Choices...

“I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn’t quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn’t make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.”
The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath

The guns of Singapore are pointed backwards: Amos Yee

When the Japanese invaded Singapore in 1942 it was said that the mighty guns protecting Singapore were facing the wrong way. It was said that the guns were facing seaward because the British assumed that any attack would come from the sea.* But the Japanese invaders came from inland and the guns were useless.

So I'm reading the story about Amos Yee who like a lot of 17 year olds do dumb things.

He said a few dumb things and then we have community leaders advocating death for him. C'mon lah he's 17 years old - what's your excuse for advocating mutilation and murder?

But what I find baffling is the speed in which the authorities acted on charging the young man.

And it makes me wonder where the priorities of our government lie?

You might recall a crime in 2010 where three foreigners in a very public area violently assaulted a taxi driver and the people who came to his assistance. This might be an everyday normal occurrence in Australia, America, the UK, Europe etc.. but in modern Singapore violent assaults are quite rare thank goodness.

http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest+News/Singapore/Story/A1Story20120215-328084.html

You can read the news item above.

It took 10 months for the FT Bank employees to be charged for bashing Singaporeans. Two of them even absconded from the country. On the other hand it took the authorities took less than a week to charge a Singaporean teenager who ranted on youtube; he was released on a $20,000 bail. Contrast that with the initial bail money for the two rich foreigners who escaped. The one who stayed behind got charged and spent 3 weeks in jail.

I don't know about you but I regard physical violence as a much more serious offense than talking shit on youtube. Bashing someone up leaves a lifetime of scars and physical injuries - someone could even have been killed. Youtube - ??? - "sticks and stones lah". And for fuck sake - foreigners beating up Singaporeans in Singapore? You expect our own Government to do more - and do it faster- to help our own citizens in our own country!!!

I can't imagine the pain and suffering the Singaporeans felt getting hammered by three chao angmos. So I'm really baffled and upset why it took such a bloody long time for my own government to charge three foreigners who bashed up my countrymen in my country. Contrast that with a 17 year old boy infamous Amos - it took less than a week to arrest some idiot teenager who posted some shit on youtube?

It should be noted that one of the foreigners is still on the run. Are our police following it up? Hmmm... or are they busy searching the net for possible Singaporean teenage insulters?

So??? - arresting a 17 year old puny kid  - very quick. Going after big size angmo bank workers who work for big time bank and beat up taxi driver uncles too tough ah?

Meanwhile, a Singapore taxi driver has been sent to jail for 9 months for molesting two female passengers. http://www.straitstimes.com/news/singapore/courts-crime/story/taxi-driver-who-molested-vomiting-passenger-jailed-nine-months-201

I'm not sure why our courts can sentence foreigners who brutally physically assault our own people to a few weeks or a few months in jail whereas the courts seem to go apeshit on our own people? There seems to be a double standard here.

Where exactly are the guns of Singapore pointing? The British had their's facing the sea. The present administration seem to have their guns facing backwards.

More infö here

http://therealsingapore.com/content/losing-faith-because-polices-incompetence

*(Regarding the British World War 2 guns protecting Singapore - the big guns could indeed swing around to fire overland as well. But in any case the British heavy 16 inch guns were mainly equipped with armor piercing anti-ship rounds which proved ineffective against a land based invasion. They simply sank deep into the ground doing little or no injury to the Japanese Army.)

Lee Kuan Yew his legacy

Singapore has been very fortunate to have such an intelligent and capable leader as LKY. Just think about the other leaders in the region from that era. Korea - both sides, Ho Chi Minh, the leaders of South Vietnam, Pol Pot, Marcos, Mao... its not normal to find a competent, sane rational leader it seems. Most of the Asian leaders around the time were incompetent, corrupt, greedy, stupid, short-sighted or downright murderous.

Due to the PAP a lot of Singaporeans went from living in swampy villages to modern clean apartments - afaik - Singapore is the only nation in the world where Housing Commission Flats is not a dirty word.

Whenever I watch him being interviewed by foreign journalists I feel proud to be a Singaporean. He spoke well. He spoke with intelligence and wisdom.

Now he passes into legend.

You know what his legacy is to me? That we have an independent nation. That we have a robust economy. That we have a currency that doesn't fluctuate like the ocean tide. That we have a world class banking system. That women and children can walk the parks and streets safely even at night - not even Melbourne Australia the most liveable city in the world can boast this. That criminals, rapists, gangsters live in fear and not the other way around. In Sydney during the Cronella Riots 2006, ethnic gangsters were driving around the streets with illegal guns and knives injuring innocent bystanders while the police stayed away - this sort of craziness would never happen in Singapore. Armed robbery in Singapore, gangsters with guns are a very rare occurrence unlike America, Australia etc.. I think before Western journalists offer their critical opinion they should think about this.

We have a modern nation where the streets are safe  - thank you Mr Lee.