Some English is more English than others...

Presented by Ruby Pan at Talking Cock in Parliament

Talking Cock in Parliament

Part of the IndigNation "campaign"...

This series of talks by various names in Singapore addressing pertinent issues in Singapore in a tongue-in-cheek and often hilarious way.. featuring people like Ruby Pan (joking about accents!), Hossan Leong (great entertainer on all fronts! stand up comedy, acting, cross dressing in plays.. lol), Dr. Kirpal Singh (who lectures at SMU by the way), Mr Brown and Mr. Miyagi (famous bloggers in Singapore), and Alex Au (otherwise know as Yawning Bread, another famous blogger and local gay activist)

and the best thing is that they secured the Parliament House for this!

So I present.. Talking Cock in Parliament!!

Check them out here!!

and if you wanna find out more, check out http://www.talkingcock.com/ for more local insights and local perspectives! Be forewarned that the site contains a fair amount of Singlish.. but worry not.. they have a Coxford dictionary for you to use!!

p.s. it is set up by Colin Goh, who wrote a very meaningful article once.. will be posting that in future

The world today...

I remember posting up the article itself some weeks back... nicely made into a video with good pictures.. notice that Singapore is actually one of them...

p.s. If I had the time, I would edit out the front and back to make this look less like an advertisement for AIESEC. But I don't have the time.. besides... you can find out more about AIESEC anyway now =)

Another time

I FEEL SO HAPPY AGAIN!!!

HAHAHAHAHAH =)

Reflecting...

I seem to remember hearing this read to all of us then elects... in a cosy room in an old chapel building in the Netherlands....

and I remember the voices of those who read it... deep and robust...

Found it on Jorien's blog...

Brings back a lot of memories...

and instigates lots of thought as well...


It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing. It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain! I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it, or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own, if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic, to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself; if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul; if you can be faithlessand therefore trustworthy.I want to know if you can see beauty even when it's not pretty, every day,and if you can source your own life from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, “Yes!”

It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up, after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done to feed the children.

It doesn't interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you, from the inside, when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.

I AM SO HAPPY TODAY!

Just needed to post something like that...

hahahahahhaha....

If Everyone Cared

"Never doubt that a small group of committed people can
change the world.
Indeed it is the only thing that ever has"
Margaret Mead

What are YOU doing today
to change the world and make it a better place?

If Everyone Cared
Lyrics - All The Right Reasons :.

From underneath the trees, we watch the sky
Confusing stars for satellites
I never dreamed that you'd be mine
But here we are, we're here tonight

Singing Amen, I'm alive
Singing Amen, I'm alive

If everyone cared and nobody cried
If everyone loved and nobody lied
If everyone shared and swallowed their pride
We'd see the day when nobody died
And I'm singing

Amen I, I'm alive
Amen I, I'm alive

And in the air the fireflies
Our only light in paradise
We'll show the world they were wrong
And teach them all to sing along

Singing Amen I'm alive
Singing Amen I'm alive

If everyone cared and nobody cried
If everyone loved and nobody lied
If everyone shared and swallowed their pride
We'd see the day when nobody died
If everyone cared and nobody cried
If everyone loved and nobody lied
If everyone shared and swallowed their pride
We'd see the day when nobody died

And as we lie beneath the stars
We realize how small we are
If they could love like you and me
Imagine what the world could be

If everyone cared and nobody cried
If everyone loved and nobody lied
If everyone shared and swallowed their pride
We'd see the day when nobody died

We'd see the day, we'd see the day
When nobody died
We'd see the day, we'd see the day
When nobody died
We'd see the day when nobody died

Save the Trees! Save the Environment!

perhaps what the world needs are children who see the graveness of the matter and the simplicity of the solutions...

perhaps the diplomats and government officials should really be made to visit the villages in Africa, or the ice caps in the Artic, or the dying coral reefs and rainforests around the world...

I am thinking about it... what I can possibly do...

updates on this soon...

I know I'm morbid because...

I find this amusing...


Attention: The picture you are about to view may be disturbing. Not suitable for young children, pregnant ladies and people with weak hearts (or weak stomachs for bloody stuff)

perhaps that is you playing your WoW?
or trying to break your record for typing speed?
or trying to ensure that your Final Year Project report is properly aligned across all 100 plus pages?
or trying to reconfigure/set up/format (and everything else related to the messing around with the internal runnings of) your computer?

Thank you for the note...

