Monday, May 31, 2010

City harvest church under probe

First, we have NKF. Then we have Ren Ci and Reverend Ming Yi. Now we have City Harvest Church!


This morning, while thousands of Singaporeans wake up grudgingly, to leave for work after a long weekend, officers from the commercial affairs department arrived at City Harvest church.

Individuals from the church were interviewed, sorry not for offers to join the commercial affairs department, but to help with inquiry of possible financial irregularities!

It is believed that 12 people linked to the church were questioned in connection with the case, including Kong Hee, the founding member of the church and its pastor.

Hence, another episode of finanical irregularities at a popular social/charity instituion unfolds!

City Harvest Church is a high profile church. It was started by Pastor Kong Hee together with his wife, famous award-winning singer Sun Ho. Recently the church has made news with its stake in Suntec City properties.


Singapore table tennis wins world table tennis championship

Singapore, has for the first time, in its sporting history, tamed its nemesis giant in table tennis: China!


Yup, our country has finally lifted its first table tennis world title in Moscow on Sunday (yesterday) night!


Kudos to the formidable display of grit, determination and belief of team members Feng Tianwei, Wang Yuegu and Sun Beibei.Mighty China was beaten 3-1 by our female trio in the final of the World Team Table Tennis Championships!

The match was not telecasted live on Singapore televisions hence it caught many Singaporeans by surprise when the results was released. Like myself, I believe many Singaporeans did not even know that the table tennis world competition has been held.

As anticipated, our nation's triumph has drawn mixed reviews. As you have known, our winning team is not Singaporeans at all, but all China-born foreign talents who have now become new citizens.

I believe it does not matter whether it is our China-born players who win the award or our local-born atheletes who cliched the accolade, the most important thing is that the winners represent Singapore and Singapore has won!

To celebrate the feat, I believe Singapore Mediacorp should play a encore re-telecast of the winning match on national television on weekends. I will be the legions of Singaporeans who will be watching the encore re-telecasted match. I hope this arrangement can be done so that we Singaporeans will once again feel the triumph and pride of our sporting talents ever since our win of the Olympic bronze medal.

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Singapore oil slick

Many parts of Singapore's beaches become tainted with the crude oil split by an oil tanker after its collision last week.


The relevant authorities are busy clearing the affected seas and shores of the oil slick and to restore the beaches and the affected biodiversity in parts off Chek Jawa to their original conditions.


This episode again highlights the vulnerability of Singapore to external events from our neighbours. Let me just point to the few examples how our country could be affected environmentally from such external forces:

a) Air: Transboundary air pollution, air laden with lots of smog and particles can deteriorate Singapore's Pollution Standard Index and cause suffering of health and economic losses with every wide-spread clearing of the Indonesian forests, as we have seen in the past episodes.

b) Land: Whenever there is a major earthquake affecting the region, Singapore can feel the tremors.

c) Water: The latest oil slick can be considered to be of the the very few incidents whereby external events can cause a wide-scale damage to our beaches and waters.

Apart from the aforementioned external environmental threats Singapore faces, terrorism and the cyclical economic global meltdowns are also the two perennial challenges Singapore face.

Friday, May 28, 2010

Karma & Nirvana

Today is Vesak Day
I republish two highly popular past posts for your reading sake:

Karma

Nirvana

Ngee Ann Polytechnic Graduation video

This is amazing! Imagine today is the day of your graduation. The day when the many hours of work and effort you have put in, throughout these years of study have finally reap fruits.


You wear your graduation gown with pride and invite your parents and friends proudly to your graduation ceremony.


Finally, one of the biggest days in your life arrives. You are among the graduating cohort, sitting in the auditorium waiting to collect the certificate you have been studying all along for.


You busy yourself with adjusting your graduation gown before you step in on the calling of your name, ready for camera poses and to the proud applause of your parents, only to find the greatest shock and humilation of your life!

This is what happened to Parthiban s/o Ganesan! When he stepped on the stage, to the horror of his life, the emcee read his name wrongly. It is already quite embarrassing to have your name read wrong. Imagine when the wrong name is read as a CHINESE SWEAR WORD!

Watch this video! Note: the emcess made no efforts to correct the reading of the name. This video has since been uploaded to Youtube by some people and has been clocking in tons of hits!

Parthiban has become a instant celebrity overnight through the emcees' misprounciation error! If I were him, I would be so sad to meet with this blunder from the MC on my big day!



Civil servants to get 0.5 month mid-year bonus plus S$300 in July‎

Are you looking for a job? If you are looking for a job and have the passion to serve, you may well want to join the civil service like my friend did owning to the good work-life balance as well as benefits.

Civil servants will get a half month bonus in two months' time and a one-off $300 payment! This is on top of their performance bonuses and their year-end bonus!

Vesak Day

Today is Vesak Day and it is a sacred and important day to Buddhists as they commemorate the birth, enlightenment and the passing away of Buddha.


Vesak Day falls on Friday this year in Singapore and hence Vesak Day also marks a long weekend for many Singaporeans who relish the opportunities to go for some overseas holidays with their families on this rare long weekend of the year.

One country, loved by Singaporeans,which cannot be really visited at this moment in time will be Thailand as it is just reeling from the effects of a large political turmoil. So for many Singaporeans, they have explored the turned to the alternative of vacationing in Malaysia and other Asian countries.

For many others, they will be staying put in Singapore as to them, today is just an additional day of rest. There is quite a galore of activities this weekend from book fairs at Suntec city, to food expo at Singapore expo as well as the many family celebrations carnivals all around the island.

Our favorite East coast park, will however not be in the top few choices of an outing this time around as many parts of the park have been tainted with oil after the collision of two oil tankers in the waters off there.

Happy Vesak Day to all of you!

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Eat with your Family Day 2010

Today, 27 May 2010 is Eat with your family Day, a day initiated by the Singapore government.


As Mary was packaging her bag to leave for home an hour earlier than the usual knock-off time on this special day. Her boss asked her "Where are you going?"

Mary replied: "I am going home to eat dinner with my family. Today is 'Eat with your family Day' "

Mary bosses remarked swiftly: "You can put your bag down, I treat you as family too, come to my office, I got something to discuss with you and after that, we will celebrate 'Eat with your family' day together!"

Mary was shocked! She has clocked in hours and hours of overtime for free under her boss, to the extent of skipping meals every night, just to rush work for her. Mary shouted: " Amy! Today is 'eat with your family' day! Do not be unreasonable! I do not treat you as family at all though you said you treated me as one!" With that, she stormed off angrily, leaving her boss, Amy in shock and disbelief.

