Seng Wai - Path In Life

That girl

2007-01-15T06:26:00.000Z

The girl that I will raves to my parents about. The girl that makes me text message to my friend "I'm in love". The girl I will brag to my girlfriends about. The girl whose picture I look at every day, secretly looking around the office to make sure nobody's standing behind me.

The girl that I can't wait to take home to meet my parents. The girl that I fantasizes about doing things with - going away, going out to eat, going to the library. The girl that makes me see a hot girl, and think "She's hot, but I like you so much more".

The girl that I bring to the office party, introduce to my coworkers, then pretends I'm annoyed when they say how nice and how beautiful you are, and how cute the two of us are together (though I'm secretly loving every minute of it).

The girl whose name I search for on his computer, msn history and email account, hoping I'll find something an old email or conversation from you. The girl whose old emails and notes I will read again and again. And again and again.

The girl I dream of spending money on. The girl who makes me feel like material things are irrelevant.

The girl that makes me hide in the bathroom at work, quietly sobbing, when things look like they are going bad. The girl that makes me stay at work much later than I should, because instead of working, I'm writing about you.

SpellCast ("Blog Ressurection")

2007-01-11T07:31:00.000Z

After a long hiatus and a slow day in the office since boss is too busy to deal with my work, I've returned to ressurect my blog!

What to say....

Well it's a little late to be saying this, but I had a great time over Christmas with my choir buddies ^_^ We had a short informal carolling stint of about 7-8 songs (mostly good ol' carols). Best part of the affair (in order of personal enjoyment) was:
1. Getting to see the woman of my dreams for (almost) a week non-stop. Too bad the feeling isn't mutual T_T
2. Getting to meet my old buddies again! Yes I know i just prioritised the lady over the buddies. Zhong4 Se4 Qing1 You3.
3. Getting to sing Mao Mao once more! Just like the good old day. It's one of my fave choral(?) pieces

XY's birthday was over new year's eve so I got her a present, which was this soft-leather bag for office use. I can't quite remember the brand though.. it starts with T and it's italian... Tuscani maybe? The bag was the subject of much discussion and deliberation between my friends and colleagues. Took us a study trip to Robinsons to decide on what to get.

So now that the new year has started, my life has once again settled down into the usual work-WoW routine while I try to slip in a date or two with xy (no such luck yet).

Fairly Ordinary Heroes

2005-10-21T17:29:00.000+01:00

This news may seem a little late, but it's been festering in my mind for quite a while so I decided to just place my thoughts here anyway.

Shenzhou VI has returned from its fairly uneventful trip, and the Chinese have responded with the pomp and flair typical of a striving nationalistic country. The two colonels who went into space are being hailed as heroes. Every country needs a hero or two, and they need to be suave and iconic to whip up a good frevor.

Not to belittle our latest taikonauts, but aren't we forgetting somebody? A team of geeky bespectacled folks who got them up there into the first place? Was there anyone who remembered the rocket scientists, the mechanical engineers, the risk analysts, the firmware programmers? Who were those who REALLY made it all possible, constructing a machine not only capable of propelling human beings hundreds of miles above their natural habitat, but also capable of comfortbly housing them and catering for their basic needs (and then some)? Why was there no mention of the dilligence, skill, and sacrifice of the folks behind the scene?

So do your local geeks a favour. That high speed connection allowing you to read this blog? That processor core that squeezes more wires than the strands of your hair into a single centimeter of silicon to allow you to surf the net, chat online and listen to mp3 at the same time? The engines and control systems of your family car? The fridge that keeps your food fresh? Or the light bulb and electrical systems that keep the day going way into the night? They're all the collective fruits of sweat, blood and toil from your local brainies, young and old, alive or dead. Take a while to appreciate them a little; they rarely get the thanks.

Yasukuni: A fault of the Japanese Government?

2005-10-20T11:39:00.000+01:00

The Yasukuni War Shrine has always been a place of great controvesy. Everytime a Japanese leader visits the shrine, it will always be accompanied by a huge uproar by its neighbouring countries. The latest visit by Koizumi has resulted in yet another trip cancellation by Beijing and more rhetoric by South Korea, But the issue isn't as clear as we would like it to be.

Yasukuni Shrine was first created to commemorate the victims of the Boshin War, and is one of the primary Shinto shrines in Japan. Since then, it has also enshrined the dead from another 1877 civil war, followed by multiple invasions into the neighbouring states from 1890 till WWII. The purpose of Yasukuni was to enshrine ALL Japanese War casualties. After Japan's defeat in WWII, Yasukuni became a religious insitiution independent from the Japanese Government. It is now completely privatedly funded.

So what seems to be the big deal? Amongst the 2.5 million enshrined in Yasukuni are 14 Class A war criminals, whom Yasukuni has defiantly defended by calling them “cruelly and unjustly tried as war criminals by a sham-like tribunal of the Allied forces.” The Japanese website claims that "comfort women were not forced to serve by the Japanese Empire”. That would surely be enough to tick off more than a few people.

Admist all the hoo-ha, what many don't realise is that the Japanese treat the war-dead from their civil wars much like the way Americans treat the soldiers of the American Revolution. They honor the dead as heroes, which is a perfectly legitimate reason. It is only with the addition of the various Japanese invasions & WWII that the problem begins.

Let us remind ourselves that this is not the first time a religion has twisted history to suit itself. The Crusades of past centuries are revered by the Church as a glorious past, and the same applies to the jihads by the Islamic faith. It is doubtless that these massacres are no less bloody than what the Japanese had accomplished during WWII.

If there is a single party that can change to improve the situation, it will be for Yasukuni to replace its statements about WWII with more historically correct ones. That will be a small but meaningful start. It is however not the government's place to tell a religious institution what to do and hence the ball is really in the court of Yasukuni and its own supporters.

Sharing a well-written passage from National Geographic

2005-10-13T12:39:00.000+01:00

Little Ngoan was buried behind the parent's hut three weeks ago. Her grave, a bulky concrete tomb like others dotting the Vietnamese countryside, rests on high ground between a fishpond and yellow-green rice fields. At one end, her family laid out her cherished possessions; a doll's chair, a collection of shells, plastic sandals. They painted her tomb powder blue.

While Ngoan's parents are off helping with the rice harvest, other relatives share their memories. “She was so small, just ten years old,” says her grandmother, sitting on a hammock. “She was very gentle and a good student. If you look at her older sister” - the 17-year-old hangs back shyly - “you can imagine what she was like”. Ngoan's grandfather, silent with grief, lights a stick of incense at her grave.

The loss of a beloved child has hit this family hard. But ordinarily, the wider world would pay little attention to a child's death from infectious disease in this remote corner of Vietnam's Mekong Delta. Old scourges like dengue fever and typhoid still take a toll here, and HIV/AIDS is on the rise.

Yet Ngoan's death and more than 50 others in Southeast Asia over the past two years have raised alarms worldwide. Affected countries are struggling to take action; other nations are sending aid and advisers while stockpiling drugs and developing vaccines at home. And scientists have stepped up their research into the fateful traffic of disease between animals and people.

Why? Because Ngoan died of the flu.

2005-10-02T15:35:00.000+01:00

So there was this one time at derrick's place when we decided to order some McDonald's for supper at 1 am in the morning. After we placed our order, we were told that the food would take approximately 1 and a half hours to get here.

1.5 hours!!!

Could someone tell me what the definition of fast food is again?

OK NOW I'm officially freaked out

2005-08-30T23:05:00.000+01:00

How about.... Democratic extremism =p

2005-08-22T14:04:00.000+01:00

There has been a flurry of articles about how Islamic terrorism is not due to Islam, but to Extremism instead. To place undue criticism on the moderate Islamic would be terribly unfair. This has been said time and time again, and I’m not so sure whether the point really gets across. So here it is again:

Extremism is the problem here. Extremism, when applied to any subject, will warp it beyond recognition. This reminds me of a fictional story that I’ve seen before and would like to share about a kind of “Democratic Extremism”.

----

There exists this country that is ruled by a tyrannical king. The king oppressed the people with heavy taxes and poor treatment, forcing the peasantry into poverty while filling his own coffers. There came a day when the people revolted and the king was captured by the mob. The people had many ideas about what to do with the king, ranging from jail to exile to execution. To settle the dispute, the peasantry decided to have a vote In the end the pro-executors won, and the king was summarily beheaded.

The people of the land began to like the idea of voting, because it placed power in their hands. They decided to make it their form of governance, where all national matters would be settled by a popular vote. Things like how the land should be divided, who should produce which goods….they were all decided by voting. But different people had different ideas, and many were unhappy when the side they took was outvoted. Soon there were small pockets of violence and protests everywhere.

It wasn’t long before the people began to think about how simple their very first vote on executing the king was. They decided that the best method to enforce social stability, was to simply execute the losing party, since the winners would end up with a bigger slice of the pie, and there won’t be any protests since the protesters would be dead! After a little bloody struggle with the concept, the country soon came to terms with accepting the idea, since those who didn’t weren’t in a…… position to speak.

But as the days went by, the country got smaller and smaller due to the massive number of voting contests that kept appearing. The country eventually degenerated into a population of 3: a couple, and their close friend. One day, the friend decided that he wanted to leave the country for greener pastures. The couple didn’t take too kindly to that, and the friend was outvoted 2 to 1. They buried him in their backyard soon after that.

And so ends the tale of a country that embraced extremism, from a proud peasantry that overthrew tyranny, to the misguided couple who ended up executing their best friend.

2005-08-10T13:37:00.000+01:00

A scene from Monty Python's "Life of Brian"

Brian (to adoring crowd): You've got to think for yourself! You are all individuals!

Crowd (in unison): Yes, we are all individuals!

Brian (to adoring crowd): You are all different!

Crowd (in unison): Yes, we are all different!

Single voice (from within the crowd): I'm not.

Crowd (in unison):Shh!

LOL

Antimatter trash

2005-08-08T14:56:00.000+01:00

I visited the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources today, and spoke to some of the folks who work there. Folks so passionate about their work that they really know how to talk about it, as well as churn out the stats with a snap of their fingers. One of the problems they highlighted was the growing trash problem in Singapore.

For example, Singapore now generates about 4.8 tons of trash a day (approx 1kg per person per day). Of that, half of it is recycled, half of it is incinerated, and the incinerated ash and some leftovers are dumpled in a landfill. The latest landfill is expected to fill up in less than 50 years. We also still have a growing energy appetite to feed while trying to keep emissions low.

And suddenly I thought of..... Angels & Demons.

Specifically: Dan Brown's Angels & Demons.

The book mentioned the usage of an Antimatter bomb, which uses a "physical mass to energy" conversion principle that is 100% efficient. (Uranium fission is benchmarked at 1%). When matter and antimatter collide, they annihilate each other to produce pure energy at E=mc^2.

If antimatter technology would one day be harnessed for energy production, you could theoretically get your "raw matter" from the trashpile. This would get you your energy, plus you get rid of the trash. Talk about killing two birds in one stone!

So if this does happen in our lifetime, remember that you read it here first =p

"Bush sparks row over teaching that disputes Darwin"

2005-08-05T12:33:00.000+01:00

It has begun.

George W Bush, in a nod to his right-wing Christian fundamentalist friends, has put into motion a recommendation to teach Intelligent Design as an alternative to Evolution. And since Bush is President of the world's most powerful nation.... what Bush wants, Bush gets. (see Gulf War 2)

Which is pretty much a slap in the face to scientists and science.

In fact, I'm surprised that this move didn't come any sooner after his re-election. Bush must has been putting this on hold so that he doesn't end up alienating science advocates before his second term election.

So what is Intelligent Design, and why is it such a big problem?

Intelligent Design states that life on Earth is (partially or wholy) a product of an external intelligence and creation. This stands in direct contradiction with Evolution, which states that natural selection, where only the fittest and most adaptable survive, is the only force that has led to the state of life on Earth toaday.

So far so good, so what's the problem?

The problem doesn't lie in the fact that conservative religious folks in USA stand for ID, while scientists stand for Darwinism. I'm not discriminating against religion.

The problem isn't because there was a court battle on ID vs Evolution before, and evolution warn. ID may have come up with a better alternative since the last battle it lost.

The problem isn't because Bush is quite ignorant when it comes to science. That's the job of his science advisor.

The problem is actually two-pronged. Firstly, Intelligent design doesn't present any solution of any kind. It simply states that life is too complex for evolution to be the only means. Then it says that if evolution is not enough, some external intelligence must have done it. In effect, this is answering a mystery with a mystery. ID doesn't ask further into what this intelligence is and what it's motives are. It gets us nowhere. There is no field in science that comes to a conclusion because it's a "last-resort" solution. And there's no field in science where the research and questioning stops just like that.

Secondly, the "proofs" for ID are frought with a range of problems. They stem from a poor understanding and consequently poor usage of statistics. It also assumes that the question of life is black or white, thus producing a false dichotomy where if one answer is false, the other must be true. (science doesn't work like that. It's shades of gray) ID also conveniently ignores many of the defects that are built into organic lifeforms, like vertebrate eyes being built the wrong way round, which are errors that one would not expect from intelligence capable of producing life.

2005-07-31T13:24:00.000+01:00

work of art

2005-07-19T03:54:00.000+01:00

At the risk of looking like a perverted anime fanboy, I'm going to put up this dazzling picture of a very well hand-painted figurine that I found on some forum.

A brief note: This is a figurine of Lacus Clyne, one of the main heroines in the popular anime Gundam Seed.

I'm not here to talk about how old she is, or how impossible her figure is, or the ridiculously sized hair & eyes.

I just want to share & admire the great amount of skill & effort put into painting this, especially the eyes.

On a side note, if Bandai went into the prom dress business, I wonder who would wear something like this.

NKF: A case of the tyrannical majority?

2005-07-18T03:22:00.000+01:00

With the bulk of the NKF storm over, it looks a little late to discuss the topic now, doesn't it? I don't feel that there's a need for a summary of the entire event, so I'll just write some of my thoughts instead.

----

I can't help but feel that the public reaction towards NKF's board of directors could have been better managed. People wanted the board to immediately resign, pretty much from the beginning. Yes, the board has done wrong, but no chance was given to the board to explain their actions. The legal court trial may have been a fair one. But in the court of public opinion, NKF pretty much got a lynching. And they got it bad, all because they weren't given a chance to defend themselves.

To me, it seems that instead of the board resigning because they were wrong, it was more like the board resigning because the general public thought they were wrong. In fact, the board could have had plenty of excellent reasons for their actions, but they were not given a chance to say them, and now we would never know.

That lost chance of redemption may be gone forever.

Such is the price to pay in a democracy, where the power lies with the people's majority. Even if the majority is inherently wrong due to some false or impulsive belief, things will still be done their way. More so when applied to a charity dependent on public funds. Hence the term "tyrannical majority"

------------

3 years or 30: What has not been revealed

During Davinder Singh's eloquent demolition of Mr Durai during the NKF trial, Singh had briefly calculated that NKF's reserves would last them 30 years or thereabouts, instead of the 3 years that NKF has themselves advertised. He did so by citing the total reserves amount, divided by the treatment cost subsidy per patient, divided by the total number of patients (2000 i think).

At first glance, things did seem to be that simple. Why did NKF give such an erronous statement? I wonder how much of the general public had put some thought into the calculations themselves. For example, did they consider that:

1) How liquid are these reserves? I think NKF has an investment arm or something to ensure that the reserves generate some income so that the charity is not wholly dependent on public donations. And some investments lock down the cash for a period of time, preventing NKF from withdrawing their full reserves easily.

2) Are dialysis machines expected to last 30 years without maintenance or replacement? How much does the maintenance cost? Are there newer and better machines that the NKF intends to upgrade to?

3) There are 2000 patients being subsidised by the NKF. Is that number expected to stay constant over the next 10 years, or is an increase expected due to the changing eating habits of S'poreans?

4) What other charity works are the NKF involved in? Last I heard they were doing something for children as well. And isn't NKF planning to branch out to more areas to help folks other than needy diabetics? Don't those cost money?

5) What other admin costs are there that we're missing? If more patients are expected, does NKF need to build a new dialysis branch in some part of S'pore? Or extend a building wing?

6) How about inflation? Inflation rate in S'pore is around 1%. (more, if in an economic boom).

7) The dialysis subsidy is set at 25% of the cost to the patient. Is NKF changing the subsidy amount in the near future?

To be fair, I think the NKF's figure of 3 years is an unstatement and therefore a error on the part of the NKF. But the rosy 30-year picture of Davinder Singh's is pushing it too far. Nothing is ever simple when it comes to large sums of money, and a thinking people need to be able to deduce that before they cry foul.

2005-07-15T06:04:00.000+01:00

So much has happened in the past 2 weeks that I wish to comment about: The London bombings, NKF fiasco & The Pope disapproving of Harry Potter.

Instead of cramming all these topics into 1 post, I guess I'll take my time and write a little about them on different days.

And first, here's London:

(courtesy of Newsweek)

Engineering: Dating Odds

2005-06-30T06:37:00.000+01:00

Hey Junjie! This one's for you!

Excerpt from "The Politically Correct version of Cinderella"

2005-06-28T09:54:00.000+01:00

There once lived a young wommon named Cinderella, whose natural birthmother had died when Cinderella was but a child. A few years after, her father married a widow with two older daughters. Cinderella' mother-of-step treated her very cruelly, and her sisters-of-step made her work very hard, as if she were their own personal unpaid laborer.

One day, an invitation arrived at their house. The prince was celebrating his exploitation of the dispossessed and marginalised peasantry by throwing a fancy dress ball. Cinderella's sisters-of-step were very excited to be invited to the palace. They began to plan the expensive clothes they would use to alter and enslave their natural body images to emulate an unrealistic standard of feminine beauty. (It was especially unrealistic in their case, as they were differently visaged enough to stop a clock.) Her mother-of-step also planned to go to the ball, so Cinderella was working harder than a dog (an appropriate if unfortuntely speciesist metaphor).

When the day of the ball arrived, Cinderella helped her mother and sisters-of-step into their ball gowns. A formidable task: It was like trying to force ten pounds of processed nonhuman animal carcasses into a five-pound skin. Next came immense cosmetic augmentation, which it would be best not to describe at all. As evening fell, her mother and sisters-of-step left Cinderella at home to finish her housework. Cinderella was sad, but she contented herself with her Holly Near records.

Suddenly there was a flash of light, and in front of Cinderella stood a man dressed in loose-fitting, all-cotton clothes and wearing a wide-brimmed hat. At first Cinderella thought he was a Southern lawyer or a bandleader, but he soon put her straight.

"Hello, Cinderella, I am your fairy godperson, or individual deity proxy, if you prefer. So you want to go to the ball, eh? And bind yourself into the male concept of beauty? Squeeze into some tight-fitting dress that will cut off your circulation? Jam your feet into high-heeled shoes that will ruin your bone structure? Paint your face with chemicals and make-up that have been tested on nonhuman animals?"

"Oh yes, definitely," she said in an instant. Her fairy godperson heaved a great sigh and decided to put off her political education till another day. With his magic, he enveloped her in a beautiful, bright light and whisked her away to the palace.

Many, many carriages were lined up outside the palace that night; apparently, no one had ever thought of carpooling. Soon, in a heavy, gilded carriage painfully pulled by a team of horse-slaves, Cinderella arrived. She was dressing in a clinging gown woven of silk stolen from unsuspecting silkworms. Her hair festooned with pearls plundered from hard-working defenseless oysters. And on her feet, dangerous as it may seem, she wore slippers made of finely cut crystal.....

"The Line" at Shangri-La

2005-06-26T13:45:00.000+01:00

I hardly write about happenings in my daily life, but THIS warrants a report.

Sometime ago, I was told that the Triple 3 buffet at Meritus Mandarin is the best buffet in Singapore. Well it certainly was good so I ended up taking their word for it. Until I stepped into the "The Line"

Shangri-La's doesn't come cheap, at 68+++ pax. Oh, but the spread of food is so fantastic that I don't know where to begin.

The cold food assortments had sushi and sahimi, raw oysters, cold prawns, crab, lobsters, mixed seafood pudding, salads, cold cuts of beef and smoked salmon on shallots. I was served swordfish sashimi slices that were thicker than my fingers, which I had much trouble picking up with my chopsticks. I never was good at chopsticks anyway ^_^

The main courses came in an international spread as well. Of note was their dim sum, roast lamb, pizzas and satay. They also had a chef making noodles on the spot which was raves all around. It was all really good and I would stay to elaborate, but I won't because I just can't wait to get to the next highlight...

Which is this: the piece de resistance. A metre high, 10kg chocolate fountain.

