Why De Maitre stopped supporting AAL team

Did you know there is a new Anti-AAL blog up? =) No, I don't hate the blog. Love it so far because it is actually in good English!! Today, I want to talk about why I withdrew my support for AAL team even though I hate ALs. Unfortunately, the comment I left on WHAAL was a tragic parody of my usual standard of English. Learn from me guys, sleep deprivations turns you into a blubbering mass with badly expressed opinions. Ivans' parents are right, you need sleep to function well. Heh, unfortunately, I'm still going to be sleep deprived, so bear with me.

So there, with the help of my friend (who wants to remain anonymous for now) correcting my English, I'm going to repost up my comment.

The reason why I withdrew my support for AAL team even though I dislike ALs was because I think they have crossed the line of decency. Insulting a collective group of people who share common deviant behavioral traits is fine to me. BUT I certainly don't approve of the way the AAL team expresses their dislike for ALs.

For one I do not condone personal attacks. That means, I dislike the posting of personal friendster/facebook links, blog links, personal pictures, etc. Revealing a person's name is fine to me, but not the whole name. People deserve a little privacy and I think that should be respected. I have written posts about ALs before, and I only mentioned a few names as examples, and never in forms that can allow for their being identified, shamed, or cyber-bullied. I deem it more meaningful and constructive to focus on the general idiosyncrasies of their behaviours in a bid to bring them back onto the right paths faster than most of them normally would return to the straight path (i.e. before the age of 20).

I did air my displeasure with their penchant for pasting up pictures of ALs ripped out of the ALs' private blogs/friendster pages. Attempts to censor the pictures by strategically blocking parts of the face fell tragically flat when they pasted up the victim's friendster url. That's bullying as far as I'm concerned.

Abrupt as my switching of support from AAL to AALT2 might seem, I think it should be understood that I did so only out of my growing inability to stomach the fact that the AALs themselves were becoming the very things they sought to censure.

The conflict between AAL team and the ALs-at-large, has degenerated into an ugly brawl between "high-class and educated" ALs against the "low-class and not-so-educated" ALs. To me, plastering vulgarities all over your blog just cheapens your image and credibility. SO you might want to rethink about using vulgarities as well... =) After all, the moment you use the vulgarities Ah Lians use and stoop to their level, you become them and worse, seeing as to how they curse out of ignorance and yourselves, cockiness.

What makes an AL a AL goes beyond stupidity, rebonded hair and cheap clothes. It's the attitude as well. So if AAL is content going about bitching ALs on a personal level, they are just cyber ALs, period. As for the phrase-not afraid of "tsunamis" and "fire", well, it sounds like an average defensive, insecure and overly-defensive AL going "come larh, you think I scared ah". =P

By the way, AAL did use the word "Pandemic" correctly because they are using the rabid consumption of "DSLR related cam-whoring" as the context of an "infection disease" that is spreading across the AL population.

I agree that there is either good English or bad English. Unfortunately, there are many versions of English, so it's hard to say what is good English beyond good spelling, grammar and tenses.

I would assume that AAL team employs "standard" English to ensure that most ALs would understand them after all, your intent is to reform them, not mock at them senselessly with a holier-than-thou attitude, or is it? Based on my research, I can roughly conclude that ALs below 15 years of age still tend to use twit.

I prefer AALT2 because they are a lot more interactive and the focus is more on the stupidity and lack of maturity of ALs as a whole. I managed to talk and learn more about the reasons for why ALs chose to be deviant kids. Furthermore, they are willing to reverse their policies to respect the rights of the ALs on the individual level. They are a lot more respectable than AAL team in that sense.

What Would You Do?

In this post WK is going to adopt a slightly different style. Usually I write about serious things pretty seriously, but today, I’m going to talk about something serious based on a bad experience I personally had one particular morning.

I was on my way to school with a friend, and we chatted while we were on the bus. Our conversation eventually moved in the direction of my pet topic, the education system (specifically the JC system), and we got critical of the system, commenting how it does a pretty inadequate job of preparing students for university.

But just as we were discussing the issue, the person who sat in front of us (another student at my school, whom neither my friend nor I knew) got very angry. And we could feel it. (I was dumber, I only realized it when he started getting vocal about it). So we kept quiet, right till we alighted from the bus, and went our own ways to our classes.

It was a very bad experience, and I, wouldn’t say was disturbed, but I was quite uncomfortable with his response.

Personally, and honestly, I would apologise for making him so angry, but I wouldn’t apologise for what I said, because first, we did not mention any names, and second, what we said was ultimately, true.

Even though I’m quite likely to be criticized for intellectual snobbery…
So, what did I say? This brings me to the issues I want to discuss today in this post.

As I have discussed in my previous posts, there are problems in our JC system. My friend argued that a problem was that JC was supposed to prepare us for university, but this intent was distorted by the A level system, which compelled teachers to prepare students for the exam rather than for university culture, which are two very different things.

I argued that another problem was that some teachers only teach the bare minimum. They teach precisely enough for the A levels. What I used to do (when I encounter such a situation, which I did) was to ask the teacher questions, and give ideas that were outside the textbooks, or from readings outside the required list, and possibly, out of anyone’s imagination (sounds like a crazy troublemaker, aren’t I?).

My friend added that it had a good effect of pushing the boundaries of the lesson, though not everyone will be happy with this, because some people really, just want the bare minimum, and to be spoon-fed. They either don’t have the energy, or the time, or the capacity, or all of the above, to deal with such things.

My friend then added that such students ultimately suffer in university, because in uni, lecturers never feed, and you shouldn’t expect to be fed anyway.

The second issue is that of learning. We discussed this particular point about the differences between the sciences and the humanities, and my friend commented that in the sciences, one problem was that students learn formulae, are told to remember them, but they may not understand how these formulae actually come about, or the underlying concepts behind them. In other words, they know, but they don’t understand. (I think that comment was the boiling point of that guy I was talking about earlier).

So, what got that person so angry? The real reason I will never know, but a fair guess would be, I hit a soft spot, or stepped on his tail. Something, somewhere in the conversation related to him somewhat, and he felt angry about it.

But then it begs the question, if what we said was unfair or untrue, why respond like that? A mature university student surely would be able to take up a debate?

Besides, by responding angrily, aren’t you already implying we were right, and you do have a problem? A wise person would have simply laughed it off, or kept quiet (but then, we could have been wiser to have kept quiet too). But well, all these are beside the point.

I think another reason for that anger is that we threw out of the bus window many ideas and assumptions about school, which some (like probably that guy) would rather hang on to.

For example, it is safe to say that all who go to NUS (or any of the other of the Big Three) are smart people. After all, we survived the JC system, many probably very well.

But, the good performance experienced in JC may not be continued in university. A former triple or quadruple ‘A’ student may find him/herself in trouble because of schoolwork.

And the issues we discussed during that conversation in the bus were PRECISELY the reasons for this contradiction.

But there are people who refuse to accept it. When they don’t perform and they don’t understand why, they blame everyone except themselves, or they hang on to the reasons we’ve thrown out of that bus window. They refuse to understand that there are fundamental problems.

I am not a smart person. I wasn’t the “straight A student” in JC, I am not some student in law or medicine, but I can say my grades in university are, so far, good.

I know it doesn’t give me the authority to say what I said, but I feel that we have the right to talk about these things, regardless of our standing.

If you meet the same situation as I did, what would you do?

Religious Rights or Secular Space?

It’s a pretty incendiary title, alright, but the issue is one that has to be engaged one way or another, and not just swept under the carpet, hoping it’ll never happen to us: taking our religious lives into public space.

De Maitre showed me this article a few days ago, about two separate, but related issues. The first was on this French Muslim lady who was refused entry into a public swimming pool wearing a “burkini” (which is like a swimsuit covering one from face to ankle). The second issue was that some of the UK’s public swimming pools are starting to impose Muslim dress codes and “Muslim-only” swimming sessions.

Well, I’m not going to talk about the swimming here. What I am going to talk about is the related issue that spring out of these cases:

Individual rights or not?

Personally, it’s everyone’s, and anyone’s right to lead a religious life, if one so wishes to do so. But the issue is, there are bound to be situations where secular systems prevail, especially in a secular, multi-racial and multi-religious society.

Take for example the (in)famous tudung (headscarf) incidents a few years back. A few Malay parents insisted on letting their children wear the headscarf to government schools, despite such action being against the schools’ dress codes.

When I first heard of the incident, the first thing that came to my mind was “what’s the problem? Why so persistent?” It’s understandable to want to follow a religious life, but I thought the parents were missing two important points.

First, they wanted their children to have a good education. But to do so, they have to respect the institution of the school. The school has rules that are to be respected, and these rules are meant to provide the conditions for constructive education under a multi-racial and religious setting.

Second, a religious life isn’t simply one’s form of dress, it’s about internalising the values that underpin the religion.

It’s the right of the parents to want a religious life, but what about the right of the children to a good education? If the two come into conflict, which is more important? The wiser parent would know. Ultimately, it begs the question, if they so desire a good religious upbringing for their children, why reject the madrasas (religious schools)? If they want a mainstream school, why reject its rules?

It’s ultimately the children who pay the price for the religiosity of the parents.
To return to the question, is it an individual right? Well, arguably yes. The person does have a right to lead a religious life. But it must not be at the detriment of others in the community, who may not share the same ideas. And as I have mentioned, one may lose some of his/her own rights in the process.

What is the Purpose of Exams?