Amy eventually granted Mary her wish to eat with her family not only on 27 May 2010 but EVERYDAY as Mary was subsequently SACKED with immediate effect!

This is just a fictional story. However it may underscore the difficulty some employees in private sector face when negotiating with their employers to leave an hour earlier and eat with their families on the 'Eat with your family Day'.. lest that their wish to do so would be granted, akin to Mary's case... EVERYDAY!

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Time Management

How time passes! Now is coming to June 2010 and half a year is almost gone. Time always passes so fast and the onus for us is to fully maximise and optimise the use of time.

I always see some delinquent youths hanging around with their pals, smoking, drinking, making a scene or a fool of themselves at the void decks. It is real sad to see them behaving as such. Most of them come from dysfunctional families or their families have neglected them.

It is imperative that these youths find constructive use of their time. They may be happy to go lucky now, fooling around with their friends but they would most likely regret when they come to finding work if their qualificatons are not as high as others. They will be at a losing edge.

Monday, May 24, 2010

The night I save a Cat

I was out just now and saw a bigger cat bullying a smaller cat. Angered to witness this scene, I chased the big cat away.


Why was I angry? Well, I draw parallels of this cat fight with the harsh realities of the world where some rich people can be really arrogrant towards the poor.

Final Lesson from Dr Goh Keng Swee

I watched in full captivity the live telecast of the State funeral of the late Dr Goh Keng Swee yesterday. Thousands of people had braved the elements just to pay their last respects to one of the greatest sons of Singapore over the past week.

Looking at Dr Goh’s funeral session which was attended by many distinguished guests, his family, friends and loved ones, and all paying tributes and offering eulogies to Dr Goh, the epiphany which has eluded me for some time now returned, overwhelming me: the epiphany on what life is all about.

Life is all about creating value to others and the society. Dr Goh was well-loved and respected by Singaporeans for he has not only cared for the society, he has created tremendous value to Singapore by helping make Singapore what it is today. Dr Goh Keng Swee has also touched the lives of many Singaporeans.


At your own funeral, what would you like to be remembered as to your loved ones? For those who have been stuck in the corporate rat race chasing for the millions and a premium living, I guess the same answer also applies: people do not remember you for earning that few millions but they remember you , long after you have gone, for how you have created, added value or helped them in their personal lives and the community in general.

The worst form of humiliation that can be accorded to anyone is to denigrade the value of an individual in any social roles he or she takes on: be it as a family member, as an employee, a friend or just as another human being. E.g. Many bosses treat their employees nastily, employees do not feel valued and hence leave the company. Dr Goh accords the requisite value and worth deserving of any individual to him or her.

So while we hope we will be valued in the social roles we take on, we can also help make the world or Singapore a better place by adding value to our fellow mates and community today!


Sunday, May 23, 2010

Farewell to Dr Goh Keng Swee

Today, Singapore bade a teary farewell to one of our founding fathers, Dr Goh Keng Swee at his state funeral.

Eulogies were delivered by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, Chairman of Temasek Holdings, Mr Dhanabalan as well as the grandson and grand-niece of the late Dr Goh at the ceremony in the Singapore Convention Hall which commenced at 2.30 pm.

The state ceremony was solemn but fitting to the great man who has made a enduring and significant contribution to Singapore.

Much has been said about the Dr Goh in the past week. Dr Goh has touched every segment of Singapore and made a significant impact on the lives of many.

There is lots of things we have to learn from Dr Goh. For me, the one lesson I learnt from Dr Goh is to be curious in life and lead life to the fullest!

Time is of essence. Everyone has the same 24 hours, but what distinguishes Successful men is the way they use this same resources which is TIME!

In this era, this is a myriad of distraction besetting our youths, things like the internet and the host of IT devices.

Singapore's youths must take a lead and an interest in contributing to Singapore.

Bangkok Tour

Continued from earlier post

As it turned out, the simple map we obtained from the receptionist was of not much use at all. The distances indicated on the map were grossly underestimated and though the map looked pretty decent, there were little actual street signs for us to make use of the map to navigate to where we wanted to go: Central World shopping centre.

You would be calling me nuts to go there (as Central World has been reduced to ashes by the ‘red shirts protestors’ just two to three days ago in Thailand’s worst political maelstrom ever) but take note that our visit to Bangkok was made some months ago. Our journey through the unsafe street out to the shopping district was an adventure by itself and a highlight of our tour (please see this post). We arrived at the T-junction facing Indra’s square shopping mall.

From there, even looking at the map, we could hardly continued, it was too hard to navigate. We asked a tutu driver who was resting for help, it was reassuring that he could speak some English. “From here, walk to Central World, 2 hours” he told us, before asking us whether we wanted a ride from him. We rejected his offer as we had heard of some horror stories involving Bangkok’s taxis and tourists. We decided to explore and walk to Central World ourselves. Initially we walked in one direction, only to find that it seemed wrong (very ulu). By gut feeling, my wife’s little hand in mine, we crossed the bridge towards Indra’s Square in the blazing Sun …(to be continued….)

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Free admission to 20 museums on open house (International Museum Day)

If you are looking for a place to spend the last of your weekends, you may want to plan a day of Musuem hopping as 20 museums in Singapore will open their doors free-of-charge to the public tomorrow in conjunction with the International Museum Day 2010.

For more information, visit this
link.

India Plane Crash

BREAKING NEWS!It was reported that at least 160 people were confirmed dead in an Air India plane crash in southern India early on Saturday!

The accident occurred when the plane coming in from Dubai overshot the runway of the airport serving the city of Mangalore in Karnataka state.

At least 160 dead perished in the crash.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Bangkok Travel

The photos of the hotel that we would be putting up looked nice and impressive as shown by the tour agents to us. We were also told that the hotel is within close proximity to the slew of modern shopping centres in Bangkok, so it is to our disbelief that the car which has fetched us from Sukhumvit airport in Bangkok, dropped us off at a hotel located in a super ‘ulu’ (remote) and dilapidated street. As it turned out, the hotel is a 3 star hotel, though it seems to be located at the wrong place, a street brimming with shop houses that will appear to be squatters in Singapore’s housing standards. Welcome to the first day of our (my Dear and I) Bangkok tour!

It was a culture shock to us! Being brought up in impeccably orderly and clean Singapore, we were quite shocked to find that we would be staying in this hotel for the next 3 days! We looked around for the shopping centres which were ‘alleged’ (by the tour guides) to be ‘in close proximity’ but there was none. Anyway, we decided to just check-in first, unpack our luggage, wash up, rest and then ‘see how best to salvage the situation and make best use of our vacation’.

