Down with Ah-Bian!

Sometimes when you've had it to here, and just can take no more, there's no choice but to make yourself heard. And that's exactly what 200,000 Taiwanese (or 90,000 depending on who's reporting) had in mind about their corrupt and unrepenting president Chen Shui Bian, when they took to a peaceful protest sit-down at the Kategelan boulevard in Taipei.



Amidst the unrelenting rain and humidity of summer, we joined the teeming crowds adorned in raincoats and huddled under umbrellas to shout our hearts our in the pouring rain. Haven't felt this moved by the sheer strength of people power since the stray bullet fiasco back in 2004.

Torre d'Oriente

Situated in the picturesque hillside town of Modica in southeast Sicily, Torre d'Oriente was a pleasant surprise during our honeymoon trip, and certainly one that we could never have discovered on our own.

After driving across southern Sicily from Agrigento pretty much the whole evening, it was almost 10pm when we reached Modica, only to find that our trusty GPS - after helping our navigate half of Sicily without a glitch - failed to find our B&B for the night. Giving up, we called the owner Marco from a phone booth in front of the Chiesa San Pietro and his wife Viviana agreed to meet us there to take us to the hotel.



After we were finally settled, a faint rumbling reminded us that we had not settled dinner yet, and asked Viviana if she could recommend any good restaurants for dinner. As it turned out, she was about to go for dinner and we happily tagged along, knowing full well that anywhere that the locals go to eat couldn't be half bad.

Well done, Mr. Lee!

Our dear MM does it again. Octogenarians of his like should be enjoying retirement gracefully, practising qi-gong with his dozen bodyguards and writing his third book of memoirs or something. But no, he simply refuses to go gently into the night and let the dragon take flight, but instead choosing to spout embarassing sound-bite after sound-bite for all the world to hear.

And this time in a interview over Indian national television, he has managed in no more than several sentences, refer to his own people as "relatively educated" and "not very knowledgeable". If Singaporeans are by his definition, "relatively educated" and "not very knowledgeable", then may I ask by who's design that this state of affairs came to be? I suppose the imaginative education policies of the PAP government for the past two decades has nothing to with it, right?

Even if he was referring to the intellectual level of Singaporeans when he was "being knocked about by the communists", one sudders to wonder if our respected leader still views the average Singaporean in the same light today.

It's election time now in Taiwan, escalating to a fever pitch as voting starts on Saturday. The incumbents are all town now in their campaign vehicles blaring, all bowing and shaking hands with the voters. At election time, when victory is only a matter of several hundred or thousand votes, the voter is king. But when any one party has welded power for enough time, and consolidation of the kingdom starts to take place (spelt G-R-C), the importance of the voter starts to diminish in the eyes of the ruling party and might even decay to the extent of "peasant". One sincerely hopes that this is not the case, but the evidence is overwhelming.

"He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword", goes the saying. Perhaps our dear MM (or should we call him dear M&M) should consider not exerting himself so much, then perhaps respect for his legacy would not start to melt like chocolate in the mouth.

SINGAPORE : Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew's views on leadership were much sought after during his recent visits to both Dubai and New Delhi.

In a recent interview with India TV in New Delhi, he stressed the crucial factor in leadership was credibility.

He recounted he gained credibility the hard way by being knocked about by the communists and by having nasty conflicts with the communalists, and that was when the people concluded he was not a fake and was prepared to put his life on the line.

Mr Lee last visited India in 1996.

This time round, besides meeting the country's top leaders, he also addressed a memorial lecture in the name of India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

Ms Sonia Gandhi, President of India's Congress Party, said: "Mr Lee Kuan Yew has been a friend and well wisher of India. As a friend, he has also occasionally criticised India but we have always listened to what he has to say with great respect."

Dr Manmohan Singh, India's Prime Minister, said: "What is spectacular is the fact that your dynamism, your leadership and the leaders you nurtured to follow you ensured that the per capita income of your country exceeds that of your former coloniser. I salute you and the people of Singapore on this truly unique distinction."

In the interview with India TV, Mr Lee shared his views on what makes a successful leader.

Mr Lee said: "When you have an argument, is this policy right or wrong? You can have 10 brilliant arguments on your side and somebody comes in and have 12 powerful arguments demolishing your 10. At the end of the day, the relatively uneducated, not very knowledgeable public says who do I believe and they say I think I believe this man because he has delivered. A leader must get into that position, then you can implement tough policies."

And his advice to young politicians in India?

