National Service is exclusive for Singapore men only, new immigrants not invited

INT.OFFICE - PANTRY - EARLY AFTERNOON

Ah Tan was reading newspaper while nonchalantly sipping his coffee at the corner table. Ali and Ah Lim walked into the pantry and each dispensed a cup of coffee before making their way to the table. Just when their butts barely touched their seats, Mr Teo stormed into the pantry with a tight face and even tighter fists. He sat down at the table heavily and abruptly. The other three men held their breath and stared at Mr Teo.

AH TAN (cautiously and slowly): Sir, what's wrong?
MR TEO (irately): Stupid god damn PRC bitch!

The other three men took a deep breath and dared not exhale. Suddenly, as if remembering something, their eyes scanned around the pantry.

AH TAN (even more cautiously and slowly): Er... Sir, you do remember that we're not supposed to talk bad about the new immigrants?

Mr Teo folded his arms, sat back and took a deep breath himself.

MR TEO: Thanks for the reminder, Tan. But I believe Boss could forgive me this time. Do you know that this ungrateful PRC woman actually flashed her blue IC on China national TV while declaring her undivided loyalty to China?
AH TAN, ALI and AH LIM (exclaiming together): What the hell?!
MR TEO: Yap, this unappreciative woman came to Singapore to study, got her blue IC, got a job in a MNC, and now she's back to China. After all that we had provided her.
ALI: Apa ini?
AH LIM: Wah lao! With all the knowledge and working experience she learn here, some more must have also learn English! Must be making big bucks in China lah!

Mr Teo shook his head in dismay.

AH TAN: Hang on... Mr Teo, where did you get this piece of info from? Is the public aware of this?
MR TEO (sighed): I believe so. I got it from my friend's email. It was broadcast on CCTV, but I've already warned our TV stations to ensure that they do not screen it. I've also instructed the press to bring the article down from their online website. The only problem is that, we can't stop it from spreading among the netizens.
ALI: Sir, you don't have to worry about those netizens! They're just a minority anyway!
MR TEO: Well, that's true... but guys, we need to be careful, you know? The people are becoming very edgy these days, with the latest incidents like that birdbrained electronics firm that advertised that they were looking for preferably non-Singaporean engineer, and that harebrained movie company that gave free movie tickets to China citizens only on China National Day in Singapore!
AH TAN: But Sir, seriously, I think the gap between Singaporeans and the new immigrants is getting wider, even wider than that between the greater and lesser mortals.
AH LIM: Yah loh, Sir, more and more people are complaining that there are too many foreigners here to snatch their jobs, their hawker center tables and their MRT seats!
MR TEO: Yes, guys, I know exactly what you mean. That's why it's essential for Boss to convince the people that Singaporeans have still got other privileges.

The three men nodded in agreement.

MR TEO: Oh, and on that topic, can you guys help to brainstorm on what are the benefits of being a Singaporean? I need to put together some pointers for Boss's next speech.
AH LIM: Cheaper school fees!
ALI: But foreigners are also eligible for our tuition fee loan of up to 90% of course fees in our universities like Duke-Nus Graduate Medical School.
AH LIM (cleared throat): I mean primary and secondary schools lah!

The three men sat back, tilted their heads backwards, folded their arms and went into deep thought. Suddenly, Ah Lim opened his eyes.

AH LIM: I know there's this thing that only Singaporeans have and foreigners don't have!
ALL: What?
AH LIM (grinning): NS loh! Because Boss scared NS will scare those new immigrants away mah, so even their kids also don't need to serve NS! See! NS is only exclusively for Singapore guys! Not Singaporean, don't have NS for you!

Zhang Yuanyuan,Ektronics Pte Ltd,Golden Village,National Service

10 reasons why we had no problem integrating with the Malaysians

With Singapore's population grown to almost 5 million but with a quarter of that total been contributed by foreign workers, no wonder the government is spending 10 million on the big 'I' - Integration.

