Ugliness is superior to beauty because it lasts....
Showing posts with label thinking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label thinking. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 03, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
a thought.
when i heard a very old song,"are you lonesome tonight?" my heart is full of empptiness.
just as the song lyric.
i am hoping the things will change, change for the better.
but i know it will not be possible.
as both of our hearts are dead.
we are just like total strangers.
Friday, June 11, 2010
agony
one picture tells a thousand words.
when i does many good things for others, i do not expect returns or flavours.
i am just help them to solve their problems.
that is all.
but i do not expect them to betray me in the end, and do the unthinkable things.
alas.
that's life.
i have to accept people is not perfect as i have assumed to be.
i have been walking on narrow path, and still follow the same path despite the change of environment, despite of many things.
it is hard, but i follow the nature way.
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
City Harvest Church under investigation
A DAY after City Harvest Church completed a massive five-day seminar which involved 30,000 people including foreign evangelists, police rounded up several individuals linked to the church for alleged misuse of church funds.
The founder of City Harvest Church and 16 other individuals and staff involved in the handling of the church's financial affairs are being investigated by the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD).
Police confirmed on Monday evening that Reverend Kong Hee and 16 others are assisting in an on-going investigation arising from complaints made to the Commissioner of Charities (COC) on the misuse of church funds.
CAD officers in the morning visited various premises, including the homes and offices of the individuals involved. They secured items such as financial records and computers for their investigation.
As to how long the investigation will take, the police have given the assurance that while it will be thorough, it will be without undue delay.
Earlier in the afternoon, the COC and CAD said in a joint statement that they were investigating some financial transactions involving several individuals and companies related or connected to the church.
They assured the public that despite ongoing investigations, the normal services and religious activities of the City Harvest need not be disrupted.
City Harvest is one of the largest churches in Singapore, with a congregation of over 30,000 who regularly pack its venues at Jurong West and the Singapore Expo during sermons.
The church's reach online is even greater - through live webcasts, podcasts and its own broadcast channel. Much of it is driven by its charismatic founder, Reverend Kong.
This is not the first time City Harvest Church has made headlines. It was just in March that eyebrows were raised over the church's S$310 million stake in Suntec City Convention Centre, and the Commissioner of Charities was called in to investigate.
In a statement to MediaCorp, the charities watchdog stressed that this round of investigations is not related to the earlier Suntec case.
It added that the case involved more than just City Harvest - it included companies and individuals connected either directly or indirectly with the church. That is why, it said, the police have to be involved.
Depending on the findings, the charity's trustee may be suspended.
The statement continued: "While there was a governance review conducted on City Harvest Church in 2007, the objective and the scope are different from that of an inquiry.
"The governance review essentially looks at the organisation's corporate governance with the objective of assessing and helping the charities to improve the way they are run.
"The inquiry on the other hand is a formal investigation into allegations and complaints received to ascertain that there is no mismanagement or misconduct in the administration of a charity."
When asked to comment, the National Council of Churches of Singapore, of which City Harvest is a member, said it was too premature to do so at this point.
On the City Harvest's website, a notice to members by Executive Pastor Reverend Derek Dunn stated that the church was "cooperating fully" with investigations, and that services and operations would continue as usual.
The church has engaged Christina Ng from law firm Rajah and Tann to represent it.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
for friends
for friends.
as days passes by, as we works,
friends are disappearing from my phone list.
each year, it is getting smaller as we strikes off friends whom i trusted them but betrayed me in the end.
all left are few but precious friends whom i can depended on.
they are truly my friends.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Friday, October 09, 2009
Thursday, October 01, 2009
the moment of TRUTH
we wonder when politician stood for the reality show,"the moment of truth", how much that they stand to "win" and "strengthened" the ties with the people.
we wonder.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
trust
my sister told me that you just cannot trust certain type of people.
i did not believe her and challenge her instead.
in the end, i lost the bet and have to take back my words instead.
