Exam Panic

The furore over the PSLE papers is still ongoing. Every year it is the same. Some kiasu parents will write to the press to complain this or that question is too difficult and their precious darling don't understand the question and is stressed and therefore cannot do well.

Do these parents really think that their little baby will continue to get full marks for every papers they sat for? Come on.. wake up.. this is the real world. Where in the world is exam suppose to be easy? Exams are set at a wide range of difficulty to weed out the good and the not so good - so if the poor child don't understand - it's simply mean the little fella is not up to that standard yet! Don't blame the setters, the teachers or anything. Just accept it and move it.

And for those kids who freaked out over a few tough questions, time for them to be sent to boot camp to be toughen up!

And who am I to criticize? Having put 2 kids through the PSLE and 1 now sitting for the 'O' level, let me state that it's not the end of the world if the children cannot answer every questions and consequently cannot get the 7 or 8 As or whatever.

Let the kids grow up and cope with life's nook and crannies and don't shelter them from all the storms. They will come out stronger and better for it regardless of what results they get and which schools they eventually get to.

Office

At last I see the light:)

A Little Bit of Nostalgia

Went with the ladies after the race to Red Star Restaurant at Chin Swee Road for dimsum. Can't really remember whether I had been there before, maybe neons ago when policeman wore shorts?

The place looks typically like a what else - chinese restaurant of course. But one of the few places left here that still serve dim sum from a trolley cart. Quite quaint. The dim sum was not too bad - the long queue at the door can't be that wrong and it was pretty reasonably priced - we had 17 dishes including 1 pipa duck and it costed only about $78.00 which works out to only $15 per pax.

After that, went over to Keong Siak Road in Chinatown. Keong Saik Road as most people know was and still is one of Singapore's most famous red light areas.According to Ah Roo, it is also now one of the happening hangout place for gays. But broad daylight nothing to see except some extra-large door signs. Maybe should come back one of the evening to catch the excitement?

We had coffee and kaya toast at a dingy coffee shop which had a newspaper article proudly proclaiming 'One of the top 10 places for kopi'. I beg to differ though. Give me my CMC coffee and kaya bun anytime!

Section 377A

This section has gathered a lot of interest.

Hot on the heel of the petition to repeal Section 377, there is now an opposing camp with their own petition.

Last count @ 19 October 2007 1.00 pm there are 1420 petitions against repealing Section 377 and 6423 for. No prize for guessing who's going to win right?

Fortunately for the losing camp and unfortunately for the pro number, this is not a number game. Ultimately our dear gahmen will decided and I can bet you my retired Nike that Section 377A is not going to be repelled.

Time is not ripe yet. But it will come. Matter of time.

And which side am I on? The silent majority or the vocal minority?

Ultimate Singapore Food Song

For all lovers of Singapore food - this has got to be the ultimate food anthem.




Click to play.

Imagined Image

The Net is now literally ablaze with talk of the image of Pope John Paul II appearing in a bonfire in Poland, the home country of the Pope. Apparently, the Vatican has taken it so seriously that it has send a Priest to investigate. More about it here


Looks like the real thing? Right?

Back home, we have our very own monkey spirit in the tree + a few other that cropped up soon after resembling various spirits and deities.
Photo from Society of Paranormal Investigator website.
See the resemblance? Is it our imagination or the real thing?

How about cloud images? Which one of us have not seen images perceived or otherwise in the cloud? What do you see in this cloud?


Fire, tree, clouds, even bread and cheese - er how about fruits?
This one quite obvious but I shall leave it to your imagination. Ha Ha!

Asia Chamber Building

Asia Chamber building was the building that M worked in for what - the past 15 years before they moved over to MAS building? It is just 3 buildings away from my own office and when the first barrier came up, a colleague had jokingly said - better not to walk too close in case debris from the demolition crashed through.

Discovered that the poor chap who was crushed to death athere last week was M's sister's husband's god-brother. Everybody said it's his fate. Just like the 'hero' who died in the Nicoll Highway collapse. Coincidentally, he is known to M's family as well. He was a classmate of M's brother and a good friend of the family.

Should I said small world? Hmmm.... maybe there is a connection somewhere?

Otto Fong - coming out

A NMP in a Singapore first, is going to present a Parliamentary Petition to repeal Section 377A. Section 377A states that it is a crime for men to have sex with each other, whether in public or in private. This follows the coming out of Otto Fong, a teacher in a famous boy's school. Then there is this online campaign to get signatories for an open letter to the PM to repeal Section 377A.

Mr Fong's came clean in his blog, which incidentally has now been deleted ostensibly by order of either the school or the good people from MOE in return for keeping his job. Apparently, he came out because he was much encouraged by MM Lee who in April this year called homosexuality a “genetic variation”, questioning the validity of criminalising gay sex. The blog may have been deleted but his post can still be found all over the net. Try this or this.

While I admired his courage and guts in coming out, I strongly felt that what he has done in coming out is totally wrong.. and I am not talking about his losing his job, friends and relatives.