But why is there such a big gap between the locals and new immigrants? Singapore is definitely not new to foreigners coming into the country to join the workforce. With Singapore being the region headquarters for a large number of MNCs, from banks to electronic firms, expats have been coming into Singapore and some even settled down as Singapore citizens. Since the industralisation of Jurong, Malaysians have also been crossing the causeway to fill up job positions here.

If we had no problem integrating with the expats and Malaysians, then why are we having so much issues with the new immigrants now? Perhaps before dumping the 10 million dollars, the government could take a look at what worked with the Malaysians and learn from it?

Let us take a look at 10 reasons why we had no problem integrating with the Malaysians:

• They think "I'm grateful to be working here". Not "You should be grateful that I'm working here".


• They think "My country is big, but it's better here". Not "My country is bigger and better".


• They take the effort to mingle with other Singaporeans. Not just with that little circle of their own countrymen.


• When they do get Singapore citizenship, they genuinely settle down for good. Not keeping an eye on US or Europe while taking Singapore as a stepping stone.


• They take buses and MRT trains like the rest of us. Not cycle dangerously on the roads and pavements as if they are still in their country.


• They speak only as loud as us. Not loud enough to be heard a few blocks away.


• They have the same hygiene standard as us. They know that toilet bowls are to be sat on, not squatted on.


• We will not think of them when the word "back-stab" pops up.


• They do not become newspapers headlines when a group of them receive citizenship.


• They don't come into Singapore to be hookers.

What if the Foreign Talents problem is not well taken care of

Some contributing factors and possible theories of why Singaoreans dislike the Foreign Talents:

• While many Singaporeans remain jobless in this economic crisis, more Foreign Talents continue to be flown into the country to take up job vacancies. It does not help how easily these Foreign Talents are publicly praised and commented to be irreplaceable.


• Foreign Talents will work for less due to their currency conversion advantage. The immediate obvious impact is that this makes them more attractive to employers, and therefore more likely to take up positions that could be filled by Singaporeans instead. But a more serious hidden impact is how they are actually contributing in lowering the overall average wage in the country?


• Most Foreign Talents do not wish to integrate but will instead socialise in their own circles. The most profound reason could be that of the language barrier, but it could also be due to the common belief that Singapore is just a stepping stone for them before moving on to a more "advanced" country like the States.

(Source: Answers.com)
Some contributing factors and possible theories of why Hitler and his Nazis hated the Jews:

• Some Jews were successful and held "visible" positions in Austria and Germany in the 1920s and 1930s. In the Great Depression. Germany was hit the hardest by the worldwide economic depression, and successful Jews were envied.


• Jews became a scapegoat for Germany's economic problems. (According to this racist sentiment, "international Jewish financiers had plunged the world into a war and the Depression for their business profit.")


• Antisemitism has been rife throughout European history, largely because the Jews were a distinct, identifiable group, who did not integrate. (Those who really wanted to integrate converted.) Of course, many now see pluralism as a virtue, and a variety of ethnicities and religions as a positive thing. However, in the inter war period diversity was often regarded as divisive and "disloyal".

Thio Li-Ann is back with a new weapon Singanews

When Thio was struck down previously by a group of university students in some university in US, we could swear we heard her muttered "I'll be back".

In the highly anticipated new installment of the "Thio Fights Back", set in a secular public space, the woman fated to lead the Christians against the not-Christian-friendly-enough Press and the country of non-Christians. Thio must contend for righteousness in an age of lawlessness, and train her troop of die-hard Christians to become faithful watchmen who can quickly respond to political agenda driven by harmful godless philosophy, to save the human race from destruction. And this time, Thio and her army came prepared. They have built a horrifying weapon known as Singanews, a portal capable of annihilating a world of non-Christians in less than a second.


Thio Li-Ann and Singanews. What to make of it?
Source: The Secret Political Blog

One of the attendees at the recent "New Media Breakfast", a meeting attended by mainly Christian leaders, wrote a concise summary of the event (full text after article), and proceeded to email his summary to all political bloggers in Singapore. Thanks to our valiant spy who has infiltrated this particular wing of the Christian community, we know now the two goals of the Christian effort presumably led by Thio Li-Ann:

To have a stronger Christian voice in the "public debate"

[Thio Li-Ann] argued that as a Christian, it is part of one’s religious call to articulate their views in public especially on contentious such as casinos, same-sex marriage, euthanasia and stem-cell research. She warned that if Christians do not speak up, others who may hold conflicting views will speak up and forcefully occupy the secular public space. Thio paralleled Christian activism to salt and light where by salt is the preservative used to preserve the Christian goodness and light exemplifies its visibility to believers as well as non-believers.

