Saturday, April 28, 2007
Please stop the hypocrisy.
Today's news had a snippet on one Police Coast Guard officer and one NS beat cop charged for corruption. The former took bribes from cigarrette smugglers and DVD pirates, and the latter took sexual favours from massage parlour girls, both in exchange for tip-offs on raids that were conducted by their respective divisions.
Sharrod was just complaining to me about "...
those bloody overpowered wankers... hate their guts!", and it got me thinking. This is not the first time that i've heard of corrupt cops who take bribes. On a related note, it's not the first time any of us have heard about slow, sluggish, administrators in government bodies either.
Want to claim $20 from some gahmen organization whose branch is in Tampines? Fill in this form. Then take a bus to Jurong and get it stamped and approved. Then hop on an MRT to Dhoby Ghaut and pay $2 for administrative charge. Then send the form to Tampines and wait. After 3 weeks, they'll blame each other for "losing" your form. And if you make enough noise, it's amazing! The woman at the counter can do it in
30 mins without you going ANYWHERE. If you came around often enough and "flirted" with the auntie, you'd get it done in the first place in 15 minutes.
And the gahmen in all its pragmatic wisdom says we should pay ministers more for efficiency and non-corruptability?
Piss off. Hogwash. Bullshite. You want that, peg your pay rise to the pay rise of the people on the ground who actually do the fuckin work. Don't just pay decision makers and make that your moral highground. By the same token, please pay those bloody police officers and admin and clerical staff so they won't feel like disgruntled, underpaid, exploited workers who will do everything to make your life miserable as an exercise of some kind of power in their relatively unpowered lives. So they won't go for free massage, or get bootleg DVDs and ciggies at our expence.
Labels: administration, civil servants, corruption, efficiency, hogwash, minister pay rise
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Here's a summary of Father Paul's sermon today:
(1) The holy spirit gives old people dreams and young people a premonition of the future. Old people don't get the premonition part cos they're preparing for the end anyway.
(2) You don't have to go for confession for your sins to be forgiven because God has already forgiven your sins if you are repentant... for example, if you die before the priest gives you your last rites, your sins will still be forgiven. THEREFORE your sins are already forgiven before you go for confession.
(3) Let me tell you a story... there was a bird who stayed in a cave because there was a storm outside... therefore you should not be frightened and hide like the apostles, but go out and boldly proclaim the risen Lord.
Will someone
please make priests write out and read out their sermons to each other before they come out to the pulpit and tell grandfather stories!!!! *goodgodgrumblegrumblegosh. At the end, it's all about big business... in the wisdom of Rodney Stark, let me say that this a clear failure of providing adequate spiritual goods and services for your customers (ie. me). Such is bad marketing. TSK
In other news, one of my students gave me a box of chocs and truffles... and it's from his own business! wah... such enterprising students. You should check out the pictures (see the link "
juliustruffles" in the sidebar)... and yes, they look as good as in the picture on the blog. Here are a couple of pics, though the quality not so good here... the truffles really are GOOD. Go buy!
Monday, April 09, 2007
The Awesome Friday
Yup, had an awesome friday. Went down to Timbre to meet the old honours gang and watch the first set of Timmy. One pilot, one stewardess, 3 teachers (primary, secondary, uni), 2 bummers (bah! i jealous!) and one gahmen worker. What a quirky combination.
For those of you who haven't heard Timmy, please oh please ditch EIC for once in your life and go watch them.. they are waaaay better. The electric guitarist is DAMN funny (I've dumbed him "underperformer"). He's got this absolutely dead-pan face when he's playing, doesn't move, doesn't dance... the most he'll allow is really small nods of his head when it's a challenging song to play. But you can tell it's not that he's bored. Put him next to the lead who's a good performer and the bassist who jumps around at every song (aka "overperformer") and you've got a great front trio. The drummer... he's in a league of his own.
But i digress. I finally met Brenda's love.. yes, folks, he's not just a figment of her imagination, as many of us have surmised. I've met him in stages... first saw his picture, then saw his shoulder (cos i was in the back seat of the car), and that night I finally saw him from the front this time. I poked him in the arm just to be sure. Yep... poke poke... really here. Man, you drive like a PILOT. Had to put on my seatbelt cos Andrea and I kept sliding from the left to the right of the car. hahahha.. thanks! Like roller coaster!
Anyway, nah. Pictures.
Brenda and Satish (is that how you spell it?? ....Sorrry!!!!)
Brenda trying to flirt with Yuling on the other side of the table while Queen plays in the background. Not very successful. :P
Kenneth, Lili (my watch is nice OK! Pig! bleah), and Yuling
Thursday, April 05, 2007
'nuff said.
Monday, April 02, 2007
The effects of rabid online shopping and porn-watching.
We all engage in myth-making. My grandparents started my fascination with it by telling me "Boy, if you don't finish your rice you will get a wife with lots of pok-marks on her face!" If i had been wiser (or had a death wish) then i would have said "Use SK II lah!". Or in Church where those darnest catechism teachers said "Don't bite Jesus (the holy communion) otherwise painful and blood will come out" cos they didn't want the kiddies to be chewing on the sacred object like so much popcorn or Calbee potato chips. Like I'm sure Jesus would prefer to be slowly pre-dissolved in a vat of acids than quick, painless chomps. And if you've never seen a 60 year old woman chase someone around the house screaming pantang! pantang! then just you wait till i touch my aunt's shoulder when she's playing mahjong.
My dad had a more rational approach to myth-making. "If you sing or hum at the table, you will get ulcers on your lip." And when I instinctively hummed (it was Katrina and the Waves' Walking on Sunshine, how could I resist??), he punched me on the cheek just near my mouth. Cut my lip on my tooth, and lo and behold! 3 days later i had an ulcer.
So you can imagine my eyes rolling over the weekend when i was reading responses about the anti-smoking ad shown above. Someone actually argued "they used a model, this person isn't real, so they're fabricating the consequences of smoking". Goodness, that logic is so flawed, please lean over here so I can slap you. Yes, it is a fact that it's a gross ad and they used a model. Like i'm sure if you were suffering from the abovementioned illness, you'd altruistically love to put your face on hundreds of adboards for everyone to learn from your bad habits.
Do these people actually think before they write stuff to the forum for Singaporeans to see that you're a complete moron?? Some people may think about smoking after seeing the ad; some may not. That's just the way it is. If you expect 100% response from all the actions you initiate, then you shouldn't be acting at all cos it's an impossibility. If you respond negatively, I would say that validates the poster campaign. A mark of a poor anti-smoking campaign is that noone notices it at all, not that people react badly to it for some personal reason. The whole point IS personal discomfort, you moron.
Wake up your bloody ideas. KNN!
Labels: ads, learning, lies, myths, parents, society
Brenda and Satish (is that how you spell it?? ....Sorrry!!!!)
Brenda trying to flirt with Yuling on the other side of the table while Queen plays in the background. Not very successful. :P
Kenneth, Lili (my watch is nice OK! Pig! bleah), and Yuling
The effects of rabid online shopping and porn-watching.