I was inspired to do this post after reading an article about how the A levels in Britain were becoming so easy, one official actually said, “A monkey could sit for the exam”. Of course, Singapore’s standards are slightly different, but there are still some important issues that are worth discussing, first, are our exams easy or difficult? Second, what is the purpose of exams? Third, which is better, easy-to-pass exams, or high-standard but difficult exams?

First, Singapore’s exams are well, doable. It is difficult to set a fixed conclusion on the level of difficulty of our papers, since there are different standards and levels of difficulty across subjects. The nature of subjects also creates challenges in determining the difficulty of the exam.

For instance, Chinese is fun, but dead. It’s not very difficult per se, but the way it’s taught makes it difficult.

Doing well for exams ultimately depends on a combination of personal effort, attitude, a passion for the subject, and a degree of personal aptitude.

As for whether or not exams in other countries are too easy, the problem is related to the issue of grade inflation (what Singapore students are familiar to as “moderation”). But there is a critical difference. Moderation refers to adjusting the results to reflect estimated performance during the actual exam, because for some schools (like my secondary school) in-house exams are ridiculously tough. Grade inflation is really inflating the grades so that more students appear to do well.

But it begs the question, are students really worthy of their grades?

Second, on the purpose of exams.

What is the purpose of exams? A measure of intelligence? A process to enable promotion within the educational system? A system of competition to reward the industrious and penalize the idle? All these reasons are possible, but they neither serve, nor support the true purpose of education, to impart knowledge and skills.

Some might argue that they test students whether they remember their stuff. But education isn’t simply remembering stuff. Given the ever increasing quantity of knowledge and information in the world today, it is practically impossible.

So what should exams be? Rather than test content, they could test skills. Skills need not be remembered, they should be internalized. To the point it really becomes “in the blood”.

Lastly, on the preferable exam system.

Perhaps exams really are a “necessary evil”, because we ultimately need some system of competition to enforce standards, to reward the industrious and penalize the idle. This is what makes our education system so tough, and yet so successful.

Therefore, rather than say “we don’t want exams” we should explore this question instead: “what kind of exam system do we want?”

In this post I brought up two possibilities, in response to the article I’ve read.

One, an easy exam, or a tough but high-standard exam.

Of course, there are problems with my definitions. “easy” and “tough” are fundamentally ambiguous and relative concepts. These two terms differ between two individuals within the same educational system, between different educational systems, and between students from different streams or faculties. A Singapore student might find a math problem a piece of cake, while an American student of the same level might struggle.

But nonetheless, there is still value in the notion of “easy” and “tough”. This has to do with the purpose of exams. If exams are meant to be competitive in nature, that they should be “tough”, the “tougher” the better. There is no point in passing students for the sake of passing them. This will have a detrimental impact on educational standards.

Of course, making exams tough doesn’t mean leaving students out to die. Teachers must have the means to teach as well, especially in teaching the necessary thinking skills which are of utmost importance. Besides, since exams shouldn’t be intellectual bulimia, wouldn’t a “tough” exam system where students simply have to remember and regurgitate yet more stuff defeat the whole purpose of education?

As I come to the end of my post, I’ve realized that I’ve gone quite far from the article. it’s exaggerating perhaps to say that a monkey can sit for a human exam and pass, but the idea is quite clear: that exams for humans probably no longer serve a human purpose.

Strange Creatures Series- Do Dragons exist?

Dragons are legendary creatures with reptilian/serpentine traits that appear in myths in cultures all over the world.Everyone assumes that Dragons are mythical creatures that no longer exist today. But did you know there have been reports of dragon sightings? That sound's looney right? Where on earth can such a huge creature be hiding in? As you see, I assume that all dragons are huge creatures and not their sorry excuse of a cousin- Mushu.

So, let me show you Dragons from around the world:
China: This is a country that is permanently obsessed with Dragons as symbols of power and prosperity. The Dragons in Chinese mythology are considered benevolent and they are very anatomically concise- there 117 scales, out of which 81 are of the yang essence (positive) and 36 are of the yin essence (negative). A Dragon with 5 claws was the representative of the Emperors whilst a dragon with 3 or 4 claws was associated with commoners. Chinese dragons are serpentine creatures with long bodies and four legs. They look elegant yet powerful. Due to its benevolent nature, it doesn't breath fire unless it wants to show divine displeasure.


Europe: European dragons are malevolent creatures who are just out to eat virgins and going for communal BBQs at the nearby villages. In comparison to Eastern Dragons, they are more stout, they have wings and they traded the hair/fur for more horns/spikes. They look much more muscular and aggressive. Unlike the Chinese dragon, which remained as an impressive creature over centuries, the European Dragon shrank in size and stature over the years. The Dragon was a symbol of the Pagan era and with the spread of Christianity, Dragons were reduced to the role of an evil creature being subdued by the victorious arm of Christ (like St George). Looking at the two pictures above, you might notice how the first pagan picture shows a brave hero tackling a bigger dragon, whereas the stylized St-George-killing-the-dragon had a tiny dragon that looked more like a lizard submitting to the might of St George. There are many more stories regarding European Dragons that date back in time, such as the story of Siegfried the Dragon Slayer in the German Nibelungenlied, but I won't go into them because it can go on for over 5 pages.



Ancient Middle-East: I will lump 3 ancient Dragons here from Babylon, Ancient Egypt and Sumeria together here because these three cultures engaged in a lot of cultural exchange with each other.
There are two types of Babylonian Dragons that I know off. One is Marduk (picutre above) that guards the walls of the city and the other is Tiamat, the symbol of chaos. They have many other Dragon stories, but the exact role of Dragons in the life of the common folk remains unknown.
Ancient Egypt's "Dragon" is actually a snake with wings who is always trying to take away the sun. As a result, the ancient Egyptians hated Apep/Apophis.In the case of Sumer, we can only tell that the dragon and dragon slayer(s) relationship primarily involves the dragon, Kur, committing some great wrong against the gods and either a god or goddess appearing to vanquish it. Many portions of the story are still missing as many parts of the tablet were still in fragments. You can read more at the richeast.org link below.

Hisotrial Dragons aside, let's take a look at the list of Dragon sightings that occured recently:

• The most scientifically reliable description is that of Peter Karl van Esling, the director of The Hague Zoo, who gives an account of a water dragon sighted during a voyage to collect marine species in the Atlantic in 1860:
  
  

  We saw a gigantic reptile, bright blue and silver in colour. He swam gracefully
  around the ship before the sailors' eyes, and submerged himself without a
  splash. His eyes were enormous, with vertical pupils and an intelligent expression. They seemed luminous, but this effect could be due to the reflection from the setting sun.
  
  His head was adorned with bright blue and green crests. Even though he disappeared under water and did not reappear, he appeared to measure some seven meters in length, and on his back they could make out something resembling a crest or fins. It was serpent-like, but the sailor thought they saw legs and claw.
  
  They baptized him Megophias.
  

• French-American scientist Rafinesque-Schmaltz wrote of a two hundred foot long sea-serpent seen by Mrs. W. Lee, in 1805, near Cape Breton and Newfoundland. She stated: "Its back was dark green and it stood in the water in flexuous hillocks and went through it with impetuous noise."
• On May 15th, 1833, in Mahone Bay, forty miles west of Halifax, three officers and two enlisted men of Her Majesty's Navy were relaxing on the deck of a fishing boat when they sighted at a distance of one hundred and fifty to two hundred yards:
  

  ". . . the head and the neck of some denizen of the deep, precisely like those
  of a common snake, in the act of swimming, the head so far elevated and thrown
  forward by the curve of the neck as to enable us to see the water under and
  beyond it. The creature rapidly passed, leaving a regular wake, from the
  commencement of which, to the forepart, which was out of water, we judged its
  length to be about 80 feet; and this within rather than beyond the mark . . ."

• The first recorded sighting in Canadian water was on July 15th, 1825, in Halifax Harbour. It was seen by several people from entirely separate positions. They described it as having "a body as big as a tree trunk... The animal had about eight coils or humps to its body and was about sixty feet long."
  

Watch this video and decide for yourself- is it real? Was it merely coincidental? Or was it a product of modern technology?


Our ancestors told us stories of many types of dragons- mainly water dragons and flying dragons. This seems to be a constant factor in folklores throughout the world. What made them come up with the concept of dragons if dragons never really existed to begin with? Some have speculated that the myth of dragons was born out of the discovery of dinosaur bones- probably the ones like the Brachiosaurus or Apatosaurus (in layman terms- the long necked dinosaur). Typical of the brainy morons that we are, it is assumed that our ancestors lacked the expertise to piece the (probably incomplete) set of bones together to form a proper dinosaur and created a creatures which they deemed to be a dragon. Heh, we call ourselves clever and we can't even reverse engineer accupuncture, treppaning, the Pyramids of Egypt, etc. So I think humans need to shut up and be less arrogant about their beliefs in their alleged superiority. We have traded our brains for technology- now isn't that a sad thing??

Information Taken from:
http://www.thecryptmag.com/Online/23/Dragonsightings.html
http://www.richeast.org/htwm/dragons/dragons.html

Strange Creatures Series- Do Mermaids exist?

This will be the first of my series of posts on strange creatures. As my regular readers should know by now, I love the unknown. I find it extremely interesting and thought provoking as it challenges our assumptions on what the world is. Today, many people like to think they are rationale and logical, leaving no space for the supernatural in their daily lives. Well, humans have existed for thousands of years and our history is steeped with superstition, stories of weird creatures, spirits and demons around us. I would also like to point out that superstition seems to be pretty uniform across cultures. Isolated cultures such as the Aztecs, Vikings, Ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Chinese and Polynesian all have tale of dragons, mermaids, etc. Is it because we have the same ancestral origin? Or is it because our ancestors have encountered such creatures before? So are these creatures myths or legends (albeit rare or extinct today)?

