having R-21 films at the heartland can be sure a bad influence,shouldn’t we banned cigarettes, alcohol and gambling at heartlands too? How many of us have seen 16/17 year old kids smoking, drinking and gambling around HDB towns? Aren’t these bad influences for kids? So why are these parents not asking for a ban of these from HDB heartlands also? What more, even though these have restricted  sales to minors, many can still get their hands on them through their older friends. Going to a cinema, on the other hand, is different because there is a gatekeeper at the door.

Furthermore if those kids want to get more sexually explicit or vulgar or violent contents, they can easily get those from the internet. Why need to pay $10 to watch some dumb censored films with nothing to see?

 

The interesting things about disasters

The interesting thing about disasters is that they make us and the government care about the lives of the people in those area, where during normal times, we would hardly give a thought to their sufferings. Of course, this is a good thing. This shows that people are still empathetic about the sufferings of others. Perhaps those people had a difficult life for a long time and had been asking for help from their government or travelers who may occasionally visit, but nobody bother with them. Disaster happens and lo and behold, suddenly there are money in the coiffures to help the poor, to help them rebuild their schools and houses and their lives. Perhaps they had been asking for the same things before disasters happened.

Not to belittle the sufferings of those in a disaster, but I wonder if some of the people may have been better off after a disaster.

Countries that never provided enough money to help their own poor, homeless, sick and destitute, have thousands and millions to give to other countries when disasters happen. How ironic these charity and show of generosity are, why do government not give those same money to help their own? Its hard to comprehend. Perhaps its the believe that people in a disaster are not to be blamed and deserves unquestioning help, whereas the homeless, destitute and poor deserves no help because they are to be blamed for their own state of affairs.

The single story about the happiness of being in a relationship

Inspired by the danger of a single story by Chimamanda Adichie.

Why is it that whenever someone says that they are in a relationship, friends flock to congratulate the person. Even though, some may not feel that it will not last or that that new person is may turn out to be a bastard or a serial killer?

Why is it that whenever someone says that they are now single again, friends again flock with condolences. Even though, that relationship was bad from the start, with bickering, fighting and distrust and it was better off breaking up?

Why is that even when these 2 events happened within a span of 1 or 2 week, friends will still offer congratulations and condolences within the same breathe, as if its an automatic response that they must do in order to show that they care about their friends. Or is this really how we should show genuine care for a friend?

Why do some people keep on to a bad relationship, fighting, bickering and distrusting; as if, one cannot survived outside that relationship  and be happy and one is not whole without being in a relationship and all that victimizing of oneself something worth pursuing?

Is SwissCash for real?

This was a old post, but I reposted this now that more ponzi schemes are in Singapore. Also see Kinlian blog.

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I first heard of this new investment scheme call SwissCash from Tim. At that time, its 300% profit over 27 months claim sound just too incredible to believe and I left it to one side. Later on, I have old friends calling me who also told me about SwissCash. Not only were they investors, some were also referrers (those who earns a commission by getting others to invest). It peaked my interest because my friends were reaping quite healthy profits from it either being an investor and/or a referrer. Of course, the catch here is that SwissCash is an offshore investment scheme, you basically have to trust your money with the referrer.

Stop having babies if you really want to save Earth

Fact: Earth is not dying… at least not in the next few million years

Earth will probably “die” together with our sun when it goes super nova in like a long time to come. So if anyone comes and tell you that Earth is dying, they are lying. Okay, they are technically not lying, Earth is dying day by day, just like all of us are dying day by day. Earth years is just so much longer than humans can imagine. But if they are trying to incite fear of a doomed earth in the next few years, then they are lying and they know it.

Fact: Life on Earth is not in danger of dying… at least some self-appointed-important animal species AKA humans are in danger of dying out.

Earth has gone through a few cycles of extinction with as much as 90% going extinct and each time new and more diverse species repopulate the Earth. Sure, this time round, if human continue their path to self-extinction, probably 99% (I am stretching this) could go extinct. But then given that Earth have a few more millions to go, surely newly species will repopulate the Earth in time to come.

