Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Culling Of Pigeons in S'pore

Though I know that pigeons are culled regularly by pest control company employed by Town Council in HDB, but I have never witnessed the horrible scene before.  This morning, I saw pigeons being picked up from the ground and bagged into plastic bags.  They are still alive but weaken so much that they let themselves be picked up and thrown into plastic bags.  Birds were also falling off the ledge onto the ground.

It is so upsetting that a family passing by asked me what is happening.  I told them the birds were poisoned. They are non-locals and were shocked that our laws allow such inhuman act.

Imagine how much pain we endure when we have tummy upset. How terrible the pain will be to ingest poison and death is NOT immediate.  Here we are talking about making cruelty to animals carries a heavier penalty.  On the other hand, we allow such cruel method to be used to cull pigeons which are classified as pest in S'pore.

Pigeons are just birds, but become pest in S'pore context because of our over-development and dense population living in HDB.  The poor birds become the victim of S'pore progress !

It is not the pigeons fault that their environment is heavily populated by humans. Why can't we be more tolerant and live and let live. Even if they need to be culled, can't we have more humane way of doing it?  The food could be drugged to knock them unconscious. They can then be bagged and gassed with carbon dioxide so that they died while still unconscious.

We are a first world country and yet we use such cruel and inhuman method to cull birds just to save cost!  It is an irony as there is so much contradiction on interpretation of cruelty to animals. 




Thursday, October 23, 2014

Out Dated Road Traffic Act Killing Cats & Monkeys

On one hand with have law that prohibits cruelty to animals with penalty clauses of jail term and/or fine.  Then we have our traffic police telling us that under the Road Traffic Act it is perfectly fine to hit and run away if you knock down an animal as long as it is not -  ass, cattle, dog, pig, goat, horse, mule and sheep.

The police under MHA must be either very busy or very lazy.  Why is there no review and update of the Act? With the exception of dog, sighting of any other of those listed animals will be such rare occurrence that it will be news worthy. This outdated law is probably written long long time ago where S'pore used to have pig farms and bullock carts pulled by cattle. 

So it is not cruel to knock down and leave a injured cat or monkey to suffer a painful lingering death under the Road Traffic Act?  Why the inconsistency in the law which contradicts each other? 

Under the Animals and Birds Act, all mammals are covered under it (except for human and fish).  So should not the police keep up with time and update their Act?

They make it known that they will only response to those 'certain' animals cover under their outdated Act.  Such response only reflect negatively on them.  No wonder we have our serious riot in Little India. Our police force are passive and complacent and will only wake from their slumber if they are pushed.

Let us hope our pro-active NGOs will do the pushing.  Now - where is the voice of AVA?  Sigh - they are in the same operation mode as our police force - passively inactive - the less work the better.

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

MIW recruiting ?

Could MIW be recruiting members in preparation for the next election? The latest guess is that MIW finally come to their senses and realised that their choice of paper army generals and high flying career elites with airy personality and turn-off character are not to general public liking.

So now they are looking for folks who can  touch base with the ground, like Mr Louis Ng of ACRES who has been a vocal animal welfare activist for decades.  It is like killing 2 birds with 1 stone.  Besides, muffling a vocal voice, they got someone whom they thought could endear them to voters, especially those with affinity to animals.

Perhaps there may be light at the end of the tunnel for our local unemployed PMETs? Could there be potential openings for them? They need not approach CDC for help to undergo retraining to prepare for downgrading to lower skills and pay jobs which are irrelevant, putting their years of experience to waste.  No need to worry about struggling with the substantially lower pay which is hard to keep up with inflation and mounting food cost to support their family. 

They could look now forward being recruited to a $16K per month part time job. This job entitles one to be absent at parliamentary session without consequence. You can sneak off too when the session gets to boring without pay cut. You can choose to speak, sleep or remain silent, the wiser option is to sleep or remain silent.

Remember NMP Mr Eugene Tan - the reason he is not reelected could be because he has been too vocal and hardworking during parliamentary session. Being awake and giving hard hitting comments are not advisable for career development with MIW.  He used to be interviewed extensively by the papers and on TV for his views. Now hardly see him anymore.  Lesson learned is to remain in MIW good book at all cost, regardless of your conscience.

