TR EMERITUS

Recently visited Polyclinic, was told there is no more walk in, you need to book online. Walk in is considered emergency, surcharge $32.10. Look at online appointments, no slot for many months but emergency has immediate slot. Charges quoted for hospital surgery higher than private clinic in orchard. So Singaporeans no longer has affordable channels since even the govt is trying to rip us off? Went to SingTel, also same thing, everything there is admin fee and minimum charge. Worst is there is no more hotline to land an operator, you are told to talk to chatbot which gives you standard answers. One scheme is $20 for 3G with no voice and sms. And for their senior plan, it is $25, even more expensive than what you normally get outside. How come they are charging more expensive when they are offering less and less? When you contact Gomo, Gomo asks you contact Singtel, when you contact Singtel, Singtel ask you contact Gomo. Extremely irresponsible and lousy service but charging us more and more. I have to say Singapore under Pinky and his team of hyenas have degenerated to only maximum profit model, sacrificing quality and productivity. This leads to a tsunami of GLCs turning into such dreadful state where the only focus is to churn out new ideas to charge more and more. Singapore is no longer the same, it is now degenerating into an overly expensive with little or no value.   Wuji      Read More →

Whilst we Celebrate the People we Love on Valentine’s Day, we should Also Remember the Most Important Person to Love is the One We See in the Mirror Now that I don’t have restaurant work, I thought I would try and bash out some thoughts on this day that celebrates love and lovers. Ironically, the best inspiration for my Valentine’s Day came over the weekend when I watched “Tinder Swindler” with the Evil Young Woman. As has been publicized, Tinder Swindler is a documentary centred around three women who were conned by Mr. Shimon Hayut, or Mr. Simon Leviev as he called himself when he was running his scam. The story of his scam is simple. He presented himself as a “glamorous” and romantic person. His social media was “exciting,” showing that he lived the type of “fairytale” life that most of us can only dream of. In the initial stages, he was charming and sensitive. Then, when the women in question had “feelings” for him, he would find a story to explain why he couldn’t use his money and needed theirs. Whilst the back story of Mr. Shimon Hayut or Mr. Simon Leviev, has a fascinating story (or the type where most of us are asking – how the heck did he pull it off), the more interesting story actually belongs to his victims. The first thing that one notices about all these women is that they are fairly attractive. When you look at them, your instant question is “Babe – with your looks, you shouldn’t have a problem getting guys.” Then, as they recount their story, you’ll notice that they are inevitably intelligent professionals. They have everything that most heterosexual men would want in a woman. [LINK] Then, there’s the fact that they are women. It’s generally accepted that women are smarter than men for certain things. Reproduction strategies for the sexes are different. For men, its about fertilizing as many eggs as possible. Women are generally programmed to be more selective in their mates since they have to carry the child and raise the child once its out of the womb. A woman is far less likely to do stupid things for a bit d*** than a man is to get a bit of p***. The standard joke is that men tick far less boxes when choosing a companion. So, how did three attractive women, blessed with the best that nature and nurture could provide, end up being conned by him? On one hand you could say that the con-man was good. Mr. Hayut (to use his birth name) is good looking and somehow appeared to have lots of money. By all accounts he’s charming and had a way of making women feel good about themselves. However, there were signs. He talked a lot about his various enemies who might do harm to him. You could argue that this provided him with an element of excitement and danger, which made him more attractive. On the other hand, it should have been a sign that besides the private jets, there was baggage. The Evil Young Woman made the point that all the women were “Ang Moh.” She said that an Asian girl would probably not go for a man who had an insatiable appetite for using her money to live a high life for himself (sure, you might give once but would you take high interest bank loans because he needs money on a weekly basis?) All three women were from “nice” places (two Scandinavians and a Dutch girl). The swindler grew up in a rougher place (Israel). There is an argument that when you grow up in a place where people are generally honest, you’re bound to trust people more because all you’ve ever been exposed to is people who have no reason to screw you. People who grow up in rough places tend to be more guarded because they’ve had to be so. Just take a look at attitudes towards Covid as an example. The people on my social media who are against vaccines, mask mandates and social distancing are inevitably white and from the USA, UK and Australia. These are countries where nasty diseases are confined to movies or labs and even people around them are dying, they argue that they have the freedom to clog hospital beds. By contrast, the Vietnamese that I live with are insistent on sanitizing everything when they get home and they insist on getting whatever vaccinations they can. They grew up in a place where nasty diseases happen to the people they know and doctors are few and far between. In that context ignoring the doctor in favour for a slobby actor isn’t about personal freedom but life or death. However, culture alone only explains a generalization. What made three individual women with everything so trusting? I’m not a psychiatrist but I wouldn’t be afraid to make a guess and argue that there was something about these women that needed to be loved by this man and culture is fault here because plenty of women are conditioned to think that true love involves sacrificing themselves. Both Scandinavian women for example, kept talking about how they were worried that the swindler would be harmed by his proverbial enemies and only realized that he was their enemy once they had been bled dry. Its not a bad thing to encourage things like sacrifice and helping people. However, as my mother once said to me during my first marriage – “Love yourself.” Sounds unromantic to talk about loving yourself but if you think about it carefully, its actually the basis of a healthy relationship. A relationship cannot be about one party taking everything and the other party sacrificing everything. That’s not a relationship – that’s an abuse. We tell our kids too many fairytales about how you need to love people until you will die for them. What we never explain to our kids is that real love should be when one party will not allow the other party to die for them.   Tang Li *Although I’ve been based mainly in Singapore for nearly two decades, I’ve had the privilege of being able meet people who have crossed borders and cultures. I’ve befriended ministers and ambassadors and worked on projects involving a former head of state. Yet, at the same time, I’ve had the privilege of befriending migrant labourers and former convicts. All of them have a story to tell. All of them add to the fabric of life. I hope to express the stories that inspire us to create life as it should be.      Read More →