So today, I shall focus on mermaids. Mermaids are aquatic creatures with a human head and torso but a tail of an aquatic animal, normally a fish. Some cultures portray mermaids as saviors of drowning sailors, other say that mermaids cause nothing but trouble by distracting sailors and thereby wrecking their ships. Given that most sailors are horny wrecks after being out at sea for months, it is hardly surprising that anything resembling a woman is enough to catapult them into state of ecstasy, making them oblivious to any form of danger. Please note that when there are mermaids, there are mermen. =) Nature is about balance.

The earliest known mermaid story appeared in Assyria about the Goddess Atargatis who killed the mortal shepherd that she loved. Ashamed, she threw herself into a lake to take n the form of her fish. Unfortunately, her divine beauty would not be concealed so she took the form of a mermaid. The earliest representation showed her as a fish with the head and legs of a human. Later it evolved into the “traditional” form of a humanoid head and torso with a fish tail (it’s all about symmetry I guess). The story about Atargatis also went on to inspire the story of Derketo the Nereid of Greece, tales of the Sea people in Arabian Nights, malevolent and benevolent mermaid-human interactions throughout other cultures globally.

Now, let me examine the evidence of the existence of mermaids in the modern context. There have been claimed sightings of living and dead mermaids throughout history. Let me list a few:

• 5th century CE- Physiologus described a “real” mermaid in his book, Bestiary.
• 1493 CE- Christopher Columbus reported seeing three mermaids playing and jumping out of the water. He did lament that they weren’t as beautiful as he expected, but human enough in the face.
• 1560 CE- Autopsy performed on 7 mermaids caught by fishermen in Ceylon (Sri Lanka).
• 1608 CE- Henry Hudson and his crew saw a mermaid near Russia. Unlike the typical fish tail, he said that she had a “tail of a porpoise and speckled like a mackerel”.
• 1718 CE, a "sea wife" is caught off the island of Borneo and put in a large vat, where it died after a few days. It was heard to utter cries like a mouse.
• 1739 CE, sailors of the ship, Halifax, caught and ate several mermaids in the East Indies. Apparently they tasted like veal.
• 1830 CE, a farm woman in the Outer Hebrides spotted a mermaid frolicking in the water. They were unable to capture her alive but did manage to kill her with a rock. The corpse was seen and described in detail by Alexander Carmichael, a well-known scholar.
  

In addition the claimed sightings, we have preserved bodies of "mermaids" to show! They are namely the ningyo mummies stored in Japanese temples. Eating their flesh is said to give one longevity. Please note that these mummies are not real, they were "proven" to be made of animal parts that were stitched together. But it could be the influence of science on superstition too! So you decide for yourself whether you want to believe in these photos. Either way, I'll never ever going to look at kiam-he (salted fish) the same way again.

This mummified 6-feet mermaid carcass was from Shikoku, Japan.

What I find most creepy about this mummy is the eyes... Staring right back at you. Hehehe, just joking, I don't get creeped out by mummies because I love to study them! This one is cute because of the eyes. It is normally one of the fastest organs to rot due the high levels of liquids. This is one of the few mermaid mummies with fully scaled bodies.

This is a foot long Ningo that was actually created in Japan in the 19th century. A mummified monkey and a dried fish were sewn together to produce this creature.

Look carefully at this mummy, I would agree that this is a fake because of the sudden break between humanoid and aquatic components of the body. If you look at preserved bodies, there should be a form of harmonious "shrinking" during the drying out process.

This mermaid mummy at Zuiryuji Temple in Osaka, which was bestowed to the temple as an offering from a Sakai-area trader in 1682.

Again, this mummy has a remarkably preserved set of eyes. You might note that the break between the scales and skin seems pretty harmonious and the corpse/carcass looks "intact" after the process of drying out.

Another mummified mermaid is preserved at Myouchi Temple in the city of Kashiwazaki in Niigata prefecture. This mermaid is about 30 cm long and is posing with its hands up near its cheeks.

This Mummy is very unique because of its head. It has 2 holes for the eyes and 2 holes for the nostrils and sharp teeth. It looks like there is a layer of clay on it due to the visible cracks on in. In a sense, it looks like a chinchirro mummy, which has a layer of clay painted onto it.

This mermaid mummy is preserved at Karukayado Temple outside the city of Hashimoto in Wakayama prefecture. The 50-cm long mummy has fang-like teeth that protrude from its wide open mouth and both of its hands are raised to its cheeks, like the previous mermaid. Its lower body is covered in scales, and there appear to be the vestiges of fins on its chest, as well as a pair of nipple-like protuberances.

This mermaid is amazing to me because of the amount of care devoted into the details.

This mummy is in the possession of a Shinto sect headquartered in the city of Fujinomiya near the base of Mt. Fuji. At 170 cm tall and 1,400 years old, it is the largest and oldest known mermaid mummy in Japan. The mermaid has an unusually large head that is bald, except for some hair growth that extends from its forehead to its nose. Its eyes and mouth are open. It has webbed hands with sharp claws, and a 20-cm long tail. The lower body has a bone structure similar to that of a fish, but it is unclear whether or not the upper body has a bone structure. The entire body shows signs of having been ravaged by moths.

Legend has it that this mermaid appeared to Prince Shotoku (Shotoku Taishi) as he was passing along the shores of Lake Biwa (about 1,400 years ago). The hideous beast told the prince about how it had been transformed into a mermaid as punishment for making a living as a fishermen within the boundaries of an animal sanctuary. The mermaid claimed that over many years it had come to a clear understanding of the horrors of destroying life, and that it was prepared to move on to the next world. As a final wish before dying, though, it asked the prince to establish a temple using the mermaid’s body as a centerpiece, where it could be used to educate people about the sanctity of life. The mermaid then died. The prince took the mermaid’s body and set up a temple as requested. But after a number of strange occurrences, the mummy was passed on to another temple. The mummy changed hands several times before ending up at its current location at the base of Mt. Fuji.

Isn't it interesting how physical evidence does not match the sightings reported by people? Or how physical evidence cannot express a mermaid's ability to communicate with people as the stories tell? Every mermaid mummy that has been examined by scientists have been declared fake. And yet, hundreds of people every year claim to see mermaids frolicking in the waters. So are mermaids real or merely figments of our imagination that have been constructed by cultural beliefs?

There seems to be a fixed set of poses and features that these mummies share, such as the curved tail, stiff arms held up to their faces, scales, etc. On the personal level, I'm inclined to say that these mummies are fakes due to their dramatic posing. If they are truly natural mummies, they would have been a little more "relaxed" in their poses. If you have seen a kiam-he, you should realize that their bodies and limp, with the tail lying straight, not the curved tail that you see on these mummies. The only way to create such poses is to bind the body in a fixed position during the mummification process. I did another post on preserved bodies before, you can read it here.

Personally, I've never examined the Ningyo mummies, nor have I seen any documentries performing CT scans on them. So I can't concretely declare if they are fakes or not. To me, to fully qualify them as fakes, I would like to see CT scans establishing that the mummie's innards and bone structures do not match in anyway. However, given their status as sacred objects, I think that is highly unlikely.

So do you believe that mermaids exists for real? Do we need concrete evidence to prove that something exists?

Research taken from:
http://www.beautiful-mermaid-art.com/real-mermaid.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mermaid
Pictures of mermaids and desciptions are taken from:
http://www.pinktentacle.com/2006/08/mermaid-mummies/

The criminal mind

Well, we all know that some criminals are extremely smart, they get away with millions of dollars in embezzlement, loot, etc. These are normally white collared criminals who are educated and charismatic. What about the common people? The less educated and financially destitute who are just desperate to make some money through crime? Let me list 15 of the dumbest crime stories I've ever heard/read about.

1. Two men tried to pull the front off a cash machine by running a chain from the machine to the bumper of their pickup truck. Instead of pulling the front panel off the machine, though, they pulled the bumper off their truck. Scared, they left the scene and drove home. With the chain still attached to the machine. With their bumper still attached to the chain. With their vehicle's license plate still attached to the bumper.
DM's comment: This is called bad planning. Really bad planning.

2. In December 1994, Winston Treadway took two live lobsters from a tank in a Boston, Massachusetts supermarket and stuffed them down his trousers. The lobsters fastened onto his manhood and refused to let go. Doctors reportedly said the result was "a do-it-yourself vasectomy" and told him he might never be a father.
DM's comment: Serves him right. To fellow Singaporeans, please do not try to stuff crabs from Seng Siong down your pants or bras. It's not healthy nor safe.

3. Klaus Schmidt, 41, burst into a Berlin bank in August 1995, waved a pistol, and screamed "Hand over the money!" When staff asked if he wanted a bag, he replied "Damn right it's a real gun!" Guessing Schmidt was deaf, the manager set off the alarm, saying later, "It was ridiculously loud, but he didn't seem to notice."

After five minutes punctuated by Schmidt occasionally shouting "I am a trained killer!" police arrived and arrested him. Schmidt then sued the bank, accusing them of exploiting his disability.
DM's comment: This is so cute, a deaf robber who can't even hear the alarm nor guess that people are no longer afraid of his "gun".