Situated at the deserts section, you just can't miss this chocolate fountain used for their fondues. In fact, I was sitting only 2 tables away from it, and have to pass it and inhale its intoxicating aroma everytime i leave for another round from the various counters. You get to coat these huge strawberries under its chocolate shower, or grab some marshmallows for dipping. It's a sad thing for the exquisite fruit gelatos just beside the fountain, which were easily shadowed by that menace of a dessert.

I think we spent about 2 hrs there, and stumbled out of the restaurant feeling so bloated that driving back home felt like an occupational hazard. No need for breakfast & dinner today. I must say that this has been a most satisfying experience.

2005-06-24T17:26:00.000+01:00

Why Geeks and Nerds Are Worth It...

2005-06-21T06:11:00.000+01:00

From 66795671@craigslist.org
Date: Sun Apr 03 21:30:08 2005
*edited for S'porean context*

In the wide world of dating, there are many options. Do you go for the flashy guy with the smooth smile, or the dude in the corner typing away on his laptop? The following are reasons why I think my fellow females should pay more attention to the quiet geeks and nerds, and less attention to the flashy boys.

1.) While geeks and nerds may be awkward, they’re well-meaning 9 out of 10 times. That smooth dude with the sly grin and the spider hands? Wonder what HIS intentions are... plus, I’ve never had a geek guy not call me when he said he would. Score major points THERE.

2.) They’re useful. In this tech-savvy world, it’s great to have a b/f who can make your laptop, desktop, and just about anything else that plugs into a wall behave itself.

3.) They’re more romantic than they’re given credit for. Ok true, their idea of romance might be to make up a spiffy web-page with all the reasons why they love you, with links to pics of you and sonnets and such... but hey. It lasts longer than flowers, plus you can show your friends.

4.) Due to their neglected status, there are plenty to choose from. You like ‘em tall and slender? There are plenty of geeks/nerds who are. You like ‘em smaller with more meat on their bones? Got that too.

5.) They’ve got brains. Come on now, how can intelligence be a bad thing?

6.) Most are quite good at remembering dates. Like birthdates and such, especially if they know it’ll make you happy. Due again to their neglected status, they’re more attentive than guys who “have more options”. Plus, with all that down time without a steady girlfriend, they’ll likely have mental lists of all the things they’d love to do once they GOT a girlfriend.

7.) Sex. Yep. Sex. I’m not really familiar with this myself, but I’ve friends who’ve been intimate with geek guys and it’s raves all around. They say a virgin wrote the Kama Sutra... all that time thinking about sex, imagining sex, dreaming about sex, (they are male after all) coupled with a desire to make you happy? Use your imagination.

8.) They’re relatively low-maintenance. Most can be fueled on pizza, chicken rice and coke. No complicated dinners needed here, so if you’re not the best cook, eh. Can you order a pizza?

9.) Most frequent bars as often as slugs frequent salt mines. You won’t have to worry much about your geek guy getting his “groove” on with club hotties because, frankly, he’ll be too busy rooting around under his computer wondering where that spare cable went. You won’t have to worry about him flirting with other women because, 9 out of 10 times, he’ll zip right by them in a perfect b-line towards the nearest electronics or comics store. I’ve seen this happen.
Me: “Eww. Victoria Secret’s Models... They’re so skinny. How is that feminine? You can see her ribs!”
Geek Guy: “ooooooo...”
Me: “Hey!” *notices he is staring lustfully towards the computer store*
Geek Guy: “What?”
Me: “Never mind...”

10.) Although he may not want to go to every outing with you, you can arrange swaps, as in, you’ll go to his lan-game sessions if he’ll take you to the esplanade. Plus, if he doesn’t want to go someplace with you, you won’t have to worry much about what he’s up to. You’ll probably come home to find him asleep on his keyboard in a sea of green tea bottles with stuff blinking from the screen. It’s ok. He’s used to this. Just toss a blanket over him and turn out the light.

11.) His friends aren’t jerks. I can’t stress this enough. You’ll more likely get “Omg! A GIRL!! Can I see?!” than “Hey hot stuff back that ass up here and let me get some grub on...” They’re awkward geeks too and will, 9 times out of 10, treat you with the utmost respect and, more than likely, a note of awe. A cute girl picked one of their clan to date? It could happen to them! Hope! Drag some of your single girlfriends over, open up the green tea, crack open the PS2 and get working. Nothing impresses geek guys more than a girl who can hack-n-slash (well ok maybe if she can code... a geek can dream).

12.) They’re rarely if ever possessive. They trust you, so you can be yourself around them. You like to walk around the house in a ratty t-shirt for comfort? He won’t care. He does too! They won’t get pissy if you don’t wear make-up or don’t want to bother primping your hair. If you gain a few pounds, they won’t try their best to make you feel like crap.

13.) They’re usually very well educated. Physics majors and the like. See #5. You won’t have to listen to him blathering on about his car (ok maybe a little), he’ll have loads of other interesting things to talk about. Politics, world events, how much the char kway teow down at the local hawker rocks, so long as you drown it in chilli...

14.) You’ll almost never have to hear, “Yaw dawg whazzap!!” (or hokkien equivalent) plop out of their mouths. Unless it’s in jest. They spell properly, use correct punctuation, and are able to tell the difference between the toilet and the floor. They almost never get “wasted”, so you won’t have to worry about coming home to find him and his friends passed out on the floor amidst a pile of beer cans. Pokka green tea, perhaps...

15.) And the final reason why geeks and nerds make great boyfriends: They actually give a damn about you. Not how you look (though that’s a plus), not how skinny you are, not how much make-up you primp yourself up with, but they like you for you. That kind of thing lasts longer than “DaMN baby you got a fine ass!!!” Believe me.

2005-06-11T14:39:00.000+01:00

The price of non-retaliation

2005-06-03T11:47:00.000+01:00

On Wednesday, the New Paper published an article about a boy beaten up in Pahang by his schoolmates. The beating was so severe that he has been hospitalised, and is likely to be paralysed from the neck down. His father blames himself for telling the boy not to retaliate to school bullies.

What the father told the boy was "if someone hits you, turn the other cheek." It's also something I greatly disagree with.

At first glance, the concept of non-retaliation does seem like a peaceful method of reconciliation, encouraging a kind of idealistic utopia. But as this case has shown, such a method is also likely to make the offenders even more impudent, resulting in grave harm for the afflicted party.

That's the famous saying "The only thing necessary for evil to triumph, is for good men to do nothing." This pretty much sums up the case.

I am a firm believer in justice. If one should do evil, then retaliation is justified. The question then, is how much retaliation is too much. Everyone has their own answer to that, but let's not forget that the law exists for a reason as well. Self-defense is necessary for as long as the reach of the law is not infinite.

A little (old ) interview

2005-05-24T06:14:00.000+01:00

The atheist
Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins explains why God is a delusion, religion is a virus, and America has slipped back into the Dark Ages.

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By Gordy Slack

April 28, 2005 Richard Dawkins is the world's most famous out-of-the-closet living atheist. He is also the world's most controversial evolutionary biologist. Publication of his 1976 book, "The Selfish Gene," thrust Dawkins into the limelight as the handsome, irascible, human face of scientific reductionism. The book provoked everything from outrage to glee by arguing that natural selection worked its creative powers only through genes, not species or individuals. Humans are merely "gene survival machines," he asserted in the book.

Dawkins stuck to his theme but expanded his territory in such subsequent books as "The Blind Watchmaker," "Unweaving the Rainbow" and "Climbing Mount Improbable." His recent work, "The Ancestor's Tale," traces human lineage back through time, stopping to ponder important forks in the evolutionary road.

Given his outspoken defense of Darwin, and natural selection as the force of life, Dawkins has assumed a new role: the religious right's Public Enemy No. 1. Yet Dawkins doesn't shy from controversy, nor does he suffer fools gladly. He recently met a minister who was on the opposite side of a British political debate. When the minister put out his hand, Dawkins kept his hands at his side and said, "You, sir, are an ignorant bigot."

Currently, Dawkins is the Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University, a position created for him in 1995 by Charles Simonyi, a Microsoft millionaire. Earlier this year, Dawkins signed an agreement with British television to make a documentary about the destructive role of religion in modern history, tentatively titled "The Root of All Evil."

I met Dawkins in late March at the Atheist Alliance International annual conference in Los Angeles, where he presented the alliance's top honor, the Richard Dawkins Prize, to magicians Penn and Teller. During our conversation in my hotel room, Dawkins was as gracious as he was punctiliously dressed in a crisp white shirt and soft blazer.

Once again, evolution is under attack. Are there any questions at all about its validity?

It's often said that because evolution happened in the past, and we didn't see it happen, there is no direct evidence for it. That, of course, is nonsense. It's rather like a detective coming on the scene of a crime, obviously after the crime has been committed, and working out what must have happened by looking at the clues that remain. In the story of evolution, the clues are a billionfold.

There are clues from the distribution of DNA codes throughout the animal and plant kingdoms, of protein sequences, of morphological characters that have been analyzed in great detail. Everything fits with the idea that we have here a simple branching tree. The distribution of species on islands and continents throughout the world is exactly what you'd expect if evolution was a fact. The distribution of fossils in space and in time are exactly what you would expect if evolution were a fact. There are millions of facts all pointing in the same direction and no facts pointing in the wrong direction.

British scientist J.B.S. Haldane, when asked what would constitute evidence against evolution, famously said, "Fossil rabbits in the Precambrian." They've never been found. Nothing like that has ever been found. Evolution could be disproved by such facts. But all the fossils that have been found are in the right place. Of course there are plenty of gaps in the fossil record. There's nothing wrong with that. Why shouldn't there be? We're lucky to have fossils at all. But no fossils have been found in the wrong place, such as to disprove the fact of evolution. Evolution is a fact.

Still, so many people resist believing in evolution. Where does the resistance come from?

It comes, I'm sorry to say, from religion. And from bad religion. You won't find any opposition to the idea of evolution among sophisticated, educated theologians. It comes from an exceedingly retarded, primitive version of religion, which unfortunately is at present undergoing an epidemic in the United States. Not in Europe, not in Britain, but in the United States.

My American friends tell me that you are slipping towards a theocratic Dark Age. Which is very disagreeable for the very large number of educated, intelligent and right-thinking people in America. Unfortunately, at present, it's slightly outnumbered by the ignorant, uneducated people who voted Bush in.

But the broad direction of history is toward enlightenment, and so I think that what America is going through at the moment will prove to be a temporary reverse. I think there is great hope for the future. My advice would be, Don't despair, these things pass.

You delve into agnosticism in "The Ancestor's Tale." How does it differ from atheism?

It's said that the only rational stance is agnosticism because you can neither prove nor disprove the existence of the supernatural creator. I find that a weak position. It is true that you can't disprove anything but you can put a probability value on it. There's an infinite number of things that you can't disprove: unicorns, werewolves, and teapots in orbit around Mars. But we don't pay any heed to them unless there is some positive reason to think that they do exist.

Believing in God is like believing in a teapot orbiting Mars?

Yes. For a long time it seemed clear to just about everybody that the beauty and elegance of the world seemed to be prima facie evidence for a divine creator. But the philosopher David Hume already realized three centuries ago that this was a bad argument. It leads to an infinite regression. You can't statistically explain improbable things like living creatures by saying that they must have been designed because you're still left to explain the designer, who must be, if anything, an even more statistically improbable and elegant thing. Design can never be an ultimate explanation for anything. It can only be a proximate explanation. A plane or a car is explained by a designer but that's because the designer himself, the engineer, is explained by natural selection.

Those who embrace "intelligent design" -- the idea that living cells are too complex to have been created by nature alone -- say evolution isn't incompatible with the existence of God.

There is just no evidence for the existence of God. Evolution by natural selection is a process that works up from simple beginnings, and simple beginnings are easy to explain. The engineer or any other living thing is difficult to explain -- but it is explicable by evolution by natural selection. So the relevance of evolutionary biology to atheism is that evolutionary biology gives us the only known mechanism whereby the illusion of design, or apparent design, could ever come into the universe anywhere.

So why do we insist on believing in God?

From a biological point of view, there are lots of different theories about why we have this extraordinary predisposition to believe in supernatural things. One suggestion is that the child mind is, for very good Darwinian reasons, susceptible to infection the same way a computer is. In order to be useful, a computer has to be programmable, to obey whatever it's told to do. That automatically makes it vulnerable to computer viruses, which are programs that say, "Spread me, copy me, pass me on." Once a viral program gets started, there is nothing to stop it.

Similarly, the child brain is preprogrammed by natural selection to obey and believe what parents and other adults tell it. In general, it's a good thing that child brains should be susceptible to being taught what to do and what to believe by adults. But this necessarily carries the down side that bad ideas, useless ideas, waste of time ideas like rain dances and other religious customs, will also be passed down the generations. The child brain is very susceptible to this kind of infection. And it also spreads sideways by cross infection when a charismatic preacher goes around infecting new minds that were previously uninfected.

You've said that raising children in a religious tradition may even be a form of abuse.

What I think may be abuse is labeling children with religious labels like Catholic child and Muslim child. I find it very odd that in our civilization we're quite happy to speak of a Catholic child that is 4 years old or a Muslim of child that is 4, when these children are much too young to know what they think about the cosmos, life and morality. We wouldn't dream of speaking of a Keynesian child or a Marxist child. And yet, for some reason we make a privileged exception of religion. And, by the way, I think it would also be abuse to talk about an atheist child.

You are working on a new book tentatively called "The God Delusion." Can you explain it?

A delusion is something that people believe in despite a total lack of evidence. Religion is scarcely distinguishable from childhood delusions like the "imaginary friend" and the bogeyman under the bed. Unfortunately, the God delusion possesses adults, and not just a minority of unfortunates in an asylum. The word "delusion" also carries negative connotations, and religion has plenty of those.

What are its negative connotations?

A delusion that encourages belief where there is no evidence is asking for trouble. Disagreements between incompatible beliefs cannot be settled by reasoned argument because reasoned argument is drummed out of those trained in religion from the cradle. Instead, disagreements are settled by other means which, in extreme cases, inevitably become violent. Scientists disagree among themselves but they never fight over their disagreements. They argue about evidence or go out and seek new evidence. Much the same is true of philosophers, historians and literary critics.

But you don't do that if you just know your holy book is the God-written truth and the other guy knows that his incompatible scripture is too. People brought up to believe in faith and private revelation cannot be persuaded by evidence to change their minds. No wonder religious zealots throughout history have resorted to torture and execution, to crusades and jihads, to holy wars and purges and pogroms, to the Inquisition and the burning of witches.

What are the dark sides of religion today?

Terrorism in the Middle East, militant Zionism, 9/11, the Northern Ireland "troubles," genocide, which turns out to be "credicide" in Yugoslavia, the subversion of American science education, oppression of women in Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and the Roman Catholic Church, which thinks you can't be a valid priest without testicles.

Fifty years ago, philosophers like Bertrand Russell felt that the religious worldview would fade as science and reason emerged. Why hasn't it?

That trend toward enlightenment has indeed continued in Europe and Britain. It just has not continued in the U.S., and not in the Islamic world. We're seeing a rather unholy alliance between the burgeoning theocracy in the U.S. and its allies, the theocrats in the Islamic world. They are fighting the same battle: Christian on one side, Muslim on the other. The very large numbers of people in the United States and in Europe who don't subscribe to that worldview are caught in the middle.

Actually, holy alliance would be a better phrase. Bush and bin Laden are really on the same side: the side of faith and violence against the side of reason and discussion. Both have implacable faith that they are right and the other is evil. Each believes that when he dies he is going to heaven. Each believes that if he could kill the other, his path to paradise in the next world would be even swifter. The delusional "next world" is welcome to both of them. This world would be a much better place without either of them.

Does religion contribute to the violence of Islamic extremists? Christian extremists?

Of course it does. From the cradle, they are brought up to revere martyrs and to believe they have a fast track to heaven. With their mother's milk they imbibe hatred of heretics, apostates and followers of rival faiths.

I don't wish to suggest it is doctrinal disputes that are motivating the individual soldiers who are doing the killing. What I do suggest is that in places like Northern Ireland, religion was the only available label by which people could indulge in the human weakness for us-or-them wars. When a Protestant murders a Catholic or a Catholic murders a Protestant, they're not playing out doctrinal disagreements about transubstantiation.

What is going on is more like a vendetta. It was one of their lot's grandfathers who killed one of our lot's grandfathers, and so we're getting our revenge. The "their lot" and "our lot" is only defined by religion. In other parts of the world it might be defined by color, or by language, but in so many parts of the world it isn't, it's defined by religion. That's true of the conflicts among Croats and the Serbs and Bosnians -- that's all about religion as labels.

The grotesque massacres in India at the time of partition were between Hindus and Muslims. There was nothing else to distinguish them, they were racially the same. They only identified themselves as "us" and the others as "them" by the fact that some of them were Hindus and some of them were Muslims. That's what the Kashmir dispute is all about. So, yes, I would defend the view that religion is an extremely potent label for hostility. That has always been true and it continues to be true to this day.

How would we be better off without religion?

We'd all be freed to concentrate on the only life we are ever going to have. We'd be free to exult in the privilege -- the remarkable good fortune -- that each one of us enjoys through having been being born. An astronomically overwhelming majority of the people who could be born never will be. You are one of the tiny minority whose number came up. Be thankful that you have a life, and forsake your vain and presumptuous desire for a second one. The world would be a better place if we all had this positive attitude to life. It would also be a better place if morality was all about doing good to others and refraining from hurting them, rather than religion's morbid obsession with private sin and the evils of sexual enjoyment.

Are there environmental costs of a religious worldview?

There are many religious points of view where the conservation of the world is just as important as it is to scientists. But there are certain religious points of view where it is not. In those apocalyptic religions, people actually believe that because they read some dopey prophesy in the book of Revelation, the world is going to come to an end some time soon. People who believe that say, "We don't need to bother about conserving forests or anything else because the end of the world is coming anyway." A few decades ago one would simply have laughed at that. Today you can't laugh. These people are in power.

Unlike other accounts of the evolution of life, "The Ancestor's Tale" starts at the present and works back. Why did you decide to tell the story in reverse?

The most important reason is that if you tell the evolution story forwards and end up with humans, as it's humanly normal to do so because people are interested in themselves, it makes it look as though the whole of evolution were somehow aimed at humanity, which of course it wasn't. One could aim anywhere, like at kangaroos, butterflies or frogs. We're all contemporary culmination points, for the moment, in evolution.

If you go backward, however, no matter where you start in this huge tree of life, you always converge at the same point, which is the origin of life. So that was the main reason for structuring the book the way I did. It gave me a natural goal to head toward -- the origin of life -- no matter where I started from. Then I could legitimately start with humans, which people are interested in.

People like to trace their ancestry. One of the most common types of Web sites, after ones about sex, is one's family history. When people trace the ancestry of that name, they normally stop at a few hundred years. I wanted to go back 4,000 million years.

The idea of going back towards a particular goal called to my mind the notion of pilgrimage as a kind of literary device. So I very vaguely modeled the book on Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales," where the pilgrims start off as a band of human pilgrims walking backward to discover our ancestors. We are successively joined by other pilgrims -- the chimpanzee pilgrims at 5 million years, then the gorilla pilgrims, then the orangutan pilgrims. Starting with humans, there are only about 39 such rendezvous points as you go back in time. It's a rather surprising fact. Rendezvous 39 is where we meet the bacteria pilgrims.

The idea that evolution could be "random" seems to frighten people. Is it random?

This is a spectacular misunderstanding. If it was random, then of course it couldn't possibly have given rise to the fantastically complicated and elegant forms that we see. Natural selection is the important force that drives evolution. Natural selection is about as non-random a force as you could possibly imagine. It can't work unless there is some sort of variation upon which to work. And the source of variation is mutation. Mutation is random only in the sense that it is not directed specifically toward improvement. It is natural selection that directs evolution toward improvement. Mutation is random in that it's not directed toward improvement.

The idea that evolution itself is a random process is a most extraordinary travesty. I wonder if it's deliberately put about maliciously or whether these people honestly believe such a preposterous absurdity. Of course evolution isn't random. It is driven by natural selection, which is a highly non-random force.

Is there an emotional side to the intellectual enterprise of exploring the story of life on Earth?

Yes, I strongly feel that. When you meet a scientist who calls himself or herself religious, you'll often find that that's what they mean. You often find that by "religious" they do not mean anything supernatural. They mean precisely the kind of emotional response to the natural world that you've described. Einstein had it very strongly. Unfortunately, he used the word "God" to describe it, which has led to a great deal of misunderstanding. But Einstein had that feeling, I have that feeling, you'll find it in the writings of many scientists. It's a kind of quasi-religious feeling. And there are those who wish to call it religious and who therefore are annoyed when a scientist calls himself an atheist. They think, "No, you believe in this transcendental feeling, you can't be an atheist." That's a confusion of language.

