Monkey God Tree Make a Monkey out of You!

Isa 44:15 Man gets wood from trees for fuel.

He uses some of it to warm himself.

He starts a fire and bakes bread.

But he also uses some of it to make a god and worship it.

He makes a statue of a god and bows down to it.

Isa 44:16 He burns half of the wood in the fire.

He prepares a meal over it.

He cooks meat over it.

He eats until he is full.

He also warms himself. He says,

"Good! I'm getting warm.

The fire is nice and hot."

Isa 44:17 From the rest of the wood he makes a statue.

It becomes his god.

He bows down and worships it.

He prays to it. He says,

"Save me. You are my god."

Isa 44:18 People like that don't even know what they are doing.

Their eyes are shut so that they can't see the truth.

Their minds are closed so that they can't understand it.

Isa 44:19 No one even stops to think about this.

No one has any sense or understanding.

If anyone did, he would say,

"I used half of the wood for fuel.

I even baked bread over the fire.

I cooked meat. Then I ate it.

Should I now make a statue of a god

out of the wood that's left over?

Should I bow down to a block of wood?

The Lord would hate that."

Isa 44:20 That's as foolish as eating ashes!

The mind of someone like that

has led him down the wrong path.

He can't save himself.

He can't bring himself to say,

"This thing I'm holding in my right hand

isn't really a god at all."

The Bumblebee Cannot Fly According To Aerodynamics

"According to the law of aerodynamics, the bumblebee cannot fly. Apparently no one bothered to tell the bee. "

This is a daily brightening wise words appeared in my calendar today. I like it.

Too many times, we have experts to tell us we are losers. We have too many negative feedbacks from the so call specialists that dismiss our ideas or aspiration as non sense or stupid.

Thomas Edison tested over 3000 filaments before he came up with a practical light bulb. If we give out so readily, we simply fulfill the prophesies of the naysayer.

Go, keep flying!

Does Singapore Ever Have a Museum Image?

I read in amusement the local headline: “S'pore Revving Up - Casinos will help it shed its 'museum' image: PM” appeared in 11^th Sept 2007 issue of Today.

During an interview with Bloomberg at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Sydney, our Casino Government head, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that SINGAPORE'S two casinos will help the island shed its "museum" image.

Since the construction boom in the 1970/80, Singapore are always in the destruction of historical buildings (actually not even qualified to be classified as historical since we do not have such long history such as Rome or China). Even some landmarks that have not been built for more than 40 years have been demolished. (Such as the Singapore National Stadium – less than 35 years in existence, the Singapore National Theatre – Less than 25 years in existence)

Under the leadership of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, the Casino Government trades its morality with economic growth. It even toyed with the idea of accepting homosexuality as a personal choice and life style instead of a sin.

This Casino Government will bring destruction to itself and to Singapore.

Time to repent before destruction comes at the door step!

Fried Prawn with Mayonnaise, Satay, Chilli Fish – All Vegetarian Food ??!

I held high regards for people that choose not to eat food made from animals because of their compassion to the animals and that they could not bear to see the animals suffer during the killing process.

The same could not be said when vegetarians eat vegetarian food made to taste and look like typical non vegetarian food such as fried prawn, satay or chilli fish.

My mom used to be a strict vegetarian. During Chinese New Year celebration, I used to bring the whole extended family to a vegetarian restaurant for dinner. It is amusing to order vegetarian shark fin soup, vegetarian fried ikan bilis, vegetarian satay, vegetarian chilli fish and vegetarian fried prawn with mayonnaise. See the following photo of vegetarian Peking duck from Ling Zhi Vegetarian Restaurant, does it look like the real Peking duck?

This to me is hypocrisy. On one hand, they do not want to eat the animal but on the other hand would like to make the food taste like food made from animal. I especially despise vegetarians by religion choose to eat such vegetarian food.

This is for sure a personal choice. By I would not hold any regard for such person.

Pro-Teach: 1st profiteering case uncovered

Reading the headline of the Jul 29th, 2007 Sunday Times regarding the first profiteering case uncovered for the GST hike make me extremely unhappy about the respond of the chairman of Committee Against Profiteering (CAP).

In the headline news, it is reported that "Minister of State for Trade and Industry Lee Yi Shyan, who chairs the committee, yesterday told reporters that a student care centre had been reprimanded for excessive fee increases. The centre, which Mr Lee declined to name, had announced to parents in its newsletter last month that, due to the GST hike from 5 to 7 per cent, it would be raising its fees from $270 to $280 'across our branches'."

It is further reported that "Mr Lee said he had written a letter to the centre, prompting the company to reverse its decision on the fees.

'We warned them severely...I signed the letter and issued it to them. We want to stop that kind of practice because clearly it's misleading,' he said."

I have been working with CAP since mid June on this case.

In the first email reply after I sent evident for the profiteering in the name of GST hike by Pro-Teach, CAP Secretariat in their email said that "We have referred your case to Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS). In response, IRAS has issued a warning letter to Pro-Teach Before and After School Care & Tuition Centre to not use GST increase as a reason for the increase in fees."