4. Joyce Lebrom fainted at a supermarket checkout counter in Berne, Switzerland, in September 1991. Staff thought she'd had a heart attack, but when paramedics arrived they found a stolen chicken stuffed down her bra. The cold from the chicken had caused her to pass out. After recovering in the hospital she was charged with theft.
DM's comment: Is the chicken a spring chicken or a kampung chicken? If its the former, she would need one heck of a huge bra to stuff that fella into. Besides, wouldn't one of her "tits" look morbidly bigger than the other???

5. Purse snatcher Daniel Pouchin ended up in the hospital when he tried to rob two women in a street in Nice, France, in August 1993. The victims were "burly" transvestites who beat him up and left him with broken ribs.
DM's comment: I have a soft spot for trannies, they are so useful at crime prevention. After this, I would say, never judge a "woman" from the back view. I still can't stop laughing when I think of Abigail Chay turning around to stare at the wolf whistling men around her and saying "mei you kan guo mei nu ah??"

6.A man successfully broke into a bank's basement through a street-level window, cutting himself up pretty badly in the process. He then realized that (1) he could not get to the money from where he was,(2) he could not climb back out the window through which he had entered, and (3) he was bleeding pretty badly. So he located a phone and dialed "911" for help . . .
DM's comment: People do a lot of stupid things and have to bury their embarrasssment when they are reduced to calling the authorities for help. Reminds me of how a few guys around this world who had to call an ambulance when their "little brothers" got stuck in bottles during masturbation.

7. Travion Davis, 19, suspected that Los Angeles police would recognize his distinctive clothing if he robbed a bank. So he stripped naked before his July 1993 raid, and made off with $15,000 in two shopping bags. Not surprisingly, the sight of a naked man running down back alleys with bags stuffed full of cash was distinctive enough to attract the attention of sheriff's deputies, who pursued him over several fences before grabbing him (by what we're not told) and taking him into custody.
DM's comment: Wouldn't it occur to most people that you might be attracting more attention naked than dressed?

8. Mugging people in one of the UK's most popular jogging locations is asking for trouble. Experienced marathon runner Glyn Roberts came to the aid of a victim on Hampstead Heath in north London and gave chase - for two miles. The bewildered mugger eventually fell to his knees and begged for mercy. He didn't get it.
DM's comment: This is called "lack of foresight".

9. Two men in a pickup truck went to a new-home site to steal a refrigerator. Banging up walls, floors, etc., they snatched a refrigerator from one of the houses, and loaded it onto the pickup. The truck promptly got stuck in the mud, so these brain surgeons decided that the refrigerator was too heavy. Banging up *more* walls, floors, etc., they put the refrigerator BACK into the house, and returned to the pickup truck, only to realize that they locked the keys in the truck -- so they abandoned it.
DM's comment: I have no idea why they had to put the fridge back into the house... Very considerate but not very efficient of them.

10. In Modesto, CA, Steven Richard King was arrested for trying to hold up a Bank of America branch without a weapon. King used a thumb and a finger to simulate a gun. Unfortunately, he failed to keep his hand in his pocket.
DM's comment: I guess he got a little too excited and forgot himself.

11. Police in Los Angeles had good luck with a robbery suspect who just couldn't control himself during a lineup. When detectives asked each man in the lineup to repeat the words: "Give me all your money or I'll shoot", the man shouted, "that's not what I said!".
DM's comment: This is what I call a "Freudian Slip".

12. A man walked into a Topeka, Kansas Kwik Stop and asked for all the money in the cash drawer. Apparently, the take was too small, so he tied up the store clerk and worked the counter himself for three hours until police showed up and grabbed him.
DM's comment: If he was going to man the counter for 3 hours for a little more money, he should have gotten a proper job right?

13. A man walked into a Circle-K (a convenience store similar to a 7-11), put a $20 bill on the counter and asked for change. When the clerk opened the cash drawer, the man pulled a gun and asked for all the cash in the register, which the clerk promptly provided. The man took the cash from the clerk and fled-- leaving the $20 bill on the counter. The total amount of cash he got from the drawer? Fifteen dollars.
DM's comment: This guy's CBA (cost benefit analysis) sucks, he will never make it as a financial investor.

14. Not long ago a man from Grand Forks North Dakota traveled to Fargo North Dakota to rob Community First Bank. He scribbled his ransom note and gave it to the teller. The quickly gave him the money and watched him run out the door. Attempts to search the surrounding area were unsuccessful. Upon review of the ransom note it was revealed that the man wrote the ransom note on his personal bank deposit note. Police traveled to the man’s home to arrest him.
DM's comment: Next time, please note which "scrap" of paper did you grab.

15. Sacramento, California, December 1995: Burglar Brett Woolley, 25, had a stereo and other items from the home he'd broken into, lined up by the front door and all ready to go. He was then struck with the desire to take a bubble bath. He fell asleep in the tub, the owner returned, and the police were called to wake Woolley.
DM's comment: If you have issues controlling your impulses, never be a burglar, you might end up cooking a full meal and cleaning up your victim's house as well.

Taken from:
http://www.caderbooks.com/exstupid.html
http://funnystufflol.tripod.com/id41.htm
http://www.tiscali.co.uk/news/stupid-criminals.html
http://www.freemaninstitute.com/hall_of_shame.htm

The War against Obesity – The Response

De Maitre has mentioned the various reasons behind obesity amongst people, and postulated that obesity may or may not be the fault of the obese person in question. There are genetic, biological and psychological reasons behind obesity as well.

But given those reasons, we still need to consider the other perspectives of the problem of obesity.

First, the nature of food culture in the world today,
Second, the pervasiveness of slimming centres,
And third, the socio-economic reasons behind personal lifestyles.

As I have mentioned in my post, It’s What You Eat, and How You Eat, food culture plays a role in influencing dietary habits. De Maitre is right in saying that fast food by itself is harmless, as long as consumption is controlled. But the problem is not just the lack of control among some people; it is the sheer ubiquity of fast food that is the real problem.
The issue is not very pertinent to Singapore, but in other countries like the US, the relatively higher price of “conventional” food influences the dietary habits of people toward fast food. The problem is further compounded by the fact that working people tend not to engage in cooking, due to it being time-consuming.

So what can we do? Mac’s et al understands the nature of the problem, so they are starting to introduce healthier food in their menus, and to stop the sale of “supersize” meals. But more can be done. In addition to the control on quantity, there has also to be control on quality, to focus on nutritional value.

But even then, there are still other issues. Food that cause obesity is one front in the war against obesity, processed foods (specifically, the pre-cooked, pre-packed meals that you just chuck into the microwave) is the other front. These foods have no nutrition to speak of, and are saturated with sugar and salt. These are the foods that also contribute to obesity.

Therefore, in order to truly deal with the problem of obesity where food is concerned, I propose three “offensives”

First, to control servings in fast food restaurants, and to introduce healthier food,
Second, to “boycott” processed foods for their lack of nutritional value and poor taste,
Third, to introduce and promote natural ingredients and healthy cooking methods.

The idea of these changes is to fundamentally change food culture to one that is healthier.

Second, on the pervasiveness of slimming centres.

Unlike De Maitre, I personally don’t have an issue with slimming centres. In the exhaustion of all options for slimming, the slimming centre can provide some solution to one’s weight and figure woes. But of course, the concern of over-reliance on slimming centres for weight management rather than to adopt a more balanced lifestyle is still valid. But for me, the problem can be interpreted in another perspective. Given the social pressure to look good, there is immense demand for slimming programmes and weight management programmes, along with skincare and cosmetic surgery. So the problem isn’t just over-reliance, it’s when people forget that it’s only a “short-cut”.

Third, on socio-economic reasons.

The socio-economic reasons that contribute to obesity are as follows: a “couch potato” society, and the demands of work.

The “couch potato” society is one that is fundamentally unbalanced. There is little exercise, either because of the lack of personal will, or the lack of time, or both. The prevalence of television and the internet means people spend a disproportionate amount of time in front of some form of screen. Given this unbalanced lifestyle, poor dietary habits is certain to compound the problem of weight gain and obesity.

The demands of work means that people do not have time to exercise. Of course, it’s quite often an excuse. But the point is, the amount of time spent at work creates pressures against the conduct of regular exercise. The stresses of work also mean some people binge to de-stress.

To conclude, the consequence of such a lifestyle only means that people are doomed to a fate of obesity. The problems of obesity isn’t just personal, it’s structural in nature. It’s a war of many fronts, against many enemies, all of them much more powerful than the individual, who is armed only with the weak desire to control his/her weight.

The war against Obesity

WK did a post on food called "It's What You Eat, And How You Eat" before. Today, I will explore the reasons why people are obese.

Most Singaporeans are so caught up in the pursuit of the slim image of perfection that fat people are looked down upon without being understood. I would admit that I used to look down on fat people as slobs who sweat a lot and smell funny (I have a sensitive nose). But I've changed my perceptions of them a little as I grew older and researched a little more into obesity.

Not all fat people are slobs
I've met fat people who exercise more than me, eat less than me and work more than me. I feel so ashamed. For the record, not all fat people are obese because they eat unhealthily and do not exercise. Genes do play an important role, namely the FTO gene.

People carrying one copy of the "fat" FTO variant had a 30% increased risk of being obese compared to a person with no copies of that version.

Those carrying two copies of the variant had a 70% increased risk of being obese, and were on average 3kg (6.6lb) heavier than a similar person with no copies.