To establish a media outlet, Singanews, of their own to achieve the above goal

This goal is however not explicity mentioned in the summary, but a little inference should prove this goal exists:

First, Thio Li-Ann gripes about how the present online media is unable to portray the Christian voice fairly:

Thio also shared on how she has been maliciously targeted online and had to “turn her cheek” many a times as a good Christian. She commented that Internet is filled with ugliness and misinformation and Christians using new media to debate in public space or proselytize must prioritize truth and remain civil, i.e. do not resort to name calling and character assassination. Depicting Christianity as a victimized religion, she warned Christians about the difficulties they face, especially on the Internet, as others would invariably paint them as oppressive, emotional and irrational. She added that while Christians are tolerant of others views, the others do not have the same toleration for Christians, which she thought was unfair.

And of course, we know how Thio Li-Ann was slammed by the mainstream media itself, after her infamous comparison of gay sex to "shoving a straw up your nose to drink" went contrary to the government's wish to have a moderate debate on 377A so as not to overly antagonize the gay community. The result is that the more fundamentalist christian views will have to find an outlet, alternative to the MSM, but not in the present online sphere which is hostile to it.... And that is where the new Singanews come in:

Next on the stage was former ST journalist Mathew Yap, who took the stage to introduce a new online news portal called Singanews... Terming it as a social enterprise, Yap said that Singanews would not be able to compete with the mainstream media but rather Singanews could add clarity to the national debate by offering alternative viewpoints and fill in the gaps left by mainstream media which sometimes fails to cover a story due to one reason or another. It did not state if it would advocate a Christian angle as argued by Thio above. Singanews, Yap added, was possible due to the cheap and readily available technology of Internet and new media such as twitter where citizens are able to “scoop” stories.

Interestingly enough, Mr Yap is coy about pointing out the (most likely) Christian nature of Singanews, in order to avoid the skepticism that will come with an explicitly Christian news outlet.

Holy!@# Singa-Spotting
Source: The Void Deck

Amidst all this sliming of new media, we see a new news portal Singanews setting up stall soon it seems; they made the announcement at the same Kum Yan thingy. The line-up looks vellie powderful , got this Balji fella, (Note: he very famous in Sammyboy last time coz some journo say he kenna ousted for being too rebel (read never support the miw); so when he left the newsroom on his final day, it was macam like Dead Poets Society when all the boys stand on the chair to hail Carpe Diem to Robin Williams like dat). Also some Teo Hwee Nak, a former editor with TODAY, think she was quite pro Opp type … but strangely the main man Matthew Yap is just ex ST sports page journo. Anyway, the line-up looks good, macam like EPL Manchester City rite?

But why oh why do I smell some holy fishiness here?

Erm first, as quite rightly pointed out by one commenter, why did Yap soft launch what he stress is a SECULAR news portal in a church of all places; when is Yap gonna go Kuan Im temple at SiBayLor and MUIS mosque to soft launch? This is quite downright an oxymoron.

Second, why is he not malu to share the stage with a thioliban? This Thioliban just whacked the new media, whack TOC and our sweet Matthew still very proud to be with her wor. She is chiobu issit? Btw we found out Matthew is also some church elder so mebbe its some crush thing within the community. I am sure Singanews will be damn popular if they hire Auntie Thioliban as an aunt agony. Sure alot of gays will go back straight, sure she will intercede with God so Singapore got no tsunami as well, she may even have the first ever column written in tongues.

