Tuesday 21 February 2017

Juvenile Speculations - War in the South China Sea?

On Monday [23 Jan 2017], new White House spokesman Sean Spicer said the United States would prevent China from taking over territory in international waters in the South China Sea.
His comments were widely interpreted as doubling down on remarks by Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, on Jan. 11 that the United States would not allow China access to islands it has built in the South China Sea, and upon which it has installed weapons systems and built military-length airstrips.
The adult in you should be horrified at the prospects of another war. With the two largest economies. And so close to home. To be clear, China doesn't want a war. Does the US want a war? With Trump, who knows?

The juvenile in you (and me) may just want to speculate: Can China successfully defend those islands they reclaimed and the facilities they built on it? Will the US (under Trump) be able to take the fight to China?

How will this impact the rest of the world, and specifically Singapore? More importantly, who will win such a war or any lesser confrontation? Or if not "win", prevail?

(The juvenile in you is the one who still thinks questions like "Superman vs  Green Lantern - who will win?" is a deep important philosophical question.)

Thursday 9 February 2017

Nothing to crow about

And so it was that within the first week of the Year of the Rooster, the AVA acted to put down "wild" chickens roaming Sin Ming Ave because of complaints from about 20 residents that the birds' crowing were annoyances.

And the irony was not lost on readers who commented mercilessly on a) the pettiness of the residents, and b) the draconian measure of culling the chickens by AVA instead of say, relocating them to the Botanic Garden, Ubin, Central Catchment area, etc.