Mr Lee said: "I think the first thing they must remember is do not promise something you cannot deliver. It sounds good at election time, three years later, they become empty words. You know you couldn't produce it, you promised this, you're not credible and you lose credibility.

"You take George W Bush, he's a tough man, 911, if you saw him on television at the World Trade Centre, he took that bullhorn and he says to the firemen, I heard you and the world will hear from you.

"And he went to Afghanistan and he hit the Taleban. Now he's in trouble in Iraq, but he's not a quitter. If he has good policies out of this chaos to establish a stabilised Iraq, maybe not a full democracy, but a stabilised Iraq with a properly democratic Iraqi-elected government, his credibility will be very high, he'll go down in glory. And there's still a chance, in fact, I believe he's going to fight to create that. I think you want that kind of leader.

"Of course, his opponents say he's misled us into a wrong war but they were the people who voted for the war. Everybody believed there were weapons of mass destruction including the intelligence agencies. I would say that's leadership." - CNA/de

- Link

Kyoto - The thousand year old city

Just took advantage of the Taiwan National Day long weekend to take a short trip to Kyoto, a place that the Japanophile in me has long since yearned to visit. Although pretty much a modern city by any standards, Kyoto still adamantly clings to its royal past as being the capital city for a millenium, before the throne of power was shifted to Edo, or modern day Tokyo.


Kyoto station, a dazzling web of postmodern architecture

Though it wasn't really that far into autumn for watching the autumn leaves, the cool and often damp weather lent enough bleak and grey to paint the old city and its buildings in a sometimes poetic light.


Suit and kimono - Sanjusankendo

Having been to Tokyo numerous times, Kyoto is really something special. In terms of size, it's just the right size - small enough to travel around in a short amount of time, yet large enough to ensure the visitor does not run of places to go. If Tokyo is the brain of Japan, then Kyoto must be its soul.


Chawanzaka, on the road to Kiyomizudera

More photos on my Flickr site here.

Now before you roast your Nokia...

Spotted in a Tainan train station restroom. The sign should have read "Hand Dryer".

Time to get up and go

Finally, the big three-O has arrived and caught up with me. Nothing much to celebrate, nothing much to cry about, just the realization that there is much that should be reflected upon since the last time the tens digit of my age has shifted a notch.

• When I was 20, in probably the most senang army unit around and only taking action when given orders. Now that I'm 30, initiative is still the essential vitamin that is missing from my system.
  
  
• When I was 20, gatherings with friends were a weekly affair, that is if not on weekend guard duty. Now that I'm 30 and overseas, they have become an annual (or rarer) event.
  
  
• When I was 20, I still was part of the system and largely ignorant of its existence. Now that I'm 30, it's now everywhere and the source of my apprehension of returning.
  
  
• When I was 20, Mambo nights were still the rage but I never went to one. Now that I'm 30, I still haven't been to one.
  
  
• When I was 20, I lived to eat. Now that I'm 30, I try to respect my body when I eat because it has started protesting.
  
  
• When I was 20, I was single and dreamed constantly of a relationship. Now that I'm 30, I've learned the difficulty of maintaining one.
  
  
• When I was 20, beer was a social event that I didn't enjoy. Now that I'm 30, it's just another refreshing beverage.
  

Just looked up Wikipedia for other significant events that took place on zis day:

• 1946 - First Cannes Film Festival
• 1954 - First program compiled from FORTRAN runs
• 1979 - Lee Iacocca is elected president of the Chrysler Corporation

Famous people born on zis day:

• 1917 - Red Auerbach, American basketball coach and executive
• 1934 - Sophia Loren, Italian actress
• 1975 - Juan Pablo Montoya, Colombian race car driver
• 1977 - Namie Amuro, Japanese singer
  

Still Singaporean?

I don't know if it's part of their in-house training or it's a recruitment pre-requisite. Your typical Sinagporean SPH reporter/journalist is either highly trained in the art of "Quoting Out Of Context 401" or has a serious case of tunnel vision.

Many thanks to lancerlord for the link!

Adios, amigo

Ibrahim Ferrer, 1927-2005

I'm not into poetry, but...

I chanced upon Gilbert Koh's blog today and was deeply moved by his poetry. Though I'm not much of a poetry person myself, his words are simple enough for laymen like me to understand, yet deep enough to resonate long after they are read. Highly recommended.

Among the pieces is one called "Photography". As an amateur photographer, I've yet to come across a better description of a captured moment that is the photograph.