yes, certain type of people whom you trusted will ended up betrayed by them.
i have no doubts about it and since then, have changed my perception on them.
they can't be trusted, no matter how good they are
i did not believe her and challenge her instead.
in the end, i lost the bet and have to take back my words instead.
yes, certain type of people whom you trusted will ended up betrayed by them.
i have no doubts about it and since then, have changed my perception on them.
they can't be trusted, no matter how good they are
Thursday, May 14, 2009
passed away
we have not seen our neighbour for sometime.
then we heard from other neighbour that he has passe away two weeks ago.
he has been staying at the same block as us for 20 years.
and he likes to drink beer.
when we saw him, we always greeted him and he also greeted back.
his wife divorced with him and his sons and daughters left him too.
he rented his rooms to foreign workers for S$150 each.
we are surprised to hear the news
then we heard from other neighbour that he has passe away two weeks ago.
he has been staying at the same block as us for 20 years.
and he likes to drink beer.
when we saw him, we always greeted him and he also greeted back.
his wife divorced with him and his sons and daughters left him too.
he rented his rooms to foreign workers for S$150 each.
we are surprised to hear the news
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
each day passed is each day earned
one of our colleague was diagnosed with stomach cancer.
she had her whole stomach removed few months ago.
Her gut was directly connected to the small intestines.
But the cancer cells have spread to lymph nodes and she has to go for radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
it was the most uncomfortable periods for her.
she was the person who likes to eat. now she has to chew properly before swallowing. she also complained the connection points between her gut and intestines was the painful when she ate her food.
we met her cousin and she told us her story.
we told her that each day she live is each day she earned.
she used to be such a humorous person whom everyone likes and she has changed completely after she knew she had cancer.
beautiful things never last.
And we told ourselves that we should treat each day as our last so that we can value life and cherish the wonderful moments, which changed eternally.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
food poisoning
down with food posioning this morning.
it has been a long time since we have that pain and fever.
no appetite too.
just like to lay on the bed and rest.
still not recovered until the late evening that we took the anti-food poisoning medication that our fever subsided.
seen the doctor and took the chacoal plus lot of salt water..
recovered..thanks God.
during this traumatic period, thought of many things and also realized many things as well.
alas..
Friday, April 17, 2009
Saturday, April 11, 2009
maid
happycitizen on his article on maid, posted his blog:
Before I discuss this topic further, I have to clarify that I've employed 3 maids in the past 10 years.
There were all very different in terms of character, work attitude, honesty and intelligence. I was quite hesistant at first to hire a maid because I was worried about having a stranger in the house whom I wasn't very sure if I could trust but the household chores were getting harder to do as I got older. I got a few tips (mostly warnings and advice on how to 'control your maid') from my colleagues and found what I was told was a 'responsible' maid agency to employ the maid.
My first trip to the maid agency was a bit of an eye opener - the owner of the agency was quarrelling with a couple....I could hear bits and pieces : "If you don't like the maid, just bring her back ....you don't HAVE TO TREAT HER LIKE THAT...I really don't want your business". The maid agency owner spoke to me later apologising profusely for keeping me waiting ...she explained that the couple had struck one of the maids on the head for making a mistake and that made her angry. She told me if there was any reason I didn't like the maid I was assigned, I can just bring her back and she would assign me another one.
The first maid I hired was highly competent....not just competent, she was more intelligent than most Singaporeans - spoke 4 languages (Malay, English, Chinese and Korean). The only reason she was working as my maid was because she was retrenched from a S. Korean factory that paid her 2.5 times the salary she was getting from me. She had very high EQ and was very well liked by parents. All my fears and reservations about hiring a maid were totally unfounded. I almost never had to give the maid instructions - she was full of initiative and seemed to know what to do. I felt that she was completely underpaid and made up for it by giving her ang pows during Chinese New Year and a lump sum when she completed her contract. The day I sent her off at the airport, my mom had tears in her eyes....that was how much she was part of my family. I hired my 2nd maid from the same agency but things were quite different this time round. The first day I hired her, I found her eating on the floor of my kitchen floor...I knew I had to reset my expectations.