Chairman, Committee of Privileges The Committee of Privileges (COP) has made history! For the first time in Singapore’s parliamentary history, it has recommended that two witnesses be referred to the public prosecutor for further investigations for allegedly speaking untruths during the committee’s hearing. Poor Pritam Singh and Faisal Manap! And poor Sylvia Lim too. Sylvia Lim is apparently spared because she had cooperated with the COP. Really? Is the COP so kind? Or is it just wayang? Make no mistake. PAP leaders are never kind or magnanimous. If they can eat you up, they will. This “Making Mountain out of a Molehill” Raeesah Khan saga is just another scheme (paid for by taxpayers) to demolish the Workers’ Party. PAP leaders are sophisticated schemers. Letting Sylvia off is just an attempt to divide the party. If they succeed, they would gloat. Another possible reason for letting Sylvia off is to prevent the accusation of an overkill. The COP has to pretend that they are fair minded, that they give credit where credit is due. They like to reward “when reward is due”. Conferring the title of “Leader of the Opposition” is one such reward that attempts to blind the beneficiary of the title. Only the gullible would fail to read the motive behind. What harm did Raeesah Khan cause? Nothing really. She exaggerated her role, (probably with the aim of making it more credible) when she claimed that she accompanied a victim to the police station. She forgot that PAP leaders are vultures in parliament, ever ready to pounce on the slightest error. Did she cause anyone to be jailed? No! Did she cause anyone to lose his reputation or job? No. The Reform Party in its press release of 12 February 2022 concluded: “No Opposition politician is safe in Singapore from the first breakthrough MP J B Jeyaretnam with his frequent and scathing attacks on the Government to the modern day compliant politicians. This will continue to be true until at least one-third of the seats in the House are under Opposition control.” (LINK) I agree with the statement with reference to parliament. Despite the popularity of JB Jeyaretnam, the PAP leaders have no qualms in referring him, on various occasions to the committee of privileges over petty matters. For example, as a resident of Anson, I had received newsletters reporting on the committee’s proceedings. I was shocked that even that was wrong in the eyes of PAP leaders. With regard to opposition politicians in general however, they have never been safe since the Barisan Sosialis was born in 1962. They were arrested, tortured and detained without trial. Even elected members of parliament suffered detention under the Internal Security Act. Lee Tee Tong was arrested, humiliated and imprisoned without trial for 18 years. Two other MPs suffered detention too - S T Bani and Loh Miaw Gong. The 4G leaders have to resort to all kinds of tricks because they know that their opponents are more capable than them. As in their record and history, every opponent must be nipped in the bud. They must never be able to gather enough strength to topple the PAP. Losing Aljunied GRC and then Sengkang GRC are lessons they will never forget. Today, the PAP is not in a position to destroy opponents without receiving some flak in return. People are better informed. Many of us can see where Singapore is heading to if we remain silent and do nothing. We realise that we have to take responsibility for ourselves, to build a Singapore that is kinder and not always geared towards making money and ensuring a prosperous Singapore where the benefits belong to the powerful and the rich.   Teo Soh Lung      Read More →