Check out this blog post. http://derekclontz.wordpress.com/2009/07/01/details-of-michael-death-hoax-revealed-and-we-know-where-he-is-hiding/
http://derekclontz.wordpress.com/2009/06/29/michael-jackson-faked-his-death-say-sources-with-comeback-tour-to-be-biggest-ever/.

I so can’t believe such crazy conspiracies spinners still exist. Wonder when will evolution ever get rid of them.

-wonght
 Well just go and look at his physical corpse!

Most who know me would know that i respect tradition a big deal and that I am a firm believer of if it ain’t broken dun fix it. Yet what if it is not broken on the verge but not yet still can work, but the continual will result in a total breakdown and an eventual annihilation?

What set me thinking was the direction at which VIP might take. VJC takes her roots back to VS. In continuing tradition, the two schools should remain tightly linked and move together in a concerted effort. But what if the failure of own is inexorably dragging the progress of the other? How much should we sacrifice to keep it moving together? If the point comes down to cutting off your own flesh to be able to continue on the journey further would it be morally right to do so? Or do you have a duty back to your roots.

Being an old boy to both I feel very conflicted. VJ does has a responsibility back to VS but Vj also needs to survive. Is it right for VJ to maybe turn her IP to a six year course and indirectly compete with VS?

Actually to me the best solution thus far would be a merger. I was perhaps naive once to oppose turning co-ed. But looking at the viewpoint of remaining relevant in the shifting education landscape, it might just be the only choice VS is left with. If there is a very strong compelling reason then press on. Well PLMGS used to be a boys’ school.

With merger and turning co-ed can relieve the dangers of becoming religated to a lower level then perhaps it is now best for the alumni, management, staff and current students to look more indepth and really consider this: How important is tradition to us?

-wonght
A big stride I take to move on and survive

In recent times, news and information through the existence of new media and the propagation of the internet has taken lesser and lesser time to spread. The global village that makes everyone connected meant that no nation can truly stand alone and still prosper. But is all this sort of high connectivity actually beneficial to us? Or do it bring about more harm than good?

The rapid sharing of information has brought about drastic changes on how the world now discovers. No one can now truly be totally isolated from the world, unless he/she chooses to totally abandon technology which is becoming increasingly hard in our connected world.

With the introduction of some Web 2.0 technologies like twitter and facebook, it is now even more easier to stay connected to the people around you with a simple touch of a button or rather a series of clicks. We now can spent lesser time to learn more about our friends, gaining much quicker access to their lives. It makes trans-global relations and friendships mush easier to maintain.

With the huge amount of instant data sharing, the fields of research has certainly gained an edge. Within a few days of discovering something new, the entire field would had been abuzz with it and put it to far greater news. Cures and inventions that can help the world are discovered or created at a much faster rate, benefitting the world faster.

Yet the uncontrolled sharing with no boundaries has also brought along its fair share of problems. In this huge pool of ideas, not all are as positive or as useful as the others. In addition without a proper authority vetting through the impossibly huge amount of content, anyone can easily spread his or her ideology by creating a personal webpage or blog!

Rumours that had no credibility gain ground and is soon taken to be the truth. Erroneous entries in wikipedia also needs time to self correct. But when not correct it gets taken to be the truth by far too many people. This ease in creating falsehood is a little freaky in my view.

The last would be how scary terrorist theories are getting almost equal air time as normal religious views. Fanatics are definitely making use of this avenue to spread their brand of faith. For those with little guidance beyond the internet, they can be easily attracted to such dangerous ideas. The internet is helping create a new breed of hidden terrorist cells!

Yet the internet is but a tool. The onus is on the users – us to control and rein in the blatant misuse of the internet. Only through a group effort that is critical enough can we help to eliminate all the banes that the internet carries. The internet is neither inherently good or evil. It only akes on either quality when we imbue it with these values.

After having a good argument with Jun Wei, and collecting from experiences from previous arguments, I have finally distilled(in my opinion) some of the most infallable arguments I can come up with against being in a religion.

The first one is based upon the logic’s fallacies. A typical Christian who converts you tends to construct arguments in certain manners which is what I personally utilise against them.