I won't give up... I am sure you guys know that... but sometimes... one just needs that space to doubt, to question and to refind some answers...

Have you ever...

Have you ever felt like you dunno who you are anymore?

especially when you are challenged for being who you are, for what you believed that you believe in and value for most of your life?

and that because of who you are and the way you are, the consequences are such that even those around you get hurt in some way?

and because of that, you question yourself on who you are and you wonder if it really is about YOU being what they say you are - emotionless...

I don't know if I have found the answer...

but I think I can say that I have moved on... perhaps grown a bit stronger...

but I just somehow feel that in moving on and beyond the experience and the feelings, I have lost some part of myself... or is just a mechanism for escaping, that the best way to move on is to become more emotionless so that it doesn't hurt anymore in that way? and in moving on, one would chose to move on from other stuff as well...

why the mellow posting you ask...

I don't know either.. haha

Latest Fave Song

Far Away
by Nickelback

This time, This place
Misused, Mistakes
Too long, Too late
Who was I to make you wait
Just one chance
Just one breath
Just in case there's just one left
'Cause you know,
you know, you know

[CHORUS]
That I love you
I have loved you all along
And I miss you
Been far away for far too long
I keep dreaming you'll be with me
and you'll never go
Stop breathing if
I don't see you anymore

On my knees, I'll ask
Last chance for one last dance
'Cause with you, I'd withstand
All of hell to hold your hand
I'd give it all
I'd give for us
Give anything but I won't give up
'Cause you know,
you know, you know

[CHORUS]

So far away
Been far away for far too long
So far away
Been far away for far too long
But you know, you know, you know

I wanted
I wanted you to stay
'Cause I needed
I need to hear you say
That I love you
I have loved you all along
And I forgive you
For being away for far too long
So keep breathing
'Cause I'm not leaving
Hold on to me and, never let me go

__________________

I know I know it sounds so sappy.. but soft rock... always liked the band... you can check out the music video HERE
(click List and select Far Away... gotta wait for it to stream though)

and if you have the time, watch "If Everyone Cared"... very good song and video...

The Dating Game

(Found this in the papers today... some excerpts from the full article titled "Getting to the of the dating game")

But, she says, it all boils down to her deep personal belief that everybody wants to find that special someone.

'Is that a lot to demand? No and yes. We have so many problems, it is mind-boggling. We live in such a densely populated space and yet we find it so difficult to find the right person. Sociologically, I find that question so challenging,'' she says.

Dr Straughan heads the Social Development Unit's (SDU) regulatory arm which will look into the accreditation of dating agencies now that the Government's matchmaking arm for graduates has decided to take a back-seat role.

(funny isn't it? there used to be a specialised service for graduates.. just goes to show how much they need it.. hahaha)

Research figures support Dr Straughan's belief that everybody wants to settle down.

According to an SDU/Social Development Service Perception Survey in 2005, more than 90 per cent of the 1,500 single respondents said they would certainly or most probably get married one day.

This bears out the findings of the Survey of Social Attitudes of Singaporeans commissioned in 2001 by the then-Ministry of Community Development and Sports which showed that eight in 10 out of the 1,481 Singaporeans polled felt it is better to get married than to stay single.

(didn't realise that many Singaporeans want to get married...)

Between 2000 and 2005, the number of marriages here remained fairly constant - from 22,561 in 2000 to 22,992 in 2005 - while a relatively high proportion of men and women in their 30s were single in 2005.

Among those aged 30-34 years, 34 per cent of men and 22 per cent of women were not married.

Also, the proportion of older singles in the population increased between 1995 and 2005. Among those aged 40-44 years, some 14-15 per cent of men and women were single in 2005. This is higher than the 12-13 per cent in 1995.

There are currently 600,000 singles over the age of 20 in Singapore.

(now that's a big difference between the ideal and the actual reality)

'Before people can start a family, they must first have the freedom and time to enter into a courtship,' says Dr Straughan.

'And it's not just going out for a movie when you are free. It's a sustained commitment.

'If you go out with a guy to whom you are clearly second fiddle to his work and other commitments, you are not going to think seriously about him.'

Ms Chiang agrees.

'There needs to be a balance. So when you cannot switch on that emotional time, to be emotionally prepared to connect, to savour that two hours after work, then all is lost.'

