break again

will be taking another break..until then, cheers!!!

Many, many, many thanks to our friends..hopefully things will get back again..will be back..cheers

My Birth Date

Your Birthdate: April 30

You are certain and confident when you choose to love someone. Even though your romantic choices may be unconventional - you stand behind them. Your friends never know you as well as a romantic partner does. Number of True Loves You'll Have: 6 Number of Times You'll Have Your Heart Broken: 6 You are most compatible with people born on the 3rd, 12th, 21st, and 30th of the month.

What Does Your Birth Date Mean For Your Love Life?

IMF

IMF was held on Suntec City, and was at south of Singapore.
Although we were staying at the west side, we have already felt it presence.
The reason?
Normally the bus will come on time for the past few yeas, but till last week, we have one bus instead two during 20-25 minutes's interval and we were late for 20-30 minutes.

Furthermore, the bus was really packed, and people showed their annoyed faces.

well, luckily it was only 2 weeks for us to endure.

For others, it was real nightmare for them as they have to work overtime.
well, What to do?

sugar cane

Life is sometimes like a sugar cane,

where it was placed into sugar cane crusher to squeeze out the juice,

and are repeatedly placed again to squeeze the remaining drop.

then for the last time, it was soaked into water to squeeze the last drop.

solar-powered lights

Reported by Aaron Low of Straits Times on Aug 3 of 2006, six of the eight solar-powered lights have been vandalised and Mr Sitoh Yih Pin, the PAP candidate who lost in the ward in the May election, has no plans to repair or replace them.

The lights had cost $20,000 to install.

Mr Sitoh had leased the land from the Singapore Land Authority early last year to set up the lights. The adviser to Potong Pasir grassroots organisations said he would not be fixing the lights as the lease for the land would run out on Oct 31.

Earlier, he had also stopped other amenities, including the extra Meet-the-People sessions and the $2 abalone porridge.

So, that was what politics meant to us, an ordinary citizen.

In the first place, Mr Sitoh has installed the lights himself. Now the lights were damaged and he did not want to repair and pushed the full responsiblities to others.

Furthermore, he did not properly handed over to Mr Chaim, MP for Potong Pasir after the elections.

He was sore losers. If you did not vote for me, you got nothing for me..that was what he meant by his actions.

horses

I am Singaporean

A real story.
I am 55 years old man.
I have a job until I came down with illness 5 years ago. it was kidney failure.
I spent a lot of money including my CPF and saving until I was finally recovered.

Now I have to find a job as my son was still studying in Polytechnics. Next year he will be enlisted as national servicemen. My wife worked as a cleaner, earning $700 per month.

Having passed the fork-lift course, I have successfully found one company who was willingly to employ an old man.

That was two months ago, when one day a young chap from China took my job away because he asked for S$800. I was paid S$1,100 and I was slow in my work.

I was told that I did not have to come the next day.

And someone said that we welcome the foreign talents so that they could take away our jobs. That would enable us to retire early without any money.

I searched for another similiar job. I was once willing to lower to S$800 when the company asked for S$900-S$1,000. They asked my age and I told them i was 50.

They said,"Don't come."

So, here I am, I am 55 years old Singaporean who was jobless.

a real story told by one of my friends who are taking a course.

Dancing through Life

bundle with joy

Wrongful Dismissal of Pregnant Women

This letter is written in reference to the letters by Lau Li Nah (ST, June 27) and Ngian Hui Chyi (ST, July 1) and to the article "Pregnant and facing the sack: More seek help" (ST, July 3).



AWARE (Association of Women for Action and Research) first noticed in July 2004 an increase in the number of women calling in to our Helpline with issues surrounding pregnancy while employed. In June 2005, there were letters in the forum pages from women who had been dismissed while pregnant.

And now, in July 2006, the issue has surfaced again in the forum pages and as a news article. In total, AWARE had received close to 40 calls or emails from women or their relatives.

This issue is definitely not going away, and no amount of reassurance by the Ministry of Manpower will change that.

Planning for, having and caring for a baby in today's frenetic society is stressful enough without having to worry about one's source of income being terminated. For most modern women, pregnancy itself already carries a certain amount of inherent risk. When a woman is subjected to sudden and extreme stress and emotional upset, as happens when one is summarily dismissed, we can only imagine what further complications might affect the pregnancy and subsequent birth.

Add to that non-existent paternity leave, and a paltry two days child care leave per year, the husband and father will be back at work long before the new mother is ready to be left on her own to face post natal depression aggravated by depression caused by the sudden loss of her job.

Last year, AWARE convened a focus group discussion on the topic attended by six women and three men.

Two of the women who had lost their jobs due to their pregnancy said that they would not want a second child because the experience had been too traumatic.

The sad thing is that although this issue has been raised many times in the past, there does not seem to be sufficient political will to address it adequately. A case in point is AWARE's submission to a government related agency to obtain funding to conduct a study on Managing Pregnancy and Employment. After ongoing discussions and negotiations lasting one year, the final response was negative even though AWARE had initially been given encouraging signals.

At the very least, a study should first be made to examine the extent of the problem. Once the issues are understood more clearly, the correct solutions can then be proposed and implemented. AWARE is still going ahead with a scaled down version of its planned research to achieve this end. Please call 6779 7137 or email helpline@aware.org.sgThis email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it to participate in the study.

It would be very much in the government's interest to take concrete steps to address this issue before it affects many more women and their families.

We should not let such discriminatory practices by employers undermine our society's efforts to encourage more women to have more babies.

Ms Tan Joo Hymn
President
AWARE (Association of Women for Action and Research)

On Singapore society

41st Anniversary Special
David Marshall
The late ex-chief minister spoke frankly about Singapore in 1994; it's youths, the press, rapid changes, good and bad that forms part of our history. A year later Marshall passed away.
Aug 8, 2006

David Marshall was interviewed by media commentator, lawyer and blogger, Dharmendra Yadav, who reproduced the following in his website http://thinkhappiness.blogspot.com/

Meeting David Marshall inn 1994
Aug 8, 2006
Celebrating National Day
First, happy independence to my fellow Singaporeans!
In the past year, some of independent Singapore's founding fathers have left us. As we look forward to a fulfilling future, we must not forget the courage and selflessness of such past generations of Singaporeans.
In this respect, many years ago, I made a promise to David Marshall, the first Chief Minister of Singapore and one of Singapore's finest legal minds.
The promise was to publish in full an interview, which I had with him on 5 May 1994 at the offices of Singapore law firm, Drew & Napier.
Today, about 12 years after the interview and as Singaporeans celebrate 41 years of independence, I am pleased to make public this interview in full and keep a promise made.
This interview was part of an assignment for my college newsletter, which I completed with two others. An edited version of this interview was published in my college newsletter that same year.
He died soon after in 1995. I felt privileged to have met David Marshall in his lifetime. It was a dream come true since, from the age of 12, I had always wanted to meet him.
He remains my inspiration in my law career. When I met him, I also returned having learnt the importance of doing something else - giving to the community.
I hope reading his words will inspire you similarly!
Dharmendra Yadev

Dharmendra: In the past, when you were chief minister, youths played a politically-active role. How has the role of youths changed as compared to the past?

Marshall: The role of youths! Ha!
In my time, I tried to educate our people in an understanding of the dignity of human life and their right as fellow human beings, and youth was not only interested but excited about what I consider things that matter.

Things of the spirit; the development of a human being to his true potential in accordance with his own personal genius in the context of equal rights of others.

Today, youth is interested in getting paper qualification and, as soon as possible, shoveling gold into their bank accounts. It's a different world, even the law.

I am a consultant here [Drew & Napier]. When I left in '78, there were three partners - it was supposed to be a big firm; two assistants - we were a big firm; 17 staff. This office has four floors. They think that it is a waste of time to use the lift so we have an internal staircase. We have more than 90 lawyers, more than 200 secretaries and I don't know how many staff.

The law is no longer a vocation, it is a business. Everything is geared to business!

Of course, there is this pragmatic development of our country. Ah, our rising expectations of a pragmatic character! It is a fantastic and almost a miraculous development in my lifetime.

When I was Chief Minister, there were men dying of starvation and because of 'beri-beri'. I took my PA [personal assistant] and an Inspector of Police for night at midnight. For two hours, we toured Singapore and we estimated there were two ten thousand men sleeping on the pavements. No homes.

