Cyber-baiting Your Teacher is WRONG.

RE: Cyber-baiting happens to 3 in 10 teachers here
RE: 3 in 10 teachers experience 'cyberbaiting'

"Cyber-baiting works like this: A student will irritate his teacher until the latter loses his temper. The student will film the incident on his mobile phone and then upload the video onto the Internet, with the aim of embarrassing the teacher and the school."

Because cyber-baiting is premeditated, it is worse than incidents where foreigners beat up our public transport workers.

What kind of lousy upbringing produces such kids?!! I bet parents of such kids can't see what's wrong to begin with.

It's a jungle of 野孩子 and 野父母 out there!
The teachers are literally working with criminals.

If this is what the kids do to teachers, imagine what they do to one another.

Doesn't MOE have the responsibility to ensure a 'safe work environment' for its teachers?
There must rules, prevention, enforcement, and the big penalty stick.

Probably need to increase the capacity of boys/girls' homes in tandem.

No good reason to shrink new HDB flats?

Rochor Centre is to be demolished to make way for the North-South Expressway.
Residents are offered new flats in Kallang, ready by 2016.

RE: No good reason to shrink new HDB flats

"Why must the HDB reduce flat sizes when the older, bigger ones of the 1980s offered better quality of life to balance the social, environmental pressures exerted on the shrinking average household?

There are no compelling reasons to shrink the flat size down to 91 sq m and sacrifice quality of life.

HDB should reverse its policy."


What is this guy talking about?!
Instantly, I can think of a couple of GREAT reasons to shrink the HDB flats as much as possible:

(1) Smaller flats = More affordable homes for Singaporeans
Surely you want to be able to afford your own home, right?
We are reducing flat sizes to help you own your dream home.

The money you save from the purchase can go towards renovating your new home. If you know how to, you can make your tiny home cosy and comfy for your family.

(2) It's ALWAYS land scarcity!!
How many times do we have to repeat this?! Land scarcity!!
This is even more sacred than sacred moo moo cows.
Smaller flats take up less land!

Can Arts School Students be Different?

I walk past School of the Arts quite a bit, and notice that the students emerging from the building are usually in this school T-shirt, even those in their ballet gear.

And I have not seen any SOTA students with coloured hair, obvious tattoos, body piercings etc.

Of course, one can argue that these are merely superficial traits, but their absence got me wondering if conformity was a requirement of this Arts School. 

And how that helps to achieve "the vision to identify and groom future generations of artists and creative professionals to be leaders in all fields, in particular, the arts, the School of the Arts will build on Singapore's unique strengths, including its multicultural Asian heritage and openness to local and foreign artistic talent."

I think 'Discipline' and 'Conformity' are very different traits, and should not be confused.

Sewing Pin found in Cathay Cinema Seat

I went for a movie at the Grand Cathay yesterday afternoon. Halfway through the movie, I found one of these 3cm-long sewing pins sticking out of the seat.

I removed it from the seat, felt around for more, found none other, then decided to finish the movie.

After the movie, I went to the ticketing counter and asked for the manager. A manager with a Filipino accent appeared after a while, flanked by a couple of excited trainees (one of them seemed to be a young Korean girl).

*Manager approaches*

BM: Hi. I've just watched a movie at the Grand Cathay. I was in this seat. *handed her the movie tickets* And I found this pin in the seat. *handed her the pin* I think you should sweep all the seats, just to be safe.

Manager: Oh... *looking at pin*

BM: I think you should sweep all the seats, just to be safe.

Manager:  *still looking at pin*... Thank you for your feedback...

I must say I've been watching many movies at the Cathay and this is the first time I've found a pin in the seats. So, it's not like it's a regular occurrence.

However, I am sorely disappointed by the manager's handling of the situation. She didn't ask if I was injured by the pin, she didn't place her customer first. She was simply stunned by the situation.

I just hope she took the incident seriously and swept the rest of the seats for pins as I'd suggested.

Foreigner Workers & the Draw of Casinos

RE: Foreigners stare and shoot videos of bikini-clad beach-goers on Sentosa

Over the long weekend, we drove on Marina Boulevard, in between the Sail, MBFC etc, and the Promontory site, breeze shelters etc, where we saw many many foreign workers hanging around, waiting for friends, kissing their girlfriends, having a snack etc.

Then a day later, we see the above STOMP post on foreign workers hanging around at the beaches in Sentosa.