Now ladies, do you always wonder why you have so much trouble going on/keeping to a diet? [Evil Laughter] Just kidding, I don't believe in dieting because you only live once and you live in Singapore (food paradise). If you don't enjoy all the sinful kopitiam food now, you won't get to try it when you're dead.

The sinful nature of carbohydrates (Sugar)
A lot of people love candy, but that's not it! People love cheesecakes, cookies, crackers with sugar on them, roti prata sprinkled in sugar, pineapple tarts, etc. Many people are addicted to sugar without knowing it. The classic example would be drinking lots of coke and sprite when you could have drunk a glass of water instead. You can read up a little more about sugar addiction at this website.

The main role of carbohydrates is to supply us with energy for our daily needs. Unfortunately, evolution has made as crazy for carbohydrates because our ancestors were once hunter-gatherers who may have to go without food once in a while. That eat and starve cycle imprinted a need for high-carbo food into our psyche, so that we can store the extra carbo as fats, from which we can draw extra energy from when we are unable to obtain food.

Comfort Food
"Food is the most primitive form of comfort" - Shelia Graham
I'm sure you guys have watched Shrek 2, I liked the conversation between the King and the Fairy Godmother, especially this part:

"Harold, you force me to do something I REALLY don't want to do! My diet is RUINED, I hope you're HAPPY."

When people get upset, food is a great source of comfort. Especially food high in carbohydrates/sugar, like ice-cream!! Comfort food can also be food that are emotionally significant to us. So for an average Singaporean, it might mean feeling a need to eat good kway chap, a dish that your grandmother used to cook for you when you feel stressed out.

Dysfunctional Brain
Anything good or bad can be blamed on your brain. Be it bad temper, aggression, optimism or greed, it all comes from your brain. As no one is perfect, we all have a little dysfunction that makes us "unique"/"wierd" (depending on your perception). In the case of the 5 year old girl in India who is eating herself to death, literally, it is suspected that she has a dysfunctional pituitary gland. The pituitary gland releases hormones to restore homeostasis- i.e. physical and emotional needs. So in this case, her pituitary gland is not releasing the hormones that control eating. There are "hunger hormones" like ghrelin, orexin and PYY 3-36 and "satiety hormones" like leptin, obestatin, nesfatin-1. They control when and how much you eat and when to stop eating. The way this 5 year old girl eats is horrifying-

In just one week, she devours over 10 kilograms of rice, 24 eggs, six litres of milk and five kilos of potatoes.

Her hunger even leads her to sneak out and pester her neighbours for food in the village of Metiala in the Indian state of West Bengal.

"We give her four square meals a day and two small lunches, but this is never enough."

"She is our daughter and we have no choice but to feed her."

Aiyee... She's only 5 and she eats more food than an average family of 4 in a week!

While many people are fat because of factors beyond their control such as genes or hormones, there are even more people are fat because they are truly slobs. They love buffets, they binge, they don't exercise.

I don't have an issue with fast food because its just another meal to me as long as it not upsized. I think buffets are bad because of the consumer mentality "I must maximize my dollar"- so people eat more than they actually need. Many of the fat slobs that I know are binge eaters, when they want to eat something, they must eat it, even if they aren't hungry. Eating more than you need to is fine if you balance off the energy storage by expanding more energy through exercise. But many Singaporeans always give the excuse that they don't have time to exercise. I think it's a bad excuse because I know of people who drive to the shopping center nearby even though they could walk or take a bus (2-3stops away). I'll understand if they drive down because they are doing grocery shopping or furniture buying, but not if they are just going there to buy clothes or shoes.

Personally, I disapprove of slimming centers because it is the lazy method of losing weight fast. I prefer having a healthy diet, not eating beyond my daily needs and exercising. It gives people healthier body, mind and soul.

Does technology help or hinder social interaction?

WRITTEN WITH THE HELP OF PHONG

Man is a social animal, evolution has made us so. Why? In the past, the world was a dangerous place where every man needed and extra eye or hand to aid survival. In a social unit, they can share their resources and help each other survive the harsh environment that they live in. As time passed, writing progressed from pictures to symbols and characters. Communication was primarily through verbal and written means. As time progressed, we opened up a whole new world of mobile communication through SMS, emails, MMS, cyber platforms like MMORPGs, Friendster or Facebook! People from all across the world can communicate with each other without meeting up personally and yet know how each other looks like, what are their preferences, age, birthday, etc.

But are these communication methods helping or destroying peoples’ social skills? There are 2 prevailing view regarding technology (the internet) and social relationships. The first theory is old and conservative (mostly created in the 1990s), it proposes that no form of stable or genuine relationship can be formed online and the Internet only served to atomize society, isolating the individuals. In contrast, the modern view was predominantly advanced by Walther, with this theory of the hyper-peronal effects claiming that the Internet and its communication tools actually help to create a lot of affordances to facilitate communication and socialization. More recently, Dmitri Williams also suggests that online games like MMORPGs actually have characteristics of a "third place", which is a sociological concept advanced by Ray Oldenburg to refer to sites of socialization, with the first place being home and second place, school or work.

So this bring out another question, where is the border between virtual versus reality? Yes, MMORPGs, Facebook and Friendster are just social platforms online that are virtual, regardless of how they look. But then, the relationships there are real because real friendships are made, often offline and many become couples. But this line is blurred when people have virtual marriages with ceremonies and attendees (other gamers who are their friends). Facebook and Friendster are based on cyberspace, so their communities are cyber-based, yet their relationships are real in the sense that today A insults B on Facebook, tomorrow, B can kill A for it. That is the real thing. Also, the cyber world has become a platform for people to share their “fantasies” that they are unable to enact in the real world due to social norms and rules- virtual rape, virtual bullying, etc...

Thanks to the technology, disagreements can be displayed using cowardly methods such as cc-ing every “important” person in the company in a bid to “cover ka-cheng”. Either that or cowardly attacks on people’s personal blogs such as leaving hostile messages on tag boards, or making their enemies’ blog links public on community blogs. I’m sure you have heard of stories about husbands or wives telling each other “I want a divorce, I’m leaving you” through emails or sms because they lack the courage to do it face to face.

I’ve also noted that many teenagers today are slaves to technology. It has gotten so bad that many of them are incapable of interpersonal interaction face to face. When I mean incapable, I don’t mean that they are unable to make friends, I mean they are unable to speak their minds, nor are they capable of conveying their opinions through verbal (choice of words) or non-verbal (i.e. body language) means.

Despite this, the internet has been a good place for people to socialize and interact with others from other parts of the world, socioeconomic groups, languages, race and religion. On my end, I’ve gotten to know new people- some good some bad, but every one of them left me a precious lesson on differences in people and their beliefs. I just find that with the ready availability of emails, I hate to call people up or meet them face to face. I prefer long emails that leave me a record of what transpired. =)

Why Are Singaporeans So Hard to Please?

I had some thoughts after reading an article in the Channel NewsAsia webpage on the installation of half-height barriers in the above-ground MRT stations, which will be completed across the nation by 2012.

There are a few issues that revolved around this policy, firstly, why these barriers are built, and second, how people reacted to this change, which is the focus of my post here.

The barriers were built as a response to cases of suicide in MRT stations, where people simply jumped off the platform onto the track at the oncoming train. So the barriers were erected in order to prevent the chances of people falling onto the tracks, by intention or by accident. It also prevents personal objects from falling onto the tracks.

The benefits? First accidents and deaths are avoided. Second, time is saved and convenience ensured, as train services are always disrupted after each accident, which causes a certain amount of distress and frustration (just imagine stuck in the station, or the train, for more than an hour because the trains couldn’t move).

BUT, some Singaporeans are just so hard to please.

“It’s unsightly.” Said one. “There is no ventilation.” Said another.

I was thinking, given Singapore’s insane weather, there’s no difference whether there’s a barrier or not in the first place. Besides, the existence of barriers is not the real cause of temperature conditions in MRT stations anyway.

And unsightly? Well, the Metro in Taipei had the same barriers too, they didn’t complain.

Besides (and to be really cynical), given the already unsightly appearance of above-ground MRT stations in Singapore, it really doesn’t make a difference.
What is more important, to think of the larger picture, is to consider what these barriers are for. They are, to use the RSAF’s advertisement motto, “for a higher purpose”. They are there to prevent accidents and disruptions to train services.

So, why are Singaporeans so hard to please?

It’s because, to me, we are just such a demanding lot of people. We want the best of everything, even if they might contradict one another. We want safer stations and less disruption, and yet want “visual pleasure” and ventilation, we want good salaries and career prospects, yet are cynical of our education system, which is responsible for the creation of career opportunities for individuals.

It’s really like the people in the US, who want to slim down by eating.

Of course, not everyone in Singapore is like that. The difference in opinion to the erection of barriers is also not necessarily the self-contradicting statements of specific individuals. But it does show one thing about human society in general: that conflicting interests create the difficulty of policy implementation and social improvement.


I was also reading about Mr Obama’s recent healthcare reforms, which led to intense debate in the US. It’s a pretty complex issue, so just for a quick background, here’s some of the issues.

First, Mr Obama wants to extend insurance coverage to more Americans. A large number of Americans are still uninsured, so you can imagine what will happen to them if they incur medical costs, which are ridiculous in the US.

Second, Mr Obama wants to reform the insurance system. Currently, insurance companies (in the US, of course, you can’t imagine insurance companies in Singapore doing that) can reject claims based on “pre-existing conditions”, meaning you’ve had some previous health condition you may or may not know about. So, if you are hospitalised, for say, heart disease, and you have high blood pressure, the insurance company can reject your insurance claim because of the pre-existing condition of high blood pressure (ridiculous, isn’t it).