Some scientists say that removing religion or God from their life would leave it meaningless, that it's God that gives meaning to life.

"Unweaving the Rainbow" specifically attacks the idea that a materialist, mechanist, naturalistic worldview makes life seem meaningless. Quite the contrary, the scientific worldview is a poetic worldview, it is almost a transcendental worldview. We are amazingly privileged to be born at all and to be granted a few decades -- before we die forever -- in which we can understand, appreciate and enjoy the universe. And those of us fortunate enough to be living today are even more privileged than those of earlier times. We have the benefit of those earlier centuries of scientific exploration. Through no talent of our own, we have the privilege of knowing far more than past centuries. Aristotle would be blown away by what any schoolchild could tell him today. That's the kind of privileged century in which we live. That's what gives my life meaning. And the fact that my life is finite, and that it's the only life I've got, makes me all the more eager to get up each morning and set about the business of understanding more about the world into which I am so privileged to have been born.

Humans may not be products of an intelligent designer but given genetic technologies, our descendants will be. What does this mean about the future of evolution?

It's an interesting thought that in some remote time in the future, people may look back on the 20th and 21st centuries as a watershed in evolution -- the time when evolution stopped being an undirected force and became a design force. Already, for the past few centuries, maybe even millennia, agriculturalists have in a sense designed the evolution of domestic animals like pigs and cows and chickens. That's increasing and we're getting more technologically clever at that by manipulating not just the selection part of evolution but also the mutation part. That will be very different; one of the great features of biological evolution up to now is that there is no foresight.

In general, evolution is a blind process. That's why I called my book "The Blind Watchmaker." Evolution never looks to the future. It never governs what happens now on the basis on what will happen in the future in the way that human design undoubtedly does. But now it is possible to breed a new kind of pig, or chicken, which has such and such qualities. We may even have to pass that pig through a stage where it is actually less good at whatever we want to produce -- making long bacon racks or something -- but we can persist because we know it'll be worth it in the long run. That never happened in natural evolution; there was never a "let's temporarily get worse in order to get better, let's go down into the valley in order to get over to the other side and up onto the opposite mountain." So yes, I think it well may be that we're living in a time when evolution is suddenly starting to become intelligently designed.

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About the writer
Gordy Slack is a freelance science writer based in Berkeley, Calif.

Man enough?

2005-05-17T17:21:00.000+01:00

I was having a discussion with some camp friends about "What makes a man?" After some back and forth, the result is nicely summarised in the comic below:

Yeah that's guy talk. It's a building full of post-adolescent men. Live with it.

What are we allowed to say?

2005-04-28T16:25:00.000+01:00

In the light of a PSC scholar apologising for racist remarks in his private blog, PSC itself has sent a letter of reprimand to the young chap. The letter also mentions that scholars should conduct themselves in a manner becoming of a PSC scholarship holder.That got me thinking: What can a scholar say or think?

Regulars to my website, blog and myself would know that I am vocal in my disapproval of religion. Simply put, I think that religious truths are plain wrong and I’m not afraid to detail the arguments that take me down this route.

But in a country where religious harmony includes a Religious Harmony Act worded vaguely enough such that criticism of religion could constitute a violation, just how much am I allowed to air my views?

My biggest peeve is easily explained as such:

We want a “critically thinking” society.
One aspect of critical thinking involves examining your premises to identify flaws and envision improvements. One must not be afraid to question. Consequently everything, including old beliefs and traditions, should not be exempted from criticism. Otherwise the very concept of “critical thinking” will be hypocritical.
Religion, by its nature, is easily made unquestionable. We are told to respect the beliefs of others and that includes not criticising the belief itself. We do this so as not to offend them.
Thus we end up with an uneasy contradiction, where the questioning aspects of critical thinking sit in opposition to the unquestioning faith & respect commanded by religion. It is no secret where I stand in this debate.

It is impossible to practise true critical thinking yet refuse to question religious beliefs. As least not without a good measure of mental compartmentalisation & brain acrobatics. If I were to do so, I would be lying to myself.

There are certainly aspects of religion that deserve respect. Charities (that don’t involve proactive conversion at the same time) certainly deserve respect. But respect is earned, not given. Mere assertions about the fabric of reality deserve no respect unless they are verifiable. And no religion has met the standards of proof that make it irrefutable. (If it did, then the world would only have one religion. The fact that many religions exist speak volumes about this.

After all, truth is never afraid of questioning, for it will emerge unscathed. It is obvious to me that there is a fork in the road that involves a choice: Critical Thinking or automatic respect for religious beliefs. I have made my choice as to which path I walk, though it seems to me that it may well be the path less travelled.

A humbling experience...

2005-04-20T04:15:00.000+01:00

This picture is taken by Voyager 1, 4 billion miles away from Earth. The highlighted dot.... is Earth.

Car Sagan wrote the following passage, which I'll like to share. I didn't bother trying to write something similar myself, since I'm not as eloquent as him.

"We succeeded in taking that picture [from deep space], and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam."

"The earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light."

"Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity -- in all this vastness -- there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us. It's been said that astronomy is a humbling, and I might add, a character-building experience. To my mind, there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."

"Look back again at the pale blue dot. Stare at the dot and then try to convince yourself that God created the whole Universe for one of the 10 million or so species of life that inhabit that speck of dust. Now take it a step further: Imagine that everything was made just for a single shade of that species, or gender, or ethnic, or religious subdivision. If this doesn't strike you as unlikely, pick any other dot in the sky. Imagine it to be inhabited by a different form of intelligent life. They too cherish the notion of a God who has created everything for their benefit. How seriously do you take their claim?"

Left Knee Operation

2005-03-31T14:28:00.000+01:00

Whew, I went for a left knee scope operation today. Ever since I fell down the stairs back in Tekong, I've been having knee (and arm) problems. It was diagnosised as a meniscus tear after a MRI scan, and so a scope opperation has to be done.

To tell the truth, I'm not sure what exactly the operation is for. I understand that they insert a camera inside to take a peek, and sometimes the problem is rectified on the spot. Not sure whether they did the latter to me.

I was under General anesthesia most of the time. Sure wish they knocked me out before inserting the glucose drip into my hand. I had to fast the night before, and the operation wasn't due till 11am, so the drip prevented me from feeling hungry.

That GA is powerful stuff. I woke up 3 hours later feeling really giddy. Had no appetite, felt like vomitting, which was aggravated by the fact that I hadn't had water to drink since midnight last night too. I slept like a log even after I reached home. In fact, I stepped into my room, lay on the bed, and KOed the next instant!

On 2 weeks MC now. Kudos to Ben for lending me a ton of games to entertain myself with. I'm so immobile now that my meals have to be brought up to my room since I can't climb the stairs.

Come visit me please! I'm always on for some mahjong ^_^

My very well wrapped left knee. Hurts like hell even after painkillers.

The walking stick I'll be stuck with. It's got a pretty good grip ^_^

Exempting your child from NS: Option 1 = Pop 'em overseas

2005-03-29T09:16:00.000+01:00

Seems like it's a recent(?) South Korean fad is for parents to give birth overseas.

It's good money for the agents apparently. We're talking $US15,000 - 20,000 for flight, accomodation, childbirth expenses etc. They leave for various countries when the mother is 7 months pregnant. After birth, they rest a little before making their way home.

It's not just any country either. Specifically they are countries that offer automatic citizenship to any child born on their soil, like US, Australia, Canada & Kiwiland (aka Hobbiton aka NZ).

NZ sounds really nice especially with all them cows lactating milk powder directly into those Anlene tin cans. You can pratically bathe in the milk.

Ignoring the health complications of getting a 3rd trimester woman up on a plane for a 17hr flight, why the hell would anyone do this?

Why it's because the parents want their child to avoid the mandatory military service in South Korea, as well as avoid the stressful education system & .....hmm.......sounds familiar doesn't it?

Why I heard a couple of times that it's much better to be a PR than a citizen in S'pore especially if you're XY chromosomed. Definitely an option to consider. Just remember to choose a country that has 1) confirmed citizenship for babies born there, 2) No citizenry obligations like National Slavery, 3) come back and be a PR (or just don't come back at all ^_^)

What's so deadly about the 7 Deadly Sins?

2005-03-23T12:48:00.000Z

The 7 Deadly Sins are traditionally known as Pride, Envy, Gluttony, Avarice, Lust, Wrath & Sloth. In overly large quantities, these are dangerous attributes. However, attempting to cleanse oneself of these “sins” do more harm than good.

Pride, Envy & Avarice are core foundations of ambition. When you are proud of what you do & own, when you want more than what you have, you take the first steps to be an ambitious person. Without ambition there is little of importance in this world that may be accomplished.

Wrath & Lust are principle to our survival as a species. When you are intruded or attacked, it is anger that triggers your fighting instinct. It is difficult to imagine how humans could have survived in a world of predators without wrath as a core emotion. Additionally, we have been hard-wired to be lustful creatures, because sex is the best weapon ever contrived in the evolutionary species race. Sex allows whole paragraphs of genome to be interchanged, a much faster alternative to asexual genetic mutation. Species that didn’t like sex died out quick.

Gluttony & Sloth are by-products of life. It is an established fact that when given enough food, many animal species are capable of eating themselves to death. This is a evolutionary weapon from having to spend most of our time on Earth in food-scarce environments. This is why kids have a natural affinity towards sweet stuff. This is why hyenas are starving all their lives. Sloth is even more uncontrollable, since our bodies tire easily & we need to spend a third of our lives sleeping.

As I have explained, there is nothing really deadly about the “7 Deadly Sins”. In fact, they are either necessary for our survival, by-products of our evolutionary life on Earth, or form the foundations of the drive that makes humans different from the rest of the animal kingdom.

I have my own opinion of what the 7 Deadly Sins really are, and will type them in my next entry.

How NOT to argue against the casino

2005-03-21T08:46:00.000Z

The Great Singapore Casino Debate is dying down, and a plethora of views have been heard. Being pro-casino, I have had a barrage of arguments thrown at me by the opposition. The purpose of this essay is to point out the flaws behind many of these arguments

I am borrowing concepts from Carl Sagan’s Baloney Detection Kit, a set of guidelines that recognises common fallacies of logic & rhetoric. Some examples of such fallacies being employed by the “anti-casino” side are as follows:

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Argument from Adverse Consequences: Taking the consequences of an action to its extreme to argue for/against an idea.

This is used when people say that opening a casino ruins family values, causing families to break up and disrupt the social fabric. They may even cite the recent articles of a man killing his family before committing suicide to state their case.

The primary flaw with this argument lies in its overactive imagination. A cursory examination of all cities with casinos shows that they have not degenerated into wastelands of social discourse and broken families. This argument overplays the adverse consequences & sacrifices the potential benefits. It ignores the plain fact that moral values stay intact in the face of a casino. This argument is like saying that the defendant of a high profile murder case must be found guilty, or it’ll give potential murderers the impression that they can get away with murder.

Additionally, cases of extremity must be dealt with a head for probability. Recently, there was a case of the man who died after playing for 87 hours non-stop in a cyber-cafe without food or sleep. These are freak cases, and no matter how many precautions are taken, they’ll still happen due to the sheer number of gamers. The problem is that freak cases generate high publicity. Should all gamers thus be punished by banning cyber-cafes? No. Similarly, although it is necessary to take action to curtail gambling addiction, the entire industry should not be punished for freak cases, because these regrettable cases are bound to happen.

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Special Pleading: A phrase used to rescue a proposition in deep rhetoric trouble. Commonly accomplishes nothing by explaining a mystery with a mystery.

“Why is gambling addictive? Because it is human nature to gamble.” But is it really so? Such statements explain nothing; they’re simply designed to be unassailable. Calling things “human nature” without explaining why does nothing for the argument.

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Mistaken Inference: When the wrong assumption is drawn from an observation.

“The casinos in Australia mainly target Asians, hence these shows that Asians are more likely to like gambling & end up addicted.” This argument fails to note alternative possibilities. Maybe the reason why casinos in Australia target Asians is because many Asians do not have their own casinos in their country?

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Argument from Authority: Appealing to authority to state your case.

“Gambling is amoral. Morality comes from God. Hence gambling goes against God’s will.” This anti-casino argument appeals to divine authority, which is an unimpressive tactic against atheists or theists of other religions. Additionally, most holy books tend to be at least a thousand years old, which means that the last time anyone got an “official word from God” was a very long time ago. This in turn means that the morality preached in holy books tend to be very outdated ones.

It is important to note that authorities have been wrong before. They can be wrong again.

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Observational Selection: Counting the hits and forgetting the misses

People tend to remember the gambling related crimes that appear in the newspapers, but forget the throngs of people who walk out casino & continue to live honest lives. They overplay the bad cases; yet conveniently forget those who emerge unaffected.

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Slippery Slope: The assumption that only two extremities exist, and that anything in between will shift in time to become one of the extremities.

“If we legalise gambling, it’s only a matter of time before we legalise cannabis & marijuana.” Similar arguments exist for “the state of morality” & “public image”. This argument is characterised by the words “eventually” & “only a matter of time”.

Needless to say, the world is not just black & white, although some people seem to think that they live in exactly such a world.

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There are two more basic flaws unrelated to the Baloney Detection Kit, which I’ll voice out here:

1) The house of cards:

Some people think that Asian values & morality will crumble if we build a casino in Singapore. If that’s the case, then our much-vaunted Asian values have been built like a house of cards: the mere existence of a casino will cause it to topple. If the Asian morality imparted for generations is this fragile, then the problem lies not in the casino, but in the morality instead.

2) The nanny state:

Some people think that a casino will be bad influence on their kids. Like it or not, casinos exist as a vice in many different countries, some of which are very accessible from Singapore. If your child can’t stand the temptation of a casino, he can simply go overseas to get his fix & end up addicted. To the hardcore addicts, it will make little difference whether there is a casino in Singapore or not.

I would much rather have a casino in Singapore, and teach my child to resist the temptations of gambling addiction. There is no need to shelter my family from this “moral threat”. I would rather my kids grow up morally in a place with vices, so that they develop a resistance to them, rather than one in a sterile environment.

Human rights: Assailing the moral high ground

2005-03-15T13:27:00.000Z

You don't often see criticism of people who advance human rights. But that doesn't mean they're right. It can also mean that they have taken the moral high ground, which automatically puts any criticiser in a bad position.

What is the most basic human right? Is it freedom? Free speech?

No. It's the right to LIVE. The right to survive. Without this to build on as a foundation, all other rights mean nothing.

But survival has never been a “given right”, but one that has to be fought and earned for instead. We fight for our survival. From time immemorial, we have always been fighting with nature and our fellow man for survival. That has never changed. And that is why I stand by my statement: “The government's first & foremost duty to ensure a vibrant national economy capable of sustaining the livelihood & improving the living standards of its people.” It's a statement that applies to all countries of all prosperity standards. There aren't many citizens who are willing to accept a lower standard of living than what they are accustomed to.

Hence, the bitter truth is that economy will always be more important than human rights, because survival is always more important than lofty ideals. If you can't live, you can't fight for the things you believe in. Add the fact that most people want to live a better life than their historical counterparts, and the importance of a growing economy leapfrogs (especially to leaders who want to be re-elected).

Really, how many people are thinking about the fight for freedom & overthrowing oppression? Yes, these are ideals to aspire for. But most people are normally thinking about how to bring food to the dinner table, and how to live a better life in the future. Sometimes, these interests can conflict. All governments, in determining their human rights & democracy policies, weigh them against other vital national interests. If you want a concerted human rights effort, you will want to cater to the baser needs of man first.

Of course there are some basic rights that should be upheld. Like no torture, no slavery, no arbitary killings etc. But we uphold these not only for moral reasons, but for sound functional ones as well. A country that practises these atrocities doesn't exactly have a solid foundation to build their economy on.

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No doubt human rights activists have well-meaning intentions. But sometimes their tactics are questionable. You can't just barge into a problem, remove the threat, then expect things to be solved. Socio-economic problems don't work that way.

To third world citizens, human rights campaigns often have a bizzare quality: For many, they are like hungry and diseased passengers on a leaky overcrowded boat about to drift into dangerous waters and almost certain death. The captain of the boat is harsh, sometimes fairly, sometimes not. On the river-bank stands a group of affluent, well-fed and well-intentioned onlookers. As soon as the onlookers witness a passenger being flogged, they move in to intervene, protecting the passenger from the captain. But the passengers remain hungry & diseased. As soon as they try to swim to the banks into the arms of their benefactors, they are firmly returned to the boat, their primary sufferings unabated. That is why it's important to promote economic development before democracy. Just removing the person on top isn't the magic bullet.

Only those who are well-fed fight for human rights. That's people like you and me with access to a computer & internet, which is like 20% of the world population. But the best way to save people is to make them prosper. Once they live well, human rights can take root to create a better society. If everyone said “Give me liberty or give me death!”, we'll have lots of very dead people, not human rights activists.

Confucius laid the 3 steps to a better country:
1st ) Increase the population.
2nd ) Make them rich (in other words, such that they don't have to worry about their next meal).
3rd ) Educate them.
The man is wise indeed. He knows that only when people can live reasonably well, can one proceed to educate them.

The parable of the lottery winner

2005-03-11T00:21:00.000Z

One fine day, the jackpot for a particular lottery draw hit 10 million dollars.

This naturally attracted a lot of attention, since 10 million dollars is a lot of money, and will radically change your life if you actually won. A large jackpot naturally attracts a lot of participants, which in turn naturally increases the chance that somebody will win the prize, even if the chances of winning is only 1 in 100 million.

As fate will have it, Person X won the lottery. Needless to say, he was overjoyed. And like most people who get really lucky, he attributed his luck, his winnings, to God's grace.

A close friend, observer Y, having a natural head for math, notes that in a lottery situation like this, someone is definitely going to win the jackpot. The only question is who. Y congratulates X on his immense stroke of luck. X, like all winners who have gone over their head, proceeds to thank God for the money, saying that he was blessed, his prayers were heard, how it's a God-given miracle....

"God-given miracle"? That's a little too much. Y tells X that it was a simple matter of probrability, and that God didn't have much to do with it. After all, someone is definitely going to win, considering the number of people who were betting. When an event has a very low probrability, it can still happen if enough chances are given. There's nothing miraculous about that. No laws of physics were defied. But nothing's going to change X's mind. After all, the "miracle" happened to him.

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Many people think that the existence of life on Earth is so miraculous, that it must have been a God-given miracle. It is true that the chances of finding conditions on other planets similar to our own, able to sustain an atmosphere and at the correct temperature to allow for liquid water is very low. But if you look up on a cloudless night unsullied by urban light, the number of stars visible from Earth is amazing. Many stars have their own planet systems. Considering the billions of stars & their planets, it wouldn't be surprising if a couple could sustain life. We, denizens of Earth, have won the cosmic lottery (at least the lottery for carbon-based, water-loving, oxygen-breathing lifeforms). Given enough planets, there's nothing miraculous about that.

Are you like X, or Y?

A short definition of good & evil

2005-03-02T08:29:00.000Z

Let me submit my opinion on what good and evil is.

Good is what society determines is beneficial to itself, evil is what society decides is detrimental. That means that good & evil are relative, ever-changing terms, the way they have always been.

Once it was considered that the use of slavery to run the country was good. Once it was considered that ritual sacrifice to gods was good. Once it was considered that dashing the children of your enemies against the rocks was good. Once it was considered that placing women in an inferior role was good.

Once it was considered that lightning rods were evil, or the belief that the earth revolved around the sun was evil, or teaching evolution is evil (still happening today).

It will be foolish to assume that our standard of good & evil is the best. It is only the latest, and it will be subject to change.
Maybe in the future, it will be considered evil to use gasoline. Maybe it will be considered evil to indoctrinate your child from birth in your belief system. Maybe it will be considered evil to have divisive concepts like nationalism, race and religion. Maybe it will be considered evil to have more than 2 children per couple.

One cannot even assume morality is evolving towards an ideal state. It isn't, it is merely adaptive. It adapts to how our society thinks, and how the environment changes with our actions. When we run out of oil, or of space to live, people will think differently.

There are certain rules that we could abide ourselves to. Like “Do not do to others what you do not want to do to yourself.”, or “Punish crime with justice, reward favor with favor”. But even these rules should not be sacred cows. Nothing should be immune to critical review, as it will be the beginning of an unadapting, obsolete belief system.

In summary, good is what society thinks it's good for it, evil is what it thinks harms it.

Equality for Equality's Sake?