After Pro-Teach went ahead to collect the increased fee, I wrote an email on 3^rd July to the CAP in respond: “Thanks you very much for your action. However, it does not seem that Pro-Teach cared much about the warning letter from IRAS. In the July Newsletter, Pro-Teach did not mention anything regarding the fee increase or clarify on its position on fee increased due to GST hike mentioned in the June Newsletter. They just collect the increased fee. Now for July, I am paying S$290 vs S$280 for my child's monthly fee. An increased of 3.57%. Thanks to our Government's 2% increase in GST.

The vice principal just told me verbally that due to the increase of GST, we are collecting $10 more each month from July.”

I have yet to receive feedback from CAP.

First, my unhappiness with the first action of CAP is clear. The warning letter from IRAS to Pro-Teach could be read between lines to mean: Stupid, don’t create trouble for the government. Use other reasons to increase your fee by all means – but not GST hike!

Now, by not disclosing the offender’s company name, the Minister of State, Mr Lee is sending a message to potential offenders: Don’t worry; I will not disclose your name to shame you or to make you look bad. If you ignore the warning letter from IRAS, I will send you my autograph. Hope you like it.

I would like to question the role of CAP. Are they protecting the consumer or are they acting as PR agency for business owners (by teaching owners how to properly package their price increase so as not to create complaints from customers)?

First of all, I would like to state that I have nothing against Pro-Teach otherwise I would not have continued to send my kid to them. This is to prevent speculation or misunderstanding.

Second, this is a very clear case of profiteering in the name of GST hike.

Profiteering is not easy to proof. However, for this case, it is crystal clear.

You could see from the news report that CAP has received 80 complaints but could only uncover 1 case up to now. Most business owners are very clever in packaging their price increase to other than GST hike.

My intention to bring out this case is to highlight to the government that: to the end consumer, the cost increase will be more than 2% although the GST only increased 2%. Imaging each supplier in the whole chain of supply increases 2% each, the end product will be a compound of many 2% increases. This I guess is what the government know fully but do not want the citizen to be told.

After School Care centre is not like a typical hawker stall where if you do not like the price increase, you could just walk off to other stall.

Firstly, the child has already built up bond with the teachers and classmates. New teachers will need time to understand the students learning habits.

Secondly, you pay registration fee and other fees (such as tuition materials that they collected for full half year and may not be refundable).

Hence, the parents are being locked in by the centre.

I look at this case especially since the centre is situated in the heartland where any increase in fee will affect the parents greatly. Most of the parents are not from well off families but need to send their kids to the centre since both parents are working.

I firmly believe that business owners should have social responsibilities. While making money for themselves, they should also take care of the society. Hence by increasing fee above the increase in GST is profiteering and irresponsible.

Cruel to Display Live Seafood In 'Death Row' Tanks?

It is interesting to read the letter to Today on 27^th Aug 2007 by Dr Tan Chek Wee on the topic “It's Cruel for Stalls to Display Live Seafood In 'Death Row' Tanks”. I do not know that whether the subject title is drafted by Dr Tan or by Today editor. Just by the title, I am speechless. My immediate reaction is: does the seafood care about whether they are in “Death Row” Tanks or “KIV” Tanks? Does the seafood have feeling on how their predators name the living environment? I think what the sea creatures more interested is whether the living environment their predators give them before killing them is comfortable for their survival instead of the name.

It is interesting to see a Dr spent time on considering how we should name the tanks for sea creature instead of spending time to improve the living condition of many fellow human beings in substandard living condition.

What is the priority our top talents in Singapore spend time thinking about improving our situation?

Just to clarify, I am not an advocate for animal abuse. In fact, I think we should take care of the whole environment God entrusted to the Human race. However, they should be a priority on how we manage our resources.

How many connectors are in the new Apple iPhone?

Interested to find out how many connectors used in the Apple iPhone?
I could identify the following connectors:
1x SIM card connector
4x antenna connectors
1x headset jack
2x camera connectors
1x FFC/FPC for screen
7x fine pitch connectors (14 pos, 16 pos, 24 pos)
3x fine pitch cable connectors (14 pos, 16 pos, 24 pos)
2x fine pitch connectors for board to board connection between the two main PCB (70 pos)
1x external I/O connector.

Total that could be identified : 22

Details as follows:
24 pos Camera Connector:
Main PCB' - 5 connectors here on main PCB – 1 SIM card connector, 1 22 pos FFC/FPC connector (for Screen), 3 fine pitch connectors (16 pos, 24 pos, 14 pos)
Main PCB Back - two antenna connectors, 1x 16 pos connector, 1x 24 pos connector
Chassis - 5 internal connectors that attach to the main PCBs - two antenna cable connectors, three ribbon data cable connectors (24 pos, 16 pos, 14 pos).

2x Board to Board 70 pos connectors between two main PCBs.