Photograph

Smile, I commanded
you obeyed
and I caught forever that
moment
when something on your face
disguised itself
so well
as happiness.
Quiet fears and other
troubles have marred
this day
yet the years will pass
and in time this image
will be enough
to make us
believe
that in this instant
we had been so much
happier than
we really were.
How kind and skilful,
the way time
deceives memory,
erases pain,
fills us with warm
nostalgia for
things that never
really
happened.

How to protest publicly plor-per-lee

Mr. Wang gives good advice to the SDP on how to stage a public protest the correct way:

The next time they stage a 4-man demonstration for some cause such as increased government transparency, they should also arrange for another 4 group of persons to stand 15 metres and demonstrate for some totally unrelated, and politically neutral cause (for example, "Be Kind to Your Pets").

They should organise both demonstrations in highly similar fashion. For example, both groups stand in the same way and behave in the same way, at the same time of the day. The only difference will be in the messages printed on their placards and T-shirts. For example, the first group's T-shirts may read "More Transparency in the CPF!" and the second group's T-shirts could read "Be Kind to Your Pets".

It will then be interesting to see the police reaction:

Today reporter does not know how to count

One wonders if reporting the local news has numbed the brains of our journalists at Today, that they cannot count properly? So boys and girls, let's take a look at the picture below and count how many people are there wearing white T-shirts? One...two...three...four! Four! Hahahahahaha...*thunder and lightning*.

Protesters sent packing

Ansley Ng
ansley@newstoday.com.sg

Police dispersed a group of six people who had gathered outside the Central Provident Fund (CPF) building yesterday after receiving several calls that a crowd had gathered at Robinson Road.

The group were protesting against a lack of transparency and accountability in three Government organisations.

Wearing white T-shirts painted with red words and carrying placards printed with the slogan "Singaporeans spend on HDB; Whole life earnings, on CPF; Life savings but cannot withdraw when in need", protesters Monica Kumar, Yap Keng Ho, Charles Tan and Chee Siok Chin arrived at 12.30pm and stood outside the building for nearly an hour before being ordered by police to leave for being a "public nuisance".Ms Chee, the sister of opposition leader Chee Soon Juan, said the protesters did not represent any political party or group.

"We are members of a civil society," said Ms Kumar, who distributed a statement to reporters during the protest.

Using the recent National Kidney Foundation (NKF) saga as an example of how public matters are run in a non-transparent and non-accountable manner, the group called for the Government to be transparent and accountable, starting with organisations such as the CPF Board, the Housing and Development Board (HDB) and the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC).

Dr Chee arrived with a male companion 10 minutes into the protest and started selling his books just metres away from where the protest was taking place.

Both Dr Chee and the protesters told reporters they were not "connected" with each other.

"If there are no more than five of us, we don't need a permit. This is perfectly legal," said Ms Chee.

At 1.15pm, four police vans from the Neighbourhood Police Centre carrying about 40 policemen of which about 10 carried shields and batons arrived at the scene.

"You have broken the law … an offence of public nuisance. Please disperse now," an officer was heard telling Ms Chee, who at first refused to leave.

Police said they had received several calls that a crowd had gathered at Robinson Road.

After observing the activities of the six people, said the police, they ordered them to disperse.

The four protesters then moved to the side of the building but were again stopped by the police officers.

Their particulars were noted and their placards and T-shirts seized. Police have classified the case as assembly without permit, and causing public nuisance.

The case is under investigation.

Nagasaki, 60 years on

I turned on the NHK channel this morning, and they were broadcasting live the memorial ceremony commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Nagasaki nuclear bombing. It also took me a while to dawn to the fact that Singapore gained its independence on the exact same day, twenty years after the Bockscar dropped the fateful bomb to end the Pacific World War.

Nothing like the mushroom cloud had ever been seen, not by the general public. It was a suitably awesome image for the power unleashed below. On August 6 the first atomic bomb killed an estimated 80,000 people in the Japanese city of Hiroshima. There was no quick surrender, and three days later a second bomb exploded 500 meters above the ground in Nagasaki. The blast wind, heat rays reaching several thousand degrees and radiation destroyed anything even remotely nearby, killing or injuring as many as 150,000 at the time, and more later. As opposed to the very personal images of war that had brought the pain home, the ones from Japan that were most shocking were those from a longer perspective, showing the enormity of what had occurred.

Joi Ito was invited to write an op-ed for the New York Times, an interesting perspective of what the anniversary means to young Japanese in today's context.

