Crocs

Was going for lunch when saw this lot of crocs lying in the lobby. Took out my not too trusty HTC and took a few shots. They were encased in a glass spherical case and with low resolution, no flash and reflections the pictures sucks. But still kudos to the genius who has managed to turn the so ugly crocs into something even more hideous!

Meh!

The Collins Dictionary has decided after polling the public for new words to include the word  "Meh" in its 2009 release.

According to the publisher, the origin of the word is unknown but I quote: 

"The origins of "meh" are murky, but the term grew in popularity after being used in a 2001 episode of "The Simpsons" in which Homer suggests a day trip to his children Bart and Lisa.

"They both just reply 'meh' and keep watching TV," said Cormac McKeown, head of content at Collins Dictionaries.

The dictionary defines "meh" as an expression of indifference or boredom, or an adjective meaning mediocre or boring. Examples given by the dictionary include "the Canadian election was so meh."

The dictionary's compilers said the word originated in North America, spread through the Internet and was now entering British spoken English."

I and many of us here will beg to differ.

Firstly, the word did not originate in North America but right here in Singapore. The defintion though is correct as in "Got meh?" or "Where got meh?" spoken by our many Ah Lians and Ah Bengs. In fact, the word "meh" has already been included in our very own dicitionary: The Coxford Singlish Dictionary

I suspect the script writer for the Simpson had a holiday in Singapore and during his/her time here got immensed in our local lingo and adapted it for the show and from there it somehow got spread out to the rest of the world.

Now the thing I don't understand is - while the world is falling over to embrace our lingo, our ERP, our water conservation etc why is our government forever putting down our own Singlish. I say, Stand Up for Singapore - be proud of our heritage - be it lingo or building or culture!

Horror Food

Here I am not talking about Frankenstein food or to use the politically correct term GM food.

What I am talking about are food that prior to coming to our table are obtained or cooked in the most horrific way - not to us human who eat but to the poor creatures who sacrifice their lives for us greedy gluttons. Of course most of us have heard about the monkey's brain, bear claw and other more exotic food but that is something we don't get to eat here or even in China too! So I will restrict the food to those available here in Singapore.

Top on the list is Foie Gras. This is essentially duck liver but unlike normal duck and chicken liver, in this case, the poor duck is forced fed with food on a daily basis until the liver is swollen. Special long metal feeders are inserted in the duck's throat several times a day and pressure pumps on the other end of the feeder push the food into the duck. This process continues for several weeks. When the liver is big enough (more than 10 times its normal healthy size), the bird is killed and the liver is taken out!

Closer to home, we have turtle meat. In the old days or so I understand, the turtle will be made to bite a chopstick and because it is said that a turtle that bites does not let go, the hawker simple chop off the head because it cannot go back into its shell. That I submit is acceptable. One chop and it is dead. But nowadays.. they just use this gadget and rip off the shell to get to the turtle. Can you imagine somebody stripping off our skin with a single pulll! Ouch!

Then there is the popular drunken prawn. The prawns are dropped into a small pot of soup and literally boiled to death. You can see the prawn frantically swimming as the water become hotter and hotter and then what - we take it out and deshelled it before popping it into our mouth!

Next is the snakehead or toman fish that is widely available in Chinatown market. A popular fish for making soup and porridge. But have any one seen how the fish are slaughter? Because this fish are very fierce, slippery and fast, the handler simply catch one up from the container, slam it hard on the floor and because it doesn't die so easily, the poor fish is clubbed over and over again until it stop moving! Never seen this done before? Just go to the Chinatown market and observed.

I did read about a certain method of cooking live carp but is that a myth? Anybody care to enlighten? Anyway, what else did I miss? Shark? Dog? Frog?

We human can be so cruel. While I have no qualm about eating any food, I baulked at eating food that has been tortured in order that I can enjoyed. So I have resolve not to eat any food that is 'horror food' to me. Hopefully, these are all the cruel foods that is available here otherwise I will have to turn vegetarian and I really can't imagine life without steak or chicken or pork knuckle!

Happy Food

What maketh a happy man?

According to WebMD, certain foods are 'happy food' - i.e. food that can make a person happy and not unexpectedly the food are ice cream, chocolate, cake, grape and pizza.

Which bring me back to my running - the food that I look forward to after running is no surprise at all - ice cream! Any ice cream - even a simple slab of Magnolia Ripple ice cream sandwiched between 2 thin slices of biscuit or a piece of color bread will and can make me a very happy person. That and a cup of teh halia!

Recession?

Is there supposed to be a recession and people supposed to be tightening their belts? Certainly it didn't look like it judging from the people who were at the various travel agencies at People's Park!

But then again, it is good that people are not cutting their expenses too much. Imagine if everyone stop spending, the shops will not be able to pay their vendors, landlord, staff; the vendors will have to cut productions, imports, staff and stretch on their loans; the banks will panic and start more drastic actions to get back their money, credit will be tightened; and it will go on and on and in the end, the employee which means the consumer will see increasing unemployment........

So people continue to spend but spend wisely.

Medical Announcements

The government has gone crazy. 3 major developments in the medical field in the space of a week.

The first and most expected one was the legalising of sale of organ. This come as no surprise to me as it arises from the case of CK Tang's Tang Wee Sung. Once it was announced that he was being charged with buying an organ, and with the hue and cry, I knew it was a matter of time before the law was changed. Now I wondered if the person charged had been an ordinary citizen, would this change have come about?

Next unexpectedly was the debate on euthanasia. The govenment is considering this although its exact form is not known yet. This is as opposed to the Advance Medical Directive which is basically a piece of rubbish not worth the paper it is written on. I remembered many years ago when I asked the GP at the Company's clinic about it, the guy had totally no idea what it was about. From what I understand, by itself, the AMD is of no use as doctors are more or less already practising some sort of withholding treatment (abeit with the patient's family consent) for cases where there is no chance of survival. How will the debate on euthansia turned out eventually? Already, the religious groups are vehemently objecting to it. Life is sacred and should not be taken away - not by doctors, not by law. But as in the debate on the organ donation, everybody seem to forget that the person most affected by this is the patient himself. Has anybody spare a thought for him? What is life if it means lying in a bed all day unable to move and depending on caregiver to wash and change him?

And the final news - the announcement that women egg donors will be paid. This come as a surprise to me. I didn't know that here in Singapore, we allow donation of human egg or is it only meant for research only? Will this lead to surrogate mother, storing of own egg for future use etc?

As society advances and medical breakthrough happen, expect more and more changes to the way we human manipulate our own human lifes. One day, human cloning will be seen as normal, euthansia especially of those unable to contribute to society will be acceptable and organ trading - it will be just as easy as going to the supermarket to buy groceries!