Up in the air

Up in the air is a movie about a company that helps ex-employees of other companies that fired them get motivated so that can move on after they get fired. We heard the familiar cries when employees are fired ranging from how much the sacrificed for the company and how many years they have been in the company, etc.

Being an employee, how often do we ask ourselves how much the company have ask for our sacrifices, be it overtime, underpaid, long hours, bad managers and even bad environment?

Look back at the previous company that you were in, did you spend sleepless hours trying to get a report completed, a project completed or trying to fix a problem? Where are they now? Where are those countless hours of anxiety, stress, anger and frustration, where are they now? That’s right, you left them behind, those important projects or sales target or objectives are no longer important now. All those stressful days feels a bit silly now don’t you think? Sure some of those achievements went into your resume for the next job, but all those many other sacrifices we made that is not in your resume, are they worth it?

Companies act just like companies should, regardless of how much “sacrifice” you have given to a company or how many long hours and time you put it to make things work, when they need to terminate you due to mass layoffs, it usually don’t count too much. Yes, they may put into your testimony that you are good employee, but you still don’t get to keep your job. The strange thing about layoffs is that it is usually a top management error and they seem to get a big chunk of benefits and even continue to stay in the company where the staffs who made no mistakes and helped to keep the things running are the ones to be let go, instead of the people on top who made the mistakes.

For me after working for so long and having put in so much to keep things running, I always keep the philosophy of not of over-sacrificing myself for the sake of the company, because it will never care. Sure I will continue to do what I do best and well, that is not a doubt.

Any manager who asks you to “sacrifice” your time, money and life for that important target or objective, must not value you as an employee.  So I will just roll my eyes and try to do whatever is required, no more no less, with as much motivation as it should appear to be to the manager, so it doesn’t look like I am rolling my eyes when I am doing the work.

The only time your ought to sacrifice yourself for a job is when its your company. You have a stake in its survival and its survival is important to you. As a employee, its nothing more than a dumb request.

So the next time you get stressed over a deadline, an objective, a target or just getting something fixed, remember all this “sacrifice” will be meaningless to you when you leave your job for the next one.

The case of the flying pigs or piggie cupid

A few people in the blogs including Mr. Wang criticize why some chinese folks are up in arms with McDonald changing their lucky charm for a pig to the cute cupid. After all, it’s a McDonald toy and you can just don’t buy it. Also Mac representative did point out that they are not meant to be Chinese zodiac signs represent the 12 signs..

The issue, however, is not about buying the pig as a complete set, but an issue of the failure of our religious and racial policies, thus leading to irrational fear and narrow mindedness.

No matter how Mac denies it, those lucky charms does come in 12 as a set and all but 1 are coincidentally the same animals in the Chinese zodiac signs, how can they lied with a straight face that those are not meant to represent them as such? At the same time that they tried to hoodwink us, they also admit that they were trying to be sensitive to the Malay Muslim community. Of course, there is also the issue of economics, if you looking at the patronage at fast food joints like MacDonald and KFC, its quite common to see it filled with Malay customers.

The problem lies in that it’s okay to be insensitive to the majority Chinese but not the minority religion or race. It’s unfortunate in our context we cannot talk about the Malay race without also talking about Islam. But who makes the Malay race malay is a question of the government’s policy whitewashing ethnic groups from the Malay archipelago, something which YawningBreading have talked about before.

The Malay folks should not be too happy too that Mac are  being so sensitive if not overly sensitive to their religious obligation. What this means is that there is an irrational fear of offending the Malay Muslim community and the perception that they, of all communities in Singapore, are most easily offended and petty and cannot understand the needs of others. That is the message Mac sends to everyone.

MUIS, in the meantime, have not made any clarification and prefers to keep silent, perhaps they are all too happy that the majority Chinese race’s tradition is being promised for their rights?

What MacDonald could have done better is to offer the pig toy with an alternative cupid toy. So customers can choose between a pig or cupid to complete their set or buy both and have 13 instead, which is a lucky number. Surely there will be cost involved, but I believe that that is a better move. At the end of the day, it does costs to keep everyone happy.