Denying (Cancelling?) Joe Biden Communion

 From a newsletter:

4. Pope Francis, above, warned conservative U.S. bishops to back down from their push to deny communion to politicians supportive of abortion rights.

That includes President Biden, the first Roman Catholic to occupy the Oval Office in 60 years.

Despite the Vatican’s remarkably public stop sign, the bishops will most likely force a debate this week. The effort could shatter their facade of unity with Rome and set what church historians consider a dangerous precedent for bishops’ conferences across the globe.

Would China Invade Taiwan?

With all the posturing, and aggressive actions by China, all the war-mongering rhetoric and threats, the world has been wondering: are we on the brink of war? Is China preparing to take Taiwan by force? And if so, would the US come to Taiwan's defence?

Active and actual war with China (PRC) is unlikely. (Tho PLA could continue to up the irritation level with incursions into sea and air space.) For several reasons.

On the Importance of Taiwan

At about 12:36 in the video below, Taiwan is described as "the most important country in the world".

(Yes, 'country'. But I'm not John Cena - see below - and I don't have a movie to promote in China, so I'm not apologising.) 

Anyway, the earlier part of the video covers China's efforts to become a chip superpower.

It failed.

Singapore's Success - 50 Shades of Great?

I saw a book, "Fifty Secrets of Singapore's Success" which is a collection of 50 essays by prominent Singaporeans (I guess), and edited by Tommy Koh.

The book was an idea by Tommy Koh. He was asked what was the secret of Singapore's success by some undergrads in the US and Mexico. And (not having an easy answer then) he said that there was not one single secret, but he will think about it (and ask other smarter people) and maybe write a book (or edit one).

A diplomat, tactful, and can think on his feet. I really admire Tommy Koh. 

Then, recently, I saw this video: "15 Incredibly Smart Things Singapore Got Right":

Heng Swee Keat passes on the PMship

 So April 8 2021 was a day of shock for Singapore.

The presumptive PM-apparent/PM in waiting/PM designate Mr Heng Swee Keat announced that he would not be taking up the PMship after all, and would rather another younger person be the PM-designate. His reason, or his publicly stated reason was that he was 60 years old this year, and by the time the Covid-19 crisis was settled he would be close to his mid-60s. He would have limited time to provide leadership and stability for Singapore.

In other words, he had already been selected as the next PM of Singapore. If he had just coasted along, taking things one day at a time, and just making sure that he doesn't screw up big time, he would be Singapore's 4th PM.

The political stance of Singaporeans

There was a survey on the political stance of Singaporeans:

"While almost half of Singaporeans were somewhat undecided on their political position, nearly a third leaned towards the left, outnumbering the one-fifth who preferred right-wing politics, a survey has found."

The approach of LKY and the other founders has (historically) been pragmatic. LKY actually started out more left-wing. It was in a sense practical, pragmatic, and a response to a colonial government. However over time, and when the PAP became the ruling party, the tactics of the opposition became irrelevant, and the PAP had to learn how to govern and to use the tactics of the ruling party. And divested itself of the sackcloth of the opposition.

And as the ruling party, the PAP had to adopt policies that WORKED for Singapore, and to abandon frivolous and impractical ideologies. And the touchstone of the PAP government has been to ask, "does it work?" and "would this work better?"

If not Covid19...

Some people have observed, that since wearing masks, and observing heightened hygiene their children have had fewer or no minor illnesses. One noted that his child used to fall sick every month since attending childcare. Now, no. 

I don't have any statistics to back up this observation, but fewer colds, and coughs, runny noses, since all this mask-wearing.

This mask-wearing might have something to it after all... maybe we can't eradicate Covid19, but maybe... If no one is falling sick from colds, if the transmission of the cold virus is broken, if the virus dies out...

Maybe we can't eradicate Covid19 with masks alone. But maybe, the common cold? Not as deadly, but... something.