The 2nd maid spoke little English, didn't know to operate common appliances and didn't know how to do many things that maids were supposed to be trained to do. Still I decided not to send her back to the agency and let her complete her contract. It took some time to train her and I encourage her to learn some English after she completed her chores. It took some time but she did get to the point when she was quite helpful around the house....along the way, she broke my computer speakers, washing machine, many dishes, etc ...I did tell her firmly to be more careful but did not deduct her pay or punish her further ...over time she did improve and was quite helpful around the house. When she completed her contract and was ready to go home, she had this happy look on her face because she would be bringing back what would be a substantial amount of money to help her family - I hope that she has good things say about her experience in Singapore.
My 3rd maid who is still with me is average and sort of in between the other 2.
.
Maids are paid about $300 per month yet some Singaporeans have high expectations of them - some even expect the maid not to make mistakes and punish them severely when they do. How would you like to be treated if you're paid $300 a month to do a job? Lets put it this way, there are people who make millions and get away with mistakes simply by calling them 'honest mistakes' or blaming others for their mistakes.
I've heard of people deducting their maid's pay when the maid breaks something....you have to remember how painful it is for the maid when you deduct her pay ...she gets only $300 a month.
Others are very suspicious of their maids after reading those dramatised juicy stories on the New Paper about maids bringing men to the house or maids having boy friends outside. For this reason many still refuse to give their maids one day off per week. I'm sure many of these stories are true because maids are also human beings - they can go astray just as married men, married women and teenagers go and do things they are not suppose to do....but how many of you lock up your husbands, wives and teenage children for the same reasons. You can't just jail people in your house because you think they might do something wrong. However, all these can be considered minor compared with the cases of maid abuse we read about so frequently in the newspapers....
Why are there so many maid abuse cases in Singapore??? I had coffeeshop discussions with a number of people and these were the reasons cited....
1. High Levels of Stress. I believe we have the highest number of massage chairs sold per capita in the world ....hmm we frequently rank the highest in surveys on stress levels. There are not too many outlets for people's frustrations and stress...hey they can't just go out on the streets to protest and let go. So things can happen when they get home all stressed up and find that their maid has broken something at home ....they might just explode.
2. High Expectations. Some people expect their maids who are paid $300 to operate at the same level of efficiency as themselves (who are paid $8k?). They become terribly disappointed and upset when their maids does something they think is 'stupid'...
3. High Levy. The govt takes a chunk (40%?) of what is paid to hire a maid. Our govt takes in one month for each maid what the Malaysian govt takes in one year as maid levy...and they don't have maid levy in Hong Kong. What the maid levy does is to accentuate the expectations gap - the employer pays a total of $600...but gets an inexperienced maid who is paid $300. This gap causes many problems.
4. Lack of Respect for Human Rights. We are taught to read and count in school...but how many have been taught what human rights are? I remember moral education in my day was about Confucian ethics - respect leaders, respect elders...nothing about human rights. Given that human rights seems a 'dirty phrase' and respect for human rights seen as religious fanaticism [Link] in Singapore, it is not inconceivable a small number people have no clue that people coming from 3rd world who are less educated and poorer than us have basic rights as human beings....they may not hit another Singaporeans but they think nothing of physically punishing their maids.
Our maids earn the lowest pay in the world and suffer from high cases of abuse....what does that say about Singapore as a society?
A failure or success after 40 over years of nation building?
you should know the answer..?
Before I discuss this topic further, I have to clarify that I've employed 3 maids in the past 10 years.
There were all very different in terms of character, work attitude, honesty and intelligence. I was quite hesistant at first to hire a maid because I was worried about having a stranger in the house whom I wasn't very sure if I could trust but the household chores were getting harder to do as I got older. I got a few tips (mostly warnings and advice on how to 'control your maid') from my colleagues and found what I was told was a 'responsible' maid agency to employ the maid.
