Hear Ye! Hear Ye!

I’m not a history expert but from my limited knowledge of Singapore’s political history, there are a couple of precedents.

The first way to get sacked is to engage in corrupt practices. Teh Cheang Wan, former Minister of National Development is an example, although he was never formally charged and sacked because he committed suicide before any proceedings could be brought against him.

The second way is to be an alcoholic. Of course, the ex-president Devan Nair was not a minister and neither was he sacked from his presidency but apparently, he resigned from his position as Singapore’s President to get treatment for alcoholism.

So, as long as you don’t take bribes and you don’t drink alcohol excessively, as a minister (or any other high ranking public official) in Singapore, you will never lose your million dollar job. I wish I had such a diamond rice bowl.

Is there a Dummies’ Guide to becoming a minister in Singapore? I need one.

No, I am not doing a survey but rather, someone contacted me and requested help in getting survey participants. If you are kind enough to assist, please help her out. The details of the survey are as follows:

A NTU Masters student is conducting an Internet survey on “Internet Users’ Perceptions of Socio-Political Blog Credibility in Singapore”. The survey comprises of 19 questions and will take approximately 10 minutes to complete. This survey will run throughout May 2008 and respondents stand a chance of winning $200 cash.

If interested, please click here.

PM Lee apparently said the following in an interview with Retuers about the level of disclosure of assets GIC is willing to tolerate:

“We do not want to tell people exactly how much we have, so people can take a run on the Singapore dollar.”

Well, uncertainty is indeed a good strategy to fend off speculators. Couple that with a money pact with an oil kingdom, Brunei, it would almost be crazy for anyone to even think of trying a run on the Singapore dollar.

Just as currency speculators are clueless as to how much money the Singapore government has, Singapore citizens are just about as clueless. Of course, the average Singaporean (myself included) does not need the information to go about our daily lives so not knowing the information really doesn’t make much of a difference.

However, for all we know, we could really be engaging in a game of bluff and there is no problem now because no one dares to call the bluff. I hope no one tries to, though. It would be devastating if it was really a bluff all along.

I just have to get it off my chest. I almost crashed my car 30 minutes ago because a idiot/moron/imbecile/bonehead/dimwit ran across the AYE. Here’s what happened.

I always get on the AYE in the morning via the Pioneer Road North exit to get to NUS. This morning was no different.

I exited the roundabout underneath the flyover to get on the slip road that leads onto the expressway. There was a Mercedes cab in front of me. As the slip road is quite long, by the time you enter the leftmost lane of the expressway, you usually would have accelerated to about 70 km/h or even more.

I kept a distance of about 3-4 times the length of my car from the taxi in front. I saw that the taxi was reaching the end of the slip road and was going to merge into the leftmost lane of the expressway so I looked to my right to check if it was safe to merge into the expressway as I would be reaching the end of the sliproad in a matter of seconds.

When I looked back, I realised that the taxi in front of me was grinding to a halt and I was less than 2 car lengths behind at a speed of about 70km/h. I jammed the brakes but it was obvious I wouldn’t be able to stop in time so I swerved to the right, narrowly missing the taxi. Thankfully, there were no cars in the leftmost lane of the expressway (I had already checked earlier and I knew there were no cars but I am still thankful because if there were cars, I couldn’t avoid crashing the car at all).

After bringing my vehicle to a stop, I looked to my left to see what happened and guess what? There was a man who was walking on the road shoulder towards the expressway exit. My wife, who was freaked out, said later that she saw the taxi driver gesturing somewhat obscenely at that man. I guess what probably happened was that dude ran across the expressway.

Honestly, jaywalking an expressway? You got to be kidding. It’s bad enough to jaywalk across a major road such as Orchard Road but jaywalking an expressway takes the cake. That man seriously has balls of steel (and a heart of iron too). And nevermind the fact that he has the guts to jaywalk an dual-carriage expressway of 3 lanes each. It is damn bloody inconsiderate to do that because he can (and he almost did) cause an accident.

I still can’t believe that someone actually jaywalked an expressway during morning peak hour traffic.

It looks like the MDA is not going to intervene in football pay TV issue, claiming that free market is the way to go.

Well, I’m not sure what is MDA’s idea of a free market. As it stands now, whoever gets the exclusive rights to show matches from a particular football league basically becomes a monopoly until the rights expire. I’m no economist but my understand of a free market is that buyers are not coerced in any manner by sellers and what is happening now doesn’t seem like a free market to me but well, I could be wrong.