To increase your chance of success, try to rub shoulders and take pictures with your Ministers and MPs.  Remember even FT with fake degree can get PR with the help of his MP.  Knowing whose shoes, apples and butt to polish goes a long way.

Our local talented PMET's degree is real - thus should be worth more and able to land a political post with MIW?  Any degree will do as there is no relevancy attached to it since eye doctor can be in-charge of drains environment and even paper generals can take on any portfolio.  There even used to be a post for those without portfolio, which sound so useless that they had the ministry renamed.

Then there will be more meat to come once you are part of MIW gang. There will be plenty of invitations to take on directorship in various private companies, never mind if there is conflict of interest. What is more important is to increase your net worth monetary, so that you will be 'respected' when you talk to big shot.

No need to worry that you may be stress out, running around to attend so many meetings in various companies, as there are so many MIWs that individual official workload is pretty light.  The trend is to beat each other to take on the most number of directorships. Make full use of your free time and make as much easy money as possible. It is perfectly all right as all your big bosses are doing it too.

The only prerequisite for this high paying job is thick skin. It is rather unpopular as you will face 'noise' and verbal arrows from alternate media.  But then, never mind if you have sensitive skin, as you can learn a trick or two from your boss how to fix dissent voices.  Besides, with so much $$ and time to spare, you can also take up law suit to cow and silent those 'arrows' you cannot block.

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

ACRES founder going for "greener" pasture

Though I am not pro-PAP but there are a few of Ministers that I respect.  However in order for PAP to get my vote, there are 3 criteria of which the most important is their policies which have a direct impact on us citizens.

The 2nd criteria is how well they implement their good policies.  Well, even in a crate of rotten apples, there are a few good ones to be found.  No point having well intended policies to help citizens but mess up due to poor execution and follow-up.
 
The last of which is the personality and character of the candidate.  So I am not sure how Mr Louis Ng, the founder of ACRES, being roped into PAP is going to help in getting our votes.  Seems like this is their latest strategy to get people who have their feet on the ground into their party.  Maybe their realize that army personals, scholars, doctors..etc  do not go well with public taste due to their 'airy' personality.

I respect Mr Louis Ng, as he done some great work with regards to animals welfare and educating the public in respecting wild life. Few years back, his team in ACRES exposed how easily tiger parts were available in S'pore, though it is supposed to be illegal to posses them. With so lean manpower and fund, ACRES sure aced AVA and put them to shame.  Anyway it is a known fact that AVA normally tails behind non-govt organisations (NGOs) as they are reactive rather than pro-active.

Thus, I am disappointed that Mr Ng has decided to join a political party.  Though some are of the opinion, there is no conflict of interest, but personally I think there is.  Mr Ng has been very vocal about those wild dolphins held in captivity in Resort World Sentosa (RWS) to provide entertainment.  We know that without govt approval, there is no way RWS can get those dolphins into S'pore.

By joining PAP with a party whip to keep members in line, how can there be no conflict of interest ?  He will likely be told to keep dirty lining within the 'family' and not expose them for public viewing. Likely he will tone down on his belief, if there is any left after joining PAP.

Mr Ng started young in his animal activism. It has been a long 13 years of tough work against block heads in govt agencies.  So maybe he is tired and time to move on to "greener" pasture. After all being a family man now is unlike old times where only passion counts in animal welfare. Besides, the potential carrot of $16K salary a month as a MP may be hard to resist. The best part is our MP needs to work only part time to collect their salary.

I will not give my vote to Mr Ng should he be filed in my HDB estate which is under GRC.  GRC is one issue that bugs me as it is unfair and plain abuse of power of the current ruling party to tip the scale in their favour.  Isn't abuse of power a form of corruption ?

Even if Mr Ng stands in single ward, which is unlikely, he may not get the votes PAP hopes for as POLICIES do matter to us citizens as far as judging PAP is concerned. They have past records (recent ones not historical ones from their founding days) for us to judge them.  Their past glory days in the 1960s to 80s hold no meaning to me and likely other citizens.

So do their aggressive propaganda over the media base on their past historical achievement works ? Plainly NO.  They are just wasting tax payer money to glorify themselves, which I think is sickening.


Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Under The Vast Sky


HK protestors use songs with meaningful lyrics to boost 
their moral. This song, Under The Vast Sky is the most
sang on the streets of HK this year. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIeTcFgdd_4

It is written by HK rock band Beyond in 1990s. It has
meaningful lyric and the melody is soothing.
 
Roy and friends tried to introduce song during 2 of
their CPF protest, but without much success. Could
it be because the song were not familiar to the
audience, many of which are elderly?  Perhaps the
song is not by local song writer, unlike HK which uses
their own song. 
 
But then I understand that HK did use the Les Miserable
song "Do You Hear The People Sing" with more success
than our local protestors.
 
Wonder what is the reason - S'porens protestors not
musically incline or too shy to sing in public ? 

Sunday, October 12, 2014

'Acting Minister' for Com & Info at Citizen level !!

I am in this small interest group on WhatsApp and was told by one member not to send link (it is not even a post) related to 'politics'.  It was an article about the recent case of a greedy lawyer vs greedy doctor.  It so happens that the greedy lawyer is a PAP MP.

So we not only have our govt telling us what to read and what to see, we now have fellow citizen behaving like 'Acting Minister' for Com and Info, telling us what to post on social media !

How to avoid talking about politics since it is an integrated part of our social fibric.  Open the newspaper - most of the news is politics. HK protest, Roy and Han being called up to the police station, citizens low birth rate, ......

Even 'gossipy' type of news could involve politics. For example the case about the PRC con man cheating the rich widow of money.  We have a blur PAP MP helping him to get his PR and our sotong ICA approving his PR application.

I suppose those 'little Acting Minister of Com and Info' meant is that anything negative about the existing ruling party is politics. It becomes sensitive to them.  They think they have the right to tell others off to keep out as it is an OB marker to them.

If one wants to be in social networking sites like Facebook  and WhatsApp, then learn to deal with the information. No one is forcing you to read or click on the link if it is not your cup of tea.  Why the arrogant to have the cheek to tell others what they can and cannot share on networking sites.

These folks are living in la la land.  They think the coin has only one face though it is obvious it is 2 sided.  Their coin is covered with a thick layer of dust as they never flip it over.




Great Food at E'spuma Lab

Read about this food eatery, E'spuma Lab situated at PoMo Mall, Selegie Road which uses cooking techniques normally found in high-end dinning.  The chef, Teo Y S decided to use it in his eatery which layout is similar to fast food chain, but the food is serve to us.

So we get to taste potato espuma and sous vide eggs, both cooked to perfection.  Espuma is Spanish for foam.  The culinary technic is to produce it with a siphon and nitrous oxide adding taste and texture to it.

The quality of food is good, the price is affordable and the portion is reasonable considering the high quality food and price.

This is one place I will be visiting on a regular basis.  So far, I have tried their Sous Vide Egg with Sauteed Mushrooms ($3.80), Fish and chips ($6.80) and Fragrant Curry Chicken with Creamy Potato Espuma ($6.80).

I love their Curry Chicken with Potato Espuma best.  The chicken is tasty and the potato espuma is something new to me and I really like its taste which compliment the curry chicken well.

Recommended to go for their set as it comes with a tasty soup and a drink. The set meal is ($8++)

Bourne's Swan Lake

Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake is the opening performance for this year da:ns festival (dance festival).

It is ending today. For those who miss it, it is a great pity as the performance is superly entertaining. This is the first time it is in S'pore though it was first staged in London in 1995.

Bourne's Swan Lake uses altered Tchaikovsky's score and the swans are all male dancers. Their appearance and dance movement are riveting. Its story line bears little resemblance to the traditional Swan Lake ballet, with totally different characters and dances.  Though basically still ballet in nature, it is humorously entertaining with injection of disco and jazz blended in so well.

This is one show that I will definitely watch again and again whenever it returns to S'pore.

When I saw the last scene in movie Billy Elliot, I was curious as to how come the Swan Lake ballet has male swans. I have not heard of Matthew Bourne then. I was so impressed by the last scene which showed the male 'swan' doing a beautifully executed leap into the air.