For a cynical take on the shambles of the US healthcare system, you can watch Michael Moore’s Sicko. Of course, I’ll have to warn you, it’s very cynical, and biased in some ways, so take note.

In the US, the debate is really intense. Obama’s supporters feel he’s not doing enough, and his opponents and critics are saying he’s bringing more problems and creating “socialised medicine”, exemplified by the communist states and the British National Health Service (NHS), which are portrayed as inefficient and expensive (well, not quite. The NHS is expensive, for the state, but it’s quite efficient, thanks to Mrs Thatcher’s reforms).

What am I trying to put forth here? First, in Singapore, there’s this really famous saying, “In Singapore, one can die, but can never fall ill”, reflecting the high costs of healthcare in Singapore.

But if you know just a little more about the other healthcare systems of other countries, you’ll realise we’re not all that bad. At least we have some form of funding for healthcare (not that the US doesn’t have things like medisave, medishield and medifund, they do. But they are much less substantial in funds), and at least insurance companies don’t cheat us like they do in the US.

What bridges both the US and Singapore is the contradicting interests that are involved. To put it bluntly, both want a healthcare system that is good, but both also don’t want to pay for it.

In the presence of conflicting interests, we need to think critically, rather than naively and childishly say, “I want it my way.”

Should the parents of Ah Lians/ Ah Bengs be blamed for their deviant behavior?

Ah Lians (ALs) and Ah Bengs (ABs) are such fascinating creatures. I really enjoy disturbing them by being the biggest kaypoh (busy body) to swing by their terrible blogs. I don’t kaypoh because I care for them, but because I’m gathering info! I usually target ALs because they are more emotionally unstable. Based on 6 months’ worth of data collection, when I talk about ALs, I’m talking about teenagers from 13-18 years old who share the following characteristics in varied combinations:

Self Inflated Ego- They like to think they are pretty, but most of them are plain Janes. They normally share the same re-bonded China-doll hair cut, thick make up and an awful taste in cheap clothing. I don’t have issues with rebonded hair and cheap clothes, but ALs have a remarkable talent in making nice hair and clothes look bad. As for thick make up, I think it should be reserved for Wayangs, note for the streets. They like to say stuff like “DM, you jealous of me right? Cos I’m so pretty…” Urgh, I rather die a virgin. What’s more, if you don’t think they are pretty or smart, they mutate into banshees that scream an endless barrage of vulgarities.

Sensitive- they can criticize you, you can't criticize them. They take it VERY personally. They'll threaten to burn down your house, whack you up and start challenge you for your real name, your home address, handphone number and your gender. And I suspect most ALs are homophobic, I guess they just want to get laid by every male that walks across their path in order to feel like they are "wanted" and "desirable". They take rejection personally too, they do threaten suicide (to me, its good riddance to bad rubbish).

Diarrhea of the Mouth, Constipation of the Brains (intellectual poverty)- I realize all ALs can’t debate. All they can do is swear and accuse people of being kaypoh. I find it incredibly amusing that when I leave comments, I get accusation of “stepping English” (since when was speaking standard English a sin?) or for being a kaypoh (I love being a kaypoh, anyone who has curiosity in them will be a kaypoh!). So far, a few ALs have “cursed” me to be childless in future, even AFTER I told them I refuse to have kids due to the 50% chance of them turning bad. The other word they like to use is slut/bastard. Well, pot calling the kettle black in most cases. Heh.

The word “dog”- I don’t know why they have to use the word “dog” on everyone, be it friend or foe. They don’t call people baboons, morons, jackasses, etc. From the Freudian perspective of symbolism, I would hypothesize that it’s a reflection of their behavior:

• They mate like dogs (multiple partners)
• Run in packs (their endless lines of gans and jies)
• Bark a lot (the endless barrage of vulgarities and empty threats)
• Howl to the moon (emotional outbursts at night about being lonely and unwanted by their family)
• Bitch bitch bitch (they are experts at that)
• Run off with their tails between their legs once they meet their betters
  

The inability to swear properly- They are masters of quantity, not quality. They feel very empowered using “f” words and other hokkien words. Unfortunately, their hokkien stinks to high heaven, the sentences often don’t make sense. For example- knn limbei you! (translated as: screw your mother, your father you). That doesn’t make sense doesn’t it? And the part that really made me flinch was the use of CCB by ALs, may their vaginas rot off from overuse.

Self destructive behavior- I find it very cute that they always glorify these three things: smoking, drinking and sex. I think these are activities that no under-aged kid in their right mind would do. What’s more, I’ve been trying to go to a few AL’s blogs to offer them “good advice”. Typical of their rebellious nature, most of the replies I’ve gotten are “who are you to tell me what to do? Stupid Kaypoh”, the nicer ones were “I don’t know who you are, thanks for the advice, but I’ll live my own life”. I have a question “Why is a stranger offering you good advice inferior to that of the gans and jies that teach you how to die of cancer or STD faster?”

If you aren't with me, you are against me- As long as you don't agree with "the" AL way, you are a nerd, even if you can't study. Either that or you're a retard, idiot, bodoh, huan loh, hongster, or whatever, even though you know you are smarter than them and a lot less flirtatious.

Mysterious creatures- no one understand them. Really, you see them declare this all over their blogs. Their teachers, parents, boyfriends and siblings don’t understand their insurmountable pain and anguish over lord know what. Nobody can understand why they do stupid stuff like getting knocked up and going for rounds of abortion. No one understand why they have to waste all their money on cigarettes and alcohol when they highest pay they can get is approximately $6/hr. No one understands why they take so many MCs and leave even though they are earning so little. No one knows why they prefer bad friends over good ones. No one knows why they want to go to NT or NA when they can perfectly well get into express. No one knows why some of them give up poly to join their bfs in ITE. No one knows why they still stay with a boyfriend who rather sleep than go out with them. Are they that stupid? Maybe.

After many scuffles with them, I realize they switch to the “sob” story after some time. They start to cite stories about having a single parent, stepparent from hell, lousy parents, etc. as a reason for their deviant behavior. I think that is a terrible excuse. I’ve met people who come from single parent families with that single parent being a shitty example of parenthood (gambling, loansharks, alcoholism, etc) but they still turned out find. Why? It’s because they have the ambition and determination to pull themselves out of the vicious cycle. So my point is ALs are weak in mind, body and soul. Some ALs reform and improve over time. But hey, a leopard never changes its spots- once an AL, forever an AL. I’ve known a few successful ALs, sadly, financial success couldn’t scrub off their liannie “aura”. Staff and associates would always whisper behind them what an AL she is. So what is a liannie “aura”? This is what I’ve gathered:

• Loud voice- they treat everyone like slaves that require regular rounds of verbal abuse.
• Overly suggestive dressing- most of these ladies are in their late 30s or 40s, most have sam-cham-bak (3 rolls of fat at the stomach region). They like to wear TIGHT clothes that make them look like this:
• Tries too hard to look modern- I’m sorry, re-bonded hair, spaghetti straps, mini-skirts and boots should never be a uniform of lady in her 40s. The effect is revolting.
• Tries too hard to show off her wealth- they like everything that screams money, such as diamonds and branded clothes. I know a liannie in her 40s. She loves Esprit and Ralph Lauren, but somehow, she couldn’t carry off those clothes. Everyone thought they were fakes. They like to decorate their homes with expensive but tasteless furniture. Pink and purple walls do not go well with rosewood furniture nor Da Vinci Sofas.
• The wrong clothes for the wrong occasion- I know a liannie who has to paint her nails beautifully before she goes out, even if it’s to the wet market. And she must wear her LV heels instead of slippers to the wet market. I don’t know what she’s trying to prove.
  

Such deviant behaviors has to start from somewhere. I believe that their parents should be blamed. Granted that most ALs are the worst examples of daughters any parent would want, but I still think parents need to play a more active role in nipping the flower in the bud. Children start to distance themselves from their family once they hit adolescence because it is a stage where, a developmental psychologist, Eric Erikson proposed as a period of “Identity Formation or Identity Confusion. They start to venture out into social groups to form a self identity outside their family.

At this stage, they are the most vulnerable to bad influences because their frontal cortexes are still under developed. Meaning, they are unable to think long term- they rather smoke because it’s cool rather than think of its long term impact on their health and looks. People’s frontal cortex is normally fully matured and stabilized when they hit 21 years old. Until then, I would say that it is the parents who should play a more active role in guiding their children until they are mature enough.

When I mean guiding a child, I don’t mean coddling the child and forcing him/her to do things the parents’ way because they said so. A compromise has to be reached through reasoning- children are not right all the time and neither are their parents. Teenagers need their independence, so parents shouldn’t deprive them of it. Instead, they should teach their teenagers how to obtain independence through responsibility. It can be as simple as making sure curfew times are not breached and how asking for extra allowances might be met if there is a valid reason so that they will learn how to spend within their means.

In the case of ALs, many are from broken families and by the time their parent(s) realize that their kid has mutated in a bitch from hell, it’s normally too late. The years of neglect have finally reflected on their parental incompetence. Their children hate them and hate everything that is associated with the words “good” and “decent”. Their children rather take advice from other hooligans than listen to their parent(s) pleas to be good, study hard and get a good job. When that happens, I always favor chopping those kids off and letting them learn how difficult life is if mum/dad isn’t paying for your living expenses. Let them learn how painful it is to earn a pathetic sum of money only to spend it on food and rent.

