Conversations on the See Oh Aiyah why so complicated?

"Just liddat, can just call for COE one arh?"

"What?"

"Workers' Party. They want COE for the SGH Hep C outbreak."

"You mean COI?"

"What is COI?"

"Committee of Inquiry."

"Not COE?"

"This is not about buying car."

"Wah liao. So what is a Commty of Enquiry? Oi! Enquiry also starts with "E" wat! So COE correct wat!"

"Inquiry. Not Enquiry. Starts with "I" not "E"."

If only...

From a blog post:

Mr Masagos said the Malaysians worked out a standard operating procedure with alert levels, trigger points and actions on fire suppression. 

[Oh good. I hope this mean what I think it means. 

So if there are less than say... 2000 hotspots, Indonesia will try to take care of them. When there are more than 2000 fires or hotspots, Singapore and Malaysia will activate their Air Force Haze fighting contingent. When Indonesian Ministers or Vice Presidents say neighbours should be thankful for 11 months of fresh air, or that help from stupid neighbours are insulting, Operation Zero Dark Thirty will be activated.  

These sort of trigger points?]

Inscrutable Indonesians

From a Facebook comment on a story headlined: "Indonesia may declare (Haze) a National Emergency":

After weeks of it being an international embarrassment, after many infantile, tactless, insensitive remarks by Indonesian leaders, after hundreds of thousands of Indonesians have been living with life-shortening air pollution, after millions of hectares of forests have been destroyed, after countless wildlife have been displaced, killed, injured, or otherwise affected, THEN Indonesia declares a NATIONAL Emergency? Not an International EMBARRASSMENT. Not a Environmental Disaster on a Global Scale? 

Man, those Indonesians are inscrutable! "Inscrutable" - meaning "cannot be screwed."

Johor plays the secession card

Threats are the tactics of the powerless.

As Yoda said, do or do not. There is no "try".

So the Johor prince has articulated Johor's perceived option to secede.

Lawyers say the Constitution is silent on secession.

Just as it was when Singapore left the Federation. It took passage of a bill in the Malaysian Parliament to allow Singapore to leave the Federation. Thus it is not the unilateral decision of Johor to simply secede.

I do not think it is possible without a war of secession, and I do not believe such a war is likely. It is to nobody's benefit for such a war.

Conversations: Crossover, not Crosstalk

"Ha!  As expected. All guilty."

"The City Harvest trial?"

"Yeah. What a waste of time!"

"Well, justice has to be seen to be served."

"It was an open and shut case. Everybody knows it's bullshit! Waste time. Waste money."

"Well, they still have to prove it in court."

"Maybe. But the whole story is so complicated and so unbelievable, you know something fishy is going on."

Liveable Cities 2015

Monocle has put out their 2015 most liveable Cities list. Singapore is 13. Up from 15. (That's in 2011, 2012, and 2013. In 2014, we were #16.) 

[Monocle requires paid subscription to read, so the links are to 3rd party sites or blogs.]

Conversations over the weekend - All about the Haze

"So Indonesia has finally decided to admit that they need help to put out the fires."

"Ya. We all dem stupid."

"Huh? Why you say that? We put out the fires good for us, what! Then no haze!"

"Ya, that is what they want us to do for them. We dem stupid."

"But it is good that they finally agreed to accept our help, right?"

"Finally, your head ah! They 'finally' accept our help because NOW they want the fires to stop burning! They only burn the forest to clear the forest right? They clear the forest so that they can turn the forest into Palm Oil plantation right? So how to plant when the ground is still burning? Every year they start burning during the dry season. Then when the rains come, the fires go out. Then they plant their oil palms. But this year, is the Kanina effect or something --"