The intent of our Bangkok trip was simple: shopping cum sight-seeing and hence it was a free-and-easy trip, with a half day city tour arranged for us on the second day. After resting, we went down to the reception, requested for a map and made our way out of the hotel. The receptionists spoke only very basic English and did not understand us at all; we could only gestured (and gave up).

Stepping out from the hotel, we were overwhelmed by the myriads of unfamiliar sights, sounds and smells occurring all at the same time, besieging us: touts of taxis, tutus, “motorcycle-taxis” (I don’t know the local name of that transport mode); suspicious-looking men in tattered shirts and shorts staring and following us; cars, motorbikes, buses, pedestrians and all sort of vehicles moving in the most unorderly manner; and there were no pavements for us to walk (we could only risk our lives walking by the side of the road with traffic just whizzing and inching past us!) There was also no familiar traffic light and junctions to guide us. We seemed to be aliens in this part of Bangkok! (to be continued….)

Bangkok protests ended, leaving behind a city in tatters



After the Thai government has acted decisively to contain the months-long political turmoil in Bangkok, normalcy has returned slowly to Bangkok, though pockets of tension and aggression by the red shirts protesters continue to smoulder.


What is left of Bangkok is a city in tatters with burnt buildings and damaged public infrastructure.

This red shirt political maelstrom is akin to Thailand’s 9-11 just as the Central World shopping centre in Bangkok is akin to the twin tower in 9-11: Central World shopping centre was destroyed by fire set by red shirt protestors and it was reported that the burnt building has to be torn down as a result.

I have visited Central World shopping mall with my wife some months back. This shopping mall, one of the largest in South East Asia is really nice. We had great meals there and enjoyed shopping there.



But now this shopping mall, destroyed by the fire set by the protestors, is gone, and what we have left is broken memories and debris…..









Tiger Airlines

When my wife and I took the Tiger Airlines some months ago, we were quite surprised that the prices of snacks, drinks and food such as nasi lemark were priced much higher than the average sold in our heartland markets. However a Sunday Times article I read some weeks ago, seemed to justify the high prices of these food.

The modus operandi of the aircrew and the airline for these budget airlines are different from their ordinary airline counterparts. The pays of the aircrew consist of a variable component which comes from the commission of the snacks, beer and gifts they sell to passengers.

A plate of nasi lemak on Tiger airlines and other budget airlines costs $10. This is in part attributed by the mark-ups for the sales commission and to justify the cost of the extra amount of plane fuel needed to transport the additional weight of food in the plane. After reading the article, I find the latter ‘fuel’ reason justifiable and this is rarely thought by others when it comes to justifying for the high food price. The incomes earned by airline crew can double their monthly incomes if sales are good.

Being part of the airline crew on Tiger airlines and other budget airlines is more challenging than the ordinary airlines. Aircrew get to be a marketer, a psychologist, a waiter, a promoter and also a steward or stewardess.

Personally, for me a budget airline is quite comfortable enough, though SIA is still the BEST and offers the smoothest and most comfortable journey. Of course, you pay top dollars for SIA, don’t you?

Central World Burnt

When my Dear and I were in Thailand just some months ago, we enjoyed ourselves very much at Central World shopping centre, one of the largest shopping centres in South East Asia.


We enjoyed good Thai food at the restaurant, and my Honey bought her Naraya bags at an outlet there. The shopping centre is fantastic and I even took a photo of this great shopping centre in Bangkok.




After we came back, the red shirt protestors mounted their strikes and protests Intially, it was peaceful though glory as bottles and bottles of blood from the protestors were drawn and spilt on government grounds.

Gradually, the protests grew more and more violent, leading to the crackdown yesterday and my lovely Central World was burnt!



It is a pity! Just take a look at the Central World before it was burnt:



It is real sad that Thailand, a land of smiles has degenerated into a cauldron of boiling tensions. I believe the protests will still continue for a while with pockets of tensions, rioting and arsons. I hope red shirt protestors will recognize their acts have gone too far.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Kampong Spirit in Singapore

Who exhibit the Kampong Spirit in Singapore? To find out the answer, we need to look at the 80% of the Singaporeans living in Housing & Development Board flats.


To this large group of Singaporeans, void decks are definitely not something unfamiliar to them.
Whenever I pass my void decks, I will always see the same senior citizens and neighbours sitting at the benches in the void decks. Their presence there seems to be a permanent fixture of our HDB landscape as I can see them, the same faces, every time I leave for work and return home…so much so that I think these senior citizens or I should call ‘void deckers’ have come to master the time-tables of my family and I, as well as for other families.

It is understandable why these senior void deckers are there at almost any time of the day. With their children working, they may feel bored and instead of sitting at home facing the cold confines of the walls, they would rather venture out of their home, to the void deck just below, to see the world pass them.

Along the way, these senior void deckers and neighbours whom I describe above have come to strike a chord with the families of the HDB block that they live in. It may begin as a friendly gesture of them to smile and say hi to the families. As time goes by, these void deckers will start to strike up a conversation with them and find out more about their personal affairs. When they do this, to each of the families they see, exiting from the lift into the void decks, many times a day, this friendly gesture can soon give way to ‘intrusion of privacy’. I mean everyone has his own sense of privacy and when these void-deckers ask you this and that and more into your personal lives every time you meet them, it can be rather annoying.

In mentioning the above, I must be fair to say that not all senior void-deckers behave as such. Those who behave in the manner I described above, are in essence, what we called in Singapore parlance, ‘kaypohs’ (nosey-pokers, if I get the English version correct). I have neighbours who are simply kaypohs that nowadays I just ignore them. It can take me a number of paragraphs to list down the kaypoh things they did but whatever it is, is history.

Back in modern Singapore today, we are still fostering the ‘Kampung spirit’ that we cherished in the past, which has since gone with the build-up of the HDB flats where ‘closed doors’ are now quite the norm. Can we say that all the HDB kaypohs exhibit what we called ‘Kampung spirit’? I can only say yes, provided that it is done with discretion and not in excess to the point of privacy intrusion.

Week after week, there are lots of events organized by many community organizations to foster community bonding together. As of today, I think the kampong spirit in Singapore is hard to revive. Firstly, in the world today, Singaporeans lead very hectic lives at work and at home, hence I believe they would want more private moments spent with their families than interacting with residents in their free time.
Also, the influx of new citizens has made the social landscape of Singapore even more complicated. More effort is needed to bridge the interaction of our locals with the new citizens.

Thirdly, the advent of technology and the internet has made people, especially the young, ‘captives’ of social networking medium, which has changed the way people interact.

Singapore today is different from that in the 1970s, hence the Kampung spirit of the 1970s may be impossible to foster. What we can continue to foster is the social graces of neighbourliness which is more easily understood by the masses of today.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Orchard MRT Station targeted by terrorists ?

