The Tiananmen Mothers

Tiananmen Mothers icon
Tiananmen Bouquet

June 4 is around the corner.

June 4, the anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre of 1989, the day when an untold numbers of dissenting students were killed by the army in Beijing. An army that used its machinery to put down the demonstrations by the unarmed students.

The Tiananmen Mothers, a group of courageous family members of victims of the Beijing massacre has banded together to challenge the official claims about what really happened. Those in this network provide support to each other and work together to gather information about what really happened in those tragic days at the beginning of June. In addition, they collect and distribute humanitarian funds donated to assist the injured and the families of the dead.

Over the last few days, when news agencies reported the following:
BEIJING — About 125 relatives of people killed by Chinese troops at Tiananmen Square in Beijing on June 4, 1989 have sent the government a letter asking that it handle the incident the same way it wants Japan to atone for the Nanjing Massacre of 1937, a letter writer said Monday.
The letter, sent Saturday ahead of the 16th anniversary of the June 4 bloodshed, calls on President Hu Jintao to apologize and compensate for 1989 just as he asks Japan to do for its occupation of Chinese territory, including Nanjing, in the 1930s and 1940s, said letter writer Ding Zilin, who lost her 17-year-old son in 1989.

The Story of the June 4th Bouquet
"Years after the massacre, a student who participated in the 1989 demonstrations posted a message on the Internet explaining her ritual of gathering a June Fourth bouquet (six white roses and four red roses) to mark each anniversary. Her dream is to place such a bouquet in Tiananmen Square, publicly commemorating the massacre victims without danger of government reprisal. Until that time comes, supporters can only realize this dream in cyberspace."

Meanwhile, the Mothers continue mourning for their lost sons and daughters.

Some Cents

Part1
An old lady
Wizened, whitish frizzly hair
Back bent almost 90 degrees
Toddling along pavement
From shop to shop
Asking, looking, collecting
Paper and cartons
Selling them for some cents

Part 2
Teens
Decked in Esprit and Nikes
Sipping Starbucks
Flashing and thumbing Nokias
Talking air emptily

Part 3
An old man
Grimy face, lined forehead
Patched trousers
Walking shop to shop
Looking, peering, prying
Waste bins for cans
Selling them for some cents

Part 4
In ang mo kio
Along the road
The old ones wait
With their piles of paper
And cartons
Buyer coming soon
Paying them their some cents

A Botanical Hospital

In beds, the patients lie
In earth beds, the plants and flowers thrive
Nurses bestow loving care
To both
Equally
Hopefully

A Prisoner of His Mind

Neurons cruising chaotic
Smallish child
Sitting on bed corner
Mumbling incoherently
Legs shaking
Hands gesticulating
Eyes staring the window
Unaware of all
In the prison of his mind

Beauty amidst the mangroves

A Resting Dragonfly

White lilies in pond

Close-up of Dragonfly

Striking beauty of a white lily
Located in a quiet corner of the Sungei Buloh mangrove swamps is a small aquatic pond, in which beautiful white/yellow lillies grow in the dark brackish waters.

Appreciating our transport providers

Our transport providers want to raise their fares. They say that they have to, as their tills are depleting and their costs are going up. The commuters are up in arms as their salaries have yet to rise. While the final decision is being debated, here is a short take on how our beloved, efficient and cannot-do-without bus and train service providers will and do provide excellent customer service to the man in the street (or bus, or train?) :

a) provide an efficient way to collect fares accurately - the ezlink card do just that; the provider will never get short-changed as previously commuters could get away by paying lower fares. Well, this state-of-the-art system could have some inherent errors and the passengers do get over-charged at times. After all, all systems have some system bugs and, anyway, the errors are way below 1%.

b) use the satellite system to track movement of buses along roads and automatically update the fare stages. Wow! Again, there may be times when the system may have a hard time telling apart 2 buses at the same bus-stop. A little error here and a little error there, so what? No big deal!

c) provide a hassle-free way to refund over-charged and annoyed commuters. Nevermind, if this process takes at least five days, requires the passenger to fill forms, requires the passenger to prove he or she was over-charged. Nevermind, if the total administrative costs of refunding the sum is way high than the refunded amount (usually less than a dollar). Nevermind, if the commuter always have to check his tickets everyday if he was correctly charged. Nevermind, if we have a high technology satellite system to track buses but not one to provide refunds promptly on the spot. Nevermind, if the elderly and poor and illiterate have difficulties coping with the refund process. After all, at the end of the day, those overcharged do get their money back.

d) make it easy to replace ezlink card - but only after the elderly commuter has made a police report, filled some forms (we need filled forms to run our business), etc etc

Now this is what I call customer service at its peak.