My first trip to the maid agency was a bit of an eye opener - the owner of the agency was quarrelling with a couple....I could hear bits and pieces : "If you don't like the maid, just bring her back ....you don't HAVE TO TREAT HER LIKE THAT...I really don't want your business". The maid agency owner spoke to me later apologising profusely for keeping me waiting ...she explained that the couple had struck one of the maids on the head for making a mistake and that made her angry. She told me if there was any reason I didn't like the maid I was assigned, I can just bring her back and she would assign me another one.
The first maid I hired was highly competent....not just competent, she was more intelligent than most Singaporeans - spoke 4 languages (Malay, English, Chinese and Korean). The only reason she was working as my maid was because she was retrenched from a S. Korean factory that paid her 2.5 times the salary she was getting from me. She had very high EQ and was very well liked by parents. All my fears and reservations about hiring a maid were totally unfounded. I almost never had to give the maid instructions - she was full of initiative and seemed to know what to do. I felt that she was completely underpaid and made up for it by giving her ang pows during Chinese New Year and a lump sum when she completed her contract. The day I sent her off at the airport, my mom had tears in her eyes....that was how much she was part of my family. I hired my 2nd maid from the same agency but things were quite different this time round. The first day I hired her, I found her eating on the floor of my kitchen floor...I knew I had to reset my expectations.
The 2nd maid spoke little English, didn't know to operate common appliances and didn't know how to do many things that maids were supposed to be trained to do. Still I decided not to send her back to the agency and let her complete her contract. It took some time to train her and I encourage her to learn some English after she completed her chores. It took some time but she did get to the point when she was quite helpful around the house....along the way, she broke my computer speakers, washing machine, many dishes, etc ...I did tell her firmly to be more careful but did not deduct her pay or punish her further ...over time she did improve and was quite helpful around the house. When she completed her contract and was ready to go home, she had this happy look on her face because she would be bringing back what would be a substantial amount of money to help her family - I hope that she has good things say about her experience in Singapore.
My 3rd maid who is still with me is average and sort of in between the other 2.
.
Maids are paid about $300 per month yet some Singaporeans have high expectations of them - some even expect the maid not to make mistakes and punish them severely when they do. How would you like to be treated if you're paid $300 a month to do a job? Lets put it this way, there are people who make millions and get away with mistakes simply by calling them 'honest mistakes' or blaming others for their mistakes.
I've heard of people deducting their maid's pay when the maid breaks something....you have to remember how painful it is for the maid when you deduct her pay ...she gets only $300 a month.
Others are very suspicious of their maids after reading those dramatised juicy stories on the New Paper about maids bringing men to the house or maids having boy friends outside. For this reason many still refuse to give their maids one day off per week. I'm sure many of these stories are true because maids are also human beings - they can go astray just as married men, married women and teenagers go and do things they are not suppose to do....but how many of you lock up your husbands, wives and teenage children for the same reasons. You can't just jail people in your house because you think they might do something wrong. However, all these can be considered minor compared with the cases of maid abuse we read about so frequently in the newspapers....
Why are there so many maid abuse cases in Singapore??? I had coffeeshop discussions with a number of people and these were the reasons cited....
1. High Levels of Stress. I believe we have the highest number of massage chairs sold per capita in the world ....hmm we frequently rank the highest in surveys on stress levels. There are not too many outlets for people's frustrations and stress...hey they can't just go out on the streets to protest and let go. So things can happen when they get home all stressed up and find that their maid has broken something at home ....they might just explode.
2. High Expectations. Some people expect their maids who are paid $300 to operate at the same level of efficiency as themselves (who are paid $8k?). They become terribly disappointed and upset when their maids does something they think is 'stupid'...