Well, if you don’t want to pay the high prices, TVU is a possible alternative.

It seems like Singaporeans might be allowed to hold outdoor protests and demonstrations at the Speaker’s Corner (see this article).

Of course, this being Singapore, the fine print has to be read. Buried down the article, it is said that there is a “need to maintain certain fundamentals even as society opens up more”, and I would like to highlight the third “fundamental” which reads:

“Third: There should be no foreign interference in domestic politics. “

So, what constitutes foreign interference? A bunch of singers apparently constitute foreign interference. An academic speaking about gay legislation is also foreign interference. But, our Minister Mentor is famous for commenting on other countries. For example, a couple of years back, he infuriated our northern neighbours with comments about their ethnic minorities.

Can we practise what we preach, please?

I was rather amused reading this Straits Times article, “Love me, spoil me“, because there seems to be rather negative opinions about the Singaporean women expecting chivalry from the Singaporean male, and the negative opinions are coming from both genders.

Who says that ‘independent’ women don’t need or deserve some male chivalry? If being treated in a chivalrous fashion makes the woman feels happy, what is the problem? And guys, what is wrong with expecting some male chivalry? I’m sure all of us have certain expectations of women as well, with the top of the list being sex, no? If we feel that being expected to carry out acts of chivalry is a chore, then we should expect women to feel that it’s a chore to have sex with us.

The crux of the problem is probably pride on the part of both genders. Women (to be more accurate, the career women and ‘independent’ type) demonise other women who ’succumb’ to chivalry because they feel that they’ve been oppressed by men from time immemorial and to indicate their newfound ‘independence’, they reject everything of the past, including acts of chivalry from men. To accept acts of chivalry would be tantamount to allowing themselves to be oppressed once again. Honestly, if you ask me, it is only because these women want to think they are being ‘oppressed’ and that they are losing their ‘independence’ by accepting acts of chivalry from men.

As for my fellow Singaporean men, I would say that I don’t think women are applying double standards. In fact, I think many Singaporean men are conflating the two issues of female equality and chivalry, which is why they are complaining about double standards. When talking about female equality, it’s more about equal access to opportunities in life, which has nothing to do with chivalry. It doesn’t mean that more of the former has to result in less of the latter.

Ultimately, it is up to the individual how much chivalry to accept and how much to give. You draw your own guidelines and comfort zones. I don’t think it makes me any less of a man to carry my wife’s bag and I don’t think it makes my wife any less of a woman to accept me pulling chairs or opening doors for her. It’s all about your own perception. If you want to perceive something in a certain way and believe that perception to be true, then it’s true.

It should be obvious by now that I am a proponent of chivalry. I believe that men should always pay for dates. I believe that men should help pull the chairs and open the doors for their dates. I believe that men should offer to send women home after a date. Even if it is not to the doorstep, at least to the block or the nearest street. In case you are wondering, I do all things I’ve mentioned as far as possible. The only times I don’t do them is when I suffer from the occasional male blockhead syndrome (but I have never forgotten about paying for dinners, even after marriage).

I believe that my wife isn’t a weak person because I do all these for her. I know that she’s more than capable of fending for herself. It’s just that I want to treat her like a princess because I believe the woman I love should be, as far as possible, treated in the best way that I can offer. And, her small acts of gratitude (a hug, a peck or a word of thanks) make it all worthwhile.

I’ve moved into my own place a month and a half back and when people learn about it, without fail, they ask about how my meals are settled now that I’ve moved out.

Well, it depends. If either my wife or I end our day late (say past 7.30pm), we’ll usually eat out. If not, I’ll cook. And when people hear the words “I’ll cook”, they give a very surprised expression, and they will usually follow up with asking, “You can cook?”

Is it anything strange that guys can cook? I think anyone can cook if they want to. Of course, you can’t expect me to whip up restaurant standards but I can do decent home-cooked meals. A couple of dishes and a soup really isn’t rocket science, just that it does take some time to prepare, cook and clear the dishes.

The learning process isn’t all that hard actually. As a kid, I would watch my mum cook and after a while, you pretty much get the idea behind cooking. All that’s left is some trial and error to put to practice what you’ve observed (which I did when I lived on campus during my undergraduate days) and you are capable of doing decent meals.

Actually, cooking isn’t all that fun to me. I don’t dislike it but I am not particularly fond of it either. But, what I like is the enjoyment of a home-cooked dinner at my dining table with my wife. The enjoyment of eating home-cooked food that I cannot explicate but I like that feeling.