Third, why must Matthew keep stressing secular and highlight WE GOT HINDUS, WE LOOKING FOR MUSLIMS TOO! Frankly, the more he stress their religion the more it seems like fellas like Balji is there as tokenism lor. Which if I am Balji, I will feel abit insulted to be paraded like some token Hindu in a church forum to a chorus of halleluais and amens when he name is read. WTF. Its like the GRC system like dat, actually the real agenda is so MIW can sneak their inepts into government but the official reason is to have racial/religious parity blah x10.

Fourth, the organisers of this 999 event ATRIA is also some parachurch thing. Their mission is macam like the church version of the infamous PAP cyber ninjas. Too bored to read their website mission out, just google atria sg or something.

Anti-gays' new online platform launched
Source: Yawning Bread

Temasek Review pointed out that in an interview with The New Paper, Matthew Yap said Singanews would come with the perspective of "mainstream family values", and by this, he meant a "generational, natural family which focuses on procreation."

This is exactly the same language as used by Focus on the Family, Church of Our Saviour and plenty of anti-gay fundamentalist Christian groups in both the United States and Singapore. This is code for saying: We are anti-gay.

Procreation is used as a test of moral fitness. "Mainstream family" is spin language to suggest that those who share their anti-gay views are "normal" and the majority, and those who don't are "abnormal" and marginal aliens.

Thio Li-Ann,Singanews,Mathew Yap,Christian,Anti-gay,Church of Our Saviour

From "Internet steals minister's thunder" to "Pre-empted by the Internet"

Our press really needs to review its work flow for online publishing. Once again, straitstimes.com has published a piece of article, then decided it was not exactly politically correct and then decided to remove and replace with another "correct" article. All this while thinking that their readers could not tell the difference. Or could they?

The original article is as shown below (thanks to Google Cache) and if you so desire, you could compare it with the new article "Pre-empted by the Internet" to play the Spot-the-Difference game. Yes they changed the title as well, guess it is not very polite to say openly that something has been stolen from our minister.

However one will have to agree that the original article is much more interesting, especially the part where somebody screamed "You cannot run the story, you cannot break the embargo, you cannot do anything!".

Internet steals minister's thunder
September 01, 2009 Tuesday, 04:16 PM

Christopher Tan discusses the red faces and frayed nerves of a recent news leak

NEWS of the enhanced off-peak car (OPC) scheme is probably talk of the motoring town now.

But an unfortunate incident leading up to the announcement of the new and improved scheme – designed to persuade car owners to convert their rides to red-plates – proved to be far more exciting to the newsroom last Friday night.

It all began at a closed-door briefing for journalists held by the Land Transport Authority on Friday afternoon. It was to allow beat reporters to understand the upcoming changes to the scheme and to ask questions.

The announcement itself was to have been made public by none other than Transport Minister Raymond Lim at a ministerial visit on Sunday.

But that was not to be. Thanks to a mysterious and virulent news leak, which happened despite all precautions.

Before the LTA briefing started, reporters were instructed clearly that the news was strictly embargoed until after Minister Lim had spoken.

And that no one was supposed to call motor industry players for comments, in case they inadvertently informed them of the changes.

We were also told that we could not bring any recording devices into the briefing room. And no cameras either.

The briefing went reasonably well, and reporters returned to give a rundown to their supervisors.

But by around 8.30pm or so that same day, the entire news release detailing all the changes was online.

The Straits Times was alerted to the leak by someone who spotted it on an online car forum, which had a direct link to an LTA site.

Within an hour, the entire motor trade – as well as a large part of the car forum community – had learnt of the changes.

One senior motor trader even called up reporters to ask if they had heard of the new scheme.

The Straits Times newsroom was shocked, and everyone scrambled to find out what had happened and whether the news should then be run the next day (Saturday), as the leak had already spread far and wide.

The LTA was equally shocked. It could not explain how the news appeared on their website. Up until Tuesday, the authority says it was still investigating.

The authority's panic was palpable. After all, the leak had stolen the thunder from a Minister's Sunday speech. A mortal sin in the civil service.

A new and fairly senior LTA executive was rather curt when The Straits Times asked if the newspaper could run the story on Saturday.

"You cannot run the story, you cannot break the embargo, you cannot do anything!" she ordered a reporter over the phone.