Today - no unemployment, no homeless. I started this business of building homes for our people. Compare the puny work I achieved and the fantastic HDB homes that are available today for our people. I am deeply impressed and I take off my hat to this very able honest government. Dedicated!

But I am seen as a critic and I am a critic.

I am frankly terrified by this massive control of the mass media, the press, the radio, television, antennae, [and] public meetings. You can't write a letter to the Straits Times; if there is a shadow of criticism, it's not published. And the Chinese press follows suit. It's a very dangerous position because experience proves that no one group of human beings has got all the wisdom in the world.

I mean… well, two of you are Chinese and one Indian [Ed: actually, the interviewers were one Chinese, one Jew and one Indian]. I don't know much about Indian history but look at China. You had Confucian authoritarianism for more than 2500 years. What happened to China? She was a fossil. She had to reinvigorate herself with the Western ideology of communism. Another authoritarian ideology! And what was the result?

There must have been a million decent people who were transformed into vipers, vicious obscene vipers. I'm afraid of this control of the mass media.

And are youths the miasma of apathetic subservience to authority? But you say to yourselves, "Well, you know, what do we seek in life? We seek a rice bowl, full!"

It is full and overflowing, in fact. They serve you your rice in a jade bowl with golden chopsticks; not that it makes much difference to the taste of the rice. But you're empty!

You've got technocratic skills and you are seeking more but internally you are empty. Money is your acid test of success.

I've got nothing against money. I'd like to have money myself! I'd like to have a house and a garden and dogs and a car and a chauffeur but, look, I've got a flat. I've got a swimming pool attached to the flat. I've even got a car but I use taxis. I have a dignified way of life without being wealthy.

I don't see the necessity of owning a Mercedes-Benz and a swimming pool and a couple of mistresses. I think we've got our values all wrong.

You know $96,000 a month for a Prime Minister and $60,000 a month for a minister. What the hell do you do with all that money? You can't eat it! What do you do with it? Your children don't need all that money.

My children have had the best of education. In fact, I'm very proud of them. One of them is a senior registrar to two major hospitals in Oxford. Another of them is a consultant in European law to the Securities and Investment Board in the United Kingdom. They've had their education. There are no complaints.

I never earned $60,000 a month or $90,000 a month. When I was Chief Minister, I earned $8,000 a month. Look, what is happening today is we are encouraged to and are becoming worshippers of the Golden Cart.

We have lost sight of the joy and excitement of public service, helping our fellow men. The joy and excitement of seeking and understanding of the joy of the miracle of the living the duty and the grandeur. We have lost taste for heroic action in the service of our people.

We have become good bourgeois seeking comfort, security. It's like seeking a crystal coffin and being fed by intravenous injections through pipes in the crystal coffin; crystal coffins stuck with certificates of your pragmatic abilities.

What has changed?

The self-confidence of our people has grown immensely, and that is good to see. Our pragmatic abilities have grown magnificently, and that is good to see. Very good to see!

You are very able. You're ambitious, and the government has heroic plans for the future. It hasn't finished.

I take off my hat to the pragmatic ability of our government but there is no soul in our conduct. It is a difficult thing to speak of because it is difficult to put in a computer, and the youth of Singapore is accustomed to computer fault. There is no longer the intellectual ferment, the passionate argument for a better civilisation. The emphasis on the rice bowl!

Tell me I'm wrong, come on.

Dharmendra: That PAP government has indeed done a great deal for Singapore. However, there is an increasing degree of discontent growing amongst our youths against them. Why do you think this is happening?

Marshall: Our lives are empty. We don't understand the joy of living is not in the gold coins. It is not in the bank account. The joy of living is in human relations. We are not in appreciation of this miracle of life.

We are giving a lop-sided view, an unfairness to the government! We come out of a morass of imperial subjugation where people were dying of starvation and now?

You know, when I won a case once years ago, I was presented with a lovely porcelain Buddha with a big flowing belly and ears that reached to his shoulders and a chubby face.

I said to my client, "Look, you Chinese got a real feeling for aesthetics. How can you worship something so obscene?"

He said, "Mr Marshall, try and understand. China is a land of starvation where millions of people die for lack of food, and to be able to eat that much, to be that fat, that is heaven!"

Now, that is the attitude of our government: to be able to eat that much, that is heaven and you should be content.

So are youths not content? They are not anti. Our youths frankly, very honestly respect the pragmatic achievements of the government, and I'm grateful, but they feel empty.

There isn't this joy of living which youth expects and youth needs - to learn the joy of living. How do you teach it?

I think you teach it through respect for the individual. That's our tragedy. If you want to put it in a nutshell, our tragedy is that we emphasise the primacy of society as against respect for the individual. Mind you, both are right.

I mean both sides have the liberty. Of course, there should be respect for the needs of society over the right of the individual but you must respect the individual too in seeking the expression of the needs of society. Here, we have no respect for the individual.

Cane them! Hang them! There are more than a hundred queuing up to be hanged, you know that?

[Minister For Law] Jayakumar said, "I have plugged the loop-hole whereby they could escape being hanged and just have twenty years of imprisonment!"

Oh, wacko the ducks - you need a monument!

The joy of hanging people; flogging them, every stroke must break the skin. I don't like it. I don't believe it is a deterrent. I see no proof. Look, it seems to me logic! If every year we have more death sentences, how can you say death sentence is a deterrent? If it were, there should be less death sentences.

But you know I'm in a minority and my father had one saying which I'd like you to publish. It is a beauty. He was a true democratic heart although he didn't know it.

He used to say, "David, if ten men tell you your head is not on your shoulders, shake it and make sure. Don't accept it. Just shake it and make sure!"

Well, I've shaken my head again and again and again and I still think I'm right. I know I'm in the dog-house.

The government doesn't see I do respect them immensely. They don't see I'm a genuine friend. They only see me as a critic and to be a critic is to be an enemy who must be erased and destroyed. There is no such thing as an honest critic to the PAP. It's a blasphemy to criticise the emperor, spoilt son of heaven.

[Lee] Kuan Yew says you mustn't lampoon a Chinese gentleman. Oh, dear me! Ya, what happened? What happened to China?

In Europe, they institutionalised the court jester and the court jester had total immunity against any result from his public criticism of the kings and emperors and the courtyard. Open public criticism - that was his job! They tried to laugh it off but at least there was one person to prick the bubble of their overgrown egoism.

And which civilisation has progressed better for the development of humanity? The Western civilisation or the Chinese civilisation?

You talk of Asian values. I only know two Asian values and, I wish someone would really pinpoint instead of pontificating ponderously in humbug and hypocrisy.

Family values - I think we have more family cohesion in Asia than in Europe; more family warmth and I like that. I accept that there is a greater tradition of family warmth and family cohesion.

Two, we have a greater passion for education. My secretary - I asked her once what her background is. She said her mother is a washer-woman and, here is this lovely secretary doing a damn good job. She was educated. How her mother could save enough to give her the education?

So these are the only two values I know. Somebody tell me what other values that are Asian, which everybody talks and nobody mentions the exact parameters.

And you know we use this concept of family cohesion to place on our youths the burden of caring for aging and ailing parents and grand-parents.

The young have got their own lives to make. To carry in your own homes aging irritable ailing parents and grandparents can destroy the family life of the young.

But then, the alternative is for the government to pour so much mountains of gold into building homes for the aged. That's sacrilege - gold is to be gathered and not to be spent.

I want to see more crèches, more homes for the aged.

Our Prime Minister [Goh Chok Tong] talks about gracious living. Where is the gracious living?

So I am a bad boy, I'm ostracised. The Straits Times makes slimy remarks about me.

The [press are] running dogs of the PAP.

Dharmendra: What would you tell youths who intend to pursue a career in law?

Marshall: Try and understand that the law is a vocation and not a business. Respect your client irrespective of the fees. I used to charge $1 for a murder case if he was Malay because he had no money. I used to charge $1 to trade unions; all Malay unions, I charged $1 a year. And the $1 is simply because, if you do it for nothing, you are not liable in negligence whereas $1 makes a contract and, if you are negligent, they can sue you.

I'd like them to also understand that justice is a meld of law and humanity. Law and humanity; decency in concepts; if we administer law by the soulless logic of the computer, we aren't on our road to progress.

You're too young but ask your parents - the Japanese times. Their draconian approach to anti-social activities. Ask your parents how they welcomed the returning British soldiers in 1945.