2005-02-28T08:25:00.000Z

Lifestyle (Feb 27) had this article titled "The men just don't get it". The author argues that the sexes are equal, if not identical. I beg to differ. THe sexes are more different than one may think.

For 90% of the time that humans have inhabited the Earth, we lived as roaming hunter-gatherers. Generally, the men hunted, while the women reared children and foraged. This has given evolution much time to work our bodies to suit these specific purposes.

Take "race equality" for example. If a 100m race is dominated by blacks, chances are its a sprinting and not a swimming event. Africans have a heavier muscle density due to their environment, which in turn is good for running but not for swimming.

Similarly, men are physically stronger than women, and no one seems to argue about that. But if studies show that men are better at some mental aspect than women, the complaints begin.

Hunting is an activity that relies heavily on mental mapping, memory (of animal behavioural patterns) and understanding of weather effects on the trail. This is documented in the lifestyle of the !Kung tribesmen who still live as hunter-gatherers today. It will not be surprising if studies show that men excelled at these aspects compared to women. A similar example can be found when women excel at empathy and multi-tasking.

Hence I caution against preaching equality for equality's sake. Men and women are made to be different. We differ in our thinking patterns. Humans carry the evolutionary luggage of the past 40,000 years into the new millenium. This has a profound effect on us, and we do not do ourselves any favors by insisting that the sexes are "equal". They are not.

The Ugliness of Atheism

2005-02-14T10:16:00.000Z

I'm an atheist, and I'm darn proud to say it.

I arrived at atheism through a path that I was proud to go through: A path of exploring many possible faiths. I was born into a Buddhist family, brought up in Confucianism, went through a Catholic school & education, had a Protestant girlfriend bring me to church & prayer sessions, read Taoism, practised ancestral worship when i was a child & served in the army with Muslims. So please don't say I didn't have any religious experience. I made the choice of atheism only after I experienced & deliberated all these faith, a decision based on rational thought. I didn't accept the first choice that came to me.

I became an atheist because I believe in truth, no matter the price. I was unsatisfied with only one viewpoint, so I investigated many before reaching my conclusion. None of the faiths readily available to me stood up to scrutiny.

Now, I'll tell you why I say Atheism is well, ugly.

Atheism is not comforting. If you accept atheism, you accept that there is no Big Brother In The Sky to watch over you, to whisk you away to eternal happiness. There is no sense of control in the world, and no amount of prayer will change that. We are all that is, thrown into a cell with a radius of 6,400km hurtling through space, vulnerable to all natural or cosmic disasters, and no one out there to clean up the mess we create.

Atheism is bleak. If you accept atheism, you accept that there is no afterlife, no heaven, no reincarnation. Whatever you do with your life is on Earth, this short tenure here is all you have. When death inevitably claims you, your existence is terminated. No part of your being will continue after your death, other than in the memories of those who knew you, but even so they too are doomed to death. All those people who died in accidents & disasters, they will never have a chance to live again, be it on Earth or in Heaven. Their lives have been wiped out, they will never get a chance to do the things they wanted to do, and have relegated themselves to being a statistic instead of a human being. There is little comfort in this.

Atheism recognises lawlessness. Without the threat of eternal punishment or reward, it would seem there's no incentive for people to be good & kind to others. Morality is a rule that some would break at the drop of the hat if they could escape uncaught. And some people do, and not only do they not get caught, they prosper! These people will not be punished when they die. This is injustice, and it exists everywhere.

Atheism is cold & unemotional. In the search for truth, atheism is willing to abandon any idea that fails its standards of investigation. No matter how inspirational, how fulfilling or how hopeful, faulty ideas will be discarded. It doesn't matter if the idea feels true or not, because feelings are not taken into account here. Cruel, is it not? But the atheist will rather believe the ugly truth, than the sugar-coated fantasy. Why indeed should truth be pretty? Why should the truth feel true?

Atheism recognises the terrible aspects of Evolution, & evolution ain't pretty. Evolution's barest message is that all living things on Earth have come about from only one process: the eternal struggle for just one more moment of life, the infighting with all other species on Earth before being claimed by Death's Scythe. It is this barbaric process that allows us and all other living things on Earth have come to be at the expense of every single living thing before us. Up till now, this has always been the "meaning of life": to survive. It ain't pretty alright.

I believe that evolution is correct, but I will fight against evolution itself. Does this sound odd? Because I do not think that fighting with other humans & species on the planet is the right way to live life. My stance is no more hypocritical than a doctor who investigates cancer and teaches it , yet will fight against it to its very core.

There is no need to try to discredit atheism by saying that it is escapism or is sugar-coated to hide its ugly underbelly. I have admitted the ugliness & terror of it all. Go ahead & curse or blanch at it. Atheism cares not for the "beauty" of truth, and it will sooner forsake romantic fantasies for bleak reality.

Dances with Wome....Wolves

2005-02-08T03:51:00.000Z

I admit, I'm a terrible dancer. Absolutely hopeless with no sense of control. But dancing isn't what I'm talking about... it's women.

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You know, when it comes to love, many Singaporean girls I know believe in fate. "If something is meant to be, it'll be fated." So they'll happily wait, letting love come into their life, standing in the distance & waiting for the boys to approach. It's always about fate. Fate fate fate. Like a resigned surrender to some pervasive force.

I always wondered why that is the case. Is it because some girls have been brought up too "traditionally" and have been taught to wait? Is it because there is a belief that a girl shouldn't really be the active party or the proposer, but should play the dainty part of being proposed? Isn't it already the 21st century?

A man who has chased many girls is called a playboy. A woman who does the same on guys is called a slut.These two words have their stigma attached, but the women get it a lot worse.

I recently thought of a possible explanation for all this FATE talk. In a society where girls are "encouraged" to be passive, it is easier for women to play the FATE card. In contrast, guys do the actual chasing... it's in our language: "chasing girls". Guys are less likely to believe in fate, and more likely to believe that love has to be sought & fought for.

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All this talk about equality has me puzzled especially when you consider our society conventions. There's always this complaint like a dull background noise, about how women don't seem to get paid equally, or there's a glass ceiling of some sort. True, women deserve to be treated based on their merits, and shouldn't be discriminated against because of their sexes.

Yes, most girls will be pleased if boys acted like gentlemen. We know the drill: Opening doors for the gals, picking up the bill on the date, sending the girl home (preferably by car straight to her doorstep). Admit it girls, you like to be pampered and treated like royalty. Admit it guys, you know the girls like this & you'll do it for them.

But let's get serious here. When the women complain their paycheck isn't as fat as the men's, should we take a look at our spending habits as well. If men are expected to pick up the bill at dinners, to drive their dates back home, don't these things cost money? Do you expect your man to do all these, yet has to deal with the same pay packet as the woman?

This alone is no justification for men to have bigger paycheques. But somehow, maybe society conventions are encouraging this trend of uneven pay. Or is this trend encouraging society conventions? Nobody really knows.

Is it any wonder that after marriage, the woman says "What's his is mine, what's mine is mine"? Don't believe me? The ST this week ran exactly such an article by Chinese women (proudly) stating this fact of life.

Is it any wonder why some men prefer to "marry down", to choose a woman not as successful as he, if not to soothe his ego and lessen his wallet's burden? Is it any wonder that successful women, who have their spending habits ballooned by the size of their pay, end up putting off men who cannot possibly maintain her financially? There can only be so many rich men you know.

Again, is this a call to suppress women to make them less successful for the good of humanity? No it isn't. It's just an observation, so please don't sic me on that.

In summary, ladies, before you complain about uneven paycheques, please look at the expectations that you impose on your men. Unless you expect them to scrimp on themselves while splurging on you. When a guy loves you he'll sacrifice for you. If you love him, please ensure that he doesn't have to sacrifice too much.

Two dozen revolutions around the sun

2005-02-03T15:37:00.000Z

On this anniversary of my 24th revolution around the sun, I suppose it’s a good time to do some reflection.

I have never found New Year’s day to be a good time for reflection or resolutions. Not with your head spinning from Christmas celebration and post-holiday blues. For me, the best time to do self-reflection is on a day that is on a normal schedule, yet has some significance to me. Like my birthday.

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But first, let me complain about my day. It’s a luxury I hardly afford myself, but today really warrants it. And most of it is my fault.

I forgot to bring my phone to camp. And my supervisor had to choose this very day to inspect me early in the morning. He called me 3 times, didn’t get through, and was ready to tekan me real bad if I didn’t open the mess in time. But I did, because I was already in the mess (sleeping) for half an hour. He looked bewildered, because he had been standing guard at the door for a while, when I actually appeared from inside the mess. ^_^

Anyway, my supervisor wasn’t in too good a mood after that, and shot me an arrow: I had to repair all the broken chairs that had piled up at one corner. The mess is full of this old mistreated junk, and their primary problem was loose screws. All I had was this really worn out screwdriver to do it. And here’s the kicker, the chairs were left in a place where birds do their “target practice”.

The worst thing to happen of all was when I reached home, and my room’s pc died. After spending needless hours troubleshooting and making backups, I decided that the damn thing is shot. The primary hard disk is way too old, and the other components must have been overworked by me. I’m going to have to spend a fortune getting replacements, since when you replace pc parts, you might as well upgrade. Wasn’t planning to do so till I moved out next year.

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Ok that’s the complaining I allow myself. It’s time for some reflection.

Leaving university with a masters means that there’s no way back to a study life. PhD isn’t a real option because PSC doesn’t need one. I feel that I have had enough formal education. There’s no reason for one to stop learning after university, and I’ve been reading up on science, philosophy, politics & religion, to make up for the lost time in university where I dwelled in the technical stuff. Learning is such an exhilarating experience. I must learn for as long as I live.

I’m also contemplating the idea of moving out. Although there is still the option to sell the house when it’s complete, too many factors of convenience urge me to keep it. It’ll be a huge debt to saddle, but it’ll also open a new phase in life. A phase of independence and (hopefully) vigour.

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Sometimes I wonder where my friends have gone. They’re scattered everywhere. My JC class is mostly studying, some overseas on exchange. My batch of choir guys are studying too, some overseas all the way. The choir girls are scattered across the working world. So are my batch of Warwick people, some even working overseas. The Warwick juniors are still overseas in UK. My BMT mates are scattered across the various army units, and book-out timings make it impossible to meet up. And I’m pretty much the only one stuck in NS limbo.

I’m surrounded by multiple circles of friends that I’ve known from different places. But yet, I look around me and wonder where they are. Have they moved on, or have I moved on? It’s somehow hard to think I’ve moved on when I’m already 24 & in NS. Does this statement even make sense?

No. We’ve all moved on. It’s just that we move to different places. In time, we’ll be so far apart that…… I don’t want to imagine so much.

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And there’s the matter of my love life. 5 years after Celven, I’ve fallen in love again. It’s a real rarity isn’t it? To describe it further, some of my uni housemates have wondered whether I was gay or not, because I didn’t seem to be seeing anyone in uni, or was even seen to be interested.

How ironic that 5 years after I loved a choir member, that I should like another one yet again. I could hardly remember the feeling of love anymore. Was I too cynical in the past, or was I still bearing the painful scars of a lost puppy love? These questions don’t matter anymore. The past has gone. The future is now.

But on the day that I decided that I really liked her and wanted her, she rejected me with such diplomatic grace that I simply couldn’t do anything. Talk about a nip in the bud.

In a way, my love life has been both a huge failure & a tremendous success. I’ve failed because …. I suppose I don’t need to spell it out. The success is the surprising part. For the 5 years after Celven I have contemplated how I should conduct my next relationship. For all the shows & books that I read, I took mental notes on various situations and how to overcome them. I’ve learnt to emphatise more. All I needed and lacked was experience. And now I’ve succeeded in being what I want to be when it came to affairs of the heart.

I’m no longer shy about telling her my feelings. It should be a very natural thing to tell someone you like that you like her. What manner of shame tortured me 5 years ago? I can now confidently say that I can ask a girl out if I want, I can be a gentleman, I can talk about my views love and relationships straight in her face if I want. I will let go of her if she insists. And I can take rejection.

If this isn’t a triumph compared to the past, I don’t know what it is. Even if I cannot save this floundering courtship, I know I’ve come out better from it.

To Xiao Ying if you’re reading this. I’ve told you twice that I liked you. I’ve told you twice that I’ll let you go. But let me say this a second time. When you console me that I will find someone better, I must say that I do not go into a relationship thinking that I’ll find someone better. I go into a relationship because I think I’ve found the one.

Defining the boundaries (Forum letter submission to ST)

2005-02-01T10:36:00.000Z

In recent times, the government and many of its important figures have stressed the importance of “daring to break conventions”. I agree with this stand, as I feel that there is a need to exercise critical thinking and constantly re-examine the older bricks of convention to see if they can stand the test of the future, or if they should be upgraded or overhauled completely if found lacking. No policy, no school of thought, should be thought too sacred to be subject for critical review. After all, the truth will survive examination unscathed. However, it is unfair to ask that we exercise critical thinking on issues of governance, and yet not apply it to other aspects of life as well. Unfortunately, we encounter a possible minefield in the sensitive areas of morality, race and religion. On the topics of race and religion, people are likely to have strong, pre-set views, and they will read these topics with the intention of reaffirming their beliefs, not reassessing them. Additionally, these topics constitutes a set of core beliefs to many people, and any challenge, no matter how minor, may be viewed as a hostile challenge on their very being. However, it is a fact that religions are mutually contradictory; if Hinduism is right, then Christianity isn’t. Critical thinking does not allow for anything to be unquestionable, or it’ll be hypocritical instead. Race and religion have tenets considered to be sacred and unquestionable. Questioning core religious tenets appears to offend some people, and this is often cited as a reason why we should just keep quiet. What is the stand of the government on the use of critical thinking in the fields of race & religion? These are sensitive issues in our multi-racial, multi-religious society. When does a discussion “cross the boundary” and go “over the top”? Should we allow for civilised debate on these issues, or do we keep quiet because people consider these topics unquestionable?

A little poetic

2005-01-30T01:59:00.000Z

God heard the nations sing and shout
"God save America!" "God save the Queen!"
God this, God that, and God the other thing.
"In the name of God!" did the people shout out
Good God!", said God, "I've got my work cut out!"

Adapted from JC Squire

A flickering hope for mankind

2005-01-28T04:06:00.000Z

The United Nations announced today in a study that the world birth rate is (finally) falling.

This is cause for celebration indeed!

The biggest problem in the world today is not global warming, terrorism or war. It's the exploding human population.

Everyday, the net difference in births and deaths is approximately 200k. Everyday, 200,000 more humans are being born compared to those who die. The amount of resources required to sustain this population is enormous. Even more can be said to sustain this growth rate, or to even bring them up to a standard of living that developed countries enjoy today.

Simply speaking, the natural resources on Earth is limited and can ill afford to provide for the exploding human populace. Too many resources has to be diverted just to keep ourselves alive. How can we possibly find the resources to solve problems like global warming? To make things worse, the increasing populace means that any efforts to solve the problem in the future will have to be greater than if we put the effort in today.

That's why an exploding human population is the biggest problem for mankind, and any fall in the global birthrate is welcome.

The fall is primarily due to an improvement in living conditions. It's a natural phenomena for birth rates to be lower in developed countries. Poor people naturally have more children because mortality is high and children have an "economic advantage" for them. This goes to show that the best way to lower the birth rate is to treat people better, and not making their lives difficult. Achieving this requires peace, economic stability and a liberal education concerning contraceptives.

An odd statement?

2005-01-25T07:28:00.000Z

Is it me or does this statement strike you as a little odd:

I'm in a very mature relationship now, so my other half insists on coming with me when I meet my ex for dinner.

Vomit blood on Straits Times

2005-01-22T13:00:00.000Z

I nearly vomited blood when I read “Where God was when the tsunami struck” by Andy Ho, Jan 22 2005, Straits Times, “Saturday Pg 13”. Also located here: http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/sub/review/story/0,5562,296978,00.html?

Sitting amongst the serious review articles of the papers was a half-cocked article written by a senior writer for the ST discussing God & the Tsunami. And it’s so bad because the arguments are so flawed and clichéd that it fails to consider many other possible answers.

I wondered why the editor let this article through. Maybe it’s because when it comes to religion, people read only to reconfirm their beliefs, not to reassess them. The editor must have read something he/she liked.

First of all, Andy Ho should just be upfront about his religion. After all, his God “sits on a throne”, is “omnipotent, omni-benevolent , omnipresent”, “glorious” and “controls all creation”. You don’t need a degree in theology to know what range of religion that is. It completely ignores the other concepts of god like dualism and deism that other religions use.

To summarise Andy Ho, he believes that the tsunami was God’s will working its way because the world is centred around God, not man. I beg to differ. And I feel that the arguments falls short because of all the assumptions that have to be made

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Assumption 1: The all-powerful God

To begin with, Andy Ho has defined his God to be a number of attributes. All-powerful being one of them. He states that a God that is not omnipotent is an imperfect God that is a contradiction in terms.

But it is only a contradiction with HIS terms. No one really knows whether God is really all-powerful or not. We only wish it to be so, otherwise he wouldn’t really be worth worshipping.

And the same goes for omnipresent as well. No one really knows whether God is around all the time. He might have been off for a coffee-break when the tsunami struck.

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Assumption 2: The all-good God

Read the next line slowly word by word:

“What if God is not omnibenevolent?”

Think about the implications! If God isn’t all good, then the problem concerning the existence of evil is solved! Suddenly a God capable of unleashing devastating, periodic natural disasters on his sheep seems rather natural indeed. In fact it’s also oddly familiar when you read what the Christian God constantly did throughout the Old Testament…

In the end, like his omnipotence, God is all-good only because we wish it to be. Our ape-brains can’t contemplate a God that has elements of evil in his character. “An all-powerful being that is possibly evil??? *shudder* No no no, God has to be good right? RIGHT?!?”

Hey it makes sense really when people say God created us in his image. If we can have mood-swings, why can’t He have mood swings as well?

Amusingly, we can take it one step further. Shakespeare said that the devil can quote from scripture if he wants. What if God has been evil all along? Surely an all-powerful, evil being can seduce us into thinking its actions are good even when it is downright terrible! And we wouldn’t know since we’re just submitting to his will anyway.

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Assumption 3: The God?

There’s this argument called Occam’s razor. Simply put, it means that you shouldn’t introduce extra entities into an argument. Just state the simplest possible answer that gets it right.

Saying that the tsunami happened because of God’s will is burdening a solved mystery with an unsolved one. We know why the tsunami happened: Undersea plate tectonics. When you add God into the equation, you’re simply making things way more complicated (illustrated by the mental acrobatics performed by Andy Ho). Because now you have to say why God did it in spite of his attributes etc.

But if there was no God, Occam’s razor swiftly cuts through to the point. A tsunami happened. God did not have a part in it because there was no God. And just like assumptions 1 and 2, we don’t know if God exists, cause nobody really knows!

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Assumption 4: The meaning-driven life

Man has always looked for a meaning in things. In this case, people ask what is the meaning of the tsunami.

When you hunger for food, it goes without saying that food must exist, or there will be no such hunger. But can you take this another step? When you hunger for a meaning, does a meaning have to exist? Think about it.
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In the end, Andy Ho never really answered the question. He merely asserts that God decreed the tsunami, and never really answered why that had to be the case, and why so much suffering had to occur. What a waste of newspaper space.

Where was God when the tsunami struck? Where he was all along—in our imaginations.

Paging all scholars...?

2005-01-18T08:55:00.000Z

Something to ponder about, (and rather pertinent to me):

"The biggest worry (that high civil-service salaries may cause an income gap between the ruling elite and the ruled) is perhaps Singapore's elite scholar class of officers in the administrative and uniformed services.

The top performers in this group start their relationship with the public sector at age 18, when they are wooed with lucrative scholarships. Then - unlike even the most able top recruits of top private sector firms, who enter their jobs worrying about whether they will be confirmed - the scholars start work with a six-year bond that they know the government is more anxious to adhere to than they are to honour.

With the debate over salaries, retaining such individuals has been potrayed as a matter of the highest national interest. Never having been tested in the private sector, they can only take the government's word that they would excel in practically any field and therefore deserve top dollar.

Political office-holders at least have elections and their grassroots responsibilities to remind them that they answer ultimately to the humble citizen, and that the public does not owe them a living. The scholar mandarins, on the other hand, function in an increasingly rarified environments from their late teens. There is a danger that by the time these individuals reach highly influential positions, some will imagine themselves to be god's gift to Singapore."

-- Cherian George, "Singapore, The Air-Conditioned Nation"

My Ten Commandments

2005-01-14T05:17:00.000Z

I recently read an article that described the problems associated with morality. It made me think again of my own moral compass, and I'm glad that the "ten commandments" that I picked up before are able to deal with the problems I've read.