But eventually, the LTA, together with the Ministry of Transport, decided to lift the embargo on Saturday. Which meant that the media could go out with the news on Sunday.

It also meant that Minister Lim did not have a biggish annoucement to make during his Sunday ministerial visit to Bukit Panjang.

Mr Lim was gracious enough to agree to the embargo lift. Fortunately, he had another announcement up his sleeve: an update about the Circle Line.

Many of us (at least those of us in the newsroom) can laugh about the fiasco now, but it caused real tension on Friday with just hours to go before deadline.

The episode also underscores the impact of online information – once again.

In the past, news leaks were relatively mild – one could only rely on phones and the coffeeshop. But with the Internet, a leak takes on a life of its own. Within minutes, it is literally all over town.

Unless the LTA finds out how this one happened, it runs the risk of an encore down the road.

OPC,Internet steals minister's thunder,Land Transport Authority,LTA,Transport Minister,Raymond Lim,Straits Times

Tweet Good English Movement, anyone?

The Speak Good English Movement 2009 was officially launched today, marking its tenth year in encouraging Singaporeans to speak Standard English.

Mr Goh Eck Kheng, Chairman for the Movement, said, “Young people know from their engagements on the web that people all over the world communicate in one common language – English. We hope that youth will use and practice their English language to impress, inspire and intoxicate on the Internet and in the real world. By doing so they are will give themselves an advantage in our globalised world.”

Good English on the Internet? On websites and blogs, probably a good idea. On Facebook? Uncommon but still can be done if you insist. But on Twitter, where Wiki defined Microblogging as a form of multimedia blogging that allows users to send brief text updates or micromedia such as photos or audio clips and publish them? There is a good reason for Twitter to set the maximum number of characters for each tweet as 140.

Just imagine what could happen when we start to tweet in Good English...

• In Good English: As usual, I am dozing off in the train, all this while knocking my head against the window. It was painful.
  
  Actual Tweet: the usual dozing off in the train & knocking my head agst the window... argh!


• In Good English: You are attending lessons on Monday and Wednesday, and I understand that you would prefer to spend time with your friends on weekends. How a...
  (“bout Thursday?” will not be delivered because of the 140chars limit)
  
  Actual Tweet: mon n wed u got lesson. I noe weekends u wana spend time wif frds. Thursday how?


• In Good English: I am so annoyed. Where are the buses? Eight buses have past, with some on the same number route, yet there is no sight of number 171 and 174...
  (“for the past fifteen minutes!” will not be delivered because of the 140chars limit)
  
  Actual Tweet: Is so annoyed. Hello! Buses! There've been like 8 of the same few buses rolling past and not 1 171 or 174 in 15 mins!


• In Good English: I should be receiving my Snow tomorrow. I had better backup all the files now as I could mess up tomorrow’s installation. To all who have in...
  (“stalled Snow, how long did it take you?” will not be delivered because of the 140chars limit)
  
  Actual Tweet: Sld be receiving my Snow tmr... better backup all the files now before I mess up tmr's installation. Those who installed, how long it took?


• In Good English: I have one good reason to log into Facebook regularly, which is to remove unglamorous photographs that are tagged to me, before too many peo...
  (“ple have seen them.” will not be delivered because of the 140chars limit)
  
  Actual Tweet: 1 gd enuf reason 2 log in 2 FB regularly, is 2 remove unglam photo tags b4 2 many ppl see them

And I'm not even mentioning "Roll On Floor Laughing".

Speak Good English Movement

It serves no strategic purpose to tell the public why Chip left

INT.OFFICE - PANTRY - LATE AFTERNOON

Ah Tan was sipping his coffee at the corner table, glancing at his watch every now and then nonchalantly. Ali and Shan walked into the pantry. While Ali dispensed a cup of tea from the coffee machine, Shan sat down at the table and made his own 3-in-1 coffee.