Our internal security officers are currently in Jakarta to assist in the investigation of a possible attack by terrorists on Singapore.


The Indonesian police has found a map of Singapore MRT network during a raid on the residence of a terrorist, with Orchard MRT station circled, this led to some speculation that Orchard MRT station is being targeted by the terrorists.

While the circle on the Orchard MRT station does not indicate much and a thorough investigation into the case is necessary, Singaporeans must continue to be vigilant to foil an attack on our rail network.

Our vigilance does not extend to our trains only. All our public facilities and infrastructure could be prone to terrorist attack too.

With the advent of technology, terrorists could easily use application like Google Maps, Google Streetview to plot their attacks.

We live in modern day where information is easily available. And this availability of information to the wrong person for the wrong use is dangerous. Read my interesting
post on Google streetview too.

Singapore MRT Trains: a very special place for Singaporeans


If there is a place where Singaporeans do not want to be young in Singapore, it would have to be in the Singapore Mass Rapid Transit (SMRT) trains.


Why is that so? Well these days, the trains are so packed that getting into them proves to be a challenge, any hour of the day.

I still recall that I could easily find a seat on the MRT train on weekdays but not so on these days.

Priority seats are seats in the MRT trains which are supposed to be reserved for the elderly, the pregnant women and people with special needs, however these are always been misused by ordinary passengers.
It is only once in a blue moon that I witness passengers hogging these seats give them up to the elderly standing in front of them.

If you are an elderly who is refused a priority seat, your only consolation is that these “hoggers” do not find you old or elderly!

Being a regular commuter of the train, sometimes I witness very interesting encounters, others I experience personally. I still recall once a China man came asking all the passengers whether they have a $2 note in China-accent mandarin. I told him that yes I have one but it was at home.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Navy Open House 2010

The Navy Open House will be held this weekend from 22 May to 23 May 2010 at the Changi Naval Base.

I enjoy such open houses of the Military as these provide valuable opportunities for members of the public to know more about the operations as well as the work of our Navy.

There are hardly many places for outings in Singapore apart from the many shopping centres, places of interests, places of natural attractions and restaurants, hence such events do help to add some spice to our ordinary lives.

It will be great if the Navy Open House incorporates some elements to commemorate the late Dr Goh Keng Swee who had just passed on last week.

Here is the link to find out more about the Navy Open House 2010.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Orchard Road

It has been some time since I visited Orchard Road with my Dear, so yesterday,we spent few hours walking down Orchard Road, taking refuge from the bristling heat in the comfortable air-cooled malls, "shopping centre hopping" from one shopping mall to another.

Orchard road is not only a fantastic place for shopping, it is also a place to watch some interesting streetside busking. There were quite a number of people hawking their wares, from selling tissues papers to ice-creams which were quite common in Orchard Road. My Dear and I also caught sight of an old woman selling quite unconventional items on Orchard road: packets of Milo and some other dry snacks laid out neatly on a mat. It seems that these were her only possessions left that she wanted to sell to earn some bucks for a living.

There were other buskers like a blind man playing real soothing music, earning living from donations of passers by. There was also a most unconventionl busker as you can see from the photo below:



If I am not mistaken, what the old man was performing was "Kung Fu ball" and before he made an appearances and caught attention of passers-by, I have read somewhere in the newspapers that he has been practising his craft in a park somewhere in the island. Having perfected his skills, he has come to Orchard Road to perform and earn a living.

While there were teenagers performing some stunts in Orchard road on the streets for fun and earn some pocket monies, from what I observe, most of the older and physically-challenged personnel have come to Orchard road to sell items and food, perform antics, music or some skills under the hot sun to earn a living. If given a choice, at their age, would they want to brave and endure the bristling hot sun, extreme humidity and trade every ounce of their remaining strenght at their ripe own age everyday at Orchard road?

Tourists to Orchard road may welcome this aspect of Orchard road which presents a even more unique side of Singapore. Another place commonly visited by tourists and where street busking is rife is Bencoolen Street, the stretch of pavement leading from Fu Lu Shou complex to OG and Fortune shopping centre at Bugis. There, the stuntsmen are mostly from China, and there are even more interesting acts daily. I have caught some stuntsmen bringing in snakes before, promising a miracle cure to the onlookers, who were made of uncles and aunties in their fifties to seventies. There, the stunt, as befitting the theme of Waterloo Street is more orient-centric.

Anyway, I welcome these unique street busking aside to the hundreds of shopping centres Singapore now boasts. There would be even more shopping centres coming up, at heartlands come later this year. For example, Bedok will soon have a brand new shopping mall called Bedok Point.

Check Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (HSK) results

More and more students in Singapore are taking part in the Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (HSK). This test gauges how competency the candidates are in the Chinese language. The test results are recognized internationally and students are tested on their listening, written and cloze passage skills.

If you have taken the HSK test, you can check your results
here.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Apply NDP tickets

Oh how time flies, our National Day is coming once again! The National Day Parade (NDP) is Singapore's grandest parade and you would not want to miss this year's parade too! So apply for your NDP tickets right now! Application for this year's National Day tickets start from today!

There are couple of ways of applying for your NDP tickets and I believe that the easiest way will be via Internet right at the comforts of your home! To catch the specutacular NDP show this year, apply for your tickets now with this link

In the past, the application of NDP tickets is via queuing up at the sports stadium all across the island. Eager party-goers queue up for days just to be in pole positions to secure the tickets! I still recall the days when I was in secondary school queuing up for hours for the tickets at one of the stadiums, bringing books just to read up and pass the time.

Is balloting for NDP tickets fairer than queueing up? To a certain extent, queueing up inevitably links rewards directly to efforts: if you are sincere and eager to attend the Nation's greatest party, you will put in more effort, coming to the stadiums or places of ticket allocation earlier to be ahead of the queues to obtain the tickets. When it comes to balloting, all the applicants are subjected to chance and the process of probability.

I really hope that I can attend this year's National Day parade with my wife! It has been tens of years that I have not attended a National Day parade despites religiously participating in the electronic balloting of NDP tickets year after year and even choosing the highest probability to watch the spectacular show by just opting for 2 tickets are the rehearsal. The other time when I actually watched the NDP show onsite was donkey years ago when helping out with the army fatigues and through getting the tickets via manual queueing up.

Some people have explored the 'loophole' of watching some essences of the NDP show by turning up secretly and unannounced at the many rehearsals of the National Day Parade. You can try it this year, by turning up at the City Hall Padang in the mid week of July weekends to see whether you are able to catch a glimpse of the show or the fireworks!