So are parents to blame when their kids go wild? Yes. There is always a possibility that a kid’s deviant behavior is learnt or inherited from his/her parent. I know of families with 3 generations of jail birds and school drop outs. So is it the genes, or maybe they learnt how to be bad from dad/mom? Who knows?

Although parents have a big part to play, I won’t deny that some teenagers are really hellish, particularly at the ages of 14-15. They are almost impossible to handle. But parents who are firm and strict enough on their children whilst they were growing up would have laid a firm foundation of discipline and respect. Their children may be deviant, but not to the extent of getting knocked up or hooked onto smoking. Negligent parents wouldn’t stand a chance unless their children are mature for their age. So we’re back to square one- parents should be blamed if their children disintegrate into a swarm of angry bees that sting anything that they perceive to be hostile.

I’m aware that some kids turn deviant because of parental abuse, or should I say “parental abuse”. Some call strict parenting abuse. If you think your parents caning you for swearing, coming back home late, smoking, failing your exams or getting into a fight is wrong, that sod you. You are a bloody self centered ingrate who just can’t recognize that your parents whack you because they want you to improve, not because they hate you. In this case, it’s clearly the kid’s fault and partially their parents’ fault for not realizing that caning is no longer a solution to the problem.

I don’t think there such a thing as “I give up hope, I tried everything and I still can’t correct him/her”. It’s a matter of catching them when they are young and instilling values into them. When they are young, they are like a “tabula rasa” (blank sheet of paper). They are still pure and clean, so as a parent, you write down the values you want them to uphold before that piece of paper becomes yellowed, brittle and crowded with negative values accumulated with age, bitterness and misunderstanding.

It’s What You Eat, and How You Eat

Here are some of my thoughts after reading the posts on obesity and anorexia.

If you ask me, the problem with obesity in the West has to do with two main reasons, first, the ubiquity of fast food, second, the problems with western food culture and dietary methods.

First, the ubiquity of fast food. Several reasons allow for the proliferation of fast food in the west. The first is the lack of cheap, healthy alternatives; the second is the various marketing schemes they have used to make their meals more appealing.

The consequence of these is to create the situation where fast food becomes a staple for people in the west, and we all know the effects of the prolonged consumption of fast food.

Second, the problems with western food culture. The trouble is, it’s arguably true that unhealthy foods tend to be the tastier ones. Who doesn’t like fried chicken and fries? But to consider the problem on the other hand, why are the so-called “healthier” foods relatively bad?

The first possible reason is the youth of western culinary culture. Western cuisine (if I can call it that) didn’t really begin until the 15th and 16th century, when Europeans got their hands on spices from Asia. Spices allowed them to favour their food, making them more palatable.

Before that, they cooked like this: everything was boiled in a big pot for several hours, until they were a soggy mush. Not very appetizing isn’t it?

Of course, one might argue, didn’t they have baking and roasting? True, but how many could afford meat back then? Besides, to some extent, this was precisely the problem in their cuisine, because they didn’t have the variety of cooking methods that turns out to be much healthier.

I recently read a book, Why the Chinese Don’t Count Calories. It’s a book about Chinese food culture. The author highlights the point why westerners have having, first, the problem of obesity, and second, so much trouble trying to slim down, and found the answer in Chinese cuisine.

First, there is balance in the Chinese diet. Plenty of vegetables, and other nutritious ingredients, like tofu, as compared to the meats of a western meal.

Second, there is variety in cooking methods. In addition to frying, there are many more cooking methods, like steaming, etc. Point is, more than just baking and roasting.

Third, it’s not about calories. It’s about nutrients. The reason why dieting for many westerners are so difficult and prone to failure is because they get so caught up with calorie intakes they end up measuring the amount of spread for a measured amount of bread, when every meal has to be carefully calculated, and worse, having to abandon essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates for high-protein diets (the Atkins’ Diet is this type of diet)

The author’s point was, if there is balance in the meal, plus the use of other methods, and to focus on nutritional value rather than just calorie intake, the dieting would be easier, along with the other benefits of a simple diet.

But for me, there’s one more thing I’ll add: exercise.

A balanced diet is good, but so is a balanced lifestyle. Just eating and not exercising will not be good, even if one is eating food as simple (or austere for some) as Japanese food.

I enjoy my food. But I also take care not to be enslaved by them.

De Maitre’s list of 10 important inventions across time Part 2

This is a continuation of another 10 important inventions to me. You can read part 1 here: http://contemplasian.blogspot.com/2009/06/de-maitres-list-of-10-important.html

1. Toilet Paper
As a clean freak, I get very upset when there’s no toilet paper around after I’ve conducted my business. Our toilet paper today are nicely soft and smooth, they won’t cause any abrasions. In the 15th centuries, sailors out at sea had no toilet papers to use. So they had a rope hanging down from the ceiling of their “toilet” (it’s just a huge gap at the side of the sea. By the end of the voyage (normally about 3-6motnhs), you can image how the rope looked and smelt like. Most of our landlubber ancestors used leaves- it’s a trial and error thing that certainly taught them some leaves are poisonous and cause severe inflammation/itching. So be thankful for your toilet papers today.
Read more here for other methods of cleaning asses in history: http://regretfulmorning.com/2009/02/9-bizarre-methods-once-used-to-wipe-ass/

2. The Sewing Needle



This is what an ancient needle looks like. It’s pretty big compared to our modern needles, so it always brings this question to my mind- are they sewing up the hole or making even more holes?

3. The Wheel and axle

Without them, there would have been no carts, therefore no chariots, therefore no bicycles and therefore no cars today. They were the first in our step towards automated transportation and contributed greatly to the great human migration. It is also the basis of modern machinery (i.e. cogs) due to its nature as the foundation of all moving parts.

4. Trepanation

Most of you never heard of this, it is the drilling or scraping of a hole in a human skull. It is done for a few reason- releasing “bad vapors” in the head (i.e. migraines and headaches), to release the soul (through a hole in the head) so the person can commune with the Gods better, or surgery to reduce remove excess bone/bleeding from a head injury. Most people do survive this surgery. In the cave man era, they normal use obsidian chips to scrap out a hole in the skull. It was a pretty messy and painful business.

5. The Oven

I love food- baked chicken, bread, cookies, pizza, etc. The oven was an improvement over the common cooking methods of roasting. It was typically a small little clay/brick dome where a fire was lit inside (around the edges) and the bread was placed in the center. I think food tastes better when cooked over wood or charcoal because they are a lot more aromatic.

6. Ink (Pigment)

Nothing much remains of our caveman ancestors’ way of life except the paintings left on the walls. They depict stories of the hunt, village life and their reverence for Nature. From them, we know that our ancestors hunted in groups and they liked to engage in body painting. These cave paintings were the stepping stones for the transition from oral to written history. Do note that these two forms of history are by no means exclusive as they go hand in hand together.

7. Aqueduct
If you thought the Romans were the first people to construct aqueducts, you were wrong. Our ancestors have been doing there for a looooooooooooooooong time. The Romans only deserve the credit for building Mega-Aqueducts that stretch over huge distances. Even “backward” civilizations like the Aztecs had a sophisticated system of aqueducts bringing in water from the mountains down to their valleys.

8. Ships/ Log Boats

Our ancestors spread out from Africa thousands of years ago by foot and water. Did you know that the indigenous population in South America had aboriginal ancestry? Unfortunately, this has been bred out over the generations. That would mean the Aztecs, Incas, Moche, etc were survivors of people who crossed the entire Pacific Ocean from the Pacific Islands on primitive ships!

9. Basket Weaving

Now that we have plastic bags and plastic containers, the modern world has relegated baskets to trivial use such as floral arrangement and presentation at bread shops. In the past, they were the shopping and storage bins for people. They were used to hold fruits, grain, eggs, bread, etc.

10. Pottery

Pottery was important to our ancestors because they allowed us to store liquids for prolonged periods without having to worry about them going bad. Animal skins could only hold so much, and water or wine turned stale in them. Furthermore, pottery allowed our ancestors to eat and drink in a “civilized” manner through the use of bowls, cups, etc. It also allowed our ancestors to cook stews, lentils, soups, etc over the fire, providing them a change in diet.

44 Facts about Singapore!

Well well, NDP is here! Happy 44th birthday to Singapore. Ironically, I only realized Singapore was 44 earlier on thanks to Evone. So much so for being a history monster...

1. Mosquitoes
We are never short of these infernal beasts. But it’s ok, treat each feeding session as a karma reaping session.

2. NeWater
It’s always nice to know the water you drink might contain a little of your piss as well as everyone else’s.

3. Raffles is our founder
That’s wrong, it’s Sang Nila Utama. I guess it’s because we can’t find a nice picture of Utama (a myth) to carve a likeness of him and place in front of our Victoria Theatre.

4. Our national anthem is in Malay
Well, not many people know what the lyrics mean, but heck, we all know how to sing it.

5. We have the highest execution rate per capita in the world! It’s ok when it is traded for the lowest crime rate in the world!

6. Our universities do not have an on-campus bar and they do not have enough hostel rooms for everyone. It’s ok, the cleaners are happy less people to scrap off the campus floor when they get drunk and barf everywhere.

7. Singaporeans cannot aim- the rubbish bins have rubbish everywhere but in them and the toilet bowl is cleanest inside the basin. No worries, we have an army of cleaners to maintain our “clean and green image”.