(hear hear... some of the other parts of the article are quite funny... especially about some disasters at matchmaking sessions.. haha)

More from MM Lee Kuan Yew

(continued from previous posting. This is an interview by a reporter by the way.. :P)

I want to ask about ministerial salaries. Your view on how well the system has worked to bring in talent?

Every time there is a pay revision to catch up with benchmarks, this debate will come up again.

But you ask yourself: Do you want the present system where it's completely above board?

And while we are not recruiting all of the very best, we are recruiting some of the very best, because quite a few of the very best do not want to give up their private lifestyle and their family life.

Yes, you can get a person to give up and make a sacrifice for one term.

But will you get a man or woman to serve successive terms, gain experience, become a really competent person, a very competent minister and sacrifice his family, their welfare, their comforts and their children's future and education, going abroad etc? It's not possible.

They're at the top of their cohort. We talent spot. We headhunt for people who not only have just academic qualifications but track records of performance.

How did I learn this? Because in the early days, looking for talent, I put in bright PhDs. Didn't work. We even had a Rhodes scholar.

We found that we needed other qualities: character, motivation, judgment, stability, temperament, ability to connect with people.

So, finally, we worked out a system where we looked at a person in totality: How does he perform in real life, whether as a businessman, as a CEO, as a doctor, as a lawyer, whatever?

Supposing I had served just one term. Would I have known this? No. Because I've served since 1959, and successive elections we fine-tuned and learned in the process.

You go back to a revolving-door government: the first two years you learn how to do your job; next two, three years, you begin to do the job. Before you know where you are, you're out. Next government comes in.

And that's what's happening in many parts of the world.

Carefully consider.

You know, the cure for all this talk is really a good dose of incompetent government.

You get that alternative and you'll never put Singapore together again: Humpty Dumpty cannot be put together again... and your asset values will disappear, your apartment will be worth a fraction of what it is, your jobs will be in peril, your security will be at risk and our women will become maids in other people's countries, foreign workers.

Just think. We have a population of three-point-something (million) and we are carrying and able to give jobs to another 1.3 million people.

How does that happen? Why can't the 1.3 million people get jobs in their own countries?

It must be something that we're doing which is right, that creates economic prosperity, that creates growth, that requires talented people to join us, to help us produce all these extra goods and services.

You know the absurdity of all this?

The total cost of ministers' salaries, of all office holders, the present cost is 0.13 per cent of government expenditure (and 0.022 per cent of GDP).

It amounts to $46 million. We are quarrelling about whether we should pay them $46 million or $36 million, or better still $26 million. So you save $20 million and jeopardise an economy of $210 billion? (This was the size of Singapore's GDP in 2006.)

What are we talking about?

You know fund managers? I'm chairman of the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) and we put $5 billion, $10 billion with top fund managers, just to benchmark how we are performing against the best in the market.

We have about three or four top US investors and we track what they do and we compare what we are doing.

And you have to pay them not 0.13 per cent. Win or lose, whether the stocks go up or down, they take their cut. You ask GIC employees; I'm the chairman of GIC. I'm being paid as Minister Mentor, the Senior Minister before that, and even as Prime Minister before that, a fraction of what the top managers in GIC earn.

But they are handling over US$100 billion (S$151 billion). They make a mistake, we lose $10, $20, $30 billion overnight when the stock market collapses.

So for the average family earning $1,500, $3,000, we are talking of astronomical figures.

But for people in government like me, having to deal with these sums of money which we have accumulated through the sweat of our brow over the last 40 years, you have to pay the market rate or the man will up stakes and join Morgan Stanley or Lehman Brothers or Goldman Sachs. And then you've got an incompetent man and you've lost money, by the billions.

So get a sense of proportion.

Would you like to share how much you are paid?

It's in the Budget. I'm paid $2.7 million. A top lawyer, which I could easily have become, today earns $4 million. And he doesn't have to carry this responsibility. All he's got to do is advise his client. Win or lose, that's the client's loss or gain.

But there are top people in other countries who don't get paid as much but who are also corruption-free, who have also done a good job.

Let me put the American system and then you will understand why if we ran that system, we're in trouble.

If you become President of the United States like Bill Clinton was, or George W. Bush, you earn about less than a million dollars. But you have the White House, you have Airforce One...When you leave office, you write your memoirs, you're paid by the tens of millions. And Bill Clinton, for every speech he makes, it's at least a million or half a million or he doesn't go. And he starts a foundation. They all do this.

You take Alan Greenspan. He sacrificed his earnings as a very expert financial specialist and he took on as a job as chairman of the Federal Reserve, at a pittance. As Paul Volker did.

