Monday, June 30, 2014
Thousands wear white at church service to defend family values
NG JING YNG
JUNE 30
SINGAPORE — Thousands of worshippers donned white yesterday to attend a Faith Community Baptist Church (FCBC) service at Suntec Singapore Convention and Exhibition Centre, during which the church’s senior pastor Lawrence Khong urged them to “preserve purity in the home”.
This came a day after the annual pro-lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Pink Dot event drew 26,000 people.
In the lead-up to Pink Dot, a chorus of voices had objected to the event, including a campaign by an Islamic religious teacher who urged Muslims to wear white on Saturday in protest against homosexuality and to defend traditional family values.
The Wear White campaign had drawn support from Mr Khong, who had said it was time for the church and like-minded groups such as Muslims to oppose Pink Dot.
Sunday, June 29, 2014
Koh Teong Koo: The Rickshaw puller who saved Lee Kuan Yew
Jun 29, 2014
Happy 'reunion' as two grandsons of Koh Teong Koo meet former PM's brother
By Cassandra Chew
Trishaw rider Koh Teong Koo pedals steadily down Oxley Road, pulling up at No. 38, the home of Singapore's prime minister, Mr Lee Kuan Yew.
A group of his friends trail in a car from a safe distance, expecting him to be turned away by the Gurkha guards at the gate. None of them believes his story that he regularly visits the home of Singapore's most powerful man.
Then, to everyone's surprise, the gates are opened and Mr Koh cycles right in.
Happy 'reunion' as two grandsons of Koh Teong Koo meet former PM's brother
By Cassandra Chew
Trishaw rider Koh Teong Koo pedals steadily down Oxley Road, pulling up at No. 38, the home of Singapore's prime minister, Mr Lee Kuan Yew.
A group of his friends trail in a car from a safe distance, expecting him to be turned away by the Gurkha guards at the gate. None of them believes his story that he regularly visits the home of Singapore's most powerful man.
Then, to everyone's surprise, the gates are opened and Mr Koh cycles right in.
Kishore Mahbubani: Is China Losing the Diplomatic Plot?
From an article written in
JUL 27, 2012
SINGAPORE - In 2016, China's share of the global economy will be larger than America's in purchasing-price-parity terms. This is an earth-shaking development; in 1980, when the United States accounted for 25% of world output, China's share of the global economy was only 2.2%. And yet, after 30 years of geopolitical competence, the Chinese seem to be on the verge of losing it just when they need it most.
China's leaders would be naive and foolish to bank on their country's peaceful and quiet rise to global preeminence. At some point, America will awaken from its geopolitical slumber; there are already signs that it has opened one eye.
But China has begun to make serious mistakes. After Japan acceded to Chinese pressure and released a captured Chinese trawler in September 2010, China went overboard and demanded an apology from Japan, rattling the Japanese establishment.
JUL 27, 2012
SINGAPORE - In 2016, China's share of the global economy will be larger than America's in purchasing-price-parity terms. This is an earth-shaking development; in 1980, when the United States accounted for 25% of world output, China's share of the global economy was only 2.2%. And yet, after 30 years of geopolitical competence, the Chinese seem to be on the verge of losing it just when they need it most.
China's leaders would be naive and foolish to bank on their country's peaceful and quiet rise to global preeminence. At some point, America will awaken from its geopolitical slumber; there are already signs that it has opened one eye.
But China has begun to make serious mistakes. After Japan acceded to Chinese pressure and released a captured Chinese trawler in September 2010, China went overboard and demanded an apology from Japan, rattling the Japanese establishment.
The great backlash against globalisation
JUNE 24
In the immediate aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis, policymakers’ success in preventing the Great Recession from turning into Great Depression II reined in demands for protectionist and inward-looking measures. However, the backlash against globalisation — and the freer movement of goods, services, capital, labour and the technology that came with it — has arrived.
This new nationalism takes different economic forms: Trade barriers, asset protection, reaction against foreign direct investment, policies favouring domestic workers and firms, anti-immigration measures, state capitalism and resource nationalism. In the political realm, populist, anti-globalisation, anti-immigration and, in some cases, outright racist and anti-Semitic parties are on the rise.
In the immediate aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis, policymakers’ success in preventing the Great Recession from turning into Great Depression II reined in demands for protectionist and inward-looking measures. However, the backlash against globalisation — and the freer movement of goods, services, capital, labour and the technology that came with it — has arrived.