Happy 40th Birthday, Singapore

Happy Birthday Singapore! Turning 40 is no mean feat, and it seems that hitting middle age comes with its share of trials and tribulations. With still a third of the way to go, 2005 has already brought more than its fair share of events - things like the NKF CEO "peanuts" salary, IRs, etc. But hey, don't fret - these are all part and parcel of growing up as a nation.

What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger. And stronger I hope you will become for the 4 million people that live within your tiny boundaries. 40 is when people rise into middle management, manage people and perhaps start to see things from a wider perspective. 40 is when you should have your own perspective of the world, be able to think for yourself and not be misled easily (不惑之年).

You've a lot of responsibilities, with a large family to provide for, no longer the hot-blooded runaway train of your youth. Times have changed, when in the past just bringing back the paycheck was enough to satisfy the family, but now you realize they need more than just having their material needs satisfied. They want to sit down and talk, have you listen to what they're thinking. Maybe you should take a break from work and listen to what they have to say. Making money isn't everything, you know.

I remember attending your 24th birthday at the National Stadium during Sec 2, as one little square among the hundreds in the giant placard display. Even after enduring several weeks of practice under the hot sun, I felt proud of being a Singaporean on the actual day with the fireworks display and all. The one other time I felt so strongly was when Singapore beat Selangor in a Malaysia Cup match, shouting "kelong" and "referee kayu" with my fellow breathren in the jam-packed humid spectator stands. Those were wonderful days.

You've grown since then, and so have I. You're mature enough to think for yourself now, and I hope the recent events have given you a wakeup call on what's really important to your family, not only money, not only material possessions. Stop working overtime, go home early, have dinner with them, let them talk - and listen carefully.

Happy 40th Birthday, Singapore.

Singapore defeats Taiwan to win "Culinary God" title

In case you haven't heard, Singapore beat Taiwan in a culinary contest at the 2005 Taipei Chinese Food Festival, to win the title of "Culinary God" (食神). Just like in the Stephen Chow (周星馳) movie, both teams pitted their culinary skills against each other to come up with an original menu, with the ingredients kept secret before the start of the contest.



Given the best local ingredients from Taiwan like Penghu crab, Yunlin black chicken, Taitung eel and Tainan lotus seeds, both teams had only four hours to prepare seven dishes. The entire process was not without its dramatic moments, with both teams racing neck and neck for each of the seven dishes. Eventually, the Singapore team won over the judges with their vegetarian white bittergourd dish to gain top honours, a great birthday present for our nation's 40th birthday

Things you can do in Taiwan (and not Singapore)

Hold an public funeral to something the government claims still exists.



Impersonate a political figure and become famous for it.



Swing your worker's hammer whenever you like and not get arrested for it.



Dance in the street without needing a permit.

SDP launches RadioSDP podcast

The Singapore Democratic Party has launched probably what is the first Singaporean political podcast named RadioSDP, which can be downloaded in MP3 format from their website.

The Singapore Democrats have launched RadioSDP, the first political podcast in Singapore (see announcement on the Home page). SDP secretary-general Chee Soon Juan has given the inaugural address, in which he highlighted the Party's manifesto as well as raise issues regarding transparency and accountability (or the lack of it), NKF, ministers' pay, minimum wage, foreign talent, etc.

The somewhat outdated lead-in music and awkward intro (reminds me strangely of one the Perfect 10 DJs) notwithstanding, CSJ sounds ernest and speaks in a controlled tone, articulating clearly what he and his party stand for.

Regardless of what Singaporeans think of him and the SDP, the significance of this event is that finally he has a chance to speak freely via the Internet, which means on his own terms, without bias or interference from government-controlled voiceboxes that have political vendettas to silence him.

Perhaps its too early to see whether the podcast will have any significant effect on changing the political climate, but maybe it's a first step toward getting more heartlanders (gosh I hate that word) to be more aware of the reason why they keep feeling a distinct pain in their rectal area. Perhaps someone had been prodding them there for far too long.

I remember around 2 years ago I was back home on a short visit and was waiting at the City Hall MRT station for some friends when one of them told me that JBJ was selling his books just outside the station. I went there and bought a book, he autographed it, and I shook his hand. It was an honour to shake the hand of one of the few Singaporeans I admired. Already well over seventy, beaten and pumulled repeatedly to the floor, but each time climbing back with a never-say-die attitude to the ideals he believed in. And now, selling his printed word to pay off his lawsuit debts.

Now, how many Davids do you know that can stand their own against such a Goliath, bent on destroying them? But here I was, shaking the hand of one of these Davids, and his stone? The words written on the very books he sells, head still held very high.