Addendum to the TreeTop Walk

CNA yesterday reported that some MPs have asked not only for the pavement to be built along the road leading to the treetop walk but also for CCTV at the walk area. CCTV? What on earth for?

My humble suggestion to these wannabe whining jungle trekkers is that, perhaps, they should restrict their weekend treks to Carrefour, Robinsons, Takashimaya and the likes of these. Then, they could ogle as much as they want and make faces at the many CCTVs there.

And leave the jungle alone - we do not want the resident monkeys there to feel offended at the invasion of their privacy with those CCTVs in the treetops.

How to make the TreeTop Walk less of a Walk.

Saw some very bright ideas in the Straits Times from Singaporeans who must have spend a lot of time in their lives walking between their TVs and refrigerators on how to make the hike to the MacRitchie Reservoir TreeTop walk more pleasant. These guys now want the road leading to the reservoir lined with walking pavements - they claim it is unsafe to just walk along the roadside.

And while they are at it, I might as well offer some creative and innovative (civil service parlance, by the way) ideas of my own too to make this hike less of a hike:
a) introduce an airconditioned shuttle bus service from the nearest MRT station
b) make sure that the above mentioned pavement along the road is covered with a shelter all the way from Upper Thomson Road start point to the reservoir end
c) have a 7-Eleven at some halfway point, so that we can buy some cold cokes
d) pave the jungle track within the forest so that we can roller blade if we so wish
e) deploy the latest mosquito killing technology along the track so that we do not get bitten
f) get the park rangers to hand out free umbrellas at the treetop walk area when it rains (this will be counted as excellent customer service if the park authority decide to apply for the SQA award one day)
g) get some local company to offer a sedan chair service for those who wish to protect their pedicured feet.

Think that should be enough for those in the park board to work upon for the time being.

Let there be blissful silence in CD shops

Often wonder why CD shops which have CD players for you to listen to new CDs often have music and songs blaring loudly from their main speakers. It can be quite a strain listening to the new CDs. Or perhaps it is their way of making sure that we do not spend too much time trying and testing their CDs! Listen fast and buy fast must be the ploy here, I think!

"Only God can give Life and take Life"

AFP reported today on the hanging of the drug trafficker this morning and included what one of the sons said:
"He's in the wrong, but killing him is not the correct decision. Only God can give life and take life," Gopalan told AFP last week."
"Please give him a chance... give him 20 years, 30 years (in jail)."

What more can I say? The death penalty is simply cruel, inhumane and degrading. As a civilized society, we need to move away from it.

The Death Penalty

According to the Amnesty International, in 2003, more than 1,146 people were executed in 28 countries while more than 2,756 were sentenced to death in 63 countries. And Singapore is one of them together with advanced nations like the USA and Japan.

Singapore enforces some of the world's toughest drug laws. Anyone aged 18 or over convicted of carrying more than 500 grams (17.6 ounces) of cannabis faces mandatory execution by hanging. In its 2004 report, rights group Amnesty International said about 400 people have been hanged in Singapore since 1991, mostly for drug trafficking, giving the wealthy city-state of 4.2 million people possibly the highest execution rate in the world relative to its population. Amnesty said only 6 people sentenced to death in Singapore have been spared execution. Singapore has staunchly defended its use of the death penalty and maintained that capital punishment has deterred major drug syndicates from establishing themselves in Singapore.

So at first view, it seems justifiable for Singapore to enforce the death penalty for drug offences and murders. After all, we do not want to end up like some crime-ridden cities in the advanced West where drug peddlars operate openly at street corners.

