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Friday, April 13, 2007

Moral Dilemma 道德挣扎

Sorry about the long time in between updates. I haven't been able to find something i wish to blog on. Actually it's not that there's nothing to blog on but the fact that certain stuff are too sensitive. Even though a blog is meant to be about what are my innermost thoughts, but somehow I'm afraid of the consequences. Had some discussion with my friends and one told me to just write, the other told me to be tactful. Unfortunately tactful is not 1 of my stronger points, therefore after some thinking i came out with this post. Moral Dilemma 道德挣扎.

What do I mean by moral dilemma? Have you ever came across incidents in your life whereby you have to choose between doing the right thing and doing the "right" thing? For example you saw a person who is obviously quite rich drop a $50 note. An old beggar who is handicapped and starving then picked it up. What do you do? Do you do the right thing and inform the rich man who obviously doesn't need the $50, or do you do the "right" thing and let the poor old beggar get some decent food? This is a social moral dilemma typified by the NKF case. Durai was obviously doing excellent stuff for the kidney patients. They have highly qualified healthcare professionals taking care of them and enjoy great facilities at low costs but because they found him being shady with the way he utilised the funds and therefore prosecuted him. Even though he paid himself huge amounts he was still earning less than what he would have earned if he had been in the public sector. And do not forget he was also paying his staff good wages and was doing an excellent job with the NKF. During his tenure they had many successes in helping poor kidney patients and even managed to help other countries and was about to initiate more programs to help children with cancer and research into kidney diseases. If not for the fact that this case was brought to court he would have retired being hailed a great man. Just because he's in the business of charity he should live like a pauper? Then how do you justify our Govt. increasing their pay? Isn't it the same thing? They are getting huge amounts of money even though they are earning less than in the private sector and their jobs involve taxpayers' money and it's a public service. See the parallel? How much exactly is too much and how much is too little? Was Durai paid too much for doing a great job with NKF? Remember NKF even had reserves in excess of millions! Many patients are in fact grateful to him and if the press had reported on the story from another angle there would be more people who would stand by him.

Another form of moral dilemma we face in our everyday life comes from friends and families. How often have you found out about friends or families doing something terribly wrong but because they are your friends/families you hesitate to expose them even if you know hesitation on your part brings greater misery to someone else or even everyone involved? Do you have the courage to go up to them and say "hey i think what you're doing is very wrong and is it possible to do things another way or stop?" Many of us lack this courage, I'm no different. We're afraid of losing the friendship, of being ostracized as a traitor, of being an outcast within our family.

Think about it. What would you do whenever you face a moral dilemma? Do you have the courage to call a spade a spade and do the right thing or would you shirk and do the "right" thing? Are you doing the right thing no matter which path you choose?

Friday, April 6, 2007

Cruel China 残忍的中国







I received an email yesterday titled Cruel China. In it was a video clip about dogs and cats placed in small cages, transported to a skinning factory whereby they are first slammed to the ground then skinned alive. It almost brought a tear to my eye when i saw the clip. Somehow i couldn't post the video here so this is
Another link which shows the animal still alive after being skinned,
What the fuck are they thinking? I don't believe only the Chinese does it as i'm sure other backward countries populated with idiots with the IQ of an ant does it. Oh wait. You have a nice leather bag from perhaps LV? I wonder where did that piece of skin come from. What did you have for lunch? Chicken Rice? Where did that chicken come from? I'm not going to paste all kinds of links showing how animals die because you can easily find them on Youtube or other video sharing sites. All religions has a God in their beliefs. They all preach that life is valuable. So this animals are not lifes? Some religions preach reincarnation. That could be your grandmother in your pocket or you just ate someone's unborn child.
The main drive for all this? CONSUMERISM. Your selfish wants and desires. Would you die without a leather bag? Is leather the only material for bags? Only coats made of real fur keeps you warm? We have an eco system in place. Some animals will always eat other animals. Those animals that gets eaten are usually the weak, old or sick. It's nature's way of evolution, of keeping healthy numbers. There's nothing wrong with eating meat until such a point the demand far outstrips the supply. Instead of reducing our intake we created animal farms with the sole purpose of mass producing animals for food. All this because of consumers like you and me. Is there a solution to all this? Yes but it will never be done. Everyone in this world will have to ban leather and fur goods. We all have to reduce our intake of meat to an acceptable level supported by nature. Only animals that have died a natural death are to be consumed. But it will never happen. Humans will keep consuming because they don't care where it comes from, they are selfish creatures which only cares about when they get what they want. Govts and businessmen will not allow this too. Govt loses tax from businessmen who loses profits. If people like you and me can find videos like this on youtube, why can't they stop it? Apparently there are no laws in China regarding the killing of non-endangered species. I wonder if homosapiens are considered as non-endangered seeing that they are the most populous country in the world.
We all can help. We can stop using animal products. We can become vegetarians, for those people like me who has problem becoming vegetarians we can do our part by eating only natural meat instead of farmed meat and only eating occasionally instead of all the time. They are all lifes and all lifes are equal. They are our friends. If we truly are ranked higher on the hierarchy of evolution, we should do our utmost to protect those on the lower levels, not harm them. Think about it the next time you're tempted to consume anything related to animals. Think about how they became the product in front of you. Let all your China friends know and hopefully it will create a chain of they might know someone who knows someone who might know someone who could ultimately bring an end to this.