But he's already got a huge sum of money and when he leaves, he can increase the huge sum of money because of the standing that he has.

He makes a statement and says there could be a recession in the second half of this year and the world stock market goes down.

Can we afford a revolving-door government? Suppose after five years, I go out and say 'OK, I write my memoirs, I become a lobbyist'. How does that get the country going?

I say this is a system we worked out. It's above board, it's working. And if you're going to quarrel about $46 million, up or down another $10 or $20 million, I say you have no sense of proportion; you don't know what life is about. And just think, what would your apartment be worth with a poor government and the economy down?

We talk about the Government as fu mu guan (a Chinese phrase that refers to public officials as parents who care for their children). So people hope that leaders are not there for the money, that they are willing to make that extra sacrifice.

Those are admirable sentiments, but we live in the real world. It took a lot of persuasion to get Ng Eng Hen, Vivian Balakrishnan, Balaji Sadasivan to give up their lucrative practices and become ministers and ministers of state, and no guarantee they would succeed.

Ng Eng Hen six years ago, when he first entered politics, was making $4.5 million and he came in and took a job that paid him about $600,000.

Balaji was earning also in the same category. He was a top brain surgeon with very high skills. He took a chance. When he was not made a minister in the selection process, Goh Chok Tong, then Prime Minister, said 'Would you like to go back to your private practice?'

He says 'No, I'm going to do this as a senior minister of state'. But he's made sufficient to look after his family and children, and his wife is a doctor. So I think that's a sacrifice.

I started off as a socialist, believing that all men should be given equal opportunities and equal rewards. I know that doesn't work.

You have competition and reward the winner.

You look at golf, tennis, swimming, badminton, anything you like. The first prize is an enormous sum. And to get that first prize, you start spending your life, sweating your guts out to master a certain skill which (is) admired and supported by hundreds, if not thousands of millions of people watching you.

It is a competitive world in which we live and if we can't compete, we're not going to live well.

In an interview with Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew...

(This is an interview by a reporter with Lee Kuan Yew, and was published in the Straits Times)

Following up on protests at the Australian National University (ANU). In the context of the global contest for talent, how much does it matter that some people see Singapore as a place that restricts individual freedoms?

MM Lee: Let me first challenge the assumption that people see Singapore as a place that restricts individual freedom. This is the stereotype that the Western media purveys of Singapore. But businessmen and talented people who work for these companies are better informed; otherwise we wouldn't have attracted the talent we have.

The ANU knew they would get flak from the human-rights people for offering me an honorary degree. So too the Imperial College London for making me a Fellow just a few years ago; so too Melbourne University.

So what does it prove? These are people who understand what's happening in the real world and understand the real Singapore.

The press works up a storyline that Warwick University finds Singapore's academic freedom restricted, so they don't come.

I think the real reason is they worked out their sums and they found it was not economical.

You've got some of the top names from America, and even Australia has got the University of New South Wales setting up a campus.

So let's not ourselves be drawn in to purvey this line.

What is the individual freedom that you are deprived of? Are you prevented from saying what you want? Are you prevented from exercising your rights as a citizen?

___________________________________________________________

Question: Since we are trying to attract talent, does it matter that they see us in this light?

No. The people that have the talent will have the wit to investigate, to know what they are in for.

You know the number of unsolicited mails that I get and PM gets from people completely without motive? They've come, they know the old Singapore.

And what they are saying is, it's a very good place - safe, wholesome, everything works - and they wish they could have the basics we have established.

And if you allow this to be degraded, you'll never put the present Singapore together again.

If we didn't have more self-confidence in what we are doing and we listened to what is prescribed for us, we wouldn't be here.

You cannot bring Singapore from where it was to where it now is without long periods of stable government and experienced ministers.

You watch the development of Taiwan or South Korea.

The period of transformation took place when they had governments that stayed for a long time, ministers and civil servants who acquired experience and expertise and improved the system and got it to a high state.

And once they liberalised, like they did in Taiwan, you look at the growth rates. You look at their stability, you look at what their future promises.

I meet their journalists; they come to Singapore. If you read Tian Xia and several other very reputable papers, they are full of admiration for what we have achieved.

Now how does Taiwan get back to stability and growth and sanity?

It's facing a very difficult future in which China is growing bigger and bigger year by year, stronger and stronger.

And they are not in a position to go independent because the Americans will not support them because it means war.