First question to ask would be very simple: Why did you chose to believe in Christianity? The most common answer would be because the Bible blah blah blah. So one has to believe what the Bible says to want to be in the religion? It would seem so since there is no other compelling reasons outside of religion to persuade me that religion is worth to follow. Thus in order for me to want to join a religion, I would have to already believe in the religion or its texts it bases itself on.

Thus I construct the following argument. I begin with a set of conditionals based on utilitarian approaches.
P1: If something does not benefit me or makes me better off, then I am better off not be in it.
P2: To believe in Christianity, I have to believe what is in the Bible
P3: Believing in the Bible would meant I have to had already accept Christianity and believe in its teachings.
C1: The only reasons given for me to join Christianity comes from Christianity itself.
C2: There is nothing out of Christianity that gives me reasons to believe in the religion.
P4: Christians uses circular arguments in persuading me to convert, assuming I am a believer to justify truth in the Bible so that I can become a believer.
MC1: The arguments given are not strong enough to show me that joining Christainity makes me any better. I.e. closer to God, knowing the only path to God.
MC2: I will not join Christainity.

I challenge any pastor to debate with me on whether anyone should be joining their religion. The above format looks chunky and unwieldy but would sincerely ask anyone to challenge and find flaws in my argument.

The other simple argument is quite basic. How do you know you are reading God’s word. Why are there so many editions? Because of bad translations due to the imperfect human. The Bible was still written by imperfect man who could have edited the documents to suit them, the Bible was published and copied by these same imperfect beings, thus the final Bible is imperfect. If anyone is to claim to know what God had truly wanted for Christians, then he/she would have needed to have read the original Greek edition or the cleaned up Luther’s German one, rather then the English ones. Have your pastor don’t so? Then how can he be preaching based upon a book which is far from perfect and not neccessary what God wanted? How can anyone based his/her faith on a book with such dubious backgrounds? Is the Bible even complete?

As such I conclude it is far better to not be in a religion. The only pluses of being in a religion is it gives you a sense of direction. Which sadly can be misleading as seen in the latest AWARE saga. As a true ontological or spiritual filling tool, it fares no better than one’s personal beliefs as well as opinions about God self-formed. As a social construct, it is highly successful and can be used easily to bring more people to a common goal. Just appeal to religion, it work fast.

-wonght
God is not great, not because he is not great himself but the pictures created of him is so.

Today I watched as kind people gave up their seats to those who need them more on board Bus service 36. I didn’t give a seat but choose not to take t to let an old man sit.

Well at least the old man was grateful and thank me, so did his wife. Midway when there were more seats, his wife even motioned me to take a seat. However sadly I don’t always see such gratitude. Half the time they take it for granted and as their right. Well even if it is, they did give up their seat to you. A simple thanks is enough. This reminded me of an incident(I think was last year or the year before) with an old man on the NEL. He demanded for his seat(how rude).

Well one more thing on ageism. If you don’t want old to be associate with negativity, don’t use age to push people around. The statement I’veeaten more salt than you have rice should be used apringly and as a last resort to shut those utterly disrespectful youngsters. And not something as you use to demand your way. The ‘usual’ style might not always be the best. Don’t stubbornly refuse change just to block it for it breaks some unspoken rule or ritual.

I for one think that more people will willingly give up seats if they recieve some form of acknowledgement and gratitude. For me it was enough to warm my heart.

On the last note on public transport, the invisible passengers on the trains have spread to buses. I took 2 photos(to be attached) to show how peopl crowd at the front and resist moving back as if there were hoardes of people at the back.

-wonght
 Public transport can certainly be more enjoyable. It is up to you and me!

Many say that being in the army changes one. I personally have seen it happen in many people. Slowly or sharply changing how they view the world; changes in values; shifts in relationships and most importantly thy personality.

Psychologist might not agree with me on the last count but I have truly seen enough to think it can be possible if given drastic enough conditions for it to occur.

Before embarking upon what I’ve seen in other people, let me first start on myself. For me the changes are well relatively superficial. When in school, I tend to be more thrifty for I believe it is only right to spent within your means. Now with a little money, surely it’s ok for me to splurge a little money on myself? I think so to. Fine I should save some up for uni but hey I’ve got some sponsorship from NUS so don’t have to worry too much there.

Next would be image. Well more of less during my 18 to 19 years of life, I don’t really pay much attention to my image or dressing. But no in camp with certain people and wearing clothes out to town well perhaps I should take a little more effort into dressing up. Now I’m a little addicted of sorts. Well I have always enjoyed shopping but now I really get to put some cash into what I desire.