His sexual preference is his own. However, as a teacher charge with leading young impressionable teens with raging hormones, what type of message will he be sending across to these boys? Teachers like religious leaders set the example and lead the way for their students/followers. In a boys school where there is no female students, I can't imagine the confused thoughts running through students' head each time they form a friendship with another student? Am I gay? Am I in love with him? etc etc Will they mistake genuine affection for friends as 'love'? Can good old fashion male bonding be mistaken for 'love'? Yes definitely. Will they accept that homosexuality is an accepted social behaviour? Yes why not? - if dear Sir is, it can't be wrong, right?

One of the biggest argument put forward by gays are that they love each other. Right and there is nothing wrong in loving another person, be it man or woman. Human beings have been created with a big capacity for love, in fact multiple love - be it to their children, partners, friends and pets. However, just because you love your children, parents, friends and pets does not mean that you make love to them.... and that is precisely the problem with men in love. Man and woman are created by God or for the non-believer; nature to be different and yet to be a perfect match (at least where certain parts of the body is concerned) - don't need to spell out right?. By virtue of just looking at the body parts alone, one can safely conclude that sex between men is wrong since the body parts simply don't fit! Imagine trying to fit the male end of a plug into another plug? You get the drift? - No? The male end of the plug is designed to fit into the female end of a power socket or another plug!

Moving on to another common argument - they are born that way. I beg to disagree. Yes, there are people who are born 'trans gender' i.e. somehow the genes are all mixed up and they are either a man in a woman's body or vice versa. Such person ultimately will need a sex change and that is perfectly fine. However, for the gays and lesbian, there is no such inclinations. They are perfectly happy with their body and in fact for the guys, I think they pay a lot of attention to their bodies to buff it up for their mates. So they are not born that way. Somewhere along the road of life, they are led either consciously or unconsciously to the conclusion that they 'love' somebody of the same sex and there is love, there must be sex and so the 'sex' thingy. I guess this is where I feel the influence of people like Otto comes in play and this is why I don't think he should have come out like that though as I understand it, it was already an open secret in the school.

Having said that, I also don't agree with keeping Section 377A because it makes no sense to have a toothless law. What adults do in their personal lives should not concern the state and criminalizing it would simply make the country look like idiots to the rest of the world.

So what am I trying to get across here? Everybody is entitled to live their own lives they way they want to but not if in the process they hurt or influence someone to do something that could be illegal or morally unacceptable.

So I wish teacher Fong all the best and hope he is happy and that he will do the right thing to ensure his students know what is right and wrong. Hmm.. and I wonder - is dear teach still teaching there?

N = C + {fb(cm) . fb(tc)} + fb(Ts) + fc . ta

N = C+{fb(cm).fb(tc)}+ fb(Ts)+ fc.ta

The formula for a secret formula - perhaps for the fountain of youth? or a formula to cure cancer?

No. Nothing of that sort. In fact, it is the formula for the scientific way to make the perfect bacon buttie. A buttie by the way is just several pieces of bacon fried crispy and make into a sandwich.

You think those scientists have nothing better to do than to conduct experiments to find the best way to make bacon buttie!

Thank goodness such things will never happen in Singapore.

Dengue

A colleague is down with dengue. This is the 2nd time somebody in the office has come down with it - the last was a few years ago.

Last year, my estate was in the affected cluster when 2 cases were reported. This mosquitoes thing is damn annoying. I called the NEA to complain of mosquitoes and those buggers actually came and checked my house. As if I was going to breed mosquitoes in my house and foolish enough to invite them to come and catch me! But the mosquitoes threat is real enough for me to discard all my potted plants rather than take the risk.

Hopefully nobody else I know will come down with it.

A Different Kind of Egg Tarts

First there was the ordinary egg tart, the most famous of which must be Tong Heng.

Then came the war of the Portuguese egg tart.

Now we have the latest kid on the block - Fancy Delight - where they sell egg tarts that comes with all sort of toppings. Moreover, instead of the usual shallow crust shell, it comes in a small cup shape shell. Toppings available include chocolate, kaya, mushroom and plain Portuguese. It is less sweet than most other egg tarts available.

I didn't really like the mushroom - it was almost like the minced meat steam egg that we eat with rice. I guess egg tarts should be sweet.

At $1.20 each, it is fairly decent priced since it is at least double the size of the normal egg tart.

Christianity vs

Just a thought.

1. The Taoist and Buddhist consider anybody who holds a joss stick or pray at any festivals or temple as one of their own
2. A person born into a Indian or Muslim household automatically follow the main religion of the household
3. Some more for the Muslim - once a Muslim forever a Muslim even if a person want to disown his religion also cannot
4. A person who stop practising any of his religion or breach any of its rules is gladly welcomed back anytime
5. Dress shabbily at any of these places and you are still warmly welcomed and nobody bat an eyelid

But....

For the Christian, who are supposed to be the most evangelical people among the the major religious groups, they

1. You are not considered a Christian until you are 1) born again and 2) baptized
2. You may be born into a Christian family but still need to be baptized before being considered a Christian
3. The minute you stop doing 'Christianly' things like going to Church, you are marked as an 'backslider'
4. Breach its rules and some Christian communities even ostracize you!
5. Dress shabbily in Churches and see the frown. Worse still if they start treating you like a charity case.

Is it any wonder that society in general see Christianity as a religion only for the high and mighty.