But is it morally acceptable? Does the death penalty really help to reduce the crime rate, the murder rate or the drug trafficking rate? There could be some truth that the draconian death penalty has helped to scare off the drug lords. But it also could be true that our overall deterrence strategies such as police raids, their strict vigilance and custom checks have also helped.

The death penalty has been around for eons. But that does not justify it still being around as nations and societies progress socially and culturally. The many advanced countries in Europe have long abolished it.

Also does a mere mortal, albeit a trained and wise one, has the right to send somone else to death? Should society be permitted to decide as to who and when someone should be killed? Should we not focus on alternative modes of punishment?

At 6am tomorrow morning, one more Singaporean will go to the gallows for a drug offence, leaving behind his two sons and his mother. If only, this judgement could be reversed. And let our society mature to a higher level of social consciousness and respect for life.

Let there be Peace on Pulau Ubin

There is a letter in the Forum pages of the Straits Times today that begged not to turn Pulau Ubin into another Sentosa. I agree with the writer's sentiments totally. I went to the island two weeks ago and did some cycling under the blazing hot sun and this was after an absence of several years.

The rustic kampong tracks were gone - replaced by a paved road that led all the way to the Buddhist temple. But the quiet and peace along the tracks still remained but, along the way, some bright spark (likely from some civil service dept) had built ugly contraptions that passed off as holiday chalets. But this holiday resort was strangely deserted, something like those abandoned towns in the old gold mining districts of USA. Obviously, no one wanted to pay dollars to stay far away from the madding crowds (and food, of course) in a deserted and obscure location and right next to mangrove swamps which equate to swarms of mosquitoes at night.

But, oddly, the letter writer who wants the island's kampong charm to be left undisturbed, suggested airconditioned boats to ferry him and like-minded cold-blooded creatures to the island and, believe it or not, he also wish a hawker centre to be built there! But, what on earth for? There is one gigantic food centre waiting for his return at Changi Village.

The jetty area on the island evoke memories of 1960s Singapore, with its mix of dilapidated shophouses selling food, drinks and from which you could hire the bicycles. After our strenous cycling trip, we sat here along the alley, under the trees and near the sea edge, drinking our cokes and lunching on seafood dishes ordered from one of the shophouses. An experience you cannot get on the urban mainland.

And to the authorities (not sure who you are) who are in charge of the island please:
a) leave the island alone
b) leave the jetty area untouched
c) do not pave any more roads
d) do not build any more resorts (enough of them on the mainland, anyway)
e) no food courts, ok? cannot bear the idea of an S-11 here
f) leave the quarry lakes alone (enough water sports along the east coast, right?)

While writing this, realised that I should have said some prayers at the Buddhist temple for many many years of undisturbed peace for the island. Nevermind, I will make a return trip for that.

The 3 Downtown Landscape Blights

Sunday Times, today, featured 3 newly completed buildings right in the middle of our historic area. An area with many memories for us - the red-bricked-walled National Library, Cathay Cinema and the long-ago demolished row of shophouses that sold used books.

And in the middle of it, there was this long stretch of green that extended from Cathay at one end to the church at the other. It was ringed by old giant trees that spread their leafy branches over games of football in the field opposite the old SJI. This green patch in the city provided a relief from all the tall buildings sprouting around it. And it served as some kind of identity landmark with SJI, CHIJ, the church, Cathay, Museum and YMCA arranged on its fringes.

Now the green stretch is gone - uprooted and deturfed. Taken over by the new SMU campus buildings - the new structures are a mix of modernistic glass and steel but totally faceless. No character. whatsoever. Why they wanted to build a university campus comprising disjointed buildings here when there were so many sites outside the city and where they could have everyone housed under one roof. Now it is a case of several roofs.

Equally nondescript is the NAFA site at Bencoolen Street resembling some kind of warehouse buildings from the outside. A shame, in my opinion. And there was great hope pinned on the new National Library. But, now it seems that we are going to have a artifact more suited for the Mars landscape. The about 7-story structure which has a glass-walled flying saucer transfixed to its roof has no obvious form and structure, no head or tail and no clear front and back. It rises like a junk scrap-yard mass of steel and glass succeeding in dwarfing and being out-of-sync with the neighbouring less imposing shophouses.