Third would be views on fitness. Well I’ve never been too into healthy living through exercising. Yet being forced to, I start to pick back up some interest in certain games and sports which I weren’t so into in the past. I realise it can be a good alternative choice for going out also. Fine, after seeing so much things happening around, well all I can say is, well I’ll try to be a little more proactive and kit fit and maybe get into a better shape! Haha now what I need is a proper motivator to stop me from straying off!

I guess my world view as well as personality has not schanged at all. The only thing that changed the most as I mature would be my temper(http://wonght12.blogspot.com/2009/02/being-me.html). I have certainly toned down a lot even before NS and am still learning to curb my fiery temper which gets sorely tested in camp now-a-days.

Why so then can I so confidently state that the Army changes people in ways many would have thought impossible? Well looking my comrades around me, my closest friends, I certainly see some drastic changes. Sadly I feel these aren’t always for the best. Actually they are almost always never for the better.

Generally there are a few trends that can be found. The first and probably the most obvious is the increase use in crude, uncouth and obscene languages, which sadly also reflects in some of their actions. Yet they mostly felt that it is ok and justifiable for they ‘attempt’ to be civil outside camp. Still is it really right to? The second which might be viewed as good by some is increased destructive competitiveness. In such a dog-eat-dog society which focuses far too much on the rank and order (which by the way impedes the efficiency of the organisation [read: http://wonght12.wordpress.com/2009/02/07/why-saf-will-never-suceed-on-merit/]) people tend to unsurprisingly feel a need to reduce compassion, increase aggression; decrease altruism, increase self-centeredness; thus generally making any form of competition destructive. In addition creating unnecessary comparison and competition just for the sake of competing and prove that you are the top dog. (But guess what tog dog or bottom dog, well you are still only having the mentality of a dog, until you choose to to reside in such petty struggles). Third which goes hand in hand with the earlier, huge aggression increase. Fourth hyper ego inflation. Lastly and and perhaps the most noticeable will be the lack of thought, as in being totally thoughtless as well as totally insensitive.

Sadly such traits above are amplified even greater through the ‘training’ recieved in command school. I slowly but surely start to drift apart from some of them, having extremely different ideals and beliefs.

Perhaps I just ain’t that important in some people’s life, for they seem to think people they barely knew for 6 months is oh so close to their heart, when me who they knew for a good 7 years is just a passing fad?

Such things always makes me wonder, should I stay on course or join the darker side so as to retain such people for it would seem that that is what binds their heart. Though far and few in between realise that they are CHANGING, and think it is just a facade they maintain in camp. Wake up to reality you are bringing fragments out from camp!

From the poor ‘loser’ of the SAF is some tips on how best to ORDin one piece, the original unadulterated you. First and foremost, stay clean. Stay off smoking, try not to drink(well this one maybe not so important but still minimal unless of course you already drink) and most importantly never never step up on your usage of words like f_ck and CB andwhat not, because it indirectly taints your soul. Second, identify fast whoever’s changed and let him not influence you, cut him offif you really must but try if you can to turn him around. Thirdly, say not to the asshole creating command school. The irony is many who enter actually have no commanding skills at times as can be seen from some of their lengthy or not so lengthy reports and how they utilise that bar or stripes. You can learn in a much better environment outside and trust me that money s not worth you soul. Keep you soul don’t sell it away.

There are of course more you need to do, be determine, be seadfast and these two years will just be a test of your resolve. Stay my friends, don’t change.

Now as my junior’s POP and they eventual posting draws near, I wonder who else I will soon lose.

-wonght
 Follow that guiding light my comrades!

Today’s Straits Time committed a sizeable section of Saturday to Ageism(the fear of the old, or rather negativity associated with the old).

Unlike those who stare or giggle at the lady who stood at topshop, I might have looked on more of wondering why the hell is a real humans standing there modelling for? I actually think her dressing was not bad, for it was not trying to act hip. Who says only the young can buy from certain shops. Hrpmh.