I was stunned when I heard about it; that we a colonial people, a subject people, should welcome rapturously the armed forces of Imperial power. How was that possible?

I learnt that they had a sense of relief to be back in the ambience of British justice; out of darkness, out of the draconian attitudes of the occupying power.

If you want to make money as a lawyer, you can. I see marble palaces. My juniors, ha! Marble palaces, swimming pools, Mercedes-Benz! Oh, bravo!

They work till nine o'clock at night. I don't know how their children survive. They work very hard, they make a lot of money. Yes, it's true.

If you are going for corporate law, insurance law and the non-litigant aspects of law, you can make a lot of money.

If you're a particularly good litigant - our litigation lawyers in civil cases - we've got some outstanding local lawyers. Yes, you can make a lot of money.

Don't go in for crime. The Criminal Bar is a very frustrating Bar today.

Dharmendra: You have fought many cases. You have some nrilliant cases that you managed to sweep the jury off their feet in words?

Marshall: And I'm according to Lee Kuan Yew in Parliament when he sought the abolition of the jury, "David Marshall is responsible for 200 murderers walking freely the streets of Singapore."

I'm proud of that. I told him to put it on my tomb. If there are 200 people walking freely the streets of Singapore, it means they are contributing to Singapore. Singapore would have been poorer by hanging them. I have no compulsion.

Look, the purpose of criminal law is really two-fold: as a deterrent and as a catharsis of society to express its vengeance. If you escape it, you're no harm to society so long as you maintain a good police force and so long as you maintain a certain human justice in understanding.

For me, the punishment must not fit the crime, the punishment must fit the criminal and the punishment must fit the needs of society.

Recently, I accepted a brief - a Sikh sentenced to death. He was 21 when he was arrested. His appeal came on five years later. It was dismissed.

But during those five years, he studied religious knowledge. He got distinction in the New Testament and he became a Christian.

He's now 26 or 27. He's going to be hanged. I like that man. I think he can be a real asset. He is a delightful chap.

I asked his family, his elder brother. I said, "You Sikhs are really close in the family. How did you family take his becoming a Christian?"

He said, "What could we do? The poor man is going to be hanged. How can we be angry?"

There are more than a hundred people queuing to be hanged. There are decent people there.

Looks, there's a lovely phrase - I forgot who coined it - who said, "There but for the grace of God know I, I know no man who stood totally spotless that he can say I committed no anti-social act."

And so in our criminal code, if some escaped, that's an asset.

I'm reminded of a lovely story of Sir Walter Raleigh. On the scaffold, he went up and tested the axe with his thumb and turning to the master executioner, he said, "This is the surest cure for all diseases. If you want to eliminate all crime, you got to eliminate all humanity."

I have absolutely no bad conscience about the men I have helped escape the gallows and escape the prison. I'm grateful for the opportunity to have done that.

I say this, perhaps in conclusion, we have a judiciary of tremendous integrity. I've been practising since 1948, except for three and a half years, there isn't a single case of financial corruption, neither in the High Court nor the magistrates' courts. It's wonderful to practice in the ambience of total integrity.

Dharmendra: HAVE YOU EVER REGRETTED BECOMING A LAWYER?

Marshall: No! I think it was a guardian angel that brought me there.

I suppose you know, you must have read that I wanted to be a psychiatrist. First, when I was young, I wanted to be a doctor. I thought medicine was the greatest profession in the world - helping heal and comfort the sick and the helpless. And as I grew into adolescence, I wanted to be a psychiatrist. Not to practice but to do research: why the goodwill of the young?

All youths no matter what race, no matter what country, goodwill flows from their hearts. They want to help the world, but by the time you reach 30, your goodwill like good wine turns to vinegar - the vinegar of crapped egoism.

I wanted to study the wise and whether these could be some antidote for this unhappy transformation of the goodwill of youths to the crapped egoism but I didn't have the money. Fortunately!

I don't know if I could have achieved anything that vast. I don't know whether I have the intellectual ability to do first-class research into the mind and emotions of man.

I fell, by accident, into the right career at the right time and it has been wonderful.

Regret? I'm full of gratitude for having become a lawyer and, especially, a criminal lawyer; for having helped thousands of people terrified, helpless before the silly forces of society. They've looked into me as their protector. I have no regrets at all for having helped them; humanity, if you can understand this.

If you ever become a criminal lawyer, never look down upon your client. He may be a murderer or he may be a thief; he is a fellow human being. You must try and respect your client no matter what he has done. It is very important in your own self-respect in your work, and to help who is helpless in seeking help.

Look, at the age of 86, I can say in all earnestness, the thing that matters most in bringing human satisfaction is human relations. To be able to care for your fellow human beings, to be able to give! Never mind about receiving.

Even today, my friends say, "Oh, David, stop it! Why do you have to keep making public noises that annoy the government? Live in dignity and retirement. They'll respect you and you'll have the honours."

Ha, honours! I want to fight till I'm dead!

What matters most in life is the right of human beings to live fully in the context of their own genius. In one word, perhaps, to fight for human justice. I once said humanity's cry for human justice reverberates down the corridors of the centuries, and it is still crying for human justice.

Dharmendra: An unforgettable moment in St. Andrew's School?

Marshall: I was coming. That was the old building and I was coming along the corridor carrying a set of books. It must have been morning and, outside my classroom, there was a Chinese boy much slimmer than you [Dharmendra] with his back to the wall - absolutely pale, full of fear.

And in front of him was my friend, an American boy - same student, same class - and dancing an Indian jig saying, "Ching! Ching! Chakama!"

Without the slightest warning, I dropped my books and lunged at him [the American boy].

Dharmendra: Do you have any message in general?

Marshall: Recognise there is a lot of satisfaction in public service, foreign service, judicial service. A great deal of satisfaction in public service, even honorary public service in committees.

[If] you are totally engrossed in self-promotion, at the end of the day, you'll find it's dead seafood.

Try and give up yourselves to others.

I am so alien to this worship of the Golden Cart and the draconian attitude; the brutal attitude towards our fellow citizens. Here I ask people and, no doubt, if I ask you, "We're all in favour so long as it's not me having my bottoms cut! Yes, whip 'em!"

Try to put yourself in the other man's shoes.

And, of course, what have I got to say?

You, the young - you've got a fantastic, absolutely fantastic potential before you; economic expansion, heroic plans that the government has for the future not only the present. You are so lucky! No unemployment! Great potential even beyond your capacity to fulfill.

It's an exciting country, Singapore. It's a lovely country. And you have to make your own space for your own spiritual and intellectual needs and have the courage. Have the courage to serve your fellow men with integrity.

I'll put it in one nutshell: have the courage to live, don't be afraid!

You know, I'm told I'm fool-hardy and always criticising, although I have such a gracious life. But fool-hardy or no, this is me; I am prepared to take what you give.

cat

Long time ago, there was a brown cat who lived a million times.

He also died for a million times.

He still lived on and on.

Until one day he met a white cat and from that day onwards, they stayed and lived together. He thought that they would lived forever.

Until one day, the white cat die of old age.

The black cat was so sad and heartbroken that he died that day the white cat has left him.

And never lived again.

changes

The streets of Singapore have changed much.

One evening, I took a evening stroll round our HDB blocks after my dinner. Normally i would see some of my familiar neighbours.

However i noticed that there were many strange nationalities :- Thai's, Myanmar’s, Filipino's and the most frequent people i noticed are those from India. They are mostly foreign worker who worked in marine or construction industries.

How come suddenly that there were so many foreigners around our HDB blocks? I wondered.

It did not happened just one day and it must have took several years before we have noticed them.

Singapore is a multicutured society as one reader has commented. But it appeared that the composition of the population has changed greatly.

There are far more foreigners who normally lived at the worker quarters are occuping our own HDB flats that were meant for us, singaporean. They were seen walking in groups, and smoking and drinking at our own places.

I found myself in my own homeland which was so familiar and yet so strange.

***
A true story.

In the beginning of this month, we have a group of neighbours moved in the HDB flat just next to us. They were foreign workers from Thailand and Maymar.

We did not noticed them at first, but their bad smell revealed their presence just a few days later. as they did not washed properly their working clothes, and did not take care the flat, a strong bad odour coming from their flat. They did not even flushed the toilet and their urine smell lingered into our kitchen.