3. High Levy. The govt takes a chunk (40%?) of what is paid to hire a maid. Our govt takes in one month for each maid what the Malaysian govt takes in one year as maid levy...and they don't have maid levy in Hong Kong. What the maid levy does is to accentuate the expectations gap - the employer pays a total of $600...but gets an inexperienced maid who is paid $300. This gap causes many problems.
4. Lack of Respect for Human Rights. We are taught to read and count in school...but how many have been taught what human rights are? I remember moral education in my day was about Confucian ethics - respect leaders, respect elders...nothing about human rights. Given that human rights seems a 'dirty phrase' and respect for human rights seen as religious fanaticism [Link] in Singapore, it is not inconceivable a small number people have no clue that people coming from 3rd world who are less educated and poorer than us have basic rights as human beings....they may not hit another Singaporeans but they think nothing of physically punishing their maids.
Our maids earn the lowest pay in the world and suffer from high cases of abuse....what does that say about Singapore as a society?
A failure or success after 40 over years of nation building?
you should know the answer..?
Friday, April 10, 2009
cats
i loves cats.
they are adorable.
they like to clean themselves whenever they have the time.
that's why they looked the same.
Thursday, April 02, 2009
THERE IS LOVE (Paul Stookey) - Wedding Song
He is now to be among you at the calling of your hearts.
Rest assured this troubador is acting on His part.
The union of your spirits here has caused Him to remain,
for whenever two or more of you are gathered in His name,
There is love. There is love.
Oh, a man shall leave his mother, and a woman leave her home.
They will travel on to where the two will be as one.
As it was in the beginning, is now until the end,
woman draws her life from man
and gives it back again and there is love.
Oh, there's love.
Well then what's to be the reason for becoming man and wife?
Is it love that brings you here or love that brings you life?
For is loving is the answer then who's the giving for?
Do you believe in something that you've never seen before?
Oh, there's love. There is love.
He is now to be among you at the calling of your hearts.
Rest assured this troubador is acting on His part.
The union of your spirits here has caused Him to remain
for whenever two or more of you are gathered in His name
there is love. Oh, there is love.
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
Leaving On A Jet Plane
All my bags are packed I'm ready to go
I'm standin' here outside your door
I hate to wake you up to say goodbye
But the dawn is breakin' it's early morn
The taxi's waitin' he's blowin' his horn
Already I'm so lonesome I could die
So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that you'll wait for me
Hold me like you'll never let me go
Cause I'm leavin' on a jet plane
Don't know when I'll be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go
There's so many times I've let you down
So many times I've played around
I tell you now, they don't mean a thing
Every place I go, I'll think of you
Every song I sing, I'll sing for you
When I come back, I'll bring your wedding ring
So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that you'll wait for me
Hold me like you'll never let me go
Cause I'm leavin' on a jet plane
Don't know when I'll be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go
Now the time has come to leave you
One more time let me kiss you
Close your eyes I'll be on my way
Dream about the days to come
When I won't have to leave alone
About the times, I won't have to say
So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that you'll wait for me
Hold me like you'll never let me go
Cause I'm leavin' on a jet plane
Don't know when I'll be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go
Cause I'm leavin' on a jet plane
Don't know when I'll be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go
500 Miles
If you miss the train I'm on,
You will know that I am gone,
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles.
A hundred miles, a hundred miles,
A hundred miles, a hundred miles,
you can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles.
Lord, I'm one, Lord, I'm two, Lord,
I'm three, Lord, I'm four, Lord,
I'm five hundred miles a way from home.
Away from home, away from home,
Away from home, away from home,
Lord, I'm five hundred miles away from home.
Not a shirt on my back,
Not a penny to my name.
Lord, I can't go back home this-a way.
This-a way, this-a way,
This-a way, this-a way,
Lord, I can't go back home this-a way.
If you miss the train I'm on,
You will know that I am gone,
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles.
A hundred miles, a hundred miles,
A hundred miles, a hundred miles,
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles.
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