Conversation - How to be The Real Singapore

"These two buggers really know how to play the system, man!"

"Who?"

"The couple who ran that website, 'The Real Singapore'. Blardy clever! Can earn half a million dollars in less than 2 years. And now, still can play out the Singapore Government, man!"

"They can play, but they already caught and charge in court. The girl even plead guilty and sentenced to 10 months."

"And we goondu. That is EXACTLY what they want!"

Fallback old age plan

In the news today (Mar 29 2016) was the story that more Japanese Retirees are committing crimes in order to be jailed so that they can free accommodation, food, and medical care.

In other words, elderly criminals are turning Japanese Prisons into Old Folks Homes.

Or put another way, if the govt won't provide welfare one way, they'll end up providing welfare another way, anyway.

And it is not like Japan has a poor welfare system. It is in many areas better than SG's.

So would this happen in Singapore?

How to get state care in Singapore if you have not planned or provided for your old age. 
(Note: Some of these steps are illegal. But hey, if you go prison... free food and lodging!)

Conversation - Bukit Batok By-Election (Mar 2016)

"So Chee Soon Juan is going to contest in the By-Election."

"Like we surprised meh? Waiting for Kenneth J and Tan Jee Say to also jump in."

"But Workers Party and DPP have announced that they won't contest."

"WP not contesting also expected, lah! They know where they are strong, and they don't just jump in just because there is a lobang ok? That's why this By-Election is happening. Someone jumped in just because got lobang. WP will work the ground one, before they pia. Ai pia jia eh aia, but must also know when and where to pia. You never do homework, it's not pia, it's cheong only and hope for the best."

Pursuing Happiness

Singaporeans.

We're so sad, we need people to tell us how happy we are. Or are not.

And then we refused to believe them. 

So here's the latest:

UN survey names S’pore the happiest country in the region

UN survey names S’pore the happiest country in the region

MARCH 16, 2016

SINGAPORE — Singaporeans may be fond of complaining about their lot in life, but that does not appear to have stopped the city-state from being ranked the happiest country in the Asia-Pacific by a new survey produced for the United Nations.

The survey, which polled about 3,000 people in each country and asked them to evaluate their life in 11 categories on a scale from 0 to 10, also ranked Singapore as the 22nd happiest country in the world. Singapore moved two notches up from the previous list.

Overall, Singapore scored 6.739 in the “happy index” of the World Happiness Report 2016, which was published by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network for the United Nations.

Making sense of information and "facts" in the Internet Age

We live in the age of information.

We live in the age of the Internet. With Twitter. And Blogs. And Websites.

We live in the age of Information overload. For every position on the Internet, I am sure you can find a not-necessarily-equal, but definitely opposite position.

If you try to present facts on the internet, you can be sure that someone can present links to websites and facts to counter your facts.

You can be sure that if you have a quote from an expert, there will be another expert who will say the exact (or nearly the exact) opposite. And someone will quote him or her to you.

In this age of Information Overload, how do you decide what facts to accept (or believe) and which "facts" are bunk?

Exploiting David Ong

First of all, I do not usually post on a current event so soon after it breaks. So this is a rarity, and in case you have a suspicion, yes, this blog piece is all about exploiting the currency of PAP's David Ong resignation as an MP for Bt Batok SMC. So if you are reading this and was drawn here because you Googled "David Ong", thank you for visiting this blog. Exploiting his name has worked.

The reason I do not usually post on breaking stories is that the facts are still coming out, and really, all people have are speculation. Which does not mean that people keep from speculation and restrain themselves. The lack of information just gives them more scope, more freedom for speculation.

And we could all do with a little more freedom.