Here is the link to the clip :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5BSyJ_vlHo

Sunday, October 5, 2014

PM Lee's Speech At NUSS Full Of Ironies.

PM Lee's speech at NUSS recently was full of ironies.  He was telling uni students that they have a bright future, when his govt is now directly discouraging S'poreans from obtaining a degree, which does not guarantee a job.

Then he also his gave reasons why his govt banned Tan Pin Pin's film - To Singapore, With Love, which has won numerous awards and accolades world wide.  According to him, he cannot allow others to present account of themselves which is self-serving personal account and conveniently inaccurate...etc etc.

So who verifies the numerous books his daddy wrote about himself and S'pore are historically accurate and factual?   Is his daddy's work not self-serving personal account too?

Is he saying only what comes out of his daddy's mouth is the truth and all other accounts are false? One man words against many others - who do we belief, when we know that one man loves half truth and is a shrewd politician.  Politicians are generally good liars, especially when they are self serving and love to glorify themselves.

He again stressed the importance of foreign talent (FT) as according to him,  "... allowing foreign professionals to work in Singapore in fact creates more good jobs for Singaporeans. If we are too tight on foreign PMEs, I think many companies would be deterred from coming here, and the jobs for Singaporean PMEs may not even exist in the first place.”

We wish to ask the PM, can he offer us some raw factual numbers (not statistics which can be manipulated) that FT creates more plus good jobs for S'poren and NOT take them away instead?  We have seen how easily PRC Yang Yin fools local authority with his fake uni certificate. The university stated on his cert does not even exist in China and the local authority is non the wiser.  Exposure of such cases have been on the raise.

It is a confirm fact the India, China and Philippine have syndicates which churn out fake certificates. CNA featured a documentary on Philippine syndicates which are so good at faking certificates they look like the real stuff. They used high tech scanner and even buy real certificate papers from corrupt officers in organisations for the purpose of faking. The universities stated in the cert. do actually exist. So you think our local authority can tell it is a fake, when Yang Yin got away with his non-existence uni so easily.

Philippine govt is worry that their economy can be negatively impacted and damaged with so many fake professionals floating around.  According to the documentary, one synthetic can sell more than 40 fake certs per day, and they come cheap, - less than US$20.

Fake professionals are mobile and they will flock to country like S'pore whose govt under PAP stupidly welcomes them with open arms, with job and good pay.

Wonder why NUSS bothers to invite PM.  What can the audience learn from him? Did he offer any depth, insight or wisdom ? NONE. Yet MSM media devoted so much air time and print space to his lecture. Sigh !




PM Lee thumb down S'poreans again

Seems like PM, like his daddy enjoys taking every opportunity to thumb down S'poreans.  He was giving a speech at NUSS and he said that our national swimmer, Joseph Schooling, is called 'an Ang Moh foreign talent' and that he is ashamed and dismayed when he "read such virulent and nasty attitudes".  He went on to said S'poreans have "bad behavious, rude behaviour, behaviour that is really a disgrace to a S'porean, a human being...."

Notice the strings of strong negative words he uses on S'poreans!  In the first place, where on earth he read the remark about Joseph being a foreign talent?  Is it hear say or a joke his close aides told him, which he stupidly mistaken for a fact?

As far as a I know, internet is full of praise for our national swimmer, Joseph.  Everyone is saying how proud we are of him.  The commend is that we are not proud when foreign talents our govt bought with money win medal for S'pore.

Joseph is a rising stars, it is not the first time he won medals for S'pore.  Anyone who read MSM and/or internet is aware he is a S'porean. Even folks like me who cannot swim and does not follow sports events is familiar with Joseph as we are proud of him.  After all there are not many things in recent years to be proud of being a S'porean.

PM is worst than MSM, but then we know MSM is under his thumb.  After how MSM distorted the CPF rally painting it in bad light, the saying "A picture tells a thousand words" should be rephrase as "A picture distorts fact like hell".  The selected picture MSM published made it looked as if CPF rally folks were disrupting YMCA event and scaring the children.  But when the slide by slide video analysis appeared on internet, we know they are lying through their nose.

Perhaps PM is a chip of the old block. We know his daddy is notorious for telling half truth. Maybe he beats his daddy in this aspect?