With the demise of one of Singapore's founding leaders, Dr Goh Keng Swee, I believe that the organizers for this year's parade will screen some video footages of the late great leader for the Nation to commemorate him on this special occassion. What is more, this year's parade will be held right at the doorsteps of City Hall, it makes the commemoration of Dr Goh Keng Swee at the National Day Parade even more fitting. To all the Leaders, Generals and Scholars reading this post, may you consider my suggestion to pay tribute to Dr Goh Keng Swee on our National Day this year.

NDP tickets

Oh how time flies, our National Day is coming once again! The National Day Parade (NDP) is Singapore's grandest parade and you would not want to miss this year's parade too! So apply for your NDP tickets right now! Application for this year's National Day tickets start from today!

There are couple of ways of applying for your NDP tickets and I believe that the easiest way will be via Internet right at the comforts of your home! To catch the specutacular NDP show this year, apply for your tickets now with this link

With the demise of one of Singapore's founding leaders, Dr Goh Keng Swee, I believe that the organizers for this year's parade will screen some video footages of the late great leader for the Nation to commemorate him on this special occassion. What is more, this year's parade will be held right at the doorsteps of City Hall, it makes the commemoration of Dr Goh Keng Swee at the National Day Parade even more fitting. To all the Leaders, Generals and Scholars reading this post, may you consider my suggestion to pay tribute to Dr Goh Keng Swee on our National Day this year.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Weightage of mother tongues in PSLE

It is good that the government has clarified that the weightage of mother tongues in the Primary School Leaving Examinations will not be cut down. While it is true that most of the primary school students these days are more conversant in English, it is imperative that our future leaders master their mother tongues. With the rapid rise of China and India as the major engines of the global economy and Singapore being located in the Muslim neighbourhood, it will only stand us in good stead, socially and economically if our future leaders master their mother tongues competently.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

7 children and 2 adults hacked to death in China school killings

7 children and 2 adults were hacked to death by an assailant who later committed suicide. This was China's fifth similar case in less than 2 months where children at schools were attacked by rural dwellers such as farmers.

In all these incidents,the attackers after committing the rampage committed suicide,hence today's latest incident was really a copy-cat version.

There is no apparent reason or motive for such perverted attacks, but some have linked the attacks to stress from increasing urbanization.

Violent and unusual crimes or incidents are getting more and more commonplace these days. Let us not mention the terrorist attacks perpetuated against the Western powers by the extremists, let us look at some of the unusual phenomenons and crimes around the countries:

Hong Kong: The spate of acid attacks in Mongkok and other parts of Hong Kong; bottles of sulphuric acid were hurled down storeys of building, scalding many and disfiguring others

Western nation: School killings too (but not via hammers or cleavers as in China's case but via rifles!)

Singapore: More and more people committed suicide via jumping on the MRT station. Bizarre attacks in school (remember the Widjaja case of stabbing a Professor and committing suicide). Other bizarre cases was the group of teenagers making a suicide pact to die and reincarnated to save the world. As well as the case of a man walking straight into the white tiger's den in the Singapore Zoo to be killed.

The world may be really stressed afterall.

Monday, May 10, 2010

How to win the $5 million TOTO draw?

Are you ready to win the $5 million TOTO lottery draw this coming Friday? Well, for today's draw, someone, ya 1 lucky person has bagged the cool $3 million top prize! Do not be disheartened if you are not this super-lucky soul, you could be the winner of the $5 million TOTO draw this coming Friday?

So how to win the coming TOTO lottery draw? Well, you would need to be unbiased and pick some numbers that are really unique. I can tell you for most people, their minds will still choose a few of their favorite numbers no matter how random they want their pick of the numbers to be. So how to choose more random numbers that fall outside the psyche of your brain? Well, the simplest and easiest way is to use an automated computer program.

You do not need to invest in a lot of money to buy a lottery program or a TOTO program to generate your lucky numbers. If you have a computer, most likely you would have the Microsoft Excel Program and in that program, there is a random function which can help you to generate random numbers at absolutely no cost at all. Here is the function to type in the formula bar of an Excel spreadsheet:

= Int(randbetween(1,45))

Insert this function 6 times to select 6 random numbers for the minimum bid at $0.50 for the TOTO draw and who knows, you could take home the $5 million this coming Friday.

And if you do win this amount using my tip above, do not forget me loh!

Sunday, May 09, 2010

Mother's Day

Today is Mother's Day and I wish my mother and all mothers a very Happy Mother's Day!

So how are you going to celebrate Mother's Day with your mother? For me, I have celebrated Mother's Day yesterday at home with my mum and family by buying some special dishes from some good eateries. Definitely we would explore the option to dine out for this special day, however we are not so particular about celebrating Mother's Day in a very elabortate matter just as what the shopping centres, commercial retailers and eateries would want us to buy in!

Of course, it is definitely something that we can do to bring our mothers and loved ones out, to adorn them with gifts and good meals on special occassions. However, I do find that the celebrations of events like Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, and more are getting more and more commercialized these days with heavy media blitz to encourage spending on our loved ones on these special days.

Definitely, if we love our loved ones, we would not mind spending and lavishing our loved ones with gifts and great food on such special occassions. The most important thing is for us to understand the significance of all the festivals celebrated and not be 'mired' in a spending spree to show that the more you spend on your loved ones on these special days, the more love and affection you have for them.

We can celebrate Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day everyday of the year by showering our love continously for our loved ones everyday.

Nevertheless, I wish you and your family a Happy Mother's Day!

Saturday, May 08, 2010

An interview with author of Singapore Short Stories


I have decided that today's post will be about me and my motivation for starting this blog.

I have been blogging since 2007 on this blog. Prior to the inventions of blog, I did keep a diary but have since threw it away since most of the entries were made during my National Service days when times were not pleasant anyway. I can say that I am a late starter for IT and the internet. During the times when internet was first introduced, I did not really have a chance to learn about it as there was no need for internet access at home.

It was only through work matters by a strict but good boss in National Service that had me learn the Microsoft office skills the hardway: learning how to type, how to use the basic functions of Microsoft Word. Now looking back at those days, you might have feel the same like me that those functions are very basic, but do not laugh, to a starter and a novice to the computer and the suite of Microsoft office applications, learning how to use Microsoft word or even the computer was really a daunting task.

Hence I can always understand the apprehension of older folks or those non-IT savvy friends learning IT. Back then, I borrowed books from the libraries on Microsoft office applications and learnt on it use the hard way. Gradually, I have reached a competent stage today.