Thursday, April 5, 2007

Voyeur 偷窥

An incident recently prompted me to write this article. It's actually something which i think most people have either done or encountered but somehow I can't get around it. The incident in question? Being messaged on msn by someone who is appearing offline.

I simply don't get it.

Why the fuck would you wanna log in to msn but appear offline? If you're busy and have no time to talk on msn then don't bloody log in. If you're temporary unavailable then log in later or put an away sign or busy sign, that's what they are there for. If there are people you wish to avoid or not talk to you can either ignore them, block and delete them since you're avoiding them which means you don't wish to be their friends therefore there's no point in keeping them on your list right?

I believe it is because humans by nature loves to voyeur. They derive pleasure from being able to see someone or something without being found out. Even as kids we were already playing a game called "Hide N Seek". Remember how fustrating you felt the last time you know someone has a secret but you don't know what it is? How you tried all ways and means to find out? How satisfying you felt when you know something others don't know that you know? How mighty and powerful you felt when you found out some deep dark secret about someone? Therefore hiding behind "appearing offline" on msn somewhat satisfy their thirst for voyeurism. They may not be busy, they might even be bored to death, yet they will still appear offline just so they can voyeur. This is also the reason for the popularity of reality tv, pornography, blogs etc. People want to know about others without exposing themselves as the "knower". They want to know how you look like in the morning, they want to know how a person behaves when they think no one is watching, they want to know how does the person act in bed. They simply want to know. Humans are by nature, voyeuristic. Too tired to go on, maybe there will be a part 2, maybe not?
Curious?

*Boom* Your voyeuristic self has just been exposed.

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

Update : New Template

I've finally done it. A new template for my blog. Spent about 3 hours doing this up and also register for an Adsense account. Funny. They placed an emergency ad for my blog. LoL. Maybe next time someone has a passport scare they can click on my ad hahaha. Submitted my links to yahoo, msn and google. If there's anyone out there who knows how to enhance the blog, get more advertising and if you have any comments regarding the design of the blog pls leave a comment for me yeah? Also let me know if you wish to exchange links, i'm more than willing to do so =)

P.S. I'll try my best to update this everyday so come check it often ok? >;)

Monday, April 2, 2007

Passport Scare

Date : 27th Mar 2007 2.33 am

My friend arrived at my place and we proceeded to Johor Baru, Malaysia for cheap fuel, cheap ciggarettes and cheap food. The night was cool, roads are empty, custom was a breeze.

Date : 27th Mar 2007 5.27 am

Returning back to Singapore. The Johor hordes was out in full force. Roads jammed, no way to manovuer, stuck in big ass jam. Breathing in fumes and carbon monoxide. I wonder how they do this everyday. Some experienced people shut off their engines to either sleep or read the papers or stare blankly into space, perhaps thinking when would they be able to stop this morning rush everyday.

Date 27th Mar 2007 6.46am

Finally made it through customs. Wonderful. Home sweet home.

Date 27th Mar 2007 7.01 am

Reached home. My friend realised that our departure card was still in the passport and it had remain unstamped. Damn it! We went into the wrong lane! We're physically in Singapore but our passports say we are still in Malaysia! How could this happened? We've became illegal immigrants in our own country! Well fuck it, it's not our fault that immigration officers on both sides of the causeway fucked up. Why would anyone with a legal passport wanna smuggle into their own country? Ignored it.

Date 30th Mar 2007 Sometime in the afternoon

My friend called me up and said he just made a call to the Singapore authorities and enquired about our unstamped passport. Was told we could be fined/jailed or both. Damn it and it was not even our fault! Yes we went in the wrong lane but the people at both sides of the causeway should have spotted it and resolved it there and then! Now we're supposed to make our own way back and solve it on our own. Well done to the custom officers! And we're supposed to debate on whether civil servants need increasing of their pay. Yes, please increase their pay so that they have more people manning the phones to tell us that we might be fined or jailed because they didn't do their job.

Date 31st Mar 2007 2.17 am

Making our way to Johor,Malaysia again to resolve this issue. Another friend gave me a link on unstamped passports and i found out just how stupid and ridiculous this situation is. Apparently some people actually got fined and jailed! How extremely lame! I would personally wage a one man war if they did that to me. http://forums.asiaone.com/cgi-bin/WebX?50@707.XvbAaDNOhjd.0@.eebedd6 - the link for some articles on the issue of unstamped passports.

Date 31st Mar 2007 2.34am

First stop, Singapore Customs. Told the officer about our situation. Told us it was a big problem. Said there's nothing they can do because it's between us and Malaysia authorities. If there's nothing they can do then what are they there for exactly? Told us to go speak with the malaysians. As if we need you to tell us that. Didn't even take down our details in case we don't make it back. Stand by your fellow Singaporeans yeah?

Second stop, Malaysian authorities. There's this office in the middle of the malaysian customs where they have an immigration office. Walked over with my friend fearing the worst. Told the guy at the counter about our situation. Another guy besides him stood up, took out a key and opened a door besides them. My first thought, Shit! They're going to detain us there and then or maybe negotiate a bribe in a cell..... Pleasantly surprised when the guy told us to just go over and get a stamp. Maybe it's our lucky day.

Third stop, proceeded to clear the immigration post on the malaysian side, Sleepy woman at counter took our passports, tried to tell her our purpose and that we just wanted to go over to get a stamp. Didn't even looked like she understood english. Processed my friend's passport then when she saw mine she saw the unstamped portion. She finally looks up. Waved a hand at us and walked over to the immigration office we just came from. What the fuck. We're tried to tell her what happened and she refused to listen, now she walks back to where we came from. Another example of stupid people this world is made up of. waited anxiously for her return, to be honest was worried they might change their mind and detain us or ask for that bribe afterall. Took her a good 20 odd mins before slowly walking back alone. At this point i was thinking if indeed we're some top criminals, by leaving us there waiting alone we could have gotten away anytime. Maybe it was a magical hand wave which binds us to our spot. Processed my passport and handed it over to us. Never speaking a word throughout and her eyes went back to sleepy mode.

Final stop, the actual lane we should have gone to. This is an easily missed lane. It's located behind some shops which is behind the bus stop which is behind the main road! No signs or lights or anything, just some dodgy backlane with the road wide enough for only 1 bike at a time. I'm starting to think they do this on purpose so that they can fine and jail us as and when they have a hissy spat with our government. The guy at the only counter available was obviously having a good day. Gave us 2 stamps and said if anyone asked, we entered on the 27th, left on the 31st, entered again on the 31st, left again on the 31st. Amazing. For all the hoohaa they made when they fined jailed our fellow Singaporeans. We got away with it just like that. How bloody lame. Just goes to prove it's an extremely minor issue and that those Singaporeans in the above-mentioned article must have either been at the wrong place at the wrong time or pissed them off real bad.

Date 31st Mar 4.09 am

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