We wrote letters to HDB and fortunately there were many of us complained to them and the foreigner workers were to ask to vacant the flat within a week.

Later we found out the owner of the flat was from one of our government agencies.

That was really bad.

***
After the general election, we expected the things to go up, and it came quite sooner than we have thought.

The first thing was the taxi fare increasement, which will commenced on 10th July 2006. As i listened to the radio, there was one listener commented that the cab-driver did not take too much profit from these 14-18% increase and they have to wait for 12 years and

the real people who will profit these hike were from the big government taxi rental companies.

As the charging fare increased, it will be their turn to jack up the daily rental fees of the taxis.

Furthermore, these gigantic 14-18% increased, especially the peak hour brought forward from 0730-0930hrs to 0700-0930hr and charged $1 extra which was 100% increment and besides raising the flag down fare and the peak hour surcharge to $2, ComfortDelgro is also making distance-related adjustment: Trips less than 10 kilometres will be charged at 10 cents for every 210 metres travelled, compared to 225 metres currently. For trips above 10 kilometres, the charge will be 10 cents per 175 metres, compared to 200 metres now.

This will otherwise scare off the customer like us.

On the first day, we will expect people to shun away taking the cab and cab-driver will reported vast loss of income.

break

will be taking a much longer break..until then, cheers!!!

Many, many thanks to our friends..still it was uphill task and hopefully things will get back again..many thanks to my dearest friends..cheers

daydream

A daydream is a form of consciousness that involves a low level of conscious activity. Daydreaming generally comprises of a fantasy while awake.

Sometimes, someone who daydreams is seeking to fulfill a dream or hope in their mind. While it may seem a useless human behavioral glitch or fault, it can actually be quite constructive, especially for those who are in a creative career.

Often, the daydream takes the form of a train of thought, leading the daydreamer away from being aware of his or her immediate surroundings, and concentrating more and more on these new directions of thought. To an observer, they may appear to be affecting a thousand yard stare. A sudden stimulus may startle them out of the daydream.

When we are young, we often daydream that one day when we grew up, we could do the things we wanted to. We yearned to grow up as we often heard our father and mothers, "Wait until you grow up".

However when the days came, we understood that there are so many things we wanted to do, but could not do. Our hands are tied and resources are limited.

so, we are stuck and of course, another best things to do was to daydream again..thinking of the best things in our lifes and others as well

How do you spend your days? What do you do?

Most Secure Prison
In Supermax prisons, prisoners are generally allowed out of their cells for only an hour a day; often they are kept in solitary confinement. They receive their meals through "food ports" in the doors of their cells. Prisoners are given no work and very little access to leisure activities, though some categories of prisoner are allowed to have a television. When Supermax inmates are allowed to exercise, this may take place in a small, enclosed area where the prisoner will exercise alone. Prisoners are under constant surveillance, usually with closed-circuit television cameras. Cell doors are usually opaque, while the cells may be windowless. Conditions are spartan, with poured concrete or metal furniture common. Cell walls, and sometimes plumbing, are often soundproofed to prevent communication between the inmates


A survey was done to find out their daily routine:-


"I usually spend my days reading and trying to stay focused upon keeping my sanity."

"Writing ten letters a week, reading one book a week, watching CNN News for two hours a day, trying to keep cool from the heat using a wash cloth, drinking lots of water, and fanning with a note pad. Trying to find the right time to sleep and trying to control my anger from not getting out of control and letting this psychological torture drive me insane."


"There isn't much to do. When I get my three books on Friday I begin to read them and by Saturday night I'm done with all three and have to wait until next Friday. Other than that I keep myself busy by writing my family and keep my wits."

"I spend my day making things to do. I read, write and talk to voices in the vent that belong to faces of other inmates I can't interact with."

"In order to stimulate myself I read, exercise or write a letter. There's a television in my cell that has the Discovery Channel, History Channel, Sky Angel (religion) Channel, PBS and CNN programmed into it. So I watch the TV. It all gets boring and monotonous though. I would rather be active working or something than sitting in a cell doing the same things over and over."

"I spend my days trying to do what's possible to better myself educationally, which right now I'm taking a course in math and writing skills."


"I eat, sleep, use the toilet, and every other human thing, under the ever-watching camera! I work out six times a week. I read lots of books. I am trying to get well versed in the law so I can sue the DOC all the time, but also to try and help illiterate and slow inmates with appealing their state-given sentences."

"I draw, read, write poetry, letters, fiction, pace my cell, sit back and listen to what these people are saying, just lay in bed and think about everything in life about what's going on in here and out there."

"I spend my days thinking, studying, writing and exercising. Due to the unfortunate circumstances this is all an individual can basically to besides eat and sleep. Basically I do what it takes to keep a positive attitude and to stay focused."

"Depressed, I make attempts to contact coalitions but no one seems concerned or cares. I've thought about suicide."

"I sleep a lot, and when I'm awake, I read or pace. Lately I've been daydreaming a lot. Most of the time I don't know the day, time or date."

Walking in cell. Try to read but it is very difficult to have the mind set for reading. Try to sleep. Try to watch TV (Discovery, PBS, CNN, History). Try to get my mind into writing letters to organizations about my situation in SMCI. Try to work out when my body no longer hurts. Time is difficult when one is suffering from sensory and sleep deprivation."


"I sit in my room trying to remain sane. I don't do anything but sit in my cell and stare at the walls and try not to have a breakdown."

"I sleep and daydream -- there is not much to do."


"Most days I do a lot of reading and writing to friends and family. I try to study the law and understand it the best I can. I also draw on days when I feel like expressing myself. Working out is hard to do in a confined space such as this, but I do my best to keep all my muscles functioning properly. That is about all we can do."


"Walk around my room all day, at times read and work on my legal case."

Cherry Blossom

In a year, cherry Blossom blossomed about two weeks and you can see these beautiful flowers blooming on trees.

so, you are extremely fortunate to see the full blossoming as it was difficult to predict the timing..cheers!

.

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Theme:Mississippi, 1937. Three convicts escape from a jail chain-gang intent on getting to the loot stashed away by one of them. As this is at his house soon to be flooded by a new dam, speed is of the essence. They find themselves fast-talking their way out of one jam after another, and along the way not only have to be wary of riverside sirens but even get to make a pretty good country record.

Last few years ago, think I watched the film on local TV programmes on one long weekwends where we were resting at home, and came across this strange title.
Since we did not have anything much to do, we just have a simple thought: if it was not so good, maybe we go out for shopping or other things.

but one hour later, as we watched on, we laughed to our hearts of what we have seen: so funny.

It was one of tv programmmes that we did not thought much but later it turned out to be one of the best we have seen.

A Sad Encounter with a Resident

(Posted on Sammyboy's forum by an anonymous WP volunteer)

I was with Glenda this afternoon doing our house to house visits in Sengkang, which is part of AMK GRC. We were going about the usual thing..climbing stairs, knocking on doors, distributing our party newsletter, etc...

We came across this house which was pretty dark. Since the door was opened, Glenda asked if anyone was home, and saying , "We're from the Workers' Party..." in mandarin.

This man - 50+ - came to the door, bare-bodied. Glenda greeted him and explained what and why we were there. A short time later, the man's wife came to the door as well. She seemed to have been cooking or something.

The moment she heard we were from the Workers' Party, she began to tell us her story. She began to talk about her children. She said, "Now everything has gone up. How am I suppose to take care of my children? They (the PAP) asked us to vote for them the last time but see what has happened? How am I suppose to pay for my house?"

At this point I could see that she was getting very emotional and obviously she had kept these feelings inside for a long time. She continued to explain why she was having such a hard time. Her husband needed to see the doctor but she could hardly afford it and her kids needed to go to school. She had to work and yet put up wioth the rising cost of living.

At this point, her eyes began to turn red and she took off her spectacles to wipe her eyes. After she finished, I could see tears on her face.

It was truly heartwrenching for me to see this - up close and personal govt policies which affect these people.

Her husband then said that his whole family was going to vote for the WP this time. I asked his wife if she knew the Workers' Party. She said, "Of course. Mr Low thia Kiang... and the hammer.."

Throughout this time, Glenda and I just kept silent and listened to her. We could onyl offer words of comfort which does not do much. We then said our goodbyes.

The strange thing is that after we left, Glenda and I kept silent. I didn't ask Glenda about her feelings cos I think she was quite overwhelmed - like me.