8. We train our smokers to be nice and considerate! We just ostracize them to the corner table at the koptidiam to be exposed to the sun and rain.

9. Alcohol and cigarettes are ridiculously expensive! No matter, under aged kids still smoke and drink anyway. They are affluent and devious enough. Isn’t that a sign of our thriving economy and first class education system?

10. We pay a lot of GST, service charge, road tax, parking fine, library fine, littering fine, spitting fine, etc. to the government so that they can pay the thousands of useless employees who mess up the bureaucracy more everyday and our extremely expensive ministers. Ah well, at least we can confidently say have one of the lowest income taxes in the world, so can’t complain.

11. Durians- some people love them, some people hate them. For the consideration for all, they are banned from entering all public transports. No worries, you can still eat them at the stalls! We have high-class sounding Durian sellers who call their shop "Durian Cafe".

12. Middle Age Crisis is very common among Singaporeans. They are typically serial nose pickers, quarrelsome, aggressive, naggy and extremely Kiasu. They spend half of their time being inconsiderate and the other half nagging at inconsiderate people around them. Aren't they such precious treasures?

13. Our ministers are among most highly paid politicians in the world! PM Lee Hsien Long makes 6x more than Obama (USD 400,000). It's nice to know that we are one of the least corrupted countries in the world too. We have a Corruption Perception Index of 9.2 and we rank 4th in the world, only because the top 3 countries- Demark, New Zealand and Sweden share the same 9.3 index! Taken from:http://theonlinecitizen.com/2009/04/pm-lee-tops-list-of-10-best-paid-world-politicians/ & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perceptions_Index

14. We still practice Judicial Caning! We are one of the few secular states that administer caning to social deviants. The cane is about 1.2m long and about half an inch thick. Many countries criticize us for violating the UN Convention Against Torture. Guess what? We didn't sign it and we have the lowest crime rates in the world!

15. Sarong party girls- many Singaporeans hate them because these girls only have eyes for caucasians. Don't worry though, our local men also know how to import "foreign talents", mainly from China and Vietnam to restore homeostasis.

16. We have a different meaning of racial harmony through tolerance. Tolerance stems from "don't talk about it at all and don't even be a kaypoh about other cultures and religions". Fair price to pay for the peace we get eh?

17. We are suspicious people. Why shouldn't we? Even charities are conspiring against us. First it was NKF, now it is Ren Ci. Good for Reverend Ming Yi who has 9 credit cards, bought and sold 6 private properties at a profit, bought and sold 3 BMWs, a pet horse and an expensive pet called Yeung who has a penchant for branded stuff and 3 supplementry cards from boss. I guess monks have to violate the "abstain from material wealth" code in order to be generously contribute to the economy. =) His self sacrifice will be appreciated by all the needy poor and doners who surely must realize he was doing it for the benefit of all in the long term.

18. We are a paternalistic society where dad/governement will make sure you behave very well. Even to the point of nailing a notice on your bedpost "NO ORAL OR ANAL SEX FOR HOMOSEXUAL PARTNERS". It is an attempt to maintain our image as a conservative society. There is always a lovely cane hanging within sight and the threat of being grounded or having your pocket money revoked hanging above you. So we should all BEHAVE; no wonder that we have the lowest crime rate in the world eh?

19. We are the only country in the world (to my knowledge) that actually banned the import and sale of chewing gum. Unfortunately, they relaxed that rule a little and allow pharmacists to sell certain gums that have health benefits. If they relax it a little more, we'll have a multitude of idiots stuffing gum into mailbox keyholes, lift buttons and pasting them under tables and chairs. Disgusting inbreeds.

20. We are a "fine" country. People like to criticize us for being a nanny state where spitting, toilet flushing and jaywalking are considered punishable offenses. All I can say is shut up. =D We are a lot more cleaner and safer than our critics.

21. Singapore don't give a hoot about international pressure- the LAW prevails. That's one thing I like about Singapore, we don't bow down to international pressure to remove our capital punishments like hanging and caning and fairly punish foreigners who violate our laws! E.g. the idiot Michael Fay who was so cocky of his immunity as a citizen of mighty America- he got caned anyway when found guilty of theft and vandalism. When he got burnt while abusing butane later in life, he had the cheek to blame the Singapore judicial system for emotional trauma. He was a kid with serious issues, we should have given him the full 12 strokes instead of 4, maybe he would have crawled out of prison a better person.

22. Based on estimates in the 2008 World Drug Report, published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Singapore has one of the lowest prevalence of drug abuse. So we should execute all the drug traffickers regardless of nationality once they are caught in order to keep this up. In the sensationalized trial of Van Tuong Nguyen, Australia tried to pressurize Singapore into blocking the death penalty. We executed that criminal anyway. It's good that we treat criminals and criminals regardless of their background, reasons or nationality. They were apprehended in their attempts to cause harm and they will be punished for it.

23. We are a nation of common sense and reason. Unlike USA or Australia, we certainly didn't hold virgils or organize protests to burn the opposing countries' flags nor did we boycott their products in order to show our disfavor whenever our citizens are punished overseas for their wrong doing. When you're wrong, you are wrong, you should be punished.

24. Singaporeans make the worst hostages because the government won't contribute a single cent of ransom to save their citizens. I honestly like this because you won't encourage the terrorists or kidnappers. The means justify the end. That's why terrorists networks worldwide hate us and love American hostages.

25. We are a certificate country, no certs means no future. We can't have that now can we? So our students are the most obscenely hardworking bunch of monsters, bar the social deviants who drop out and make parasites out of themselves. Your future boss looks at your certificates before he looks at you.

26. We are one of the most realistic group of people in this world. We openly admit that being a construction worker is a terrible job, unlike our American counterparts who zealously call it a professional occupation. To us, it is a low skill labor that pays poorly, they just don't see that don't they? Every job is professional, it is how professional it is that matters.

27. We are very ambitious people, we want the 6Cs- cash, credit cards, condominiums, cars and certificates. That's gooooood, it motivates us to work hard for what we want. It deters people from sitting at home and waiting for their monthly social security handouts.

28. We have the best propaganda machine in Asia- because almost everyone doesn't realize it exists! Ok, we know it exists, but most can't pinpoint where or what it is. A good example would be Social Studies! It has almost nothing to do with sociology but it has everything good about Singapore.

29. The Singapore government even regulates how you rear your pets. For those staying in HDBs, only toy dogs are allowed and apparently no private fish bonds outside your apartment either (apparently, you upset the weight per sq inch ratio). You are not allow to breed dogs for sale at home either! You need a license and a farm to do that.

30. We don't have strikes and protests every alternate day unlike Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, France, etc. This is because you need a PERMIT. Since no one can be bothered to think of a justifiable reason of holding a protest in order to apply for a permit, nor wait for the permit to be approved, no one has organized a successful protest so far. Thank goodness for that! We have a very stable economy because man hours are not wasted on pointless marchess requesting for more pay and holidays. In Singapore, you'll just get sacked. There are other people out there waiting for an opening...

31. We are a city of misers and workaholics. We hate to pay fines and neither do we relish holidays behind bars. So no one breaks the law just to attend a strike or protest because everything they hold dear is in jeopardy.

32. Our politicians have cat fights now and then. Classic example: MM Lee & SM Goh vs Mr Chee. MM Lee and SM Goh won not because the law was on their side, but because they makes more sense than Chee.

33. We are the only country with the post minister mentor. People insist that MM Lee refused to relinquish his political power. I think they are wrong- we can't drop him after all he has done! He has a lot of experience and he was the hand that shaped Singapore. His guidance has been proven to be the most sound leadership in SEA.

34. I fully agree with Kumar when he said this "(Every NDP)everytime the fireworks go, I cry. That's not because I'm patriotic, that's my income tax".

35. The Merlion will most likely sink head first if it tries to swim. If you look closely, it only has a claudal fin, it doesn't have a anal fin, dorsal fin, pectoral fin nor a pelvic fin. So it shouldn't be able to balance nor steer.

36. Singapore is an ungracious country. Smile at a stranger and they'll start to think there's something wrong with your head. No one bothers to ask you polite stuff like "how are you" or "how was your day". We don't have that culture.

37. Singaporeans have a penchant for queueing up! As long as there is a looooong queue, they'll queue up even if they don't know what its for. They are even to queue up overnight and over the weekend for free stuff or special discounts.

38. Singaporeans are unfriendly. They bitch a lot and they don't smile a greeting when they walk by you and the men don't open the door for the ladies at all.

39. Singaporeans always complain that the influx of foreign talent has been depriving them of jobs. Well, serve the Singaporeans right, they didn't want those jobs when times were good. Now that times are bad, they whine about it louder.

40. We're probably the only country that drills its people for all kinds of emergencies- war, fire, air raid, etc. Students and workers alike are timed and evaluated for their response level and efficiency.

41. Singaporeans are so crazy about food that they are willing to travel from one end of the island to the other just to eat their favorite dish. Some even go out for suppers way after midnight to satisfy their insatiable cravings.

42. Singaporeans depend on the government for everything. When they can't handle their children, they throw the problem to the government. When they can't get along with their neighbours, they scream for the government. When they have a major disagreement in an association like AWARE, they scream for the government.

43. We have a wierd way of drawing up our "maps". You might be staying in Paya Lebar, but you're under the Marine Parade Constituancy. Wierd...

44. Singapore has one of the worst script writers to me when it comes to serial dramas and "comedies". They are so embroiled with moralistic overtones that you can pretty much guess what will happen next.