With my leave, I'll like to share these commandments with any readers. (They can also be found on my website at www.gadoken.vzz.net, in the Atheism section)

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First Commandment: Do not do to others what you would not want them to do to you.

The Golden Rule has the honor of being the very first commandment. Moral directives do not need to be complex or obscure to be worthwhile, and in fact, it is precisely this rule's simplicity which makes it great. It is the basic and fundamental human trait of empathy, the ability to vicariously experience how another is feeling, that makes this possible, and it is the principle of empathy by which we should live our lives.

Unless we're dealing with a masochist.......

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Second Commandment: In all things, strive to cause no harm.

Any immoral actions that slip through the net of the first commandment will hopefully be caught by this one. Its intent is to encourage people to live their lives causing as little suffering as they possibly can, weighing the likely consequences of each of their actions and choosing a course to follow based on that evaluation.

The intent of this rule is truly all-encompassing, encouraging people to choose an action based not only on what actual pain and suffering may occur as a result, but what potential pain and suffering may also be produced down the line.

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Third Commandment: Treat your fellow human beings, your fellow living things, and the world in general with love, honesty, and respect.

Where the first two commandments instruct actions, this one instructs an attitude. This commandment also extends the reach to all living things, including our irreplacable planet.

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Fourth Commandment: Do not overlook evil or shrink from administering justice, but always be ready to forgive wrongdoing freely admitted and honestly regretted.

A popular saying is "The only thing needed for Evil to triumph, is for good men to do nothing." This is addressed head on by this commandment. This stands in direct contrast to any ignorance towards evil that the 'turning the other cheek' phrase of Christianity may imply.

This commandment recognizes that there will always be those who will not respect the rights of others, and states that it is the responsibility of ethical individuals to stand up to such people, to oppose them firmly and steadfastly, and to prevent them from causing harm to others.

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Fifth Commandment: Live life with a sense of joy and wonder.

The first four of the five morality commandments apply to one's behavior toward one's fellow human beings and the world at large. The final morality commandment addresses a subject that is very different, but at least as important: one's behavior toward oneself.

Appreciate the fact that you're alive. Appreciate the fact that you're unique. Don't squander this unparalleled chance. To fail to recognize the awesomeness of what we possess, is a senseless and tragic waste of a thing priceless beyond priceless.

Life is something to be cherished, not spurned, and gladness is the proper response to each new day and the chances it offers.

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Sixth Commandment: Always seek to be learning something new

Of all the threats to morality and incentives to evil, perhaps the greatest is dogmatism, the invincible certainty that you are right and that the opinion of anyone who disagrees with you is worthless and can be rejected out of hand.

Likewise, the belief that any one person is fallible and the weight of the evidence must always be the ultimate arbiter of what is true - something known in its institutionalized form as the scientific method - has driven the greatest and most rapid progress humanity has ever known.

In teaching that one should always seek to be learning, it promotes full use of the human capabilities to learn and understand - and why are we here if not to fulfill our potential?

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Seventh Commandment: Test all things; always check your ideas against the facts, and be ready to discard even a cherished belief if it does not conform to them.

Just about everyone will, at some point in their life, believe something which turns out to be false. This is regrettable, but no blame attaches to it; we are all human, and we are all fallible. However, what is blameworthy is when a person zealously guards an erroneous belief - perhaps because they find its consequences comforting, or because they have an emotional investment in the idea of being right - by refusing to test it to see if it is borne out by the facts, or by refusing to expose it to evidence that could prove its downfall. This path leads only to self-delusion and dogmatism.

Truth can only be discovered through careful scrutiny and thorough fact-checking, carried out in a spirit of honesty and intellectual objectivity.

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Eighth Commandment: Never seek to censor or cut yourself off from dissent; always respect the right of others to disagree with you.

To discover truth, we must not suppress anything that might attempt to be it. If an idea is wrong, it should be examined as to the reasons why, and these reasons must be taught to others, such that the idea may not crop up again.

Sometimes we may fail to perceive a flaw in our reasoning that is obvious to others; other times, we may make decisions based on faulty or incomplete evidence, when someone more knowledgeable would have been able to guide us to the correct path.

It is far better to seek the advice and counsel of others than to toil in isolation - to work in a climate of free speech, mutual correction and open debate, where fellow thinkers can scrutinize and correct each other's work, and where any individual mistakes or biases can therefore be canceled out to produce a whole greater than the sum of its parts.

The truth will survive honest inquiry, but falsehood - never. And if a belief is false, should it not be discarded?

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Ninth Commandment: Form independent opinions on the basis of your own reason and experience; do not allow yourself to be led blindly by others.

The ninth commandment seeks to halt the spread of dogmatic errors by exhorting people never to accept the claims of another without sufficient proof.

As well, this commandment is meant to counteract another human failing - the tendency to rely on the words of authority

In all cases, we are told to be critical thinkers, sifting the words of others for truth, accepting their statements only after rigorous skeptical examination.

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Tenth Commandment: Question everything (including this site)

Nothing is so sacred that it is beyond questioning, no belief so well-supported that it does not need any more re-examination. That is the thrust of the tenth and final commandment. Truth emerges from scrutiny unscathed.And since human history bears witness to the fact that even beliefs thought true for hundreds of years can be overturned by new discoveries, the older and apparently more solid bricks in the structure of our understanding need continual re-certification just as the newer ones do.

This commandment calls for the questioning of everything that can be questioned, every proposition that has the potential to be replaced with something better. Indeed, this includes these commandments themselves.

Any set of rules that is never questioned can only stultify into tyranny, but rules that are continually re-evaluated will remain living and vibrant. No set of rules can ever remove the need for a rational and moral person to think for himself and make decisions using his own best judgment.

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Notice the pattern?

Note that the new ten commandments are divided into two equally important major categories, the "moral five" and the "intellectual five".

Imagine a village...

2005-01-10T11:57:00.000Z

Imagine us, the human species, as a village of 100 families. 65 families in our village are illiterate. 70 have no drinking water at home. 80 have no members who have ever flown on an airplane. Seven families own 60% of the land and consume 80% of all available energy. They have all the luxuries. 60 families are crowded into 10% of the land. Only one family has any member with a university education.

In the village, all the air, water, climate is getting worse as a result of the waste produced by the village. Isn't it a common responsibility by everyone to do something, instead of only worrying about their own welfare and estate?

Perhaps we should remember this Native American saying:

We have not inherited the Earth from our ancestors, but have borrowed it from our children.

Symptoms of a Faith-Sufferer

2005-01-08T09:14:00.000Z

The following is a description by Richard Dawkins of the symptoms that appear on those afflicted with “faith”. Perhaps you may see someone familiar in it…

1. The patient finds himself impelled by some deep, inner conviction that something is true/right/virtuous. This conviction doesn’t seem to owe anything to evidence or reason, but which, nevertheless, he feels as totally compelling and convincing. We doctors refer to such a belief as “faith”.

2. Patients typically make a positive virtue of faith’s being strong and unshakeable, in spite of not being based upon evidence. Indeed, they may feel that the less evidence there is, the more virtuous the belief. This paradoxical idea that lack of evidence is a positive virtue where faith is concerned is like a self-sustaining program that is self-referential. Once the proposition is believed, it automatically undermines opposition to itself.

3. A related symptom is the conviction that “mystery” is a good thing. It is not a virtue to solve mysteries. Rather we should enjoy them or even revel in their insolubility.

4. The patient may behave intolerantly towards those of rival faiths, in extreme cases even killing them or advocating their deaths. He may be similarly violent towards apostates (those who once held the faith but have renounced it); or towards heretics (people who espouse a different, even if only slightly, version of the faith). He may also feel hostile towards methods of thought that potentially undermine their faith, like the method of scientific reason, which might function like antiviral software.

5. The conviction held by the patient has a high tendency of being spread by bloodline. It is statistically overwhelming that the reason why a person believes in this particular set of beliefs, and not some other set, is because the parents had the same set of beliefs as well. No doubt soaring cathedrals, stirring music and moving stories help a bit. But the most important variable in determining your faith is the accident of birth. The conviction that you strongly believe in would be very different if you were born in a different place.

6. If the patient is one of the rare ones who follow a different faith from his parents, it is possible that he was infected through an effective agent. The technical term will be “evangelising”. It is very rarely that one arrives at a particular faith through unbiased survey and deliberation of all possible faiths.

The perils of nations

2005-01-06T11:48:00.000Z

"Imagine there's no countries..." are song lyrics by the famous John Lennon. What was Lennon thinking as he sang these words? Was he recognising that national boundaries are yet another divisive line crossing humanity, pitting the world into a "us against them" mentality?

Patriotism is a double-edged sword. It binds us together with our fellow countrymen, giving us a sense of pride and belonging, forging a bond that enables us to work with people very different from ourselves. But patriotism also divides mankind into countries with the potential to snub or war each other. Used by the unscrupulous, it can stoke the fires of war. George Bernard Shaw mused that patriotism is the conviction that your country is better than others because you were born in it. It is more than that of course, but Shaw has an insightful point.

human history has shown that our loyalties change with the winds of time. Initially, our loyalties were to ourselves and family, then to bands of wandering hunters, to tribes, small settlements, cities & nations. Why should it stop here?

We know that the Earth is incomparably small compared to the solar system and galaxies. From the vastness of space we are an almost undetectable blue dot, a mere speck of dust in the wind. On this dust drop, all of humanity; the people you loved, the 40000 generations before us, the conquerors who wage bloody wars just to own a segment of this dot, have ever lived. How trivial our national boundaries are in the context of the cosmos. It is only the blind who cannot see that we are all passengers in the same boat, floating aimlessly in the empty void.

Maybe we would be better off without the concept of countries, if all men were global citizens instead under a single government. Those who run the nations now may not be too happy about this. The status quo and power hierarchy will be toppled. Rich nations will have to share their wealth with poor ones. There will be charges of treason and disloyalty. But I suggest that much good may come out from it.

Firstly, the threat of large-scale war may be put down, though this may seem naive on my part. Most of the weapons in the world today belong to entities called nations. Many countries stockpile weapons, nuclear or conventional, mostly for deterrence. Weapons with enough destructive power to kill mankind several times over are held by the nations at each other's neck. It is humanity who is now held hostage under an iron cross in this Mexican standoff. With a tip of the power balance or the impulses of a lunatic leader, our entire civilisation can easily self-destruct. Why should it be noble to die for one's country, anymore than to die for your own race, religion or tribe? Are we so blind that we cannot recognise that humans with families (and not monsters) live outside our borders? War is easily stoked; just declare that the nation is under attack and denounce those who want peace as unpatriotic and endangering the safety of the country. Perhaps it would not be so if countries didn't exist.

Just look at the world expenditure on military hardware! The nations all pit themselves in an escalating arms race. Think of the good that can be done if the money spent on "defence" used to kill men were instead spent to solve the world's problems instead. 4 of the latest stealth bombers cost about 2 billion dollars. How many starving mouths could you feed with that?

Without the shades of nationalism over our eyes, we will be better able to see ourselves as global citizens sharing the same Earth. Perhaps then we will be able to solve our larger problems. We could start with the exploding birth rate, first noted as a great hazard by Malthus and described in Malthus's Law. The exponentially increasing human population threatens to overwhelm the resources on Earth, where even the latest technological improvements will fail to feed everyone. Observation shows that developed countries with high standards of living have low population growth, and the inverse is true for poor countries. If you want to improve the lives of all men, it is necessary to slow population growth. Between military expenditure and supporting a rapidly exploding populace, is it any wonder that our global society do not have the means to take on more ambitious projects?

As global citizens we can more easily see the problems that extend beyond the scope of countries. Global warning and other pollution-related problems require the cooperation of every person. Large-scale projects like finding renewable energy or space colonisation are more possible with global resources diverted there instead of into firepower.

The promise of a common human spirit transcending national boundaries has potential in doing great things. But history shows that humans are slow to let go of their territorial prejudices. The demolition of nation-states world into a single global government may only be the wishing thinking on the part of this 24 year old fool, who dreams only to have one less divisive line across the face of humanity.

An atheist's response to "Faith heals" in Life! page 3, 5th Jan 2005

2005-01-05T08:39:00.000Z

Life!’s article on “Faith Heals” (Pg 3, 5th Jan 2005) was an enlightening insight at the minds of the religious in the wake of disaster, but I feel that one important opinion has been left out: that of an atheist. In a multi-religious, tolerant society like Singapore, surely the views of the non-religious may be expressed as well. Although I do not speak for all atheists, I am certain my opinions are similar to that of other atheists.

As an atheist, I do not believe in the existence of gods, karma or the afterlife as I believe there is no conclusive evidence of their existence. Atheism is not a religion; to call it one would be like calling bald a hair colour. This forces me to face the harsh reality of life’s circumstances.

I feel that it is futile to explain the tsunami tragedy in terms of whatever “purpose” it may have. High population density along costal regions coupled with undersea fault lines is a recipe for disaster. The question is not why disaster strikes (science can explain that), but when it strikes. This is exactly why an early warning system is so important. Man does not hold a special place in the universe, and nature cares nought for our survival when it unleashes it periodic fury. Atheists have to live with the sober reality that there are no gods to take care of us or whisk us to eternal happiness. That’s why it is up to us to take care of ourselves. Like all tragedies, perhaps the disaster’s only purpose is to remind us not to let it happen again.

Atheists do not believe in an afterlife or reincarnation. Our individual, short tenure on Earth is all we have. That is why we are deeply saddened when lives are lost in such natural disasters. Many who are lost have done nothing to deserve such a fate. These people will never again have the chance to do the things they want, to experience love or to live life fully ever again. Only with life can you do all these things, for everything ends when you die. It is only a small comfort that the dead will not “miss” life, for there is no more “them” left to do the missing. And now it is our duty to help the living whose lives have changed forever, urging them to live life more fully to make up for those who are now gone.

Atheists do not believe in prayer because we believe there is nobody to pray to. Instead, we choose to work to better improve our world. A saying goes: “Two hands working do more than a thousand clasped in prayer”. This is all the more true in a tragedy like this, where the victims will be more grateful for relief and supplies than the prayers of those far away. Heaven is a place on Earth that we must build for ourselves, and Hell is what we end up with when good men do nothing. The task now is to care for the living, and in atheistic fashion we would choose to build schools and hospitals instead of places of worship. Ultimately, atheists recognise that the work is ours to do, the place is here and the time is now.

An Atheist's Christianity

2004-12-31T04:01:00.000Z

Reading Kishore Mahbubani's "Can Asians think?", I came across an enlightening insight in one of his essays. The concept was that, in order to change a country plagued by poverty, oppression and bad governance, it was not viable to replace the government wholesale, but to work and improve on the existing regime instead. Otherwise the consequences that follow could be worse than the supposed benefit iteself. It is not necessarily true that actions with good intentions always bring about good results.

Let me illustrate an example. Suppose after the atrocities commited during Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution, cumulating with Deng Xiaoping's (comparatively mild) Tiananmen Square, the U.S. decided that enough was enough. In the interest of human rights, they invade China and replace its authoritian government with a democratic one. It is doubtful that living conditions in China will improve as a direct result, as the Chinese had only known authoritian governments in their recent history. They simply did not have the economic/social foundation and were unprepared for such sudden democracy. Instead, the U.S. let the Chinese government go, allowing it to make its own economic reforms and growth until today, where the net effect is a better standard of living for its people in a peaceful environment. Contrast the with U.S.'s hardline strategy in Iraq where the aftermath of war and forced democracy has resulted in a quagmire of looting, insurgents and a siphoning of resources more likely to benefit U.S. than the local citizens of Iraq.

Taking this analogy forward, although I as an atheist will encourage people to think their religion through and take their own steps to leave it, I still recognise that it will be impossible for religions to disappear. Take for example, Christianity (which I am more familiar with). Organisations as large as Christianity are probrably immortal, and the wholesale eradication of it in one fell swoop is likely to cause more problems than benefits. It may indeed be a better alternative to work with religion instead to come to a compromise that divorces itself of irrational beliefs.

For most of the Christians I know, Christianity and God are about love. It serves as a moral guide for their lives. If that was all Christianity was about, I could live with that! With some changes, of course. It will mean that there will have to be a fundamental restructuring of the school of thought and its teaching methods. The proposal I put forward may seem outrageous to some, but bear with me, for I believe that it is very reasonable.

Imagine a Christian denomination that not only preaches its virtues, but critically examines its own fatal flaws. It will treat the Old Testament as a textbook of history and human traits, and the New testament as a study of moral customs and human character. Bible study sessions of the OT will discuss how the mythology pertaining of the creation of the world were formed and how it compares with other religions and science. It will study how the Hebrews waged war on the original inhabitants of the land, using God as a justification to slay every man, woman, child and animal, writing history to glorify the victors, and how we should never allow this to happen again. It will analyse the trend of miracles, where God was at first able to create the entire universe in 7 days, later taking 40 days to create water to flood the Earth, then later needing to be prayed to throw a fireball into Issiah's bonfire, to the much less majestic personal miracles performed by Christ. It will show the trend that miracles tend to be more grand further in the obscure past. Bible studies will show that, if the Christian God of Love exists, then it cannot be the Yahweh, the small jealous Hebrew God of War. The OT will be a textbook on the evolution of mythology, a guide to what God cannot be, and the history of war justified by people who claimed that God was on their side.

The Bible studies of NT will differ according to the various sections. In the gospels, study groups will treat Jesus not as a son of God (since no such evidence exists), but as a very human person capable of love and sin instead. After all, what better way to get in touch with humanity, by treating Jesus as a human as well, instead of the unattainable sinless entity of God. Gospel studies will promote the moral insights of Christ (like the Golden rule), yet also condemn his temper outbreaks (calling his mother "Woman!", and cursing those who do not listen to him) as a reminder of how we should not behave. He will be a moral teacher like Confucius, one to learn from instead of worship. It should contemplate why Jesus condoned slavery, showing that the standards of morality change with the sands of time. When studying the "Letters" section of the NT, Bible studies should reflect the (flawed) process by which the gospels were chosen to give a skewed perspective of Christ, how Christianity was born as a mixture of the various customs during its time of inception, instead of being a direct revelation from God. And the "Revelation" section will be treated as a case study on the vagueness of prophecies.

As a result of all this, Bible studies will be intellectually challenging and stimulating. No longer will the Bible be treated as a holy book of literal and allegorical truth, but instead as a text to critic and learn about human behavious. Both the OT and NT form a balance, with the OT reflecting the power of myth and trends in morality, while the NT serves as a moral guide and example of what extents men are capable of to justify their faith. Bible studies should also teach that prayer to God is not a solution to the world's problems, but that the solution lies in ourselves and our actions. It is up to us to create the Garden of Eden. Studies should show that no one has cornered Truth, that one must be prepared to welcome substantiated truths, that there is no such thing as heresy since all views should be examined and debated. It should teach that blind faith is dangerous and the importance of thinking for oneself. Above all, it should state that the case for the existence of God is still out since nobody really knows.

How Christianity can possibly evolve from its current state to my proposed version will be a big question indeed. It will have to begin with a fundamental change in the role and perceived authenticity of the Bible, coupled with a change in mindset to accept such chanes. The process will require many generations to accomodate, as the steps towards it will be small ones, and progress normally occurs only when the major opponents (mostly of the older generation stuck in their old mindset) pass away. But in the end, Christianity will still be about love and morals, yet with an added twist of unbiased objectiveness and intellectual challenge, divorced of its irrational beliefs. Why, it might even be a religion that I would happily partake in!

I Am A Subversive Heretical Terrorist…

2004-12-29T17:06:00.000Z

I am a subversive heretical terrorist, and my message is this: Do not believe in anything when there is no support for it to be true. Believe only on the merit of evidence. Question everything that has a claim to truth, from the most trivial propositions to your most cherished beliefs, including these very words themselves.

My agenda is this: To free mankind from mental thralldom. Too long have too many people assumed the role of unthinking, unquestioning servants, neglecting the use of their critical thinking facilities. Too long have too many people believed in things told to them through tradition, authority or revelation, without pausing to think about their validity. Too long have false truths blinded us to our ability to think for ourselves, preventing us from seeing the light, shackling us with the chains of dogma and sponsored illusions.

My words are dangerous ones. Through them lies the possible destruction or wholesale restructuring of entire schools of thoughts. Our cherished beliefs may be abandoned grudgingly. Age-old traditions may be cursed and toppled. Men in power may feel threatened by the questioning of authority. The common man may be outraged at the severe disruptions of their lives. Many would be scandalised by these words and their implications. Maybe men will take to the streets in protest to suppress these words. On a small scale, lives will be changed forever. On a large enough scale, there will be social upheaval, rebellion and the overturning of the status quo.