This new nationalism takes different economic forms: Trade barriers, asset protection, reaction against foreign direct investment, policies favouring domestic workers and firms, anti-immigration measures, state capitalism and resource nationalism. In the political realm, populist, anti-globalisation, anti-immigration and, in some cases, outright racist and anti-Semitic parties are on the rise.
When death is part of life
Jun 22, 2014
Recent events have made me think about life and death, especially since I am a caregiver to my parents
By Tan Dawn Wei
The problem with being an atheist is you believe in only one life.
No going to heaven after you die; no rebirth conditioned by your karma; no transmigration of your soul.
Life and death, then, is viewed through very different lens.
It's like going on a holiday knowing you will never return to the same country again. There is that urgency to cramp in the sights, soak up all the adventures and maximise your limited time. Yet, because our lives run on for so much longer than a typical holiday, you forget to enjoy yourself on your journey. Instead, you cuss at the touts who fleeced you, you whine about losing your passport, and you blame your bad luck for getting caught in a typhoon.
Because you believe you have only one shot at life, death, too, takes on a sombre character. At the end of your tenure, all that's left of you is some white powdery substance sitting in an urn, covered in cobwebs residing in a columbarium which could in a few years make way for HDB flats.
That's why it's especially difficult to let go of someone close to you. There's no comfort in knowing that this person has "gone to a better place".
Recent events have made me think about life and death, especially since I am a caregiver to my parents
By Tan Dawn Wei
The problem with being an atheist is you believe in only one life.
No going to heaven after you die; no rebirth conditioned by your karma; no transmigration of your soul.
Life and death, then, is viewed through very different lens.
It's like going on a holiday knowing you will never return to the same country again. There is that urgency to cramp in the sights, soak up all the adventures and maximise your limited time. Yet, because our lives run on for so much longer than a typical holiday, you forget to enjoy yourself on your journey. Instead, you cuss at the touts who fleeced you, you whine about losing your passport, and you blame your bad luck for getting caught in a typhoon.
Because you believe you have only one shot at life, death, too, takes on a sombre character. At the end of your tenure, all that's left of you is some white powdery substance sitting in an urn, covered in cobwebs residing in a columbarium which could in a few years make way for HDB flats.
That's why it's especially difficult to let go of someone close to you. There's no comfort in knowing that this person has "gone to a better place".
Added bloat after Najib’s Cabinet reshuffle
TODAY
JUNE 26
KUALA LUMPUR — Putrajaya’s decision to add ministers to its payroll when it had been expected to drop underperformers in yesterday’s (June 25) Cabinet reshuffle has political analysts disapproving over what it augurs about government reforms.
Given the languorous pace of Prime Minister Najib Razak’s administration in delivering on its promises of reforms, one political analyst pointed out that enlarging an already bloated Cabinet was the continuation of a “disappointing” trend.
“This is potentially the biggest Cabinet ever that Malaysia has seen,” Mr Wan Saiful Wan Jan, the chief executive of the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) think tank observed.
JUNE 26
KUALA LUMPUR — Putrajaya’s decision to add ministers to its payroll when it had been expected to drop underperformers in yesterday’s (June 25) Cabinet reshuffle has political analysts disapproving over what it augurs about government reforms.
Given the languorous pace of Prime Minister Najib Razak’s administration in delivering on its promises of reforms, one political analyst pointed out that enlarging an already bloated Cabinet was the continuation of a “disappointing” trend.
“This is potentially the biggest Cabinet ever that Malaysia has seen,” Mr Wan Saiful Wan Jan, the chief executive of the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) think tank observed.
Saturday, June 28, 2014
Understanding meritocracy
BY PRAVIN PRAKASH
TODAY
JUNE 25
In a recent Parliament session, Nominated Member of Parliament (NMP) Eugene Tan spoke extensively on the role of meritocracy in Singapore, reigniting a debate that has captured public interest in recent years. Long considered an integral part of the Republic’s success and development, meritocracy has increasingly come under fire, with many claiming it has instead created inequality and elitism.
But do critics of meritocracy even understand what it means? Given the importance of meritocracy as a governing principle of Singapore, it is surprising we have not given it detailed study, often expecting it to produce or offer results that lie apart from its value system.
In a recent Parliament session, Nominated Member of Parliament (NMP) Eugene Tan spoke extensively on the role of meritocracy in Singapore, reigniting a debate that has captured public interest in recent years. Long considered an integral part of the Republic’s success and development, meritocracy has increasingly come under fire, with many claiming it has instead created inequality and elitism.
But do critics of meritocracy even understand what it means? Given the importance of meritocracy as a governing principle of Singapore, it is surprising we have not given it detailed study, often expecting it to produce or offer results that lie apart from its value system.
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