To be fair, plenty of local and other foreigner men who hang around the beaches gawk at and take pictures of the bikini-clad ladies too. Can't really argue that just because foreign workers are gawking, that these beach-goers have 'less privacy' coz it's a freaking public place in which they have decided to lie prone in very little clothing.

Regardless, I'm sure the rich and powerful people and entities affected by this phenomenon will find ways to reflect their displeasure to the higher-ups.

The policy makers will then realise that this phenomenon of foreign workers hanging around in the public spaces at Marina Bay and on Sentosa is an unintended consequence of allowing anyone with a foreign passport to enter the 2 casinos at no charge. We've always had foreign workers in Singapore, why didn't they hang around at the beaches in Sentosa earlier?

Because the casinos are the main draw. The hanging around in the adjacent/nearby public spaces and gawking at bikini babes are merely the sideshows. And this will keep happening at every public holiday.

At some point, I believe a decision will be taken to disallow foreigners on work permit to visit the casinos at no charge and/or to visit the casinos at all, citing repeated cases of foreign workers losing all their earnings and being in debt. When in fact, this is a crude way to cut out majority of foreign workers from the Integrated Resorts and their vicinity to preserve their respective 'enjoyment level' for everyone else. Relying on the self-exclusionary orders to achieve this outcome is simply wishful thinking.

I wanna see how the casinos will react to this, coz that will be a reflection of how significantly foreign workers contribute to the casinos' revenue streams.

Real Steel

I didn't want to watch this coz I dislike wrestling and boxing... The concept of human violence for entertainment is simply perverted.

But Real Steel is not about human violence. It's about robots in the boxing ring, and how the robots are a platform upon which a pair of cheeky long-lost father and son began to build their non-existent relationship.

When Hugh Jackman isn't stuck behind Wolverine's fur and personality, Hugh Jackman can act.

The little Canadian boy, Dakota Goyo, can act... very well. It seems if one is not American, one must be an exceptionally good actor to get into Hollywood. And he is very cute.

And the robots... I was kind of holding onto my seat... in preparation for unnecessary anthropomophication of the robots... You know... The robot has some secret ability to think on its own, has feelings, wanna save his human boyfriend etc. But I was pleasantly surprised. None of that rubbish. Which is refreshing. Dreamworks makes good films.

The Man who didn't find happiness in Bhutan

I came across a blog entry by a Bhutanese entitled 'To Mr. Khaw Boon Wan, What did you expect?'.

This 28 year old Bhutanese teacher read about Mr Khaw Boon Wan's comment on the famous Bhutanese Gross National Happiness, and made a response on his blog in English.

Some excerpts here:

"Those people you saw in the fields weren't unhappy, if you have gone closer you would have heard them singing and enjoying the social lives, perhaps you won't understand that. If you have spent a little longer time watching them, you would have seen and a woman with basket on her back and holding arms with several children coming with steaming food- we don't have McDonald or KFC. Then everybody will sit down to eat their lunch, laughing and joking, feeding babies, for over an hour- you wouldn't have had so much time to sit and watch I know, times means money in your country."

"If we start mining our mountains and lumbering our forests, we can become Singapore in a year but no matter what you do you can never become Bhutan. It is far too difficult. We shall be the last breath of oxygen on earth."

For those who have been reading my blog for some time, you must have realised that I am not a romantic. I am neither a tree-hugger, nor all warm and mushy about natural stuff, nor a proponent that we ought to revert to our peasant roots.

However, this Bhutanese's entry has brought to the foreground something we may all be blind to.

In his blog entry, he named the pic of Mr Khaw as 'The Man who didn't find happiness in Bhutan'. I thought it was brilliant.

The Bhutanese-Happiness is right there, but you can't find it. WHY?!

How do you explain 'Bhutanese-happiness' to someone who has never allowed himself to experience it, or thinks because he is smarter than everyone else, that such happiness has to be impractical and impossible in the SG context?

Even if happiness is presented right before his eyes, he neither sees it, nor acknowledges it.

That happiness is neither about money, nor singing in the fields.
That happiness is about the rulers and the ruled being on the same page.

That rulers are respectable.
That rulers are respected by the ruled.

You cannot sneak Tin Pei Ling into Parliament, and expect to remain respectable and/or to be respected.
................................................

** As of yesterday, the Bhutanese blog entry caught mainstream media attention and has garnered almost 100 comments from Singaporeans, mostly apologising to the Bhutanese for the comments made by our Cabinet Minister, and lauding the Bhutanese for his views.

The Bhutanese has also responded to Singaporeans in a new blog entry.