My reason is this: Nobody is right the first time round, and people are capable of self-deception. Everybody makes mistakes, and so a self-checking protocol is required. To reduce the chance of making mistakes in our conclusions, we must be skeptical. Not only to what others tell us, but to the things that have been built into us since the beginning of our lives. Only through the application of rigorous standards of evidence, only through the debate of differing opinions can the Truth emerge. The Truth need not fear any challenges to it, so the opinion that avoids confrontation and suppresses debate cannot be the Truth. Skepticism is my name.

If skepticism is my name, rebellion is my game. Rebel against the tyranny of blind tradition; examine the merits & problems in what you’ve learnt, acknowledge them and improve on it. Rebel against the tyranny of authority that demands your unquestioning support without substantiating why, for authorities have been wrong before, and they may be wrong again. Rebel against those who say that revelation is good enough a reason to believe, for revelation is a mix of imagination and intuition, both of which could be dead wrong at any turn if left unchecked. Rebel against those who tell you that such things are not allowed to be said, because the only reason why ideas are not open to debate is because somehow, we have agreed amongst ourselves that they shouldn’t be. And that reason is not good enough.

My theme is freedom. Freedom is the theme of many rebellions, and this one is not different. But I fight not for the freedom of part of a country or community, but for the freedom of all man instead. I fight for the freedom to think and speak. There will be those who seek to censor me, calling me unpatriotic, unreligious and fanatical. But I will not choose to suppress the views of others, even if these views seek to destroy me. Only the unpatriotic are unable to tolerate the views of others. Only the fanatical will attempt to suppress them as well. I will challenge these people on open debate. There need be no bombs, no weapons, no wars, just the edge of a sharp mind on the battlefield of reason. For as I have said, the Truth is unafraid of confrontation, for it will emerge unscathed.

My movement is slow yet unyielding. I can only hope to speak to those around me. But slowly the virus will grow, slowly unshackling the chains of those once imprisoned, infecting one person to the other through the medium of rational thought. Perhaps when a critical mass is rallied, a world revolution will begin. I am fortunate that I am not alone in my task, and my work need not be thorough at all. All I have to do is encourage you to question your world seriously and I’ll sit back, quietly confident that in due time, you will reach the same conclusion as I have myself.

This is my playful attempt to write my views in a manner resembling a speech spoken at a rally of rebels. If I have failed to convey this feeling, then I may not have been incendiary enough. I hope it has been interesting to you as it has been amusing to me as I write this up.

Flavours of Truth

2004-12-27T10:00:00.000Z

I was once told by a friend that “rational thinking doesn’t explain everything”, and I had a gut feeling (& I suspect many others as well) that she was right. But I try not to think with my gut, preferring to use my head instead. Hence I decided to examine the matter more closely.

It is important to note that rational thinking is not the same as scientific thinking, although one contains elements of the other. I hope it is not wrong to say that rational thinking involves examining a set of circumstances, considering the evidence and options, then calmly executing a course of action. Scientific thinking involves looking at the data, formulating a theory from it, and testing the theory. As we can see, anyone is capable of rational and scientific thinking. Further more, it seems that we are applying rational thought at every turn in our lives.

So what seems to be the challenge here? Surely it can’t be that one would prefer irrational thinking instead. No. It seems that there are those who think that logic and analysis is only one way of knowing, and that intuition has one equally powerful and plausible route to truth. There are also those who claim that scientific truth is only one kind of truth, one amongst alternate truths like those from spiritual origins, or that of a holy book. Maybe they think that I choose science as a “privileged” truth due to an act of faith in the scientific method. Maybe they think that rational thinking is at most on par with faith in intuition, or that of a holy book.

But rational thinking gets results, and that makes all the difference. Clear reasoning makes us thinking humans, capable of understanding and manipulating our world. In contrast, intuition is prone to failure especially in unfamiliar surroundings. The theories of science boost their claim to truth with their ability to predict the future (with a suitable explanation to boot), and enabling us to create devices that convenience us greatly. When given the chance, people vote with their feet, preferring the scientific truth of a medical doctor over the truth expounded by faith healing. Even those who do not choose a scientific education (and may even oppose it) benefit from the technological advances of science. Surely only a hypocrite can propose the validity of alternative truths while flying at 20,000 feet in the engineering feat known as the airplane.

Complaints abound that rational thinking is not emotional enough. But think about it: When you see a loved one crying, you are faced with a number of choices. Inevitably, you step forward to console. The choice made on your part is a product of rationally evaluating the emotions of others and the steps to take. Rational thinking is compatible with empathy and a sense of wonder. Scientific thinking goes a step further by enforcing a high standard of evidence required to prove that something is true. If one would propose that rational thinking is not “spiritual” enough, I must ask what spiritual truth is, since there is no conclusive evidence for spirits, gods and the like.

Another challenge is that rational thinking cannot explain why people are attracted to someone. It is a small feat for one versed in brain chemistry to explain how chemical hormones are triggered to make us feel that we’re in love (a complex dance of hormones like adrenalin and the like). Evolution teaches us why we are attracted to members of the opposite sex (Only those who are attracted to the opposite sex survive to mate and propagate, thus carrying on the pattern). On a higher level, we are attracted to someone when we find in them aspects that we find desirable, be it physical beauty or personality. But should such a “deadpan” description of love offend anyone, or reduce the beauty the love? No it shouldn’t, anymore than explaining why there are 7 colours in the rainbow should cause the rainbow’s beauty to fade.

Perhaps the most disconcerting aspect of scientific truth is that it is always subject to change. A familiar theory may be disproved the next day in the light of new evidence, and thus abandoned. All scientific assertions survive only because they have not been disproved. Undeniably, all we have are assumptions and approximations to the Real Truth, and all we hope to do is to reduce the error margin with successive generations. But what is the alternative? What other method do you propose to investigate the world. Perhaps that is why some would choose the more stubborn truths that intuition and religion has to offer, and persist with them even in the light of contradictory evidence.

We may argue that rational thinking is not enough, that science is a mere flavour of truth. But some things will always be the Real Truth. The sun is hotter than the Earth. Electricity and magnetism are intertwined. Sadly, there are things that even our common sense cannot comprehend. It is easy for us to imagine that the sun is a bring, hot round rock in the sky, because our ancestor brains only had to deal with red hot rocks on earth. We are not equipped to know intuitively that the sun is a massive hydrogen fireball. For this we must look at the evidence and use rational thinking to come to such a conclusion. Rational thinking is indeed the beginning step to knowing everything there is to know.

Nuclear Winter

2004-12-22T08:06:00.000Z

Few can fully comprehend the horrors of war, for much of what we know is through the censored eyes of mass media. And few are knowledgeable about the consequences of an all-out nuclear war; so horrifying is it that we tend not to think much of it. But ignorance has never led to good things, and it may be too late when the time comes.

In WW2, a total of two million tons (two megatons) TNT of bombs were dropped on the cities for a period of 6 years. A single 20^th century nuclear bomb can achieve the same amount of destructive output. Now, there are over ten thousand such nuclear weapons in the world today. The Hiroshima bomb killed a 100k people; extrapolating that, a full nuclear exchange today will kill a hundred billion people, 15 times our global population.

Death will come in many ways. The immediate blast wave is capable of flattening buildings several kilometres away. The firestorm, gamma waves and neutrons will fry the innards of those within its massive radius. But those who die immediately will be lucky to miss the agonising long-term effects of the bomb.

It is not only human beings who suffer from full nuclear war. The nitrogen in the air will burn, and in turn destroy the ozone layer. Large amounts of ultraviolet light will pour in, causing skin cancer, destroying corps and killing billions of micro-organisms which form the basis of Earth’s ecology. The dust in the air will cool the Earth which will devastate the agriculture of our planet. Plagues of insects and disease will wrack the planet. Rampant mutations caused by radiation will manifest themselves in all life throughout the radioactive fallout that will last for a century. These global disasters can easily destroy our civilisation.

War is only possible if large groups of people feel threatened and fly into murderous rage. There are those will profit from war and fan the flames through means of mass communication. But our weapons improve with technology and we’re now capable of killing ourselves several times over. The penalties of war are too great, and nuclear war does not revolve invoking the masses; only a few are needed to push the buttons that seal our fate.

Many countries acquire weapons for deterrence purposes. When every country does so, what is being held hostage is the lives of all men on Earth. Deterrence depends on things not going wrong, on mistakes not being made. All it takes is for things to go a little off-tilt, for the blood of men to boil, to bring the house of cards crashing down. Our weapons delivery systems will sooner or later lead to global disasters. (sooner if in the wrong hands)

How paltry are the differences that separate us! Looking from space at our planet, our national boundaries, our ethnic and religious chauvinisms cannot be seen. We humans, along with all life on Earth, are in this together. How do we justify that ten thousand nuclear warheads enhances our chances of survival? Just because nuclear war has never happened, doesn’t mean it never will. It need only happen once, and by then it’ll be too late.

If we are so capable of destroying our society, surely we can devote the same energy to changing it for the better. Looking at our armament and attitude, doomsday may not be far off. Shouldn’t we be challenging our “conventional” political, economic and religious wisdom, to see what’s wrong with the traditional way of doing things? It is up to us to see our legacy of humanity through this difficult and potentially fatal period of history, and not hide behind a veil of excuses. Should humanity self-destruct in an adolescent fit of apocalypse, we take with us the millions of species on our planet, the future and dreams of our children, and be left with the sorry reminder that we could have prevented it all but didn’t.

Adapted from Cosmos, Carl Sagan

An unprecedented tragedy

2004-12-20T16:17:00.000Z

It is with a heavy heart that I come before you today to announce a most saddening event. The Great Library of Alexandria was razed and burned to the ground 1600 years ago, and its caretaker brutally murdered as well.

Before you write this off as a seemingly unimportant and dramatic event, let me clarify the weight of the tragedy. In today’s society, it will be equivalent to the destruction of almost all the books and computer data in the entire world. Almost all of mankind’s accumulated knowledge will have been lost to the flame.

The Library was constructed in 300 BC by the Ptolemy’s, where an estimated half million volumes of scrolls were kept. It was also the birthplace of the systematic study and foundations of mathematics, science, literature and medicine. The contents of the library are utterly tantalizing. There was a book by the astronomer Aristarchus of Samos, who argued that Earth is one of many planets orbiting the sun and that the stars are very far away. Eratosthenes accurately calculated the size of the Earth, mapped it, and argued that India can be reached from Greece by sailing westwards. Hipparchus correctly anticipated the life cycle of the stars. Euclid produced a textbook on geometry, and Galen wrote on healing and anatomy which dominated medicine until the Renaissance.

The last caretaker of the library was no less extraordinary. Her name was Hypatia, and she was a mathematician, astronomer, physicist and head of the school of philosophy. In a time where women were treated like property, this was a great achievement. She was said to be a great beauty who rejected her suitors in favor of her passion for learning and science.

So how did it all go wrong? There are many contributory factors, but I shall describe the final and most devastating blow. In 400 AD, the Christian Church was growing in power and eradicating pagan culture. The archbishop of Alexandria, Cybil, despised Hypatia for her unconventional status and public relations. Learning and science was also viewed by the Church to be related to paganism. In 415, Hypatia was ambushed by fanatical Christians who tore off her clothes and whipped her to death, finally burning her for good measure. The mob soon descended on the Library and consigned it to the flame as well. And in true Christian fashion, Cybil was made a saint.

The loss was incalculable. We would never know the titles nor contents of many of these scrolls. In some cases, we know only of the titles, and the remnants of a few works. It’s like the only surviving works of Shakesphere were “A Winter’s Tale” & “As You Like It”, while we only heard the titles of celebrated plays like “Hamlet”, “Macbeth”, and “Romeo & Juliet”. Many of the scientific advances would have to wait 20 centuries to be rediscovered. Such is the destructive power of unchecked fanatical dogmatism.

How would life be different had such a travesty not occurred? Society would have had a 2000 year headstart in its major achievements. Perhaps by now, we would have found a cure for cancer, or achieved hydrogen fusion. Perhaps we would have devised a better economic system than capitalism, or a better political one than democracy. Perhaps we will already be undertaking journeys to the stars to colonise other planets. But now we will never know, for with such an extensive destruction of collective knowledge, these opportunities have been lost forever.

Adapted from Cosmos, Carl Sagan

What new-fangled nonsense is this?

2004-12-16T09:13:00.000Z

As a scholar, I am sometimes asked to write articles or essays for various reasons at school or in my workplace. Commonly coupled with this request is the expectation that whatever I write will be littered with complex vocabulary and technical jargon, such that the article will appear intelligent or “scholarly”.

I couldn’t disagree more.

It would seem that many would think that the more complex the prose, the more intelligent and advanced an article must be. Although it is true that the occurrences of complex vocabulary is correlated with intelligent articles, that certainly does NOT mean that all articles littered with difficult words are intelligent. Consider the following article:

“If one examines material capitalism, one is faced with a choice: either reject deconstructivist situationism or conclude that the purpose of the artist is social comment. But the premise of neosemantic sublimation suggests that context is created by the collective unconscious. Sontag suggests the use of material capitalism to attack elitist perceptions of society.”

As intelligent-sounding as this may be, a discerning reader will be able to tell that the above paragraph is technically bullshit. In fact, the above passage came from this website (http://www.elsewhere.org/cgi-bin/postmodern), a random (postmodernism) essay generator. All it requires is a couple of “password” words dispersed into grammatically correct sentences and it’ll look intelligent at first glance.

It is as if people think that great insights (which are the products of clear and structured thought) are best expressed in prose that is deliberately unclear! What utter rubbish! Surely such near-incomprehensible words have a negative effect on the quality of thought. It seems like there is a conspiracy to make great discoveries and arguments inaccessible by dressing them up in flowery language. If I was a dishonest writer, I will definitely attempt to hide my lack of content behind a smokescreen of jargon and vocabulary.

It is for this reason that I choose to write in a simple style, where I could reasonably expect a person with an average grasp of English to comprehend. What use is it to write open articles, if it is not designed for the common man to read and understand? Surely one of the ways to judge a genius is the ability to communicate his/her great ideas to others. Grand thoughts expressed through simple words will surely get the point across.

No doubt there exist thoughts so profound that most of us will not understand the language they’re expressed in. And no doubt there is text designed to be unreadable to disguise the absence of honest thought. Clarity in language and clear thought are needed to bridge the gap between academics and the rest of humanity. It should not be the case that only experts are able to tell that the emperor really has no clothes.

Unexpected posting

2004-12-14T11:58:00.000Z

After reporting at Nee Soon camp, I was deemed unfit to continue with the combat medic course. As a result, I was posted to the specialist mess to be mess boy instead.

What does all this mean? It means:
5-day work week
Hours are from 7.30am to 3pm
Stay-out
No physical training
No first/last parade
No regimental duties (duty orderly / guard duty)

So I'll be significantly free-er, and you can expect more updates on my blog & website as I type the articles that I intend to write about.

Against the Futility of Life - A personal quest towards death

2004-12-11T10:43:00.000Z

Despite the pessimistic title, this article is not a lament, but instead a personal rallying call (that I would like to share online) to redefine the kind of life that I want to live.

To begin with, let me quote from Ecclesiastes……….

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5:15 Naked as a man comes from his mother’s womb, and as he comes, so he departs. He takes nothing from his labor that he can carry in his hand.

2:22,23 What does a man get for all the toil and anxious striving with which he labors under the sun? All his days his work is pain and grief; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is meaningless.

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Verses like this may be familiar to you, especially if you read widely. Simply put, it is a solemn reminder that when we die, all our material possessions that we worked so hard for will mean nothing. A rich man & a poor man die in the same way.

I’m an atheist who believes neither in supernatural gods, an afterlife, spirits nor souls. To me, death is a finality. When I die, I won’t be able to regret anything, or miss my life, friends and family on Earth. There will be no “me” to do the missing.

This naturally comes to another point. If there is no afterlife, no god, then what is the meaning of living? Are our own lives merely a meaningless tenure on a spherical rock floating in the black oceans of space? Is there any purpose to our lives at all?

These are difficult questions to face and answer, for few have the courage to face it and none have the ability to answer it. To lessen the pain of death, many believe in the afterlife, where life carries on after death, be it in heaven, hell or through reincarnation. They may regard their lives on Earth as a testing period to earn points for the afterlife. But again, to a non-believer, these are not options. I too would eventually have to face the finality of death. So what is the point of living?

Some may choose to die famous, such that their names are forever recorded in the annuls of history. Some may choose to die for their country, family, friends or love. Some may choose to live a life of helping others. Some may choose to live their lives learning about the world around them, and inventing things that further the prosperity of mankind.

Life is not about scoring points for the afterlife, or forsaking one’s capacity for critical thought in favor of unquestioning faith to authority. The challenge that I’m facing here is to make my own life meaningful. I am blessed with loving parents who have done what they can to enrich me with knowledge & values. It is only natural that I return the kindness that they have showered upon me. And this should extend to those beyond my family bloodline as well, friends & strangers alike. But even that is not enough to make my life meaningful. For when we die, we will soon be forgotten, and may never have had a chance to change the humanity as a whole for the better. If I were only kind, I could only affect those who knew me. Is that enough?

It is for this reason that I respect scientists, writers, and those who dedicate their lives to the betterment of mankind by contributing to the immense knowledge pool of humanity. Be it scientific, artistic, political or philosophical knowledge, our civilization today is a result of the work of all the great minds before us. By recording what we know through books and their technological descendents, we have amassed much to teach to our future generations so that they may prosper as well.

I too will like to be a part of this contribution. If there is a meaning of life for me, it is to be part of this advancement by mankind. It may be through direct contribution to the knowledge pool, or through indirect support of those who shall do the contributing. And to this while making those around me happy. That would be truly be a worthy life goal indeed.

Posting arrived

2004-12-11T09:09:00.000Z

Well then, I've been posted to Nee Soon camp as a combat medic. The course is probrably going to be 3 months long.

I have mixed feelings about this posting of course. On the bright side, it's a camp on the mainland close to my house (no sispec = no tekong). And I wouldn't have to use weapons (much)

On the other hand, I'm still not in the condition to do anything physical. Walking still hurts after a while, and even typing becomes a chore after i use my left hand/elbow too much. Not to mention the numbness down my left arm due to the pressed nerves. And a combat medic courses still includes trench digging & SOC.

I will be seeing 2 specialists within this week to find out more about my current state. But even if I do "out of course", there's a chance I'll be sent to the service medic course. Oh well.

The next phase of NS

2004-12-09T02:45:00.000Z

BMT has finally come to a close, and I'm now waiting for my next posting.

I hope to go to somewhere "stay-out", so that I can return home everyday to the things I want to do. More importantly, it must be a place where I can stop this brain-rot.

Approaching the end of BMT

2004-11-28T04:59:00.000Z

Much has happened over the last 2 weeks since I have last updated my blog. I'll do my best to put a comprehensive list of the various events in order of timeline.

Nov 16th, Tuesday - Approached my PC (Platoon Commander) 2LT Daniel about my erronous posting to BMTC. 2LT Daniel used various forms of argument to tell me that although I was posted here wrongly, I should still go through BMT and I have not passed it before. However, he missed the point as the issue was not in whether I have passed BMT, but on the unambiguous fact that I was exempted in the first place. Nevertheless I gave him an easy solution: Just refer me to OC. As a PC, he does not have the power to solve my problem, and I had only approached him as I needed to go up the chain of command in a certain order. I will take the fight to OC myself.

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Nov 17th, Wednesday morning - Approached my OC (Officer in Command), otherwise known as head honcho of Orion Company. OC has a reputation of not being the easiest man to talk and negotiate stuff with. In fact, I could drop the pretense and just say he's a difficult person to deal with. I spoke to him about the erronous posting, about my concerns if I was posted to command school, and requested that something be done. Like being posted out. I knew that there was a good chance that this was going to be a futile effort. OC could easily just push my case to one side and delay everything until the graduation parade (a mere 3 weeks away). In fact, he did exactly just that. He gave a very diplomatic answer, saying that he'll look into the matter and see what can be done. Meaning of course that nothing will be done until Passing Out Parade.

I had also informed PSC about my erronous posting. Mr Michael Yip was aghast that something like this should happen, and said that he will take steps to rectify the situation if necessary. However, it would be preferable if I could solve the problem within SAF itself without having to make PSC step in, as that could cause some embarassment within the SAF.

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Nov 17th - Wednesday afternoon. This was a happening day alright.

As I was falling in for SOC while fully decked in SBO helmet and rifle, I slipped on a slippery patch near the concrete staircase at the company line, and fell down an entire flight of stairs.