AH TAN: Wow, Shan, your 3-in-1 coffee sure looks new to me.
SHAN: Oh... this is the latest 3-in-1 coffee with collagen added. Friend, collagen is important to us, you know? We're using our overworked brains like 25 hours a day and if you're not careful, you'll find all the white hair and wrinkles popping up! Just look at Boss! Or even look at George! See how they've aged over the years?
AH TAN: Oh... so collagen will keep you staying young?
SHAN: Yap! It's the same thing my wife is having, so we can't be wrong! Hahaha...

Ali walked over to sit down as Shan chuckled at his own joke.

ALI: Hey brudder, did you read the news today? President Ma and his senior officials apologized for not doing more and not fast enough in the typhoon emergency! They even bow to the people sia!
AH TAN: Serious? Bow to the people?
ALI (nodding): Yap, and from the photo, it looks like they bowed damn low man!
AH TAN: Wow, I think they kana influenced by the Japanese liao!
SHAN (shaking his head and frowning): Unacceptable!
AH TAN: Yah, I guess they were really too slow in deploying their troops to save the people.
ALI: Machiam Hurricane Katrina that time lah!
SHAN: Nonono, I think you've mistaken me. I'm not saying that it's unacceptable for them to react slow. I'm saying it's unacceptable for them to bow to the people.

Both Ah Tan and Ali paused from drinking and stared at Shan.

SHAN (jerking his head sideways and aloft right palm simultaneously): How can the government even apologize to its people? And to even bow? That is so wrong!
AH TAN (raising left eyebrow): Erm... and so what should they have done?
SHAN: Very simple! All they've to do is to simply say "We admit it's a mistake. Now let's move on"! That's how we would have handled it right?
AH TAN (nodding): That's true... like how we had handled the Mas Selamat case.
ALI: But even after they've apologized, I'm sure this incident will affect the peoples' impression of the government's ability to handle crisis.
SHAN: Nonono... it's not fair for the people to think this way.
ALI: Not fair?

Shan took a quick sip from his 3-in-1 coffee with collagen.

SHAN: It's like a dent on a car.
ALI (baffled): Apa?
SHAN: This flood incident. It's as if you met with a minor accident and now there's a little dent on the car body. We can't deny it is a dent in the President Ma and his government's reputation. And I agree it's a very visible dent in the fender. But there is no damage to body parts, no damage to axle, no damage to engine. You can still drive the car around and years later, you might not even notice the dent anymore!
AH TAN: So President Ma shouldn't be bothered with how he had screwed up this flood emergency rescue, just like how Temasek shouldn't be bothered with its CEO saga?
SHAN (patting Ah Tan on his shoulder): Exactly!

Ali put down his tea and nudged Shan.

ALI: Hey brudder, talk about Temasek, why exactly did that Chip left? Money no good?

Shan stared at Ali and held his breath, apparently blindsided by the unexpected question.

SHAN: Ali, you know we shouldn't be talking about this right?
ALI (giving Shan an apologetic look): Just curious lah, brudder! But didn't the people ask you? Or the press?
SHAN: Well, people do want to know, there is curiosity; it is a matter of public interest. But that is not sufficient reason to disclose information. I totally understand the interest, but it serves no strategic purpose.

Ah Tan rubbed his chin and tried to digest Shan's answer.

AH TAN: So you're saying, the people are only kaypo on why Chip left, and tell them also no use because it's not as if they can help or make the difference?
SHAN: Erm... kind of...
AH TAN: And even if you tell them, they might not understand as well, so don't waste you time?
SHAN (patting Ah Tan on his shoulder): Exactly!

All three men chuckled and drank their tea and coffee.

AH TAN: Hey Shan, so your side is not going to interfere with Temasek's CEO recruitment right?
SHAN (shaking his head): No Tan, not at all. Once we interfere in what goes on in Temasek, then we are, over time, changing the character of that relationship between us and Temasek, where it's a relationship that clearly designates Temasek as independent of us in its operations including its internal governance procedures. Internal governance should be managed by Temasek's board.
ALI (interrupting): So that when anything ever cocks up again, Temasek's board will bow and apologize but never us, right?

Tharman Shanmugaratnam,Temasek,Charles Chip Goodyear,President Ma Ying-jeou