So what is the rational thing to do? Is the rational thing to say 'I change the Constitution' and provoke the Chinese into a clash?

That's what the present President is attempting to do because then he thinks he will be able to rally votes. I mean, you are now into mass manipulation of attitudes in order to win votes by deceiving people that this is a way forward, when there is, in fact, no way forward.

You look at South Korea. They are now with a generation that voted in a new government completely at variance with US policies.

Without the US, South Korea is in dire difficulties with the North. But you have a younger generation that says, out with the Americans.

So does it make sense?

________________________________________________

all I get is a sense of how weak certain parties around the world are in the areas of transition.... they should case-study AIESEC... hahaha...

but always interesting to read the views of Mr. Lee Kuan Yew... his brain is amazing... =)

(will post the rest of his responses in a bit)

What a day of hope!

Yesterday (since it is 12.44am now on a 5th April) was such a day... =)

Started off not too good.. overslept my alarms and woke up at 12 noon (after sleeping at 3am plus doing stuff for my final year project)... checked through emails, replying people etc...

and then things started to pick up...

saw the email from SHRI... offering package for AIESEC stakeholders to participate in the Singapore HR Forum in early May... what a benefit to offer those who work with us!

got a call from IHG... they've opened a job position and ask if AIESEC can help! had to do some explaining but she sounds open.. got the JD from her via email and man what a super attractive role to work as! starting to wonder if I can apply for such positions in future even if I do graduate from engineering...

anyway, finished sending IHG more information and went off for company meeting with Ker Ying and Wanxin... great meeting that lasted almost 1 hour... training company that works with DHL interns already... looking to take interns from us, and willing to collaborate in outgoing exchange processes! Huge potential!

got back home... watched a documentary called "Planet Earth" on Arts Central... brought back lots of memory from primary school watching documentaries, especially in hearing David Attenborough as narrator again (I sound like such a nerd don't I? documentaries in primary school haha).. anyway.. great show, looking forward to next week's episode (it's a series)...

came back to my laptop and got news from our PBOX OC about an Arab Asian Dialogue Forum end of the month... msned my contact from UAE to learn that they have contact with the organiser! sent her an email to see if we can somehow get AIESEC into the forum... *crosses fingers*

aside from that, things like consolidating exchange performance so far and feeling quite proud of the LCs... having friends from other countries msn saying they received news about the project we are looking to run and how they see the potential in collaborating it into execution... getting news of SNs being matched... seeing emails from companies asking for meetings or exchange (PwC!! TCS!!)...

ahhh... 4th April... what a day! =)

Report, assignment, notes, books, followups, emails...

just some of the stuff that seems to be "governing" my life for now..

nonetheless, so so looking forward to catching the The Phantom of the Opera this coming Sunday... at the Esplanade somemore! the place is supposed to be one of the best investments that Singapore has ever made in developing the arts scene... I've never been in its theatre halls before so definitely looking forward to that...

and of course, definitely looking forward to the company with which I will be watching the musical...

nothing like a sunday evening/night out with good friends, good musical, good seats (I hope!) and good sound system.. not to mention good view along the river for some chilling out perhaps after the musical... too bad the good drinks near the Esplanade are so expensive...

Sudden Thought...

Was reading someone else's blog about attending a wake of someone who had committed suicide... reminded me of when I heard similar news regarding a senior...

and then I suddenly thought of what I read in the book titled "Tuesdays with Morrie" by Mitch Albom... the story is a very simple and inspiring one about Morrie's experiences in dealing with the incurable disease eating him up day by day...

and I remembered this chapter... where the author talked about Morrie holding a "funeral" while he was still alive... he did this because he had attended the funeral of a friend... As he listened to the deceased's friends and relative speak fondly about him while he was still alive, he thought it was such a pity that his friend would never hear or know that he was so loved by those around him... and because Morrie didn't want to die not hearing all these valuable words, because he didn't want those around him to regret not having said the things they meant to say all along but they never did simply because they were too late, he held one while he was alive...

And in that small cosy session, friends and relatives gathered to share their eulogies of Morrie... they said all they had meant to so there was no regret.. and Morrie heard all of these and was able to enjoy the love and friendship while he was alive so there was no regret...

too often... we are often guilty of falling into the trap... of not saying what we really want to say to those around us... I'm guilty of that also...

I guess it really is hard... but I guess that's also why when it is said, it's really really precious...

just a sudden thought...