Of course, coming up with ideas on what to cook can be pretty bothersome. You won’t want to repeat what you cooked last week. Now I understand why my mum complains that it’s difficult to plan a meal.

I just heard over radio today that some Singaporeans are grumbling that the government is giving out only $1.8 billion dollars back to Singaporeans, considering that the budget surplus was $6.4 billion last year.

Sometimes, my fellow countrymen just annoy the life out of me. Give them money, they complain it’s too little. However, if they are not given money, they complain that the government is squeezing them dry. *shakes head*

Overall, I don’t think there’s much to complain about the budget in 2008. The Singapore government has shown that good times, the government will share some surplus with Singaporeans. I’m sure the skeptics will have something to say but I think that Singaporeans should be fair to the government and give them credit for this Growth Dividend.

While the distribution of some surplus back to ordinary folks is a good thing in principle, I believe more can be done in reality when times are good. I’m not as greedy as some of my countrymen. All I ask for is that employer CPF rates be further increased. I’m sure that this can be done since the economy is doing well. I can accept that we need to cut employer CPF contribution rates to keep business costs down to save jobs when times are bad. However, this should be matched with a corresponding restoration when times are good.

If we can react quickly to cut CPF contribution rates to save jobs when times are bad, I sure we can react with the same speed when times are good. If the government wants to pursue the principle of sharing growth with Singaporeans, I think there’s more that can be done other than a one-time handout.

This week is Chinese New Year week and the mad rush of spring cleaning (I know, I got a new flat and you must be wondering what is there to spring clean but I assure you, I did ALOT of cleaning) and other preparations for CNY have caused fatigue, both physically and mentally. So, I’m just going to ramble about what I consider a very interesting contradiction in life.

My brain’s anger fuse is weird. It’s unusually long for most people, except when it comes to immediate family. For some strange reason, I’m like a tinderbox with family. I lose my temper much more readily, either at them or in front of them.

My wife and I have talked about this before and we have wondered why we are usually so patient with others but less so with each other (she’ll probably say it’s just me and I shouldn’t extend things to her). My guess is that when you’re emotionally close to someone, you are not so self-conscious and more comfortable with self-expression. We’re probably not afraid of being looked upon negatively by the person who we are emotionally close to and as a result, we express both positive and negative emotions more readily than usual.

Then again, shouldn’t we be treating the ones who mean the world to us much better than people whom we don’t know so well? Isn’t it odd that we are more likely to vent our frustration and anger on people who are closer to us? I mean, why do we want to use hurtful words on or look really upset in front of people we care about so much?

While it might not make much logical sense, I guess that’s the way life is. It’s only when you are close enough to someone that you let down your guard and express all your emotions freely and openly. While I do lose my temper much more readily (but I get over it really fast), I too laugh much more readily, engage in small pranks on my wife very often and do all kinds of funny things to cheer her up that I’ll never do in front of other people. I guess it’s a two way street.

I recall hearing a marital advice that prescribes quarrels from time to time. The logic behind it is that couples should let out some steam from time to time. The worry is that one party might just be letting it all build up inside in a bid to have a more ‘harmonious’ relationship so it’s better to play safe and argue from time to time. Well, I guess I don’t need to deliberately create a quarrel with my wife considering that I’m pretty much a tinderbox when I’m with her.

Of course, one might be tempted to reason that too much of arguing can also cause the relationship to fail. Well, I think that will happen only if the couple does nothing other than quarrel all the time. I fight with my wife, but I take her out for good dinners, mop the floors, clean the toilets, iron the clothes and cook and wash the dishes much more often than I fight with her. In fact, I ban her from doing lots of housework because cleaning agents will cause her hands to dry and no woman would want her hands looking like raisins (nobody really cares about how smooth a guy’s hands are). Besides, science has proven men to be physically stronger so I have no excuse not to do housework.

Anyway, I digress. What I’m trying to get at is that a relationship fails not because of constant bickering but rather, there’s nothing solid that undergirds the whole relationship. If there’s a strong emotional bond between two people, both of them will come to realise that the expression of ‘negative’ feelings is part and parcel of a strong relationship (of course, this will be appreciated only AFTER cooling down).

Ok, enough ramblings for now. I would like to wish you a very happy Chinese New Year. And, if you want to come visit me in the hopes of getting an angpow, I’m sorry to disappoint you. I’ve yet to do my tea ceremony so I won’t be giving out angpows.