Back to the subject of blogging. Blogging seized Singapore somewhere in the early 2000s. However it was only in 2005 or 2006 that I registered my first blog called "Singapore Short Stories" to start to blog about my life. I did not know what to choose as the title of my blog, it is just a natural instinct to name my blog as "Singapore Short Stories" as I would be using the blog to blog about short daily instances of my daily lives.

However, after having registered the blog, the motivation to blog did not hit me instantly. It was only somewhere in year 2007 that I soon started to blog on a religious basis on the things that happened to me daily in Singapore, my outings, the food I have tried in the myriads of hawker centres in Singapore and so on and so forth.

As I blogged and blogged, my passion for blogging soon intensified and being an avid learner, I decided to learn more about blogging and hence have experimented with many blogging features such as blog tools, layouts, etc.

With constant improvements to my blog like an artpiece, I slowly discovered that readership of my blog soon grew to make my blog garner quite a respectable following everyday. I can definitely vouch that my blog is not one of the very top blogs here in Singapore but there must be a reason readers keep coming to my blog keeping the readership of my blog at a respectable level. I believe what I have written in this blog of my life, my outings and activities in Singapore echoes the same lifestyles and interests of the fellow Singaporeans so much so that they have found my blog and came to it, in one way or another, and finally the title of my blog is suitable: Singapore Short Stories which echo the stories of me, you, Singaporeans and this blog is definitely a blog I would like to share with friends from all over the world for them to get an insight of all things Singaporean!

With the passage of my life and growing of other passions, I have also set up the following separate blogs to share with all my other interests, they are in no order:

a) Singapore Hair Loss Stories : unfortunately as I age, I soon discover the nightmares of hair loss, hence I set up this blog to share with readers my struggle of this much dreaded illness, my fights against it and all my learnings!

b) Find a House in Singapore : one of my recent interests is to study the property market in Singapore, hence this blog for all interested readers too!

c) World Holiday Tours : any of my interests: travelling, on this blog you will read about what living and travel is like in holiday destinations of all over the world!

d) Singapore Investments: everyone wants to be richer and make their monies work harder for them, hence I am learning how to invest now too!

Some of my other blogs:

e) Raffles Review: I am trying to create a rojak blog of diverse interests.

f) Singapore games: to share whats' latest games are regining currently!

g) Online Millionaire Techniques: document some tips to earn an online income!

As the famous saying goes that in life, the key objectives are : "to live, to love, to learn and to leave a legacy", I hope my sharing of my life, my learnings and my love as encapsulated in this blog will be one of the legacy I live behind when I am gone.

Books

I have not read the book by Robin Sharma: “The leader without a title” but I can assure you that you lead people and manage things. One can be a C-level executive (Chairman, CEO, etc) but the leadership skills can be miserable. A CEO can talk about grandiose development plans for his staff on paper but it is useless at all if he does not know the actual ground feeling of the organization. Axe bad bosses, bootlickers and office-politic-kers is key to improve morale in the organization.
If you are a boss, be sure to behave and act like a boss. You are not an employee. You would need to show care and concern for your employees under your charge and never show bias. You should not be shallow enough to be coaxed by bootlickers. You should be discerning enough to know who are playing office politics in your office. When an employee you like due to his or her ‘many concerted actions’ tell lies and dishonour others, you should properly investigate to do justice to the other party and not believe these employees with a vested interest.

Choices and decisions of life



As someone has said before, “Life is not about nature or nurture, it is all about choices”. Indeed the choices that we make everyday help shape who we are and what we are today. We can go so far as to say that not choosing an option in life is also a choice. For every option we face in life, we make a decision and a choice.

Is it true that in life, sometimes one has no choice? Well if you look at the hundreds of people who drag themselves to work in a job which they have chosen in the past but which they dread the most as time goes by, or others who are forced into accepting a lower-paying and terrible job as a result of retrenchments, it seems that in life sometimes, one has no choice. Can they choose to quit?

Logically, yes, they can choose to quit and end the sufferings in their jobs but the outcome will be that they will be without a job and their dependents will be without a breadwinner. The consequences will be immense and unfavourable. So to justify the maxim that life is a matter of choices, we must also not ignore the potential outcomes of these choices we are to make, they are key determinants as to why some of us stick to a terrible choice in life at times.

I have made a number of the worst choices in life which I regret till today. At this time of writing, I am still suffering the adverse negative effects of these choices, everyday! Sound shocking right? To some of these worst choices, time will heal this painful effect but with other choices, the damage is already irreparable and I am facing these negative effects forever!

You may have asked why I have made these choices in the first place? Well my own experience is the same as buying a good touted to be the best by the salesmen only to find that it rots and no replacement or refund is possible. Only in my experiences, the effect is really terrible and no amounts of money can buy back the moment I made these choices else I would have taken a different path.

I am a victim of real terrible people who have made me lose my time, opportunities with their fake promises! Worst still, I am on the receiving end of people who do not do their duties correctly and properly, daily!

Friday, May 07, 2010

Council for Estate Agencies

The government will be setting up a new statutory agency under the arm of the Ministry of National Development. This new agency will be called the Council for Estate Agencies and its main role is to regulate the piping hot property and estate market in Singapore, curb errant property agents and to safeguard property buyers.

I believe the government's move to regulate the property and estate market is a timely one in view of the high volumes of resale flat and private property transactions in recent years. For many, purchasing a home is the largest financial investment and important decision of their lives, hence it is only natural that the process of buying their home is a pleasant and fair one.

For many buyers, when it comes to buying a house from the open property market, they have not much of a choice but to turn to a real estate or property agent to help in sourcing for potential flats and to faciliate the whole purchase transaction. We have heard of many errant property agents, who give unprofessional advice, behave unprofessionally or jack up the actual price of the property. Having a statutory board to regulate property agents, weed out the errant one and help raise the overall professional standard of the agents and the image of the property estate industy is well-applauded by Singaporeans. Visit Find a House in Singapore for all news related to Singapore's property and estate market today!

Thursday, May 06, 2010

Bangkok Adventure


Bangkok has been rocked by civil unrest amidst the protests of the thousands of ‘red shirts’ demonstrators in the streets of Bangkok since March this year.


The tourism industry of Thailand has been severely affected with many countries issuing travel advisories for its people against Bangkok. Thailand used to be a country of smiles and a popular travel destination for many and it is hence it is really a regret that this good country blessed with no foreign occupations, natural resources and friendly people is now a cauldron of political and civil upheaval!


My wife and I had our share of adventures in Bangkok. No, we did not visit Bangkok at the time where the ‘red shirts’ were protesting, neither did we join them. Our adventure was related to something that many Singaporeans have taken for granted: a liveable and comfortable cityscape.


When I visited Bangkok the other time with my wife, what left an indelible impression on me and my wife was the ‘fantastic’ roads!