This incident has really left a mark on me. I will never forget this

figures that only looked nice on paper

Tharman Shanmugaratnam's (Minister of Education) response to his calls, during his rallies, to abolish streaming in primary schools. Mr Tharman had said that the practice of streaming has enabled Singapore to maintain a low drop-out rate of 3 per cent, 10 times lower than that in the United States where there is no streaming.

But Mr Chiam (SDA candidate for Potong Pasir) said that these were figures that only looked nice on paper.

"He was using figures which are presentable to the general public. I was a school teacher. I am talking from an educational point of view. When we get a 3 per cent drop-out rate, it looks nice on paper but for those who are streamed … they would have already lost their spirit.

You have condemned them as rejects and failures.

"I think they should study the Russian education system, rather than comparing it to the American education system. The teachers there really care for late developers and slower learners.

They spend more time on them and really bring them up very nicely."

The Facts:

They tell us the 'big lie' that "the figures don't lie", as they treat us as categories and not as individuals. However, category is not truth, but merely an act of choice driven by hidden agendas and prejudged priorities. Categories are intrinsically ambiguous. They can be distorted so that most of the data is 'on message', while awkward numbers are ignored. "Domination is transfigured into administration."

Reduced to statistics, both human problems and problem humans are made anonymous. Brutally insensitive decisions and actions are reduced to bookkeeping. As a paper exercise, otherwise unpleasant acts are purified. Treated as mere statistics, the unemployed, homeless, hospital waiting lists, alcoholics and other drug addicts, the mentally ill are all made invisible.

From their numerical platform, obsessive compulsive neurotic politicians claim to manage the risk and the uncertainty of our society with the arbitrary use of statistical models; with opinion polls, market research, focus groups, socio-economic classifications, performance measures, efficiency audits, cost-benefit analyses.

Through statistics, society becomes well-behaved, tidy, controllable.

...Professor Ian Angell on "single death"

means test criteria for C class ward

We have heard about means test for C class ward in Singapore Public Hospital for the past few days.

actually what is means test?

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, the term means test refers to an investigative process undertaken to determine whether or not an individual or family is eligible to receive certain types of benefits from the government.

The "test" can consist of quantifying the party's income, or assets, or a combination of both.

In the end, there are two types of situations: either you have it or none.

If the means test criteria set by governments set so low that many of those who “fail” the means test are left unable to properly care for themselves and to afford to pay for their high medical expenses.


Therefore, the means test criteria must be set at a level which ensures that the cost of caring for diabetes is not a barrier or a burden to the individual.

However, the setting of the critera was a tough and difficult. There are far too many scenarios and the process may be too tedious to be implemented and not cost effective.

what politics should be

Politics should go beyond the upgrading of flats and handouts.

It should meant a greater discussion and about the direction that Singapore should take and what policies it should take to get you there; what kind of future we want for ourselves and for our family members

It should not concentrate just flats and lifts upgrading alone.

Leave no one behind

Despite all the "bombardments" and under tremendous stress from every angles and things will get worse instead of better , still Mr Goh Mong Seng (candidate for Aljunied GRC) said:

Although I am only a junior (NS man) officer, I do know one simple rule - leave no one behind. All of us..at worker's Party will stand together as one. Make no mistake about it...No such an innocent mistake (will we) back off"

Iron Lady WP Chairman, Ms Sylia Lim also supported:

we stick together and fight on

I recalled that there was a film,"We are Soldiers" by Mel Gibson when he as Lieutenant Colonel Harold "Hal" G. Moore: addressed to the 7th Cavalry:

....They say we're leavin' home. We're goin' to what home was always supposed to be. So let us understand the situation. We are goin' into battle against a tough and determined enemy. I can't promise you that I will bring you all home alive. But this I swear before you and before Almighty God:

That when we go into battle, I will be the first to set foot on the field, and I will be the last to stop off. And I will leave no one behind.

Dead or alive, we will all come home together.

On Hougang field (PAP's Rally) Yawning Bread. May 2006

There was a marked difference from the lighting that the Workers' Party had for their rally the previous night.

The PAP could afford to bring in extra lights.

..In the interest of comparison of crowd size, I went up to the same balcony and took another picture on the PAP night. This is the picture you see above.

I took care to shoot both pictures at about the same time, around 21.15h, when the rallies would be reaching their climax. The crowds in both cases should thus be at their peak.

As I was taking this picture, I asked the man who happened to be standing next to me at the balcony how many people he thought were on the field. He said 500 - 1,000.

....Yawning Bread

It was the sharpest contrast of thing we have heard and seen over the years. Are we hearing and seeing the correct things for the past few years..I wondered.

On Hougang field (Worker Party's Rally) Yawning Bread. May 2006

what you did not see on TV and local newspapers

And that's only the central part of the crowd. The swarm was wider than my widest lens....

Addendum - how many people?

If you look at the top picture, you'll see that there were 15-16 people seated on the stage. This suggests that the stage was about 9 metres wide and 5 metres deep.

Now look at the bigger photo. Using the dimensions of the stage as the yardstick, and allowing for the fact that the bottom of the photo would be on a different scale from the back of the photo (due to perspective), I estimate that the area covered by the photo, excluding the road at the back, would be about 150m across and about 200m from bottom of picture to nearly the road.

That's 30,000 sq. metres. This being the thickest part of the crowd, the density was about 3 persons per sq. metre (they were standing shoulder to shoulder - see bottom picture). That means the total number of people encompassed by the bigger picture was about 90,000.

Add those outside the picture (less dense), and perhaps the total number of people at the rally was 100,000 - 120,000.

....Yawning Bread

A picture speaks a thousands of words...and it spoke well and was an awesome sight that amazed me when i took the first glance...

Yawning Bread furthers:-

....Most of the others, however, chose to start leaving. Each of the human backs that had formed the wall in front of me swivelled around to walk past me.

It was then that I saw the face of the man who had been in front of me for the last few minutes. Turning around to depart, he was just 50 cm from my eyes. For a brief moment, we were face to face -- he, a gaunt old man with sunken eyes, a grey crewcut and white stubble.

He had his gnarled hand up against the corner of his eyes, smoothening out the tears. Yes, he had been crying....

Eat less, live more

DIETING according to an old joke, may not actually make you live longer, but it sure feels that way.

Nevertheless, evidence has been accumulating since the 1930s that calorie restriction—reducing an animal's energy intake below its energy expenditure—extends lifespan and delays the onset of age-related diseases in rats, dogs, fish and monkeys.

Such results have inspired thousands of people to put up with constant hunger in the hope of living longer, healthier lives. They have also led to a search for drugs that mimic the effects of calorie restriction without the pain of going on an actual diet.

Initial results of the first systematic investigation into the matter, known as CALERIE (Comprehensive Assessment of Long-term Effects of Reducing Intake of Energy), was sponsored by America's National Institutes of Health.

It took 48 men and women aged between 25 and 50 and assigned them randomly to either a control group or a calorie-restriction regime. Those in the second group were required to cut their calorie intake for six months to 75% of that needed to maintain their weight.


The CALERIE study is a landmark in the history of the field, because its subjects were either of normal weight or only slightly overweight.

At a molecular level, CALERIE suggests these advantages are real.

For example, those on restricted diets had lower insulin resistance (high resistance is a risk factor for type 2 diabetes) and lower levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (high levels are a risk factor for heart disease). They showed drops in body temperature and blood-insulin levels—both phenomena that have been seen in long-lived, calorie-restricted animals. They also suffered less oxidative damage to their DNA.

It was of no wonder that women lived longer than men.

food that you found in the streets of Korea

Some of the food from interesting reads of korea blogs:

Eating at such stalls is inexpensive (by Korean standards). Typically a skewer of anything is KRW1,000 - KRW2,000. The price for a plate of teokbokgi varies, depending on what you load it with but generally it shouldn't cost more than KRW2,000 - KRW3,000.

This is odeng, fish cake skewered into a sausage-like form. I actually enjoy the soup more!! The soup is made from turnips and anchovy stock and peppered liberally. Served in paper cups. Very nice on a cold night.

Close-up of the flour-battered deep fried chicken fillet, smothered in sweet and spicy sauce. KRW2,000

LUP update

One day, I took a stroll at our nighbourhood estate.
I noticed that some of our 4-room flat had their Lift upgrading programmes. Since 5-room already have lift stops at every floor, that left only 3-room and 4-room flats to be upgraded.

