Atrocious..

Check out this article that appeared in straitstimes.com.

President of the Singapore Newspaper Distributors Association says that working from 4.30am to 6.30am is beneficial to people with nine-to-five jobs. Are you kidding me?? So working 13 hour jobs are considered beneficial these days?

That's not all. MP Seng Han Thong can add that "if both husband and wife work, they can earn $1,000". So what the government is backing this rubbish now? And they want both husband and wife to get into the action? What about the kids at home? Lao Lee going to come to my house and take care of them ah?

Let me post a question to these ****heads - What the hell happened to work-life balance?

It seems the Singapore government thinks it is okay to slave its people. Milk the citizens like a cow, suck them dry. Raise the CPF payout age, makes us work 13 (why not just make it 20) hour days. By the time we get our CPF money, we might as well bury ourselves and let the government collect the damned estate fee. Use our CPF money for your "investments" and then raise your own fat pay.

Here's a tip. Why don't the Singapore government stop wasting our money on useless "investments" (which always seem to lose us money) and start paying elderly people instead. We're about the only country in the world which employs our grandparents to work as cleaners at foodcourts! It's a damn shame to see this happening and, worst still, the government freakin' encouraging this sh!t.

Again, think about work-life balance, for goodness' sake.

Open Letter to Temasek Holdings

Dear Temasek Holdings,

WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?!?!?

Sincerely,
Eugene

Living in Scottsdale, Arizona

The following is a sponsored post.

Ever wondered what it would be like living in Scottsdale, Arizona? Granted, that city is not really a well-known city in this region of the world but it is something of an upscale tourist and shopping destination.

Having a population of about 240,000, I’m thinking the city should be pretty small and have a tight community where everyone knows everyone. Singapore has a population of about 4.8 million so we can pretty much throw the everyone-knows-everyone hope out the window.

The weather in Arizona is about 27 degree Celsius, which is roughly about the same as Singapore during the night. It is usually around 32 degree Celsius in Singapore during the day so the weather would be pretty enjoyable. Click here to find out more about Scottsdale.

A lot of people have the impression that the Scottsdale Arizona weather is pretty dry and warm but I reckon 27 degrees is pretty fine. Good enough for a lovely afternoon stroll in the park without getting all sweaty because of the humidity. Good enough for a picnic lunch without having to worry about any mosquitoes.

Well, given the current economic situation, property prices might be cheap in the States now. No better time to start looking for places I guess. =)

Some Things Do Change

There was a rare protest in Singapore this afternoon.

I just read the news online on MSN and was pleasantly surprised. The protesters were smart enough to organise a 4-man march, knowing that the police could (and probably would) arrest them if they marched in groups of 5 or more. It is a very small-scale protest and march which would be considered laughable by most international standards but I must applaud Mr. V. Thamizhmaraiyan's courage for leading the march. You have done something that most Singaporeans are too afraid to do. They were protesting against the war in Sri Lanka and marched from Little India to the British High Commission to appeal for British intervention in the war.

I really do hope to see more peaceful protests in the future. It not only shows that Singaporeans are global citizens, it also shows that we have our opinions and are not afraid to voice them.

I also read Newsweek's May 2008 article "The Rise of the Rest" by Fareed Zakaria. You can check out the article here. Prof Harold Tan mentioned something about it when I was speaking to him this afternoon and, in light of recent events, it seem like a pretty good analysis of the world. It is really interesting to hear reports of how the rest of the world is catching up with the US and the fact that we are living in a post-American world. I wrote a blog entry about this 3 years ago. You can read it here. It is not that the US have been doing things wrong, it's just that the rest of the world have been doing things right. The focus is not about just the US anymore, it's about a global perspective and context.

I remember a couple of weeks ago when Obama took over the US presidency. My uncle was commenting that he couldn't believe how Americans could vote for someone so inexperienced and young to lead them. He did not think that Obama was capable enough to lead the US (and the world, for that matter) out of the current financial crisis. At that point in time, I did not understand where he was coming from. Like most people, I was fasinated with Obama's popularity and charisma. But now I see what he meant. First, the market tanked on the day Obama took over, which showed that businessmen did not have confidence in him. Then, Obama angered China the first few days he was in office. Next, he placed a cap on Wall Street's executive's salaries, which pissed some executives off. And just today, he admitted that he screwed up over some tax issues and caused two of his nominees to withdraw their nominations. Not only that, he had to debate about whether to include a "Buy American" provision in the the stimulus package bill. I mean, is that even a cause for debate in today's globalised economy?? Imagine the repercussions if that went through, thank God he backed off it.

All these have lead me to think that my uncle could have been right in his pre-judgement of Obama. I still hope that Obama would be able to lead the US on the right path to recovery. However, he would really need to buck up and stop making these mistakes. The world's economies are in a dire situation right now and it seems the worse is yet to come.

I am waiting to see how this pans out.

YES to Singapore Textbooks!

Seems like I'm reverting back to a words-only blog. Too lazy to save and upload pictures these days cause it's just too damned time consuming.