One podcast by one podcast, one book by one book. Bit by bit, it may seem a fruitless exercise, but remember, it only takes a spark to light a raging forest fire.

Singapore, Inc. wants a slice of Taiwanese banking pie

Flipping through the finance pages of the Taiwanese papers, one seldoms sees anything related to Singapore, so lately the news of Temasek wanting to buy a 17.5% stake in Chang Hwa Commercial Bank raised not a few eyebrows.

State-run Chang Hwa Commercial Bank's (彰銀) shares yesterday nudged up by 1.06 percent to close at NT$19.0 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, after Singapore-based Temasek Holdings reaffirmed its intention to buy the bank's stakes last week.

To secure the support of Chang Hwa's current management, Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控), which became the bank's largest shareholder after winning the tender for a 22-percent stake last month, said yesterday that it would support the bank's head in retaining his post.

But faced with such an aggressive courtship by an outsider, the Taiwan government decided that it was better that one of the oldest financial institutions in Taiwan marry within the country. Probably the Taiwan government hasn't forgotten the anti-Taiwanese, pro-China rhetoric that LHL has been spewing of late. Guess money alone doesn't buy everything, does it?

Nevertheless, Singapore's government-owned Temasek Holdings Ltd, previously the most likely tender winner, reportedly offered in a letter to Chang Hwa's board members last week to buy the bank's common shares and the government's 17.5-percent stake for NT$21.5 per share, leaving Taishin Financial's triumph uncertain.

"We did receive the letter and have written back to Temasek," Chang said yesterday. He however declined to elaborate on the content of the feedback, citing confidentiality.

Temasek's efforts appear to have a slim chance of success, as the Ministry of Finance is unlikely to go back on its promise that the bid winner would be granted preference over the purchase of the government's stake in the bank next year.

All Good No Bad

Center for Book Culture.org features an insightful article by Thomas Frank on his observations on the Singaporean print media environment. The full article can be read here.

Above all markets love the country of Singapore. There was a time a few years ago when one heard this repeated so frequently that it became one of the great media clichés of the age. Singapore was an economic miracle, a land arisen from Third World to First in a handful of decades. Singapore was showing the world the way forward. Singapore had resolved it all: ethnic hatred, crime, social decay, good government. Singapore was the country with the most economic freedom in the world.

Note the word "was", Singapore is not the country with the most economic freedom in the world by a longshot. Hong Kong easily surpasses that. And if you look at it from the viewpoint of the SMEs in Singapore, economic freedom in the sense of being able to compete freely (i.e. without deep-pocketed garguantuan GLCs snatching every morsel of an already small market) is sorely lacking here.

And what the market loved best about Singapore was what was absent: Politics. The country has quite literally traded politics for wealth, with its most prominent political thinkers endlessly reminding the world that "Asian values" prioritize economic achievement over civil liberties.

If these same "Asian values" gave priority to economic achievement over civil liberties, then the lack of politics meant a lack of monitoring from political opposition, giving rise to people like our former NKF CEO Durai, a member of the elite "club" who think S$600k is mere "peanuts". Someone apparently has a little too much cash on their hands.

Hear the lion roar?

nathanroad gives his thoughts on how the overseas Singaporean is perceived by foreigners (Americans in his case): quiet, apolitical, content to fade into obscurity - a product of decades-long oppression of dissent and alternative views in this "Disneyland with a death penalty". Hear the lion roar? The silence is disturbingly deafening.

In the Lion City, Americans would find a more sophisticated form of dictatorship, a sort of dictatorship with a double latte. Dissent is crushed not with violence on the streets but with verdicts in the courtroom. Opposition candidates rarely garner enough votes because Singaporean law, written by PAP legislators, renders it easy for government officers to sue their own citizens for slander -- a concept laughable in genuine democracies. Understandably, most Singaporeans prefer to remain silent (or at least temper their criticisms) than risk having their lives ruined by PAP-initiated lawsuits adjudicated by PAP-appointed judges.

But intolerance for dissent silences more than just the lions in Singapore. It also renders Singaporeans invisible abroad.

Singaporeans I've met here in Los Angeles are mostly good-natured people, speaking unaccented English and enjoying successful lives. But while exemplifying the American dream, they're also a people who seem painfully ordinary and unwanting of attention -- like those desperately trying to avoid eye contact.

Yet Another Personality Quiz

You Are a Pundit Blogger!

Your blog is smart, insightful, and always a quality read. Truly appreciated by many, surpassed by only a few.

What kind of blogger are you?

Yeah, right.