The more I observed, it seemed that only 4-room flats had their lift upgraded, but none so far 3-room flats.

Checked the latest upgrade programmes, and noted that we have to wait for 10 years i.e. 2016 as our block (which was 3-room flat-type) was on the last of the list.

Although we are at lift-landing floor, some of neighbours who are not will have to wait for quite sometime.

Soju

Soju (소주)is a notorious rice liquor sold all over the place in Korea.

It mainly comes in little green bottles, but is also known to show up in little juice boxes and big plastic bottles that look like mineral water. At about 20% (40 proof) alcohol its not very strong, but at 1000 won in a convenience store and 3000 won at a bar, its a very cheap drunk.

In Seoul there are 2 main brands: Chamisul (참이슬) and San (산).

San is the one with the picture of a mountain on the bottle.

The Chamisul brand comes from two different distilleries, one in Kyeonggido(경기도) and the other in Chungbuk Cheongwon(충북 청원). The Kyeonggido soju is more bitter than its counterpart.

You can find out which distillery produced a certain bottle of Chamisul by reading the far right edge of the front label. There are other brands of soju in different parts of Korea.

neigbhours

One of friends lived in 5-rooms flat. He has been living there for 10-15 years.
He has peaceful nights after he came back from work and able to have a good rest, watched some TV programmes before turning in.

However his peace was broken when his neignbours on top of his flat had rented out the whole flat to a group of non-Singaporeans.

And they made plenty of noises. When their friends came, it was further agravated when they drank beer, and enjoyed themselves with loud music, louding talking and shouting until 3-4 am in the morning.

My friend has no choice but to call police. When they came, they did not quiet down, but instead challenged the police. The day after became even worse as they made a lot of noise, by shifting their furnitures unneccessary, dropping objects which cause a lot of banging sound just so to irritate him and his family.

He referred this case to MP and MP told him to complain to police and MP also wrote a letter to the flat-owner and National Environment Agency(NEA) of the noise pollutions.

Finally the noise subsized and in the meantime, he has found a new flat and will be moving in soon.

Zhuangzi

Laozi's had a most famous follower, Zhuang Zi.

In general, Zhuangzi's philosophy arguing that our life is limited and things to know are unlimited.

To use the limited to pursue the unlimited, he said, was foolish. Our language, cognition, etc. are all biased with our own perspective so we should be hesitant in concluding that our conclusions are equally right for all things (wanwu).

We must be wary of our tendency to adopt fixed or dogmatic judgments, evaluations, and standards based on a narrow viewpoint, since this leads to conflict and frustration

Zhuangzi's thought can also be considered a precursor of multiculturalism and pluralism of systems of value. His pluralism even leads him to doubt the basis of pragmatic arguments (that a course of action preserves our lives) since this presupposes that life is good and death bad. In the fourth section of "The Great Happiness" (至樂 zhìlè, the eighteenth chapter of the book), Zhuangzi expresses pity to a skull he sees lying at the side of the road. Zhuangzi laments that the skull is now dead, but the skull retorts, "How do you know it's bad to be dead?"


Another example points out that there is no universal standard of beauty. This is taken from the chapter "On Arranging Things", also called "Discussion of Setting Things Right" or, in Burton Watson's translation, "Discussion on Making All Things Equal" (齊物論 qí wù lùn, the second chapter of the book):

Mao Qiang and Li Ji [two beautiful courtesans] are what people consider beautiful, but if fish see them they will swim into the depths; if birds see them, they will fly away into the air; if deer see them, they will gallop away. Among these four, who knows what is rightly beautiful in the world?


One of his well-known part of the book is also found in the chapter "On Arranging Things".

This section, which is usually called "Zhuangzi dreamed he was a butterfly" (莊周夢蝶 Zhuāng Zhōu mèng dié), relates that one night Zhuangzi dreamed that he was a carefree butterfly flying happily.

After he woke up, he wondered how he could determine whether he was Zhuangzi who had just finished dreaming he was a butterfly, or a butterfly who had just started dreaming he was Zhuangzi. It hints at many questions in the philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, and epistemology. The name of the passage has become a common Chinese idiom, and has spread into Western languages as well.

Zhuangzi's philosophy was very influential in the development of Chinese Buddhism, especially Chan, and Zen which evolved out of Chan. Zhuangzi's points about the limitations of language and the importance of being spontaneous, in particular, were strongly influential in the development of Chan.

Note: The film, "Matrix" used some of these thinking from ZhuangZi. When we woke up, is it a dream or reality? Are we dreaming the things we did are real or in our dream?

Taoism

One of Chinese oldest thinking was Laozi.

He developed the concept of "Tao", often translated as "the Way", and widened its meaning to an inherent order or property of the universe: "The way Nature is".

He highlighted the concept of wei-wu-wei, or "action through inaction". This does not mean that one should sit around and do nothing, but that one should avoid explicit intentions, strong will, and proactive action; one can reach real efficiency by following the way things spontaneously increase or decrease.

Actions taken in accordance with Tao are easier and more productive than actively attempting to counter it. Laozi believed that violence should be avoided when possible, and that military victory was an occasion to mourn the necessity of using force against another living thing, rather than an occasion for triumphant celebrations.

Similar to the counter arguments put foward by Plato in the Republic on various form of government, the Laozi indicated that codified laws and rules result in society becoming more difficult to manage.

A better tomorrow

In one of my school day, our groups decided to watch the movie," a Better Tommorrow" after the hectic examinations. That day, we went to Bukit Merah Theatre which has since closed down.

It was quite exciting and interesting as we boys liked the thrill of gun-fighting, not forgetting the his slow-motion gun-fighting sequence and also his own action style by director John Woo, frame by frame, you can actually watch the beauty when they fought in close contact.

Leslie Cheung, one of the main actors has since passed away, but his acting was superb.

This film was John Woo's first tense, bloody gangster epic, which he continued on futher on many other movies: Face off, Mission impossible II

After the show, we went to macdonald and had our late lunch.

How To Know You Lived Too Long in Korea Now That You're Back Home

taken from lost-in-korea.blogspot.com,
some of the funny reads:
1. You habitually bow your head to people.
2. You've called your mother Ajuma more than 3 times
3. You refer to all your friends as foreigners
4. Your friends call the humane society because your dog's ears are pink and blue..

Have fun, cheers!!

and

some funny Konglish (Korean-English)

singapore 2020

Here we are in 2006, some wild guesses that may happened in 17 year' time in 2020.

By 2020, assuming that immigration remained unchanged at 10% per annum, we will have 6 million persons, out of half will be foreigners and another 10-20% who have chosen Singapore as Permanent Residents. Some may used it as a gateway to other countries such as USA, Australia, Canada and requlished the Singapore PR status and became PR of their destination. They will formed two third of the populations.

Also, there may be 3 million Singaporeans (including PR), assuming birth rate remained at 1.2%.

Some of the wildest guess.

funny pictures

spotkick


Help!!!


Me and Other Me

globalization

'Globalization' is a favourite catchphrase of journalists and politicians. It has also become a key idea for business theory and practice, and entered academic debates. But what people mean by 'globalization' is often confused and confusing.

'Globalization' is commonly used as a shorthand way of describing the spread and connectedness of production, communication and technologies across the world. That spread has involved the interlacing of economic and cultural activity.

Globalization in the sense of connectivity in economic and cultural life across the world, has been growing for centuries. However, many believe the current situation is of a fundamentally different order to what has gone before. The speed of communication and exchange, the complexity and size of the networks involved, and the sheer volume of trade, interaction and risk give what we now label as 'globalization' a peculiar force.

With increased economic interconnection has come deep-seated political changes - poorer, 'peripheral', countries have become even more dependent on activities in 'central' economies such as the USA where capital and technical expertise tend to be located.

There has also been a shift in power away from the nation state and toward multinational corporations. We have also witnessed the rise and globalization of the 'brand'. It isn't just that large corporations operate across many different countries - they have also developed and marketed products that could be just as well sold in Peking as in Washington. Brands like Coca Cola, Nike, Sony, and a host of others have become part of the fabric of vast numbers of people's lives.

Globalization involves the diffusion of ideas, practices and technologies. It is something more than internationalization and universalization.

Globalization, thus, has powerful economic, political, cultural and social dimensions:-

1.de-localization and supraterritoriality;
2.the speed and power of technological innovation and the associated growth of risk;
3.the rise of multinational corporations; and
4.the extent to which the moves towards the creation of (global) free markets to leads to instability and division.


