Critical Inquiry

It has been a bad week so far, or a wonderfully short one, depending on the perspective adopted. Have been on medical leave from work since Wednesday. 3 full days of medical leave for this fever that has unknown origins. If it goes beyond 3 days, the doctor is going to make me take a blood test in case it is dengue fever or something. Age is catching up with me. Never before has a fever been able to bring me down for 3 days...

Budget 2006 was just released yesterday and my hopes for ARF reduction did not materialise. Without ARF reduction, it appears that my target threshold of S$35,000 for Toyota Vios is not going to be breached so soon. Termed as the Progress Package where PROGRESS stands for Providing Opportunities through Growth, Remaking Singapore for Success, it holds no major perks for me. However, after looking into the budget, albeit not in great detail, I do like it despite not getting much from it personally. The focus on those who need assistance and trying to ensure that help is rendered only to those who help themselves is the main factor. Let's hope this budget will work its magic and propel Singapore to greater heights, economically and socially.

The Amazing Race by AXN is a very interesting show that I had caught a few episodes of and now they are going to bring in an Asian version but with the prize money significantly reduced. The Asian Amazing Race winner(s) will walk away with only US$100,000 instead of the US$1 million of the original show. Supposedly, this reduced Amazing Race prize is "realistic to the size of the advertising market in Asia, which is considerably smaller than that in the US". Is that true? Someone has definitely not been out of his room for a very long time. China and India are growing rapidly and the rest of Asia is steaming along also. The significantly reduced prize is an outright slight to Asia. Maybe it is AXN's version of outsourcing? Bring the show to Asia where costs are lower and participants are willing to sacrifice at least 5 weeks for a paltry 10% of the original prize of US$1 million. On a lower budget and sell at the same premium prices, AXN's profits can then be increase

Singaporeans have always been quick to extend their help when the people who require assistance are featured in the media. So often, donations of cash or kind pour in and deliver welcome relief to the needy. However, this sort of assistance is often one off and will not be truly helpful in the longer term. It is most heart-warming to know that for the case of Mr Ng Kian Ping, assistance in the form of companies offering to train him for jobs was offered. This is the sort of welfare that will endure. The company, in this case Apex-Pal International (Sakae Sushi), meets its manpower needs, contributes to the community and gets its publicity. Of course, the recipient also plays a part. He now receives training on sushi making, a possibly better paying job than the dishwashing that he was willing to settle upon. With a positive attitude and willingness to learn, he has adapted well to the kitchen environment. The community should take guidance from this case and consider how assistance is

Something interesting that came in the email...may be a hoax but I rather err on the side of caution. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Pass it on..... let more people be aware of such things around them. I just heard a few days ago that a new type of crime has surfaced in town. It goes something like this:- Somebody slips a handphone into your pocket. sometimes it could be just a wallet with an identity card and a few ringgits. A few minutes later, the 'owner' comes up and confronts you, the 'thief '. He makes a big commotion that you stole his stuff. You, caught unaware, are then pulled aside by the 'owner' for a settlement you are intimidated and threatened that if you do not pay up the police will be brought in. If you pay up, this 'owner' lets you go. If not, the police are brought in. Another strange thing is that there always seems to be a 'witness' to the your 'theft'. I am told t

The past few days there had been increasing reports of protests against the cartoons of Prophet Mohammed. Some protests had even turn violent and gotten people injured and killed. While religion itself might disallow the potrayal of its religious figures, most of the major religions still largely preach peace and tolerance. People outside of our religion may not know exactly the intricacies of our beliefs but we can educate them when they do touch upon the sensitive areas. However, as disbelievers, they are not bound by our religious beliefs and while we can hope for their understanding, we should not force them to follow our ways. The offending cartoons had largely not been made available in Singapore but checking on the Internet (what use is censorship these days?) turned up 1 of a turban/bomb depiction and 1 of Garfield threatening to bomb Jon. Without seeing the whole series people are protesting about, I can only guess that they depict the terrorism issues plaguing the image of Is

I Not Stupid 2 beats Jet Lee's Fearless at the box office? Just another piece of propaganda reporting if you realise that the comparison is unfair, I Not Stupid 2 has a PG rating while Fearless was given a NC16, a rating that effectively blocks moviegoers below the age of 16 from watching Fearless. The more imaginative had proposed their own consipracy theories that Fearless is given NC16 so that I Not Stupid 2 can have a better fighting chance at the box offices with the ability to tap a wider audience. I am not stupid and having watched Fearless, I cannot help but suspect those conspiracy theories have some truth in them. The show does not have that much violence and it does convey well the idea that might is not always right and the ideals of wushu practitioners, virtues hot blooded youths will do well to appreciate. Seems like the Fearless plot jumped right into real life. While Huo Yuanjia fought an unfair match in the show, Fearless is fighting a handicapped match against I N

People are getting more and more outrageous these days and wasting perfectly good taxpayers' money bringing all sorts of suits into the courts. In the early days of the Sony Walkman, people already know that exposure to loud volumes for extended periods of time will impair hearing. Despite the warnings, it is still not hard today to find youths who blast their portable music devices so loud that bystanders are able to hear the music clearly even when headphones/earphones are being used. If the Apple iPod should be sued and made to compensate, then what about the Sony Walkman? How can manufacturers be held accountable for the usage decisions of the consumers? It is not as if iPod comes without volume adjustment. Should car manufacturers be held accountable for vehicles that travel above the speed limit? Should car manufacturers be accountable for putting products on the roads and contributing to the many accidents and deaths annually? Should mobile phone manufacturers be held accoun

Mr Larry Quah Chai Khoon has made a name for himself by the simple act of not affixing a stamp to a letter he sent out and writing to the Forum about it. I had always thought that it is commonsense to affix a stamp to whatever I am posting as long as the envelope used is not a prepaid one. Yet, this individual, somehow, confused by the responses received from LTA, decided to send his road tax renewal via mail without a stamp and subsequently writing to the Straits Times Forum to complain about it when his letter was returned for insufficient postage. Has postage fees risen so much? Last time I checked, it is only 23 cents for a simple letter. So, by trying to scrimp on 23 cents, Larry Quah Chai Khoon, had ran the risk of not paying his road tax on time and being unable to use his car or being fined. Furthermore, additional efforts had to be done to handle the returned mail, write in to the Foum, etc... All these to save 23 cents? A classic case of people not making use of commonsense..

The ongoing talks between Singapore and Malaysia to replace the Causeway still do not appear to be going anywhere. In fact, I strongly suspect it will not go anywhere as long as the differences between the 2 countries' negotiating styles remain. While there was an agreement that details of ongoing talks will not be released to the media so that external interference is kept to a minimal, once and again, the Malaysian media had somehow gained knowledge of details for reporting. Even the recent decision of Malaysia to go ahead with building a crooked half bridge, which is nowadays euphemistically called a "scenic" bridge, was known by Singapore only via the Malaysian media and not through official channels. Maybe my views are bias as a Singaporean but I do not see how a crooked bridge can be scenic. If Malaysia does really go ahead with building the crooked bridge to replace the Causeway, then it will be a tangible representation of the relations between the 2 countries. Si