I landed on my lower back and left elbow, then twisted my body and went down the rest of the way on my left knee and left shoulder. It hurt like hell and I could hardly move my left side. On the bright side, the helmet saved me from hitting my head against the concrete steps and being knocked out.

I was immediately sent to the medical centre and x-rayed for possible fractures on my back, shoulder and elbow. Fortunately there were none but I was still pretty much paralysed on my left arm. I was sent home on medical leave until the next book-in on Nov 21.

Over the medical leave I could hardly move, let alone leave the house. I was mostly static in my room playing Warhammer 40k. The bruises from the initial fall was healing, but I was still experiencing pain during movement, and an extremely tender elbow. I decided to see the doctor at Tekong when I returned to find out more about my condition.

I'm really accident prone huh?

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Nov 19th, Friday evening - My JC classmates came to visit! NTU exams were over, and they were all in a party mood. They came over for mahjong (I didn't play, couldn't move left arm too well) and Munchkins (a fantasy card game, excellent fun). I'm so touched that they were worried about my condition and came over. Thanks guys! Also convinced them to play Warhammer 40k so we could hammer each other online, like the good old days.

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Nov 22th, Monday - Back in camp. I still couldn't swing my arms, and had difficulty marching. To make things worse, I realised that I could only walk 200m before this throbbing pain hits my left knee. Things were worse than I thought. I saw the doctor, who said that it is possible that fractures don't show up immediately on the x-ray. I was scheduled for further x-rays later in the week.

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Nov 25th, Thursday - After a particularly strenous area cleaning session where we were pulling cupboards out, and throwing up mattresses to wipe the bed frames, I was experiencing severe pain in my left shoulder, and the numbness in my left hand was worsening. I went to see the doctor, who x-rayed me again (no problems detected). However, I was to be referred to a nerve specialist for nerve damage along my left elbow - hand. I will also be referred to a bone spec for suspected ligament damage if the pain does not subside.

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Nov 26th, Friday evening - Jiun has come to Singapore! Derrick & I went to pick him up for supper. He stayed at Derrick's place over the night, and we made some arrangements to meet up with more friends the next day.

Also played Warhammer 40k online with JC friends until 3am in the morning. It came to the point that they were begging to stop but I was still whipping them on for more ^_^. I'm an addict.

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Nov 27th, Saturday - Jiun came over to my place in the morning and spent the rest of the morning at Warhammer40k. For lunch, we went to Orchard for a bit of jalan jalan, though I was slowing down the pace a lot due to my poor knee. Met up with tiannuo and yanning there too, and met Daniel Chee as well for dinner at Bishan.

Tiannuo is still busy with his firegate thingie at Sch of Arty, though he will be on course soon all the way till ORD. Apparently when the new year starts, he will have no working days left as he will either be on course or clearing leave. Lucky bastard!

Yanning has (finally) found a job. A progamming and systems designer job in Bedok that nets her $2500 a month. She starts work in January, and her first paycheck is on 2nd Feb 2005. One day before my birthday! *hint hint*

Daniel Chee is the one person we haven't met in a LOONG time. He got married to his chio bu girlfriend 2 weeks ago and didn't inform us at all! The Bastard! Anyway he's happily working now and has changed quite a bit since our Warwick days. Not so perverted anymore. Great to see you Daniel! Too bad he has to call back and *report strength* constantly. That sure takes off the trill of getting married to a babe huh?

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Nov 28th, Sunday - Today, and currently updating blog.

I just read the latest comment in my previous blog entry by sillydumb aka Kailun, one of my platoon mates. It touches me to know that people feel that way about me.

I had always thought that the moment I was exempted from field camp to do logistical work for the company, that I would begin drifting away from my platoon-mates. You see, back in Mohawk, the time when friendships really bond is during field camp, where you sleep & suffer in the jungle, where you get to really know the rest of your army buddies. I had thought that by not participating in field camp, I would begin to have less in common with my platoon, and find it harder to bond with them.

I'm glad to see that this hasn't been the case.

During the time I was outfield, I got to speak to the instructors, and see the side that they don't present to the trainees. I got to help my platoon in ways that would not have otherwise been possible. Even though I missed the training, I gained the knowledge that allowed me to see the bigger pictures.

I have always told my platoon-mates that one shouldn't dislike your instructor for doing the things they do to you. Ultimately, we're all NSFs, waiting for our ORD, having to follow orders even if they're incoherent and otherwise suffering in Tekong. Our instructors, especially our seargeants, don't have it easy. There's a ton of duties for them to do (like COS, DI, CDO), lots of strict rules to follow, logistic problems to handle, recruit attitudes to deal with. They have to cover their butts as well. For their entire NSF they had stayed in Tekong... from BMT to SISPEC to ASLC and finally to instructor @ BMTC. In comparison, most recruits need only stay in Tekong for 3 months at most.

Being a recoursee has its advantages. Having had one year experience in the SAF, we can see the bigger picture. We can see beyond the next book-out and how to avoid the next tekan session. We can see the politics that go on, the rationale behind certain actions, the alternatives in various difficult situations. I had tried my best to impart this to the fellow fresh recruits. There is no good to come from making the lives of others difficult or from playing punk. Playing nice and lending a helping hand will only make life easier and gain you friends, although there is a fine line to thread in case one tries to take advantage of you.

Concerning the good soldier comment, I wonder what kind of "good soldier" skips field camp, range, hand grenade, gets injured and misses IPPT, SOC, route march etc. ^_^ Nevertheless this has taught me that it is not just going through training and suffering together that bonds people and makes them respect each other. There is more to that in the brotherhood formed during military training.

Although I was originally exempted from BMT recourse, although I feel that my time in BMT could have been better spent, seeing the comments & autographs written on the back of my BMT platoon group photo, forging the friendships with my fellow platoon mates, and the experience that I had gone through to make this past 10 weeks a memorable one, has made it all so worth it. This BMT experience has been a better one than my Mohawk BMT 4 years ago, and it is primarily due to my great platoon mates and instructors who made it all possible.

Thank you all very much, folks ^_^ *sniff sniff*

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And one more thing... to the Warwickees coming back to Singapore over Christmas.... tell us when you're back! We need to meet up so I can scold you for not going ski-ing during the precious winter break instead ^_^

I'm also going to update my website soon with an article I read about the ultimate origin of human life. It is an educational and touching one which I would like to share. If I can I will try to pull it off before I book-in in the evening.

Letting it out

2004-11-15T02:47:00.000Z

It's been a while since I updated my blog. For the past few weeks, there was a 7-day field camp and a 3-day sit test, making it a total of 10 days in the jungle.

Actually I have been rather depressed for the past few days. Just before field camp started, I found out that I was actually exempted from doing BMT recourse. This is because I had already done field camp and range in my previous BMT course. But mu ex-unit (HQ SA) didn't realise this, and sent me for recourse anyway.

So ultimately, I was sent for a recourse when I shouldn't have. Now I'm stuck on Tekong for 3-4 more weeks with a bald head. With the possible prospect of being sent to OCS or SISPEC to lead 6-9 months more of trainee life.

I don't want to be a trainee already. I don't want to go to leadership school. And I have two major and personal reasons for this.

1) My degree is leaking out of me bit by bit. It's only been 5 months since I graduated. I can't afford to let this continue to ORD in 1.5 years. I want to be in a mentally and intellectually challenging environment. I want to be in a place where I can use my skills and technical knowledge. If I went to leadership school, there will be no time for me to develop these aspects of my life.

2) Part of being a commander is to lead your men into battle with the foreknowledge that some of them won't make it. NS is not a joke. The training is to prepare people for a real war, where there will be real casualties. And I believe that I do not have the nerve to send men to their deaths. I value human life too much to do that.

Update about army

2004-10-16T07:44:00.000+01:00

The moment I wrote the title for this blog, I realised both the scope and the dread of writing about this topic.

Firstly, Singapore is filled with girls who are sick and tired of hearing guys talk about army. It has gotten to the point that even I am sick of hearing about it, especially when bunched with "army-enthusiastic" guys. Part of that was because my education path has been to go through university before completing my NS, so I could never really connect with my fellow men about army life.

How the roles have reversed now.

Most of my male friends are now in uni, and I'm the one stuck in Tekong. Now it is my life that revolves around army. Isn't that ironic?

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Things go fast and furious in the army, especially when you're a recruit stuck on Tekong. BMT is 10 weeks, and 3 have already passed. Everyday, it feels like so much is happening. But when you look back, only so little time has passed. It's going to be a really fast 7 more weeks.

I'm not going to elaborate on the training here, mostly cuz it'll bore the guys who did it all, and the girls who heard it all already ^_^ Being a recoursee has its advantages, since I already know my stuff and can skip some of the tests. Hopefully at this rate, I can skip range and field camp ^_^

One thing I do like to add though, is that I was really really sick over the last week. It was a viral infection that hit really hard. It got my lungs and stomach too, so I had difficulty breathing, and kept throwing up whatever I ate. Doctors in Tekong aren't a sympathetic bunch, and they gave me some medication for giddiness and 2 days of light duties to recover. I booked out in the middle of the week for a medical appointment, and then went to SGH to report my illness because I was having a lot of trouble trying to live. They isolated me for a while at A&E, diagnosed me with viral infection (thankfully not pneumonia), gave me 7 different medications and confined me at home for 3 days.

At least the vomitting and breathlessness has stopped now. Hope to recover in time to improve my attendance record.

Going Tekong today

2004-09-30T22:29:00.000+01:00

I'll be off to Pulau Tekong for my Basic Military Training Recourse today.

I know a little of the details. There are 20 recourse personnel to be placed in Orion company. No idea about the strictness of the company and whether I get to book out this weekend.

A turning point in life

2004-09-25T15:39:00.000+01:00

I haven't updated my blog for a while, because it has been a rather busy past 2 weeks.

Readers of my 3 previous posts may have noticed a common theme in all 3: Property. And this update will act as a finale to this issue.

Surrounded by news and indications that the Singapore property market is moving up, thus making property more expensive in the future, and aided by the extremely low rates of home loans, my parents and I have been house-hunting for the past month.

It was an activity that had many factors pushing it along. The property market is currently at a low. Bank loans are going at very low interest rates as well. And I am already 23 ..... 1.5 years more and i'll be a working member of society. My parents will be retiring soon and have a huge gratuity to be collected. And I've lived away from family for 4 years. The release of Kovan Melody near my house was the spark that started it all. Perhaps it wouldn't hurt to see what was on offer in Singapore.

I wanted a condominium unit because I didn't want to handle a personal garden, and had some facilities provided. I would have prefered a freehold property that had a good location (somewhere central) and very accessible (preferably walking distance to MRT). It would have to be at least 1100 sq ft, with a squarish layout so that it was easy to furnish.

4 weeks from the first time I've stepped into a showflat this year, the house-hunting would come to an end.
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Let me cut to the chase. We've bought an apartment unit. This morning. And I'm the sole owner.

The property is called The Yardley, a small condominium project by MCL Land located along Upper Serangoon Road within walking distance of my current house and Serangoon MRT. It is a 1,400 sq ft 3-bedroom + 1-study apartment unit. Freehold. And we got it at a ridiculously low price of $750,000., or $530 per sq ft.

The story of how we got the property is rather amusing. On 19 Sep Sunday night, I was doing research about the (relatively unknown) developer of this apartment project in Balestier. Along the way I stumbled onto this site www.redas.com which did a rather thorough and easily-read comparison of all the condominium projects launched in the past 2 years. Scanning through the list, I saw the Yardley. It had all the features that I wanted, being a freehold property close to my house and MRT going at $600 per sq ft. I could scarcely believe it: How did I miss this one out? I did some research and found that it was done by MCL Land, a big company which had all the property details on its website. I quickly told my parents about this find.

Over the weekdays, the actual research began. I called the company and found out that the property was released over a year ago, and only 2 units were left. There were no more advertisements in the papers, and the showflat has long been torn down. We were told about the units location and type. Only the biggest units were left, and they were going for $800k, or $565 per sq ft. Over the course of the next few days, my parents and I went to the actual site to survey the area. We took note of its worringly close position to the noisy flyover and Caltex petrol kiosk. We checked its facing to see if there were any obstructions, or if the area will be flooded by the afternoon sun. We checked the surrounding properties and did some research about the costs in terms of sq ft other nearby properties.

Today, on 25 Sep, we took a trip down to the office of MCL Land and saw the model of the project. There were also some high quality photos of the showflat that were used in the brochure. We discussed the relative merits and flaws of the unit, and negotiated the price. My father bargained the price down to $750k (a whole story by itself), wrote the deposit cheque, and the deal was concluded. Now, I would have my own apartment in 2006.

The price was very good indeed. Surrounding condo projects going on a 99-year leasehold were going at $500 per sq ft. Kovan Melody, the latest and biggest project on the market is also a 99-yr leasehold going at $530 per sq ft, and it is only one MRT stop away. And we got our freehold one for $530 per sq ft as well.

All my friends whom I can grab hold of will be invited to the housewarming of course. But the property won't be completed and renovated until I finish NS in mid-2006 anyway. ^_^

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And so that's that. Never in my life have I thought that I would own my own apartment at the age of 23. Though I do owe my parents about 600k now T_T. I've got 1.5 years to so some thinking and research about the interior design for the apartment. Guess I can take my own sweet time now...

A Lament for Mankind

2004-09-13T11:36:00.000+01:00

Today, I'm irritated. With my father. For believing in Feng Shui.

Using Feng Shui alone, he had crossed off half of all the potential housing projects that we visited yesterday. He refuses to even consider them because they have "bad fengshui". And these projects are actually not bad themselves!

It irritates me that a man as intelligent as my father (I believe he is in smarter than me in many ways) is still capable of making irrational decisions through the belief of fengshui. It matters little if the housing project has fantastic attributes in terms of location & financing.... fengshui is what matters.

Why is this so? Why do people believe in fengshui? Why do people believe that there are ghosts on the street in the 7th month? Why do people believe that a God made us all and is watching over our every move?

Why do people hold thousand year old beliefs so firmly that their logical decision making process can be short-circuited?
Why such unquestioning faith in your beliefs? If they are so true, shouldn't you not be afraid to test them and verify their truthfulness?
Why do people fear or respect the invisible gods?
Why should a belief in religion automatically command respect?
Why should a belief in the supernatural automatically command respect?
Where is the proof that these things exist?
Where is the statistical proof that "good fengshui" will give better returns?
Where is the proof that prayer works?
Why do accounts of miracles grow more fantastic the further they are in our murky past?
Why do es every religion which claims God has a chosen people was founded by those who claimed they were the chosen people?
What is the difference between a cult and a religion?
If a cult grows very large in size to be of equal standing to a "world religion", is it still a cult or a religion?
Why should a holy book have a back cover that signifies that no further additions should be made? Shouldn't a god that exists still perform miracles & have its prophets walk the streets even today? Shouldn't these be chronicled in the book as well?

Some of my friends and family tell me not to question, but I will continue to do so. I cannot let this irrational trend propogate around me without having a say about it.

First post in 2 weeks

2004-09-12T15:37:00.000+01:00

It's been quite a while since my last blog update, but I didn't want to update it until I had something interesting to write.

The subtext of this will of course mean that army life is in fact rather boring. It's been a rather mundane working life. Although it's more regimental than one would expect of a clerk life, there's still time to catch a nap admist all the despatch & paperwork. I have finally received an official notice informing me of the stuff I need to bring to Tekong for Enhanced BMT, so I'll need to take out all this 4-yr old army stuff to wash & sun.

There was a ORD farewell party on Sep 11, Saturday. The guys & I (23 of us) went to Hotel Phoenix for high tea, followed by a little drinking at Harry's Bar located at the Esplanade. Good thing I had signed up with UOB for their credit card, as there were 10-15% discounts across the board if I used the credit card to foot the collective bill. The Long Island Tea at Harry's was significantly stronger than the Smirnoff ones at UK Weatherspoon's pubs, and the Sex on the Beach was pretty good. One of my friends puked after 3 cocktails, which was laughable, but he got a little of that puke on me, which was not.

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I spent the weekend looking at houses with my parents. We probrably checked out 10 properties over 2 days, all within the central and east side of Singapore. They ranged from freehold cluster houses to leasehold condominiums. It was rather educational overall. Some seemingly attractive leasehold condominiums were actually going at a more expensive rate per square foot than the freehold ones. The way the bank loans were done were also radically different, and it made me less wary of payment schemes that were "normal" instead of "deferred". All in all, it was a real eye-opener, and worth the precious time spent over the weekend.

Of all possible futures

2004-08-31T14:06:00.000+01:00

In my last post, I mentioned that I was interested in this condominium, Kovan Gardens due to its fantastic location. It's primary drawback was its size, which I partially attribute to my current lifestyle. Well, I thought that it's about time to pull my head out of the sand and weigh my options for owning property and a lifestyle away from my parent's shelter when I start working.

Needless to say, it isn't pretty.

The best housing loans by the major banks are at a prime rate of 3% at the moment. Many such loans normally allow you to pay less interest for the first 2 years, allowing you to lower your outstanding loan faster such that you end up paying less interest when the prime rate kicks in. However, even with all this, we're talking about a loan where you end up paying an extra 35-45% in bank interest at the end of the loan, assuming you go for a 20 year loan. So for example, a housing loan of $500k, over 20 years for a 3% prime rate, will result in you giving the bank a total of $150k at the end of the 20 years.

Can you imagine working and paying a bank $150,000 over 20 years, all because you took a housing loan? It sounds so ridiculous. If the prime rate is 5%, you end up paying the bank the same total interest for a loan that's only half the size. All-in-all for your first year, half of the monthly payments will go towards interest earned by the bank, and the rest towards reducing the outstanding balance. And because you can only reduce the balance by so little, you still end up paying a lot in interest. It's a vicious cycle.

There are various ways to lower this number, like going for a shorter loan period (which consequently increases your monthly payments to ridiculously high numbers). UOB is offering a 0% interest loan for the first year, allowing you to lower your outstandin balance more quickly. You can offset some of that payment through CPF. But the best method may be re-financing, where you transfer your loan to another bank to take advantage of lower rates within the first year.

Despite all this, it sounds like taking a housing loan means that you're saddled with a pretty big debt which eats at your monthly income like crazy. How do people survive? This is not including money needed for internal furnishing, monthly maintenance of house, utility bills, stamp duty, moving costs etc.

It sounds like I'm going to have to loan the money from my parents & relatives instead, and negotiate a lower interest rate with them. That will reduce my monthly cash outflow, which makes it more possible to repay the loan quickly. Or maybe a mixture of both so I can get away with a smaller bank loan. I have discussed this with my parents and they agree that any intentions of borrowing money from the bank should be discussed with them first.

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On the car side, things aren't that pretty either. COEs have merged the previous categories together, so normal cars come in 2 forms; Cat A (1600cc and below) and Cat B (1600cc and above). Both COES are averaging $25-$30k at the moment. And car loans are at about 2.5% interest for 7 years. Not including the cost of the car itself, a car tax that averages at $1k a year, and petrol/parking costs...

An eventful weekend

2004-08-29T16:19:00.000+01:00

Saturday:

There was a 7km morning run organised by School of Artillery at Pasir Ris park. Tiring as usual, but it also meant early dismissal, so I'm cool with it. I need the endurance training anyway.

After a little nap, I joined the choir alumni at a KTV in Chinatown. I realised something about myself: I'm very out of touch with Chinese songs. I could only recognise Chinese songs released before my UK studies. And I actually know a lot more English songs than I thought. Too bad the latest English songs at the KTV were quite outdated as well. No matter, I had a great time singing (shouting) with my choir friends.

We ended the night with a alumni AGM at Yuting's place. Settled some stuff there, and I volunteered as webmaster, since I have the experience, and it isn't a big commitment. Wonder if there's time to practise for carolling as well.

--------------------------

Sunday:

Managed to convince my father to go for a Korean lunch. Actually, I'm scared of Korean food. I don't really know the cuisine, and a significant bit of it is always spicy. It was good nonetheless.

After a particularly filling lunch, my dad suggested this condominium showroom that's at Kovan MRT. Having nothing better to do for the afternoon, we decided to check it out. It's called Kovan garden, and the facilities touted were rather impressive. The best thing about it has to be the location; It's 10 metres away from Kovan MRT. The flats are rather small though, but I attribute that more to my current lifestyle and mindset. The rooms are actually similar to my dorm in UK, so it's fine actually, and I don't own that much stuff. We checked out the 2,3 and 4 bedroom flats. I quite liked the way the 2-bedroom flat was made out, and how one of the bedrooms was converted into a extra living room to make it more like a studio.