Globalization: delocalization and supraterritoriality
Manuel Castells (1996) has argued of the twentieth century, a new economy emerged around the world. He characterizes it as a new brand of capitalism that has three fundamental features:

Productivity and competitiveness are, by and large, a function of knowledge generation and information processing; firms and territories are organized in networks of production, management and distribution; the core economic activities are global - that is, they have the capacity to work as a unit in real time, or chosen time, on a planetary scale. (Castells 2001: 52)


Not everything is global, of course.
Most employment, for example, is local or regional - but 'strategically crucial activities and economic factors are networked around a globalized system of inputs and outputs' (Castells 2001: 52). What happens in local neighbourhoods is increasingly influenced by the activities of people and systems operating many miles away. For example, movements in the world commodity and money markets can have a very significant impact upon people's lives across the globe. People and systems are increasingly interdependent.

The starting point for understanding the world today is not the size of its GDP or the destructive power of its weapons systems, but the fact that it is so much more joined together than before. It may look like it is made up of separate and sovereign individuals, firms, nations or cities, but the deeper reality is one of multiple connections. (Mulgan 1998: 3)

Businesses are classic example of this. As Castells (2001) noted they are organized around networks of production, management and distribution. Those that are successful have to be able to respond quickly to change - both in the market and in production. Sophisticated information systems are essential in such globalization.

Globalization and the decline in power of national governments. It isn't just individuals and neighbourhood institutions that have felt the impact of de-localization. A major causality of this process has been a decline in the power of national governments to direct and influence their economies (especially with regard to macroeconomic management). Shifts in economic activity in say, Japan or the United States, are felt in countries all over the globe. The internationalization of financial markets, of technology and of some manufacturing and services bring with them a new set of limitations upon the freedom of action of nation states.

In other words, the impact of globalization is less about the direct way in which specific policy choices are made, as the shaping and reshaping of social relations within all countries.


Globalization and the knowledge economy. Earlier we saw Castells making the point that productivity and competitiveness are, by and large, a function of knowledge generation and information processing. This has involved a major shift - and entails a different way of thinking about economies.

For countries in the vanguard of the world economy, the balance between knowledge and resources has shifted so far towards the former that knowledge has become perhaps the most important factor determining the standard of living - more than land, than tools, than labour. Today's most technologically advanced economies are truly knowledge-based. (World Bank 1998)

The rise of the so-called 'knowledge economy' has meant that economists have been challenged to look beyond labour and capital as the central factors of production. Paul Romer and others have argued that technology (and the knowledge on which it is based) has to be viewed as a third factor in leading economies. (Romer, 1986; 1990). Global finance, thus, becomes just one force driving economies. Knowledge capitalism: 'the drive to generate new ideas and turn them into commercial products and services which consumers want' is now just as pervasive and powerful (Leadbeater 2000: 8). Inevitably this leads onto questions around the generation and exploitation of knowledge. There is already a gaping divide between rich and poor nations - and this appears to be accelerating under 'knowledge capitalism'. There is also a growing gap within societies (and this is one of the driving forces behind the English government's Connexions strategy). Commentators like Charles Leadbeater have argued for the need to 'innovate and include' and for a recognition that successful knowledge economies have to take a democratic approach to the spread of knowledge: 'We must breed an open, inquisitive, challenging and ambitious society' (Leadbeater 2000: 235, 237). However, there are powerful counter-forces to this ideal. In recent years we have witnessed a significant growth in attempts by large corporations to claim intellectual rights over new discoveries, for example in relation to genetic research, and to reap large profits from licensing use of this 'knowledge' to others.

Globalization and risk. As well as opening up considerable possibility, the employment of new technologies, when combined with the desire for profit and this 'world-wide' reach, brings with it particular risks. Indeed, writers like Ulrich Beck (1992: 13) have argued that the gain in power from the 'techno-economic progress' is quickly being overshadowed by the production of risks. (Risks in this sense can be viewed as the probability of harm arising from technological and economic change). Hazards linked to industrial production, for example, can quickly spread beyond the immediate context in which they are generated. In other words, risks become globalized.

[Modernization risks] possess an inherent tendency towards globalization. A universalization of hazards accompanies industrial production, independent of the place where they are produced: food chains connect practically everyone on earth to everyone else. They dip under borders. (Beck 1992: 39)

As Beck (1992: 37) has argued there is a boomerang effect in globalization of this kind. Risks can catch up with those who profit or produce from them.

The basic insight lying behind all this is as simple as possible: everything which threatens life on this Earth also threatens the property and commercial interests of those who live from the commodification of life and its requisites. In this way a genuine and systematically intensifying contradiction arises between the profit and property interests that advance the industrialization process and its frequently threatening consequences, which endanger and expropriate possessions and profits (not to mention the possession and profit of life) (Beck 1992: 39).

Here we have one of the central paradoxes of what Beck has termed 'the risk society'. As knowledge has grown, so has risk. Indeed, it could be argued that the social relationships, institutions and dynamics within which knowledge is produced have accentuated the risks involved. Risk has been globalized.



Globalization and the rise of multinational corporations and branding
A further, crucial aspect of globalization is the nature and power of multinational corporations. Such companies now account for over 33 per cent of world output, and 66 per cent of world trade (Gray 1999: 62). Significantly, something like a quarter of world trade occurs within multinational corporations (op. cit). This last point is well illustrated by the operations of car manufacturers who typically source their components from plants situated in different countries. However, it is important not to run away with the idea that the sort of globalization we have been discussing involves multinationals turning, on any large scale, to transnationals:

International businesses are still largely confined to their home territory in terms of their overall business activity; they remain heavily 'nationally embedded' and continue to be multinational, rather than transnational, corporations. (Hirst and Thompson 1996: 98).

While full globalization in this organizational sense may not have occurred on a large scale, these large multinational corporations still have considerable economic and cultural power.

Globalization and the impact of multinationals on local communities. Multinationals can impact upon communities in very diverse places. First, they look to establish or contract operations (production, service and sales) in countries and regions where they can exploit cheaper labour and resources. While this can mean additional wealth flowing into those communities, this form of 'globalization' entails significant inequalities. It can also mean large scale unemployment in those communities where those industries were previously located. The wages paid in the new settings can be minimal, and worker's rights and conditions poor. For example, a 1998 survey of special economic zones in China showed that manufacturers for companies like Ralph Lauren, Adidas and Nike were paying as little as 13 cents per hour (a 'living wage' in that area is around 87 cents per hour). In the United States workers doing similar jobs might expect US$10 per hour (Klein 2001: 212).

Second, multinationals constantly seek out new or under-exploited markets. They look to increase sales - often by trying to create new needs among different target groups. One example here has been the activities of tobacco companies in southern countries. Another has been the development of the markets predominantly populated by children and young people. In fact the child and youth market has grown into one the most profitable and influential sectors. 'The young are not only prized not only for the influence they have over adult spending, but also for their own burgeoning spending power' (Kenway and Bullen 2001: 90). There is increasing evidence that this is having a deep effect; that our view of childhood (especially in northern and 'developed' countries) is increasingly the product of 'consumer-media' culture. Furthermore, that culture:

... is underpinned in the sweated work of the 'othered' children of the so-called 'Third World'. [W]ith the aid of various media, the commodity form has increasingly become central to the life of the young of the West, constructing their identities and relationships, their emotional and social worlds... [A]dults and schools have been negatively positioned in this matrix to the extent that youthful power and pleasure are constructed as that which happens elsewhere - away from adults and schools and mainly with the aid of commodities. (Kenway and Bullen 2001: 187).

Of course such commodification of everyday life is hardly new. Writers like Erich Fromm were commenting on the phenomenon in the early 1950s. However, there has been a significant acceleration and intensification (and globalization) with the rise of the brand (see below) and a heavier focus on seeking to condition children and young people to construct their identities around brands.

Third, and linked to the above, we have seen the erosion of pubic space by corporate activities. Significant areas of leisure, for example, have moved from more associational forms like clubs to privatized, commercialized activity. Giroux (2000: 10), for example, charts this with respect to young people

Young people are increasingly excluded from public spaces outside of schools that once offered them the opportunity to hang out with relative security, work with mentors, and develop their own talents and sense of self-worth. Like the concept of citizenship itself, recreational space is now privatized as commercial profit-making venture. Gone are the youth centers, city public parks, outdoor basketball courts or empty lots where kids call play stick ball. Play areas are now rented out to the highest bidder...