I still recalled fondly the “cultural shock” my wife and I had on the first day we stepped out of our hotel in Bangkok to make our way to some of the biggest shopping malls in South East Asia. We were shocked to be confronted with such disorderliness of the roads! There were no pedestrian crossings, no traffic lights for pedestrians, and cars, tutus, motorbikes were all over the place, just inches away from us! To cross the road, one simply cannot wait for a motorist to give way to us; we had to make a dash fast and quick to the opposite end. There were also no pavements near our hotel and we realised that having completed the ‘feat’ of crossing the road, our share of ‘close shaves’ were far from over: we had to ‘make-do’ with the sides of the roads as pavements and contended with the dozens of cars, taxis, motorbikes, bicycles as well as pedestrians for walking space all within the same congested roads!


It was such a miracle not to be killed by the simply chaotic roads. The moment we stepped out of the hotels to be greeted by the road madness, we actually asked ourselves whether we had come to the right place. After the first day of long walk from Indra’s place, past Pratuman market, Central World and finally to Mah Bo Kong, we were immensely tired already and the very fact of having to pass through the dangerous roads, navigate through the masses of vehicle and people simply was simply discomforting to us.


We had in our hands heavy bags of goodies to bring back to Singapore. Then we recalled having to buy some bottles of water to last us through the nights, I brought three 1.5 litres of mineral water from a nearby 7-11 and stuffed them all in my haversacks. With the few heavy bags of goodies in my hands as well as the few kilograms of water in my haversack, I felt like a commando, ready for battle! My battle was the messy traffic and roads as well as escorting my little princess (my wife) back to our hotel!


The next two days, we grew more familiar of the roads and pavements in Bangkok. I must add that there is orderliness amidst the disorderliness of the roads: the locals had simply no problem to cross the roads. They do not rush across the roads, they simply walked slowly, oblivious to the traffic coming and the ongoing cars simply gave way to them just in time before an accident is to occur! To all Singaporean readers, let us feel grateful that we have a world-class land transport system here in our country!

Wednesday, May 05, 2010

Rats spotted along Orchard Road

Today's news reported the sighting of many rats along Orchard Road. Well this is not surprising to me, as if you have read my earlier post , you would have known that I see these rats and mouses scurrying around in my estate from day to night, everyday without fear! Rats have become permanent features of my residential town and a permanent fixture in my memory. This is not good of course and it seems that I am living in a third world underdeveloped country.

Why has there been such increase in rodents in our town and other parts of the island? A novel way to reduce rat population would be to stop feeding cats. Left to hunt for food, these cats will kill these rodents which compete with them for any morsel of food.

MRT Security Guards

Since the 911 incident, the Singapore Mass Rapid Transit corporation has deployed a number of security officers at the MRT stations. The main role of these security officers is to help screen and identify potential terrorists by requesting suspicious looking commuters for a screening of their bags and luggage.

I find that although such measures are useful, sometimes it can fall behind times. For example, I always observe that it is always the commuters who carry along with them heavy luggages or haversacks who are stopped and have their bags and belongings checked for explosive
or other terrorist attacks. I can sense the frustration of these commuters as normally, they are going to the airport for a check-in to get to their travel destinations. Such a check can mar their sense of elation of a holiday.

Notwithstanding the fact that the big bags carried by commuters can turn out to be explosive-laden bags by terrorists, ask yourself that which terrorist would be stupid enough to carry a big bag of explosives to board a train, knowing that there would be security guards who would screen his big bags at the stations?

With the advent of technology, explosive and other terrorist devices can be contained in very tiny portable devices, to be detonated by the sending of radio signals. It may hence be impossible for train security guards deployed at our MRT stations to identify such threats.

Many security guards have been derided as most of them are old, middle-aged and look frail, many question how are they going to deter aggressors? I have seen in the past some of these security guards behaving unprofessionally: SMS-texting, chatting, etc but fortuntately, these incidences are now much lesser.

I must salute a security officer deployed at the station near my house. Everyday, I take the train to work, she is already there, doing her duties religiously. When I come back home, she is still there, as vigilant in her duties as usual after 10 over hours! Such work involves long standing and may not be paying well, hence the professionalism she shows is truly outstanding!

Tuesday, May 04, 2010

Why ladies love bald man?


With so many men balding and suffering from hair problems like male pattern baldness, hair thinning, alopecia areata and many other hair problems, sometimes we encounter feel-good anecotes which will lighten up the stress suffered by hair loss victims, both male and female.

Saying such as "God makes all heads, the ugly ones they bury in hair" will seem to serve as a consolation to hair loss sufferers.

Also some people say that bald men are more sexy or more manly as they have more testetorone. But do you know that bald men in the past are highly sought after by women? You might not know and I am just as surprised to read this fact from a hair loss book.

It was reported in the book that scientists have found that bald men were highly sought after by females in primitive socities. In these early societies, men who were able to provide much food for their families were considered 'hot assets' and this provision of food hinges on their ability to hunt wild games!

It was shared in the article that bald primitive men made for better hunters as being bald, animals could not realise that they were actually men and hence these bald men were able to hunt more game and brought home more food for their wives and kids, as such these bald men were HOT in primitive societies!

Fast forward to today, bald men are also considered successful as many rich and successful men are bald. Some have attributed balding to thinking too much or the overuse of brain which lead to more sucess at career and hence more taking-homes!

Sunday, May 02, 2010

Helix Bridge and Marina Bays Sands Integrated Resorts

Singapore is a very interesting island. In a country where land is a premium, there are always new places of interest, built for social and economic interests which never fail to enthrall Singaporeans and friends from all over the world!

The latest iconic place of interest is inevitably the Marina Bays Sands Integrated resort and the Helix Bridge! Marina Bay sand resort was
officially opened on 27 Apr at the Chinese auspicious timing of 3.18 p.m. The opening of the DNA looking Helix bridge soon followed last Saturday amidst a fanfare of celebrations and fireworks!

It has really been some months that my Dear and I have actually had a night’s out in the city due to our commitments. With some spare time, we went on our first date in several months to the newly opened Helix bridge! We exited the Citylink Mall from the Esplanade and took a slow walk to the Helix just located next to the floating platform. The floating platform was out of bounds to members of the public as there was some construction work and some dancers practising their moves there. It must be preparation for the National Day or the Youth Olympics. Minutes later, my Dear and I reached the Helix bridge!