I was reading my textbooks yesterday and I realised that almost every single textbook we use in NUS are textbooks written by American authors. It's pretty frustrating cause all their examples, writing style and train of thought are American. Like why do I care about the demographics of Ohio or Minneapolis?!? True they are only trying to illustrate examples but I'm pretty sure I would be able to understand better if it was in the Singapore context.

Perhaps this is one way in which America is spreading their culture. Students learn so much about America during their studies that America becomes like a 'promised land' and we take this mentality out into society.

I say Singaporean should study textbooks that are written by Singaporean professors, with a Singaporean style and in a Singaporean context!! I've have enough of trying to understand what it's like in America, having to put all the examples in the context of American society. Do American students have to do that? No, they don't have a clue about what's happening with the rest of the world!

Say YES to Singaporean textbooks!!!!!

Long Vacation!

I've recently been re-watching Long Vacation.
It's a J-Dorama from way back in 1996. I first caught the show around 1998 (can't believe it's been 10 years!!) when it was shown on the local channels. That was during the start of the J-Pop wave during the early 2000's. Re-watching the drama reminded me why I was so into Jap stuff during that time. The show emphasized the culture and economic backdrop of Asia and Japan during that period. The characters were so real and you could actually feel for them as you go through the series. I would definitely recommend anyone to go watch the drama if you haven't caught if before or rewatch it if you already did. It's really good!! This series was the first in many hits for Kimura Takuya btw.

Anyway, Tomoko Yamaguchi caught my eye... again. Totally mesmerised all over again by that beautiful smile of hers! Can't believe that she was in her early 30's when she acted in Long Vacation. Here's a recent picture of her (I think she actually got slimmer since 1996):

She's already 44 and still looks so good!! *melts*

Dress Fancy!

There's a new blog shop in town...

That's right! My dear Kelly has launched her very own blog shop! Dress Fancy is now having their launch party and is featuring their Launch Party Collection. The designs there are unbelieveably good. Plus you get to oogle at two pretty babes.

What's there to not like.. dressfancy.livejournal.com.

Dress Fancy and stand out from the crowd!

vPOST Sponsorship Challenge!

My school's club, NUS Design and Environment Club, is participating in the vPOST Tertiary Sponsorship Challenge and we need YOUR help!

Basically all you have to do is sign up for vPOST. You'll stand to WIN Air Tickets to exciting destinations, St James Powerhouse memberships, Singapore Flyer Tickets and many more!

Furthermore, signing up nets you a 2-weeks FREE trial access to MobTV and discounts for KFC Meals!

There is totally NO COST involved for signing up. It's FREE!

vPOST will be contributing a cash sponsorship to DE Club Orientation Funds for every new member who signs up so please show your support by clicking on the image below and signing up!!

PS. This Challenge is only open for a limited time! We need all the help we can get. Please do shoew your support for DE Club by signing up!

National Achievers Congress 2008!

Mark 29th April 2008 - 1st May 2008 on your calenders! That's right! The National Achievers Congress (NAC) is back again!

NAC is a two-day event organised by Success Resources and it has been running since 1992 and have seen more than 100,000 people from 6 different countries attend its' seminars. NAC started with a need to assemble world-class experts and professionals in one location to learn, discuss and advance breakthroughs in business competencies to vast audiences at a very affordable price.

This year world-renowned speakers such as Joe Girard, Blair Singer, T. Harv Eker, Roger Hamilton, Adam Ginsberg, Steve Linder and many more have been invited to share their strategies and skill that will make money, grow your incomes and profits in your business and personal life.

Such an oppotunity is worth hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars. Don't believe me? Click here and you'll see that the regular tickets are currently going for $230. The price will be increased to $450 as this massive event draws nearer. I'm not even talking about the VIP tickets, which are worth $995! Click here for proof!

So how much is this opportunity worth to you?

Take action now! Contact me and get tickets for you at only $180! No gimmicks at all. I'm not even going to profit from this. I'm selling the tickets to you at the price I'm getting it at. What's the catch? There is none, save for the fact that I believe this event is going to be massive and we will definately be able to learn from it.

But hurry, I can't hold the offer for long. I have to know if you're going by the 8th of April so I can place the orders for the tickets! There are very limited seats left so don't delay any furthur!


PS. If you want to know how I'm getting the tickets at this price, just drop me message or give me a call. The reason why I'm not putting it up here is because some of these information may be deemed, shall we say, sensitive. =)

PPS. If you want to find out more information on NAC 2008, click here.

RSS Feeds and Email Subscriptions!

I just got the RSS feeds and email subscription services from Feedburner up! Take a look on your right. I placed it all the way on top so it's visible for all to see!

You can either subscribe to the RSS feed which will tell you everytime I have a new post or to the email subscription service which will send you an email whenever I update the blog. That way, you don't have to keep checking back all the time!

Also, be sure to bookmark me on all your favourite sites like Digg, StumbleUpon, Del.icio.us, Google, Facebook, Yahoo! and many more by using the quick and convenient Add This button at the bottom of every post!

Go ahead and get trigger-happy! =)