This movement has been well documented in the USA (particularly by Robert Putnam with respect to a decline in social capital and civic community - but did not examine in any depth the role corporations have taken). It has profound implications for the quality of life within communities and the sense of well-being that people experience.

Fourth, multinational companies can also have significant influence with regard to policy formation in many national governments and in transnational bodies such as the European Union and the World Bank (key actors within the glboalization process). They have also profited from privatization and the opening up of services. As George Monbiot has argued with respect to Britain, for example: the provision of hospitals, roads and prisons... has been deliberately tailored to meet corporate demands rather than public need' (2001: 4). He continues:

... biotechnology companies have sought to turn the food chain into a controllable commodity and [there is an] extraordinary web of influence linking them to government ministers and government agencies.... [C]orporations have come to govern key decision-making processes within the European Union and, with the British government's blessing, begun to develop a transatlantic single market, controlled and run by corporate chief executives. (Monbiot 2001: 5)

While with globalization the power of national governments over macro-economic forces may have been limited in recent years, the services and support they provide for their citizens have been seen as a considerable opportunity for corporations. In addition, national governments still have considerable influence in international organizations - and have therefore become the target of multinationals for action in this arena.

Branding and globalization. The growth of multinationals and the globalization of their impact is wrapped up with the rise of the brand.

The astronomical growth in the wealth and cultural influence of multi-national corporations over the last fifteen years can arguably be traced back to a single, seemingly innocuous idea developed by management theorists in the mid-1980s: that successful corporations must primarily produce brands, as opposed to products. (Klein 2001: 3)

As Naomi Klein (2001: 196) has suggested, 'brand builders are the new primary producers in our so-called knowledge economy'. One of the key elements that keeps companies as multinationals rather than transnationals is the extent to which they look to 'outsource' products, components and services. The logic underlying this runs something like the following:

.... corporations should not expend their finite resources on factories that will demand physical upkeep, on machines that will corrode or on employees who will certainly age and die. Instead, they should concentrate those resources in the virtual brick and mortar used to build their brands

Nike, Levi, Coca Cola and other major companies spend huge sums of money in promoting and sustaining their brands. One strategy is to try and establish particular brands as an integral part of the way people understand, or would like to see, themselves. As we have already seen with respect the operation of multinationals this has had a particular impact on children and young people (and education). There is an attempt 'to get them young'.

Significantly, the focus on brand rather than the inherent qualities of the product as well as advantaging multinationals in terms of market development also has an Achilles heel. Damage to the brand can do disproportionate harm to sales and profitability. If a brand becomes associated with failure or disgrace (for example where a sports star they use to advertise their brand is exposed as a drug-taker; or where the brand becomes associated in the public's mind with the exploitation of children - as for example has happened with some of the main trainer makers) then it can face major problems in the marketplace.

Globalization and the multinationals. While there is no doubting the growth in scale and scope of multinational corporations - the degree of control they have over the central dynamics of globalization remains limited.

In reality, they are often weak and amorphous organizations. They display the loss of authority and erosion of common values that afflicts practically all late modern social institutions. The global market is not spawning corporations which assume the past functions of sovereign states. Rather, it has weakened and hollowed out both institutions. (Gray 1999: 63)

While multinationals have played a very significant role in the growth of globalization, it is important not to overplay the degree of control they have had over the central dynamics.





A new orthodoxy became ascendant. In the USA a Democrat President renounced 'big government'; in Britain, the Labour Party abandoned its commitment to social ownership. The 'markets were in command' (Frank 2002: xv). The basic formula ran something like the following:

Privatization + Deregulation + Globalization = Turbo-capitalism = Prosperity
(Luttwak quoted by Frank 2002: 17)

As various commentators have pointed out, the push toward deregulation and 'setting markets free' that so dominated political rhetoric in many northern countries during the 1980s and 1990s was deeply flawed. For example, the central tenet of free market economics - that unregulated markets 'will of their own accord find unimprovable results for all participants' has, according to Will Hutton (1995: 237), 'now proved to be a nonsense. It does not hold in theory. It is not true'. Historically, free markets have been dependent upon state power. For markets to function over time they require a reasonable degree of political stability, a solid legal framework and a significant amount of social capital. The push to engineer free markets has contained within it the seeds of its own destruction.

The central paradox of our time can be stated thus: economic globalization does not strengthen the current regime of global laissez-faire. It works to undermine it. There is nothing in today's global market that buffers it against the social strains arising from high uneven economic development within and between the world's diverse societies. The swift waxing and waning of industries and livelihoods, the sudden shifts of production and capital, the casino of currency speculation - these conditions trigger political counter-movements that challenge the very ground rules of the global free market. (Gray 1999: 7)

Capitalism is essentially disruptive and ever-changing - and takes very different forms across the world. While it produces wealth for significant numbers of people, many others have suffered. The gap between rich and poor has widened as global capitalism has expanded. For example, David Landes (1999: xx) has calculated that the difference in income per head between the richest nation (he cited Switzerland) and the poorest non-industrial country, Mozambique, is now about 400 to 1. 'Two hundred and fifty years ago, the gap between richest and poorest was perhaps 5 to 1, and the difference between Europe and, say, East or South Asia (China or India) was around 1.5 or 2 to 1' (op. cit.).

The development of markets, the expansion of economic activity, and the extent to which growing prosperity is experienced by populations as a whole has been, and remains, deeply influenced by public policies around, for example, education, land reform and the legal framework for activity. Economists like Amartya Sen have argued that 'public action that can radically alter the outcome of local and global economic relations'. For him the:

... central issue of contention is not globalization itself, nor is it the use of the market as an institution, but the inequity in the overall balance of institutional arrangements--which produces very unequal sharing of the benefits of globalization. The question is not just whether the poor, too, gain something from globalization, but whether they get a fair share and a fair opportunity. (Sen 2002)

Strong markets require significant state and transnational intervention. To be sustained across time they also require stable social relationships and an environment of trust. Moreover, they can be organized and framed so that people throughout different societies can benefit.




Conclusion
One commentator has argued that there is a very serious case not against 'globalization',

... but against the particular version of it imposed by the world's financial elites. The brand currently ascendant needlessly widens gaps of wealth and poverty, erodes democracy, seeds instability, and fails even its own test of maximizing sustainable economic growth. (Kuttner 2002)

The gap between rich and poor countries has widened considerably. However, as Sen (2002) has commented, to 'see globalization as merely Western imperialism of ideas and beliefs (as the rhetoric often suggests) would be a serious and costly error'. He continues:

Of course, there are issues related to globalization that do connect with imperialism (the history of conquests, colonialism, and alien rule remains relevant today in many ways), and a postcolonial understanding of the world has its merits. But it would be a great mistake to see globalization primarily as a feature of imperialism. It is much bigger--much greater--than that.

For example, while the reach and power of multinationals appears to have grown significantly, neither they, nor individual national governments, have the control over macro-economic forces that they would like. Ecological and technological risks have multiplied. Globalization in the sense of connectivity in economic and cultural life across the world, is of a different order to what has gone before. As we said at the start, the speed of communication and exchange, the complexity and size of the networks involved, and the sheer volume of trade, interaction and risk give what we now label as 'globalization' a peculiar force.

All this raises particular questions for educators. Has the process of globalization eroded the autonomy of national education systems? How has it impacted on the forms that education now takes? What is the effect of an increased corporate presence and branding in education? What response should educators make? We examine these and other issues in globalization and the incorporation of education.

The road less taken

After our school lives, we applied position to work for others. Either in private or civil services sector. After working several years, some of us may left their jobs and set up companies of their own.

There they have different prospectives and faced tough challenages:- cost constraint,capital borrowing, outstanding loans, risks, manpower's turnover,regulation, licencing..etc. Some were successful while some have failed and found it hard to make it a comeback. They returned to the first place where they worked for others. These happened especially when there are economy downturns as globalisation make nations' boundary less distinctive and money are in electronics data that shifted places to places easily. Many have become bankrupt and many things that they wanted to recover from debts but could not and became worse off.

The high cost of doing business here such as land or rental are higher than in other countries, such as Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, to name a few.

For one to succeed in business, there are many have failed.