There goes the neighbourhood, the history and our memories.

The Polio Scare

There is a small outbreak of polio in Indonesia - the first time after a decade. Polio used to kill about a million a year during its peak but mass immunisations have almost eradicated the disease in the world except for a few countries where it remains endemic - Afghanistan, India, Niger, Nigeria, Eygpt and Pakistan but even these countries have reduced their infection rates with vaccinations.

But because of religious zealots in Nigeria who started a boycott of the vaccine claiming that it was contaminated by US agents, the disease has spread to various countries in Africa. And perhaps through a returning worker or Muslims pilgrims coming home from Mecca, it spread to Indonesia. Causing the present alarm.

Again, such religious clerics should simply focus on their preaching and leave everything else to the experts. And now because of them, countless innocent children in Africa have been inflicted with the paralysing polio. And now this spread to Indonesia. I cannot say much of these unthinking and misguided religious groups that advocate withholding of medical healing on the basis of some obscure religious edict or simply hatred of the USA.

The Condo Management that did Wrong

We are all now familiar with the condo management in Singapore that specified that no Indians were to be included in the team providing security services at their condo. They gave a number of reasons (or excuses) as to why this was so and denied that they were racist. But no matter what they said, they were simply and plainly racist.

Good that it created a ruckus and even MOM came down on them. Then came the apologies from the management and the lady who defined the "racist" contract was removed. Let's hope that no one else will ever think of using race as a criterion for selecting an applicant.

The Cairo Militants

Last Saturday, Cairo had its first taste of suicide bombings. A young man, misled by the extremist company he was keeping, exploded into bits while being chased by the police. A short while later, his sister and fiancee, killed themselves after firing at buses carrying some tourists.

What is it that drives these youngsters to adopt a fiery way of leaving this world? A promised short-cut ticket to the Heavens? Anger against the West? Imbecility? Total outright idiocy? Brain matter deficiency? Misguided by the masterminds? But plain stupidity should rank the highest - the cunning ringleaders of such human pyrotechnic displays zero in on to gullible teens who then believe every single word they are told. If they had studied their holy books well enough, they would have known that God is not in the habit of issuing express tickets to his abode and nor does he tolerate or allow killing of innocents. And not once, did He assign rights to charlatan radicals for deciding as to who will go up or down. That prerogative belongs rightly to God and not to a mere mortal.

What has these deaths achieve? A few days of mention in the world press? Some mayhem? Quaking-with-fear tourists? Maybe some of these for a few days but soon the suiciders will be forgotten. And life in Cairo will return to normalcy. Look at Indonesia - it had been shaken badly by 3 big bomb blasts - but each time it picked up and carried on resolutely and refusing to give in to the gutless terrorists.

Kashmir - Heaven & Hell

Kashmir, located in the Himalayan mountains, to the north-west of India, is much touted as the "Switzerland of the East" with its beautiful valleys and lakes backdropped against the snowy peaks of the Himalayan range. During the British reign, it served as their retreat during the hot summers. Eventually, it became a popular tourist destination with many flocking and roaming around its verdant valleys, beautiful gardens and staying on houseboats bobbing gently on the serene Dal Lake.

About 12 million people live in Kashmir, of which about 70% are Muslims. The rest includes the Hindus, Sikhs and the Buddhists. Most of the Kashmiri people work on farms and in cottage industries making carpets, shawls and rugs.

The independence of India from the British in 1947 resulted in the country being proportioned between Pakistan and India. And this was the cause of chaos and much bloodshed for years to come. In the last 11 years or so, Kashmir, the Paradise on Earth, descended to a hellish place as the militants started their war against Indian rule. Allegedly, supported by Pakistan, the militants initiated rampant bombings and killings. The Indian army was quick to retaliate with its own range of blood-letting.

And the losers were the Kashmiri people. The tourists disappeared in no time, the houseboats were empty, the economy floundered and the locals lost many of their kins to the bombings and indiscrimate killings. Blood flowed in the streets whenever bombs exploded in crowded markets. All this, while both warring sides executed their mayhem, masterminded by ruthless chiefs who live in peace far from this hellish scene.