Truth be told, I'm actually rather interested in the place. $500k will get you a 2-bedroom flat, with a $200 monthly maintenance for the facilities. and security. With a location like that, you won't need a car to get to work, only a small one over the weekend perhaps. I could borrow the money from my parents and pay them back, instead of going through the bank. I begin to imagine my own pad, away from my parents, yet close enough to walk over and visit anytime. I already know how to live by myself anyway from all those years in UK. The condominium is scheduled to be complete in 2007, and I finish my NS in 2006, just in time to start work. Hmm......

I went home to catch up on some sleep debt, then ended off the evening with dinner at my garandparents. Played this card game with my cousins. It's called Mucnchkins, and it's a rpg/card-game where you try to get to lvl 10 in a dungeons & dragons setup. It's quite fun and has a decent amount of backstabbing ^_^ Loved the screams.

Personal Targets

2004-08-23T12:23:00.000+01:00

At last check.....

Pull-ups: 2
2.4 km run: 13 mins, 12 seconds

I got 5 weeks to increase my pull ups by 4, and reduce my run time by 1 min 20 seconds

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Life as a Pes A clerk ain't too bad. Since I'm only in Khatib camp as a clerk for 5 weeks, they have not bothered to give me anything significant to do.

To give the reader an idea of how far down the hierarchy I am:
I'm the assistant to the understudy of the documentation clerk.

A documentation clerk is a normal clerk
A understudy is someone learning to become a normal clerk
And I'm a understudy's assistant.

Woohoo!

I'm going to take the time to prepare for BMT instead. Starting with pull-ups.

The countdown begins

2004-08-18T12:50:00.000+01:00

1 uneventful day down, 638 days more to go.

ORD on 18th May 2006 *faints*
My brother ORDs on 1st June 2006.

BMT between 1st oct to 7 dec...

Thoughts of financial freedom

2004-08-16T15:11:00.000+01:00

I’ve been thinking.

That little saga with Amway has sparked off something in me. Although it was a bad start, it was also thought provoking to consider my financial future now. This is an issue I have shelved at the back of my mind after reading “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” back in my second year in college. But now that my studies are over, it’s probably good to think about this over NS.

The Cashflow 101 session at Clark Quay with my class was rather fun, but above that it was educational as well. The games Cashflow 101 & 202 are lessons for learning real world investing. Although it is over-simplified, the message that is sent across is clear. There are many ways to get rich, but that doesn’t mean that one should stick only to one way. It’s all about building up capital, recognizing & keeping liabilities low, and purchasing assets that can make money on their own. It’s all about ensuring that you don’t get saddled by huge expenses & ensuring that you won’t get screwed in case anything happens to your job.

I’m going to need to learn more about financial matters. I’ll need to re-read my Robert Kiyosaki books. I need to know more about the current state of the market & economy both worldwide and in Singapore. There’s a lot to think about and learn from.

I spoke to my parents recently concerning this. They have a decent amount of capital stored somewhere that can be used for investment. I used to have this immature desire that I must live in private housing when I move out, and I could ask my parents to give me a loan when the time comes. Not anymore. I wouldn’t mind normal HDB, if I could use the remaining money for investment purposes instead. Big private housing is likely to weigh me down with a huge mortgage, and the living experience doesn’t sound like its worth the extra weight.

But what are the various ways of earning money in Singapore, besides getting a job? Stocks & Shares are mostly for capital gain, as the dividend alone doesn’t make it really worth it. Apparently bonds & mutual funds drop in value really fast in a bad market. Fixed deposits in banks give so little returns that it’s ridiculous. Real Estate in Singapore requires huge capital (which can be partially offset by loans), but only private housing can be rented out. And private housing is expensive. Network marketing seems possible but it requires a people-person, and a proper non-scam company. Internet businesses are possible but it depends on heavily on your product and market (Singapore is a small market). Intellectual property like books, movies, programs, music etc is much easier said than done. Franchising (purchasing, not managing) seems plausible if you have lots of capital and maybe choose good managers. And what’s limited partnerships? How about the future energy crisis when we run out of petrol? Ultimately, where’s the passive income going to come from?

Is there anyone who wants to talk about this?

Site Update: Amway

2004-08-13T08:21:00.000+01:00

Hello folks, I have completed my site sub-section on Amway. Feel free to visit it at http://www.gadoken.vzz.net/. From my point of view, It's really a bit of a real-life adventure.

And to those I don't know, I'm heading back to the Artillery Headquarters at Khatib camp, till the next Tekong BMT in October.

Silly me

2004-08-11T01:30:00.000+01:00

Just came back from a uni-friend's chalet, and I was told that this blog has a 'comments' utility for folks to write into. And I didn't even notice that it existed!

Silly silly me.

Anyway, my thanks extends to those who have commented on my blog, especially Juin & Ben who signed up with blogger just to comment in my blog. I was beginning to wonder how much of this is actually read lol.

A very serious National Day

2004-08-09T17:07:00.000+01:00

It’s National Day today, but there’re bigger things on my mind than NDP.

You see, today is the day I have arranged with Teck to meet him and his friend to discuss about Amway. If you have read my blog two entries ago, you would know that I have discovered that Amway is a Pyramid Marketing business scam, and that Teck is getting scammed by being a part of it. I had to inform Teck, to get him out of this mess.

Posing as a potential “interested party”, I decided to arrange for a showdown with Teck and his senior. The reasons were two-fold. I needed to confirm whether this was the same Amway my research was talking about. And if so, I wanted to expose it. The showdown venue would be Delifrance, Takashimaya at 2pm.

I met up with Teck and Joseph (his senior). Over a cup of mocha, I started with some pleasantries, and asked Joseph about his experience with Amway. He has been with Amway for 6 months, and is now making a tidy profit of $80 per month from his Amway business.

Because Teck was still new to the process, Joseph did most of the talking. I probed away at Joseph, asking questions with which I already knew the answer. The first question was “How does the Amway system work?”. And this single question alone took nearly forever. Joseph started in on his sales pitch explaining the 4 pillars of the business. He then went into the time and money that will be needed. He talked about the “CORE”, which is a set of (expensive) guidelines that Amway salesperson have to keep to. It took him over 30 minutes just to get to the selling and marketing plan itself. And by the time he was done with that, I knew that this was the Amway scam I had read about. Time to move on to exposing it.

I began to ask more difficult questions. I questioned the mathematical sense of such a hare-brained marketing scheme. I showed, then asked why there will always be people losing money. I drew up an account balance to account for the cash flow to show that there always seems to be more money being lost than made. I questioned the necessity of the “motivational materials”. I could see Joseph’s facial expression change. From optimistic salesman to serious suspicion.

I knew that I was already letting on more than I wanted to give the impression. Joseph could tell I had obviously did my research. But at this point, that mattered little now. Whenever things got too heated, I withdrew a little. Eventually, Joseph accused me of being too negative, as if I wanted to show him why the whole thing didn’t work. He challenged whether I really wanted to learn, and I told him that teach-ability is not the same as being naïve; I have a right to examine your argument. I countered and said that if your plan really worked, then it will be able to withstand all my challenges. I knew that I couldn’t play the game any longer, so I probed a little more, and ended off by saying that I would need time to think.

-------------------------------------------

I didn’t want to cause a scene at Delifrance, so I stopped the meeting short. I decided against directly confronting Joseph, whom I thought was so indoctrinated that he didn’t see the sense in my words. I only really wanted to ‘save’ Teck anyway. So I asked Teck to my house in the evening.

At my place, I showed Teck all my research, and the logical sense behind it. He took it (surprisingly) well, as I was half-expecting him to come at me with the half-cocked standard rebuttals that Amway normally teaches their recruits. At the end of it, I nearly had a sore throat from talking so much. Teck asked a few questions to clarify his doubts. In the end, he’ll have to make his own decision on whether to leave Amway or not. And if he does, how will he go about doing it.

So it is done. I have explained to Teck why it’s a scam, and he understood me. I can finally sleep more peacefully now that I have gotten this out of my chest.

I’ll compile my arguments (so that one may know more about what I'm talking about) and add a new section on my site dedicated to this little adventure with Amway. It should be complete pretty soon since I’ve already typed most of it out.

Reading women: The eternal headache of men

2004-08-07T02:01:00.000+01:00

What does it mean when the first time you meet this girl, you spend more time making eye contact with each other than talking to her?

What does it mean when you want to know the girl more, only 3 days after you last met her?

What does it mean when a girl willingly gives you her number, when you do it (anonymously) through a friend of her's saying that you'll "like to know her better"?

What does it mean when the first time you call her, you detect a little shock, and no immediate rejection?

What does it mean when you ask her out for a little chat, and she's flustered in her reply?

What does it mean when she says she's rather meet up only in the company of more friends?

What does it mean when she says she'll love to know me better, so that we can be friends?

What does it mean when she happily gives her MSN nick so that we can postpone the outing in favour of chatting online?

What does it mean when you forget the exact spelling of the nick, and have to send a text message asking for it again, which she replies quickly with a smilie?

Don't these answers depend on the personality of the girl, which I don't know?
What have these questions said about her personality?
What is the amazing amount of subtext I have to interpret from all this?

Surely reading women is the eternal headache of men. More than before, I now know that I will never fully understand women. If I decide to spend my time speculating, at the end of the day that'll be all I have, mere speculations.

I know what I'll do. I'll put my ego aside and simply ask what she means. I may be terrible at subtext, but I know I'll do much better on plain text.

Mixed Feelings

2004-08-05T18:12:00.000+01:00

It's 5 Aug 2004, Thursday, and my brain's in overdrive.

I just came back from an introductory seminar by Amway, a multinational MLM company that trys to convert customers by telling them that they can be rich and have a great passive income, by being sales agents that recruit other customers into sales agents, thus allowing you to get a commission and a commission of their commission. The company promises that you'll get rich from just devoting a few hours per week into this, and with a very small start-up cost.

Does it sound too good to be true? You bet. A quick search of Amway on google produces 2 official sites for Amway, and a dozen anti-Amway sites.

Wanting to pursue both sides of the argument, I did a brief run through for all these search results. And I'm shocked. Preliminary readings show that Amway is nothing but a legal pyramid scam!

There is a need for me to inform the friends that invited me to the seminar. Their money is flowing into a company that's hardly going to reward them.

Come to think of it, I might just put up a section on my site devoted to that.

My next arranged meeting with my friends and a few Amway 'missionaries' is this Monday. I must have my argument typed out and ready by then. I know that it will hurt my friend, but this is a choice I will make. He is still fresh into the scheme of things, there is chance for him yet. It'll also hurt my heart a little that one of the 'missionaries' is actually a very cute girl, and I'm going to have to tell her that what she's promoting is, well, bullshit.

----------------

On another note, Desmond has gotten me the number for the girl I fancy, along with the subtle subtext that she's either unattached and/or interested in meeting suitors. I thank him for that, and if things go well, the success is attributed to him.

Back in Singapore

2004-07-22T16:56:00.000+01:00

1 week after returning to Singapore, I have finally found the time to update my blog.

Much has happened since my last post. I met my parents in London Heathrow and took them around to see the city for the next 3 days. We visited the Natural History Museum, Imperial War Museum & Mdame Tussard's, as well as a host of other common London sights like the Big Ben. We dined well for those 3 days, but London is really expensive, which made each meal cost a lot more than justified.

We then took a train to Coventry & stayed at an excellent & homely Bed and Breakfast. The first day, we drove up to Wales to go shopping at the Cheshire Oaks retail village. (It's always good to go shopping with parents). The next day was Convocation itself, which was a boring ceremony punctuated with the high-speed mess of photography taking. On the final day, we went to Stratford to visit Shakesphere, and ended off with a tour of Coventry itself.

Arriving in Singapore is always a shock to the senses. The culture & people are so different, but the first thing that really gets to you is the heat. I got a whole list of foods to sample again, and friends to meet up with.

It has been a short blog post, but i'll be more detailed the next time round.

Last days in Warwick

2004-07-06T19:59:00.000+01:00

In another 2 days, I'll be off to London to meet my parents. There, I'll bring them around London & Coventry, attend convocation, and finally, head back home.

I could say something cheesy like "Time flies, doesn't it". But that's not really the sentiment. Time didn't fly. It went along smoothly, enriched by each living moment, each crazy & educational instant.

4 years is a long time. It's been a long road, and it has been traversed. Like many other episodes in my student life, the time I've spent in UK will not be forgotten. The lessons of life I've learnt here will be with me as I leave the comfort of student life, and step into the working world.

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On another note, I have updated my site (again.)
(Of course that's what I do with it. Do you expect a site to regress?)

I've added a section called Argument against the Christian God: Presenting your case to a Christian

As you can see, it's going to be a religiously provocative & sensitive article. This section took me a week of work to put together, and the job is finally done.

One might ask why I would take the time to do this, and risk myself for putting such opinions up on the web. My reply is this:

"When I was a child, I was always envious of people with religion. I believed that, in a way, I was inferior to people with religion. Many of my religious friends were nice people, and I wanted to be like them.

Along the way, this young naive mind learnt that the world didn't work like this. Not all religious people were nice. Religion was also very complicated, and seemed to require a tremendous amount of time and effort to be devoted to it. I decided to be lazy and not pursue this matter further.

Now, in my young adulthood, I have decided that this matter will be put aside no longer. I did my research, learning about the religion closest to me: Christianity. It was not long until I learnt about Atheism. My journey of critical thinking took me across many realms of knowledge.

With I have learnt, and spending some time brooding over it, I decided I would be an Atheist. My heart could not accept Christianity, or any other religion, after my mind saw the illogicacies, ambiguity & errors that plagues much religion.

To this end, I have dedicated part of my site to record part of this journey of knowledge I had undertaken. This latest section that I have put up, is a comprehensive challenge against almost every single tenet of Christianity. It is why I cannot accept Christianity.

And I would urge everyone to respect my set of beliefs, and maybe even read what I have to say. Truth should be able to withstand scrutiny, and Christianity did not."

Life in Whitefields is.... noisy!

2004-07-01T22:21:00.000+01:00

I have found out the hard way that Hong Kong people tend to generate copious amounts of noise in the middle of the night. I was woken up last night at 2am by what seemed to be incessant shouting, laughing and screaming emmanating from beyond my door. All in a cantonese accent, of course.

Now, you can be rest assured that if this was a one-off event, I wouldn't be complaining about it. The main point is that this.... noise has been going on since the day I stepped into Whitefields.

At least the toilets are available in the morning, since they're probrably all dozing off from their late night disturbance sessions.

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On another note, I have added a Guestbook/Forum to my website. It's not as intuitive as I thought it will be, but it'll do. Please do pay a visit.

Website is up! But good things never seem to last.

2004-06-30T12:47:00.000+01:00

I have finally completed my website! It took a while, but the work is complete.

So I uploaded the site, tested the major links, and this message appears:

"Sorry, this site is temporarily unavailable!
The web site you are trying to access has exceeded its allocated data transfer. Visit our help area for more information."

So I signed up for another free webserver. A 2nd mirror, for just in case:

http://www.gadoken.vzz.net

Term has ended

2004-06-27T10:57:00.000+01:00

One week after returning from Scotland, and 6 days of hectic packing and moving later, I'm finally in the final phase of my undergraduate life. Most of the undergraduates have gone home, leaving only international students who are attending convocation to stay in the on-campus accomodation.

The university campus has died down a lot. With most of the student populace gone, Warwick has reverted into a peaceful state of things. Especially after the Euro and post-exam celebration fevers. England is out of Euro, and most of the Brits have gone home for a little reunion with their families before convocation.

Examination results have been released, and I'm happy to say I got the results I expected and wanted. Most of my friends, like Derrick and Yanning also got the results they wanted, which is of course a good thing, since I would have trouble coming out with the right words if they didn't.

From now on, it's 2 weeks of Whitefields life followed by bringing my parents around England. Then it's back to the dreaded sceptre of NS.

Live From Edinburgh

2004-06-18T16:29:00.000+01:00

I'm currently at a friend's place (Nick & Sissi's place actually) in Edinburgh, and have finally got a chance to lay my hands on a computer with internet connection. woohoo!

So far I've been to Lake District, Glasgow and Edinburgh (not too much of Edinburgh yet). I've got to admit that I prefer Lake District. But then again that's because I place a high emphasis on fresh air, quiet surroundings and a lazy holiday. This is in sharp contrast with the pollution and haphazard driving & traffic of crowded cities like Glasgow and Edinburgh.

In the end, I had to do quite a bit of driving (nearly all of it) due to a logistics problem on the part of Cheryl. Otherwise it has been a pretty smooth trip although I wish I had more time to sleep. Breakfast in B&Bs are always too early, and late night chatting/gaming sessions with the girls always end too late...

Up to Scotland today

2004-06-12T07:40:00.000+01:00

Today marks the first day of a 9-day trip up to Scotland. We'll be heading up to Lake District, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Hopefully I won't end up doing all the driving, or it won't be much of a holiday. ^_^

In the meantime, the people around me, especially the first years, are already starting to return to Singapore. Looks like my turn to indulge in Singapore cuisine isn't long off.

Exams are over!

2004-06-09T15:47:00.000+01:00

Exams are over!

Actually they were over 2 weeks ago. I would like to say I have been slacking since then, but there's a multitude of stuff to settle for any international student graduating this year. Plans for convocation, holiday plans for parents coming over, accomodation once term ends, shipping of personal belongings back to Singapore... the list goes on forever. It really saps the enthusiasm of finishing exams.

On the bright side, I've done settling nearly all of this. So I can finally get back to doing my website for the next two days, before I'm off for an extended one week trip to Scotland. Hopefully I can get most of the site done if I work as hard as I studied for exams ^_^

A life changing book.

2004-05-23T01:12:00.000+01:00

I have just bought "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a candle in the dark" by Carl Sagan.

From the first two chapters, I think I'll never be the same person again.

Books are such wonderful things. For the price of a meal and drink at a local restaurant, you can pick up a book that can be anything from mildly enlightening or humorous, to one that change your life forever.

"The Demon Haunted World" is a brilliantly argued book showing the importance of scientific thinking in a world that is slowly becoming more ignorant of the technology it wields. The critic whom I took a great liking to reviewed the book as one that should be read before deciding to bring your child up in any particular region. Reading it, I feel stirred, enlightened by the sheer sensibility and depth of the arguments flowing across the pages.

Sagan has thought me the difference between science and pseudoscience (which refers to "events" like UFOs, ghosts, fortune telling etc). Some new age or religious writes assert that scientists believe that "what they find is all there is". That isn't true, as science is forever-ongoing, it's never complete as newer discoveries are continously made. Scientific thinking is both imaginative and disciplined, inviting all new ideas, and using heavy self-criticism to test these ideas. Old theories are continuously broken for newer ones. There are no sacred ideas. Contrast this with some forms of religion, which believe they have attained absolute certainty, are inerrant, divinely inspired, above criticism and skeptism and think they are the answer to everything.

Which is a better way to live your life? Are religion's words on "The Origin of Everything" more trustworthy than science?

My futile attempts to explain the greatness of this book does not do it any justice. This book simply HAS to be read.

Examinations begin

2004-05-18T11:42:00.000+01:00

Examinations begin today.

6 papers in 2 weeks. This is the first time in that my examinations in Warwick are so spread out. They may be difficult 4th year modules, but the timing makes a whole lot of difference. I've done all the preparation I could, and feel rather confident about it. Since it's probably the last time in my life I'm taking a University examination, I might as well make the best of it.

Concerning my homepage, I believe that I won't be able to get much done during the exam period. On the good side, term lasts for about 3 weeks more once examinations end, so I should be able to settle most of it before I return to Singapore.

Homepage revamp

2004-05-11T02:13:00.000+01:00

11 May 2004

I have finally made the decision to revamp my entire website, just as I have made the decision to revamp my life. This process will be undoubtably time-consuming, and my website will be very plain, with little pictures and mostly text.

Perhaps now isn't the best time to do this, since the final year examinations for my final year in University commence in a week. However, I am confident of my revision, and am treating this website as a recreational activity, to be done when I simply can't study any more.

I have started a blog as well, although it turned out to be insufficient for my purposes of sorting and archiving my thoughts systematically. In the same way, geocities does not have a in-blog feature, so i shall make the best of both worlds and use both my blog and this site to support each other.

My homepage is at http://www.geocities.com/lee_seng_wai
It is still under some major construction

In The Beginning

2004-05-10T09:40:00.000+01:00

My first post on this blog. Truth be told, this is a terrible time to start the blog, what with my final year examinations starting in a week or so. However, certain internal thoughts and struggles have prompted me to use a blog to archive and share my personal thoughts on the internet, in the hope that I will one day look back at this chapter in my life and see how I have grown since then.