Head set jack

1x 16 pos cable connector

1x 24 pos cable connector

1x external i/o connector

Feeling Like in Shanghai - Our Very Poor Chinese Standard 2

I was invited by the Senior Constituency Manager of Teck Ghee Constituency Office to meet up with the Chairman of Teck Ghee Zone 'A' RC and the writer of the Chinese slogan in the banner for a face-to-face meeting. They feel that it is best to meet face-to-face with me so as to allow them to explain the reason why the words were chosen for this banner and also to hear my views regarding the banner wording. I have gladly accepted the invitation.

On the other hand, if an alternative is needed, I have the following suggestion:
德高望远数十载
义勇卫国千百年

I am no expert for coming up with couplets. However, I think to sacrifice the correctness of characters is not the way.

Any suggestions?

Feeling Like in Shanghai - Our Very Poor Chinese Standard

I have a feeling like the first time I was in Shanghai - in a hotel restaurant having my breakfast. On the dinning table, there were these papers with descriptions of the restaurant. I was reading the English version and spotted a lot of spelling mistakes. I was telling myself, fortunately, we Singaporean are strong in both Chinese and English. This is our competitive advantage. It will take time for the mainland Chinese to catch out this advantage.

I have second thought now. We might be good - relatively good - in English, compare to the Chinese from China. However, our English is not so fantastic compare to the Westerner. And our Chinese standard is bad. Look at the banner displayed in Teck Glee shown here, can you spot any mistake?

Please allow me to zone in to the mistake in this photo:

Now this confirm my worry if you still could not spot the mistake. The first character here is wrong. 义气风发 should be 意气风发 instead! The meaning of 意气风发 is high-spirited and vigorous. 义 means righteous. 义气 means personal loyalty. You do not combine 义气 with 风发. I suspected that the writer tried to put the Chinese name of Teck Ghee (德义) as the first word of these couplet (对联). This is a very common practice. Either the writer has forgotten the 义气风发 should be 意气风发 and made this mistake. Or he hope that his readers do not know much about Chinese and could not spot this mistake.

Time to reconsider the standard of our Chinese education.

Singaporean Poor Chinese Standard

I have two marketing staff working for me for more than 3 years. Both staff are non-Singaporean. One of them is from mainland China and the other one came from Malaysia. I recruited them during the time Singapore economy just starting to pick up. Originally I wanted to recruit Singaporean since they are my countryman and should have priority. However, one of the important requirements for this position is to be able to read and write Chinese. Most of the Singaporean applicants told me that they are good at Chinese. To prove that they are what they claimed, I made them write a short autobiography. To my disappointment, none of the Singaporean could write a decent page of autobiography.

Recently, I went into recruitment mode again because the Chinese staff is leaving for his full time MBA. Again, I asked the applicants to write me a short passage about themselves to show me their Chinese capability.

This is one of the many disappointing pieces I have received: (I have removed the name to protect the identity of the applicant.) All the red characters are wrong characters. This has not considered sentence structure and contents yet. See what future do we have, Singaporean?

大家好！我叫XXX。在家里，我排第二。我有一个姐姐和一个妹妹。毕业干南大在二00四年，电子公程系。

起初，我想做一名公程师。为大众发名一系列的产品。但是，当我在国防部做一名公程师时，我发现我不喜欢天天关在试研室里，一个人做工。反而，我更喜欢和人接处。可以说，我是一个非常讥咋的人。就应为这样，我便想尝试一下别的工做。

我能说自己是一个非常有泼力的人。一个时常喜欢挑战自我的人。对我儿言，处非那件事以不能在实我大动脑精，不然，我一定进我十足的能力实它成功。

最后，我想说，无论我是否得到这份工作，我都很高兴有这个机会和您分享我的经厉。在持，我也要说，写这篇文章让我深深僚X了自己华文程度在那儿。在持，谢谢。

Victory and Success in Life

Everyone of us is a winner in making. We are born with great potential that we could nurture to reach victory in life.

While racing to win, however, the key will be to correctly define what really matter in life. When establishing your game plan for success, finding the correct target that you are going to find fulfillment for the whole of your life is critical. What is more important in life when you finally acheived what you set up to acheive, do you finally could said that the investment of your whole life to acheive these targets are worth all the energy you have put in? Career? Finances....?

What is worst will be at the end of the days, you found that what you set up to acheive and you have acheived are not worth your efforts....

To me, relationship in life is what that matter the most. After all, you could gain the whole world, but if no body could share your gain and the joy of you obtaining the whole world, what is the use of obtaining the whole world?

An Open Letter on the Penal Code Amendment in Singapore

With respect to the coming Parliamentary debate on the above subject, I would like to state that I'm against passing laws to allow same sex marriages or homosexual practices.

I believe that real family is made from Dad and Mum, not Dad & Dad, or Mum & Mum.

I have three young children and I do not want my children to live in a country that legalize homosexuality.

I am very concern for the future of our country when we consider changing our legal system in order to appease criminals. Where is our morality?

Please don't allow our country to be influenced by people who are confused about their own gender. Please don't condone homosexual practices.