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just started on Facebook... it's quite... idiotically addictive... grr...

How to save a life?

Step one you say we need to talk
He walks you say sit down it's just a talk
He smiles politely back at you
You stare politely right on through
Some sort of window to your right
As he goes left and you stay right
Between the lines of fear and blame
And you begin to wonder why you came

Where did I go wrong,
I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life

Let him know that you know best
Cause after all you do know best
Try to slip past his defense
Without granting innocence
Lay down a list of what is wrong
The things you've told him all along
And pray to God he hears you
And pray to God he hears you

Where did I go wrong,
I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life

As he begins to raise his voice
You lower yours and grant him one last choice
Drive until you lose the road
Or break with the ones you've followed
He will do one of two things
He will admit to everything
Or he'll say he's just not the same
And you'll begin to wonder why you came

Where did I go wrong,
I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life

sometimes, when i have songs on my blog, there are specific reasons. sometimes, there isn't. there isn't any particular reason why i have this song on my blog. i guess it's just that it sounds... emo... poignant. and recent events have put me in a rather pensive state of mind. J has this as his MSN nick, "in the end, what are we if not ashes in the wind?" how true.

sigh...

CPF Changes

problems with the adjustment to the CPF scheme:

I have worked hard, I want to enjoy now
the other problem that the government faces is the mentality many older workers have. many feel that they have worked hard, contributed to their families and nation. they ought to have the luxury of enjoying themselves. psychologically, the delay in the DDA is to these people a great blow as they find themselves having to push back their plans to 'chill'.

of course, our government, being clinically rational, has good intentions for the delay in the DDA. the move is necessary because it is a fact that Singaporeans are going to live longer. the question is whether people, while living longer, will be living better as well. or will these people, while living longer, become a financial burden to the state. the idea is then that the government should do something to ensure that Singaporeans, while living longer also live quality, independent lives. the way to do this, in the government's view, is for people to save more for themselves so that they rely on themselves. the government's role, in their own opinion, is therefore to set up schemes and put up structures to help Singaporeans save more to ensure long quality lives.

however, rational as the government's thinking might be, it still does not address the psychological and emotional impact on a person who was hoping to retire and enjoy life's luxuries. this is further compounded by the second problem.

Employability of lowly skilled, lowly educated elderly workers

our economy has evolved to become a 'knowledge economy'. jobs created are in the higher end scale, demanding for highly educated people or at least someone skilled enough to operate in an environment of high technology. while this is happening, jobs at the lower end, production line staff, technicians, are quickly dwindling. lowly educated workers find themselves irrelevant to the new economy.

for those who are younger, they might be able to retrain, re-educate themselves. employers might even find it worthwhile, economically, to provide for this retraining and re-education. the mathematics is simple. a young worker, if i spend $x training him, he might be able to provide me $10x worth of value-add because he can work for me for many years. but what about the older workers?

they are caught by 2 problems. firstly, a good portion of them are trained to fit into the 'old' economy, one where manufacturing was a very major engine of the economy. now they find that much of what they do are either relocated to other countries or taken over by machines with cheaper processes. the same pool of people now fight for less jobs, possibly resulting in many of them losing their jobs. secondly, they find that they do not have skills/educational level that allows them to be re-employed in the high growth sectors of today's economy. many of them do not have the financial resources to re-train/re-educate themselves. employers won't want to do so either, because it just does not make economic sense.

the delay of the draw down age therefore means that those who lose their jobs at say 50 would potentially have to live 15 years without a stable source of money. now if the government legislates that employers hire these older workers, the knock-on effect would be that the young lowly educated and lowly skilled will now have to compete with a large number of lowly skilled and educated workers, all the while the pool of work available is shrinking.

therefore, it would be a good idea for the government to seriously consider how to constantly ensure that workers, not just older ones (because by the time the worker becomes old, it is already too late) upgrade themselves to stay relevant to the changing demands of our economy.

personally, i will take care of my parents. since i'm already taking care of my parents, why should i take care of other people's parents? if i want to take care of anyone's parents, i will do it on my own, not through the government. i therefore object to the tax money that i pay to be used to take care of other people's parents. so i want a government that creates an environment where people can take care of themselves, take care of their own parents without depending on the state to give out money. of course that is ideal which in reality cannot be achieved. that being the case, i want my government to create a situation where it can minimise the amount of money being given out. train workers so that they can continue working, increase the returns on investments of our savings. at most supplement income. but as a citizen, i am completely against the idea of just handing out money. the day that happens, i think that the government would have failed, that we, as a people, would have failed.

Life...

is unpredictable.

is fragile.

you will be missed.