First thing to combat this growing dislike of the old is to tame the media. Is our media painting the old in a bad light. Well perhaps not intentionally. A few places I personally feel can be noted. One stop running specialised competition for it only serves to segregate the generations further. Two stop portraying the old as weak and helpless in drama serial, it can have a subconcious feed to the mind telling us that the old is useless. Our media should stop throwing spotlights over the ageing population for I feel it only serves to make us fear the old more.

Next things is the age perspective. How old is old? To me old means you are 70+. Though I always joked that I am old but what I truly meant was more of like OMG that had been sometime back already and a year being 5% of my life it does seemed like a long time does’t it? Being old does not mean you have white hair(I already have white hair so am I old). Being old means it is time for you to enjoy yourselves, your retirement and not worry about anything. Just have fun!

Not focusing on youth culture will not help I feel. For surely we will want to celebrate our own brand of ‘culture’. Well perhaps not broadcast it so much is the key. Moderation not abstinence is the key.

Lastly and most importantly is for the elderly to never never use the excuse that you are old for it only serves to reinforce certain negative connotaions as well as stereotypes. DON’T! As such old will take on a less negative overtone.

Perhaps one day the Asian values of the old being treasure troves of experiences and knowledge will hit us in our faces!

-wonght
 Never ever say die!

Check out this site!
http://www.ageconcern.org.uk/

According to Defense News on Singapore’s defense budget, we are increasing our defense budget this year by a hefty 6%. We generally spent approximately 30% or 4% of our GDP on defense, and this is a whooping 11 billion dollars or so(USD 7.66 billion). Seems like compared to other countries think again. Malaysia spends USD 4.5 billion, even with the overflow of 10% it’s 4.95 billion. Indonesia spends USD 3.9 billion on defense. And guess what both these countries are bigger and thus rightfully should need more to defend themselves right? Well not so.

Personally I never believe in the need for armies. I personally believe we should create a boxing ring and throw the various leaders of different groups into this ring to fight it out amongst themselves and not throw innocents bystanders into the picture to sacrifice themselves for the ideals of another man who at times they might not even fully comprehend. (Trying asking a terrorist what he is fighting for)

But of course I do agree that Singapore should have a slightly bigger budget than her neighbours for we attempt to maximise our manpower by allowing expensive machines to replace some menial labour which can be unnecessary. However I feel that we are just not maximising our defense budget making every buck worth it. Why so?

Taking US’s lead in defense matters in view of the bullish economy, we should review where our money is being poured into. Do we really need what we buy? I don’t know the big picture but do we really need those Gulfstreams and F15s? Have we fully utilise our current fleets of planes yet? And for expensive frigates, are they really that worth for money or are they far too expensive to risk losing it in war?

The Allies, Great Britain, USSR and USA, did not win the war by having the most advance or expensive piece of equipment out in the field. US aside, the Allies won out in their stamina in producing war equipments with USSR winning by sheer numbers. So are the tanks, ships and planes we buy easily replaceable? With those price tags unlikely.

Another sad thing is how our government wage policies does not reflect in SAF’s. We have variable wages which theoretically should be paid out in such times helping our government reduce spending and these savings to be put in better use helping those in need. (Though average wages increased from 2007 to 2008, real wages have actually decrease.) In addition we are inflating the pay checks of our regulars. The extreme lack of competiveness for our 55,000 strong regular forces means more people sign on just for a ‘iron’ rice bowl for you canot be sack just not promoted and not recontract but never release from service. In short you can suck away precious taxpayers’ money doing nothing and get away with it.

In this economic crisis, our government tells coporations to reduce retrenchments by asking the big bosses to take home less money. Yet sadly we are paying our civil servants that are high up more. Should they lead buy example by taking a cut in their pay and commit these cuts to help out families in critical need? Sadly that seems not to be the case for our generals, colonels, warrants, majors and captains are still having their full salary. If our generals, colonels, MWOs and SWOs take a 10% cut in their pay, I’m sure we can help at least a few hundreds of families who are barely making it through.

Our government tells our elites to not be exclusive but inclusive, ot rule from the ivory tower but these concepts seems to not permeate into our of the country’s biggest organisation other than PSC and the ministries. How sad for to see such behaviour in the organisation which claims to create Man out of Boys. I really wonder what values and morals are our Armed Forces teaching to highly imprintable minds of the youths who spent 2 years immerse in its culture. Perhaps that is why we can never be a truly cultured society for the males will be assholes with bad values save those few enlightened ones and those