Singapore’s newest pedestrian bridge of pride was filled with hundreds of visitors, Singaporeans and foreigners. Being Labour’s Day, a Saturday and a public holiday, it was a splendid day to come to the Helix and the Marina Bay area. The weather was cool, neither too hot nor humid and the scenery at the Marina Bay was splendid, even though construction work at certain parts of the Marina Bay Integrated resorts were still ongoing! We followed the hundreds of people who rocked the Helix bridge, pausing at times to admire and snap photos of the show-stopping skyline of the Central Business District and the Marina Bay area of Singapore. The vista of Singapore’s prized district would sparkle even more when it gets deeper into the night.

The Helix is built of quality and firm steel and all of us felt secure even though many of us were up here on the bridge. This is no “London Bridge is falling down…”, this is The Helix, Singapore’s newest and most iconic pedestrian bridge which has joined its much older and historical predecessors at the Singapore river.


My Dear and I jostled among the crowds of ‘bridge-visitors’ and soon we reached the end of the bridge which was not really the end as the last quarter of the bridge was closed to visitors with construction work still undergoing.

My Dear and I hence joined the 30% of the bridge-visitors in continuing our scenic walk while the rest of the 70% of the bridge-visitors headed back (reversed) to the starting point of the bridge. Our walk next took us to the newest casino on planet earth at The Marina Bays Sands Integrated resort. The resort is truly iconic with its three pillars pointing to the skies. Do not belittle the design of the 3 pillars! I truly love these pillars and there is a lot of Fengshui underpinnings and elements when it comes to the design of the integrated resorts.


As my Dear and I continued our ‘discovery’, we were amazed to witness hundreds of people at the taxi stands, waiting for taxis at a building just opposite the ‘pillars’. “What is this building?” I asked my Dear. Our queries were soon answered as we asked a security guard while pointing to the hundreds of people inside the posh entrance of what we thought is a hotel. “Casino”, the security guard answered. “Can we enter?” I asked excitedly. “Yes, go by the main gate there and pay $100 each to enter” The $100 admission fee is not surprising to us as it was announced so many times in the media that Singaporeans would need to pay $100 to enter the casino so as to limit excessive and non-discretionary gambling among the locals. What surprised me was the fact that there were hundreds of people, bulk of whom were Singaporeans in the casino! Singaporeans are indeed rich for each of the people we saw behind the glass pane we peered at paid $100 each. Those who made a killing at the casino must be also those waiting in the taxi queue as taxi fares are not cheap in Singapore.

I always thought that the casinos are located in the 3 pillars, hence it surprised me that there is one outside the 3 pillars. As my Dear and I walked on, the skies have darkened and we chanced upon a huge underground shopping mall next to the Casino filled with very high-ended labeled shops, understandingly catering to the high income pundits.

As we walked on, we were also frantically hunting for the nearest MRT station. It would be no joke to turn back and re-jostle with the crowds back to the Helix. I was shocked when the security guard I asked highlighted to me that the nearest MRT station would be the Marina Bay Station as that would be quite far. The bus stops were also packed and my Dear and I continued our hunt for the nearest MRT station in the growing darkness of the skies. As we walked and walked, our stomachs sent a signal to us but we did not complain any bit as it was quite a time since we have dated in the city and we continued walking; it was no chore to us as both of us are able to walk for long distances (if you are free, read the “Places” and “Events” label of this blog to see the number of places we have visited in Singapore!)

Our walk was rewarded handsomely! We came to a (quite a secluded spot) along Marina Boulevard, which presented a show-stopping, spell-bounding evening vista of the integrated resorts, the Central Business District, the Esplanade, all laid out neatly as one! The vista was spell captivating and I doled out my camera once again to capture this magnificent moment! This spot was hardly known to Singaporeans. The dozens of foreign construction workers at the adjacent construction sites shared the “viewing platform” with us as they rested after a day of hard work.


After admiring this beautiful scenery, we founded ourselves headed towards Raffles Place MRT station and we proceeded to Wendy’s Singapore and devoured hungrily three quarter pound meals each! The queue at Wendy’s is now half of that in its opening days. However, kudos to Wendy’s as it has now built a partition to better manage the queue. As we ate, I saw a group of Singapore lugging their professional camera paraphernalia into the restaurant. Like us, they also spent their weekends doing their favorite hobbies and being Sunday once again today, like many Singaporeans, I can only wish that the weekends would also come once again fast so that we can indulge in our personal little things that we enjoy! I hope you enjoy reading my post and do continue to patronize Singapore’s most SINCERE blog right here at Singapore Short Stories!

Saturday, May 01, 2010

Labour Day

Today is Labour Day, a day to celebrate the hard work that every employee has put in, in his daily work. I would like to extend the celebration of Labour Day to each and every member of our (you and my) families who has provided us emotional support and the conditions which enable each of us, employee to focus on our work. Labour Day is hence also a day to recognize the efforts of our homemakers, mothers and parents who help to make the working of their employee husbands or children a lot more easier.

This year's Labour Day falls on a Saturday and I hope all employers would enable their employees to clear this holiday on a later date.

While we celebrate Labour Day, I only have this wish for employers that is to rid all sorts of office politics, favoritism, biases of bosses in the workplace as such a mood is debilitating to productivity. Having a boss who favours boot-lickers and penalizes employees who are more hardworking and capable is definitely detrimental to the organization. Having big bosses who engages in favoritism can only force even the most capable and unfavored employee to leave. Ultimately, employee don't leave bad companies, they leave bad bosses! I truly detest bosses who engages in favoritism and are interested only in bootlickers. I detest too colleagues who engage, plot and execute office politics everyday to harm capable colleagues as I have expereienced all these bad examples of management personally.

Okay, enough of this rambling. I would just like to share the Labour Days I have spent in previous years.

2 years ago, I went on my first date with my current wife at Pasir Ris Park! We took many interesting photos together and to tell you, the first date with someone you love is truly a very memorable and amazing one and the photo of us together taken by ourselves is encapsulated in a photo which I put in my wallet till today!

How time passes, two years down the road, I have lost half of my hair but my dear one does not mind my hair loss fact as she loves me very much just as I love her.

I also recall the Labour Days some tens of years back. In two consecutive Labour Days, I was 'lucky' enough to be chosen for guard duty at my Army camp during National Service. When you are a full-time national serviceman, combat fit and active, every weekend and public holiday is much cherished and coveted, hence it is truly a 'demoralizing affair' to spend a public holiday doing patrolling around the camp. I have then thought that I have did justification to the day "Labour Day" as indeed I was expending every ounce of my strength and effort patrolling the camp.

These are some of my reflections of Labour Day. With the arrival of Labour Day, Year 2010 enters into the fifth month. Time always passes so fast, it seems to leave little time for me to pursue my goals, hence on this note, it is time for me to do some thing constructive (aside from my regularly posting on this blog) and I wish you a Happy Labour Day!

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