V for Vendetta

Just watched V for Vendetta... it's too heavy a show for a Sunday afternoon, especially since i woke damn early this morning to make it for the Run for Hope thing. one of the more thought provoking quotes:

Good evening, London. Allow me first to apologize for this interruption. I do, like many of you, appreciate the comforts of every day routine- the security of the familiar, the tranquility of repetition. I enjoy them as much as any bloke. But in the spirit of commemoration, thereby those important events of the past usually associated with someone's death or the end of some awful bloody struggle, a celebration of a nice holiday, I thought we could mark this November the 5th, a day that is sadly no longer remembered, by taking some time out of our daily lives to sit down and have a little chat. There are of course those who do not want us to speak. I suspect even now, orders are being shouted into telephones, and men with guns will soon be on their way. Why? Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who's to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror. I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn't be? War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you, and in your panic you turned to the now high chancellor, Adam Sutler. He promised you order, he promised you peace, and all he demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent. Last night I sought to end that silence. Last night I destroyed the Old Bailey, to remind this country of what it has forgotten. More than four hundred years ago a great citizen wished to embed the fifth of November forever in our memory. His hope was to remind the world that fairness, justice, and freedom are more than words, they are perspectives. So if you've seen nothing, if the crimes of this government remain unknown to you then I would suggest you allow the fifth of November to pass unmarked. But if you see what I see, if you feel as I feel, and if you would seek as I seek, then I ask you to stand beside me one year from tonight, outside the gates of Parliament, and together we shall give them a fifth of November that shall never, ever be forgot.

The people should not be afraid of the government, the government should be afraid of the people.

in light of a number of things which have happened, V for Vendetta is timely. could 9/11 be the real world equivalent of the fictional virus attack at St Mary's, Three Waters, etc? how far would/should a government go to claim that it's the vox populi and the expression of the general will and thus how much would/should a government do to 'protect' its people? and if the government fails in its duty or oversteps its mandate, then it is the people's duty to do something about it.

Initialize this...

Branch Secretary: BS

Senior Assistant Director: SAD

any others you have come across/heard of/think of?

I Survived...

a great ordeal of unimagined proportions.

i was starved, isolated, shut up in a tiny hole...


well... not quite.


my internet connection at home was down for the last... erm... week or so. it took quite a while before i figured out what was wrong and how to fix it. and in the mean time... it was really really painful! just goes to show how much a slave of technology i am...

A Badminton match

it was a match that didn't matter. regardless of the outcome of that particular match, the team would have been placed third. nonetheless, the pair played their best. they lost the first set. in the second set, they were 20-14 down. one more mistake and the match is gone. the pair steadied their nerves, held out against the relentless assualt of their opponents. point by point, they ran their opponents down. when they eventually won that set, a rapturous cheer went out from the crowd who supported them. i swear, i had goosepimples.

in the third set, they played hard. they did all they could, but they have not trained for a long while and the game took its toll on them. they saved 3 match points, but eventually broke, losing 23-25.

winning and losing was secondary. of course it didn't feel good that they lost. what was important was that they went down fighting. they displayed their grit. and the crowd cheered, not only for them, but for their opponents. that's the kind of spirit we are proud of.

well done guys.

How Embarassing

so i was in a shopping mall the other day. there was some PS2 promo going on. you know, one of those where you can try the games for free... so i did. some basketball game. as i played, this teenager came along and joined in the game. so i ended up playing against him. my goodness... i kena tok big time.

it made me realised that i am really malcoordinated. and that kids nowadays have really developed thumbs which can do many wonders.

in other news... i was in this toilet the other day. it was in one government building. and as they usually have in government buildings, there are little posters of quotable quotes pasted on the walls, so that while peeing, you can read these quotes. one read something like this "Be There. It is about sharing the moment with the people around you..." er... i am peeing... i don't really see how i can share that moment with the people around me... and i don't think they want me to do that either.

but there was one that was quite meaningful. it read something like "Play is not an activity. It is a state of mind that brings new energy to the things that you do."

so... what are you playing with today?

More Suggestions

i had suggestions for daughters... for sons...

can either call them Weng Kin (i actually know this guy who studied in UK who's called that... lucky for him, he's VERY muscular...) or Foo Kin.

hi, what's your name?

i'm Weng Kin.

what? now?

or better yet...

hi, what's your name?

i'm Foo Kin.

EEEWWWW. get a room!

your son will so love you.

You are...

you are the source of my greatest frustrations and most profound joy.

you are my most exhausting endeavour and greatest source of strength.

thanks for the flowers, the windmill, the pomelo, the cards and kind words.

When I am down and, oh my soul, so weary;
When troubles come and my heart burdened be;
Then, I am still and wait here in the silence,
Until you come and sit awhile with me.

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;
You raise me up... To more than I can be.

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;
You raise me up... To more than I can be.

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;
You raise me up... To more than I can be.

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;
You raise me up... To more than I can be.
You raise me up... To more than I can be.

i'll do my best so that i won't let you down.