Living with Covid. Living with Singaporeans. Living with idiots.

There is a blogpost about how Singapore is coping or not coping with the current "transition" from containing Covid, to living with Covid. And it points out (eventually) that Singapore's policies are inconsistent:

"... there are actually more than 1000 patients admitted for Covid-19. Are our admission criteria too lax? By now we should have enough data to know what are the patient profile characteristics that will give a good prognosis and those that we know will not do well later on. This data should be carefully analysed and translated into better clinical practice so that we do not admit excessively and take up too many beds. At present, out of all patients diagnosed, 1.8% require oxygen, 0.2% are in ICU and the rest are either asymptomatic or mildly ill. Given our extensive experience in the last 20 months treating Covid-19 patients, can we extract more efficiency out of the system in terms of hospitalisations of asymptomatic and mildly ill patients?
On one hand, we say we are resolute on opening up and living with the virus. On the other hand, when we test almost everyone under the sun, we seem to be also going for a zero-case disease elimination strategy. As one public health expert put it, it is like asking each and every person caught in a downpour, “Are you wet?”
Another expert put it more starkly, “the pain of transition is made worse by being stuck in applying disease elimination measures to deal with an endemic disease. Much of what is being done in the name of disease prevention is counter-productive”."

He is right. The policy is to live with it, but the measures are for zero covid strategy. And the reason for this inconsistency: Politics. Or Political reality.

Reaction to PM's speech on 9 Oct 2021

I know what the govt is trying to do, but the govt is not addressing the (irrational?) fears of the masses. Yes, we need a change of mindset,. This means a change of expectations. But this speech does not do it. You cannot change mindset, just by telling people "you need to change your mindset". To build a ship you will need to organise manpower, skills, resources, plan construction, divide up the work, allocate manpower and resources. BUT you need to start by painting a picture of where the ship will bring us, and what we can do.

On China and the Pacific Century

China has the second largest economy after the US, and is expected to be the largest economy in a few years.

Meanwhile:

As the 4 Asian Tigers grew, and as China emerged onto the global stage as a global economic player, soothsayers and prophets predicted the inevitable "Asian Century".

Subsequently, this gave way to the "Rise of China".

Deng Xiaoping didn't believe in the Asian Century. He didn't believe it would ever be.

Deng is quoted to have said, 

"Observe calmly; secure our position; cope with affairs calmly; hide our capacities and bide our time; be good at maintaining a low profile; and never claim leadership."

Being a Panda

A baby panda was born in Singapore!

But it belongs to China! China "rents" out pandas (usually in pairs) to various countries/zoos at about $1m a year, for usually a period of 10 years. And if those pandas have cubs, those cubs also belong to China and have to be returned to China when they are 4 years old. 

Also every baby panda born is subject to a baby panda tax of $200,000 once they reach 6 months of age. And any panda (baby or adult) that dies due to human error, the zoo will be subject to a $500,000 fine. 

If you're starting to suspect China is running a Panda business, you're right.

Home

"Home" (1998) written by Dick Lee, and sung by Kit Chan is a perennial favourite for Singaporeans.

Why?

Singaporeans like "Home" because we are NOT "rah-rah sis-boom-bah" jingoists. 

Singapore to import electricity?

[From Feb 2020. In draft for over a year.] 

So Singapore is planning to import electricity from Malaysia. 

On Facebook, this news was met with derision and incredulity.

And what I could call "patriotic anxiety".

Why is Singapore doing this? Netizens (Singaporeans) were bemused. We had just severed our dependence on Malaysia for Water. Why start to depend on Malaysia for another critical resource?

Let me explain... well, this is my interpretation.

Vaccines and Conspiracy Theories.

This may come across as an argument against the anti-vaxxers (in general) as well as the vaccine-hesitant (specific to Covid-19) in Singapore. 

That is not my intent. 

For the hardcore, "Andrew Wakefield is a saint", "Medicine is poison!" "Big Pharma is Evil!" "Vaccines causes autism!" anti-vaxxer, science cannot reach them. Logic is beyond them. Reason does not interest them. Facts bore them. They are unteachable/unreachable. They have gone down the rabbit hole, and there's no way to pull them out.