It is time to return peace to the people of Kashmir; it is time to allow the young Kashmiri children to enjoy their childhood for what it should be; it is time for parents not to worry about their brood exploding into pieces on their way home; it is time for tourists to return and turn this valley once again to a much sought place to visit.

And let's hope that the Kashmiri people will no longer allow their homeland to be hijacked by crafty and shifty militants and politicians for their own selfish aims. And about time for both opposing sides to lay off their hands from this beautiful mountainous paradise.

From Casinos to Integrated Resorts

Notice how everyone and the newspapers no longer refer to casinos - they now call them the Integrated Resorts!

Kudos to the government PR machinery for achieving this almost overnight change so subtly and subconsciously. The word casino carries many associated negative connotations while IR, well, brings to mind the likes of wonders such as Disneyland, Caesars Palace and Mirage. IR equates with family-oriented and acceptable entertainment.

It is obvious that Singapore cannot get far if it continues relying on the traditional manufacturing sector; even the high-tech biomedical and life sciences sector has its peaks and troughs. There is a need to reinvent and diversify the economy and increasing the focus on tourism and related services is the way to go. Or else in no time, this will be a decaying city and our young ladies will be going to China to work as maids.

The religious groups who are so opposed to these casinos should pause and consider a few facts:
a) are they responsible for the economic well-being of the country?
b) are they responsible for ensuring that Singaporeans continue having jobs in years to come?
c) are they schooled in theology or economics?
d) why do they think they should teach the government on what is best for the country - the government does not teach them how to preach?
e) why are they getting so focused on country governance - should they not focus on managing well their own religious flocks?
f) if they are so concerned about the social ills of casinos, do they not realise that Toto, 4D, horse-racing and jackpot machines have been around for decades?
g) should they not shift their emphasis to doing what they are good at - educate and teach their religious congregations about managing with casinos and gambling?

Religion and country governance cannot be mates - they should be kept distinct. Look at history - Europe only started to blossom when the rulers became secular in their governance. Countries where governance and law are based on religion are stagnating economically.

And let's speed up the process and get the IRs built fast!

The Falun Gong (FG) Nonsense Continues

A few days ago, the Straits Times reported that two FG members were found guilty of illegal activites by the Singapore courts - they were distributing some illegal VCDs of their FG movement (seems more like a sect?). They had it coming and I think they rightly deserve the guilty verdict for being such a nuisance.

They had a choice of simply paying a fine or being jailed in lieu - any smart person, with brains in situ, will simply pay up and get on with his life. But the two ladies, obviously being brain-deficient and also very obviously being manipulated by some higher FG being, chose to go to jail. A clever move on the part of the higher FG being - they wanted media attention with the jailing and, of course, attention to their cause (whatever that is). And then to attract even greater media attention, the two of them in jail, decided to go on a fast. How stupid can some people be, to allow themselves to be manipulated like puppets on a string? Do they really think that China will rush in begging them to stop their fast? As I said in an earlier post, they are simply conducting their protests in the wrong place. If they have grievances against the China authorities and if they realy were sincerely concerned about their fellow FG arrested members in China and if they really had some guts, they would hasten to China immediately and conduct their protests there.

Alas, that is unlikely to happen. The stupid foot-soldiers at the front-line, will continue taking foolish risks at the behest of their supreme head, who pulls the strings from some convenient, plush, comfortable and remote location. While the two ladies fast, their puppet master will be busy eating caviar and sipping wine.

Rewriting History

Yesterday's Straits Times in Singapore, featured an article on how China itself has been whitewashing its history. Most of us are now familiar with how the Chinese erupted in rage when Japan approved a school text that was not entirely honest about the Japanese wartime atrocities.

Japan has retaliated with claims that Chinese history textbooks are also biased and contain glaring omissions. The textbooks do not tell the complete truth about the Great Leap Forward movement initiated by Mao which resulted in 30 million dying of starvation during the 1960s. There is also nothing about its military aggression against India and Vietnam. And the Tiananmen killings are simply glossed over.

So both sides need to acknowledge their history for what it really was - you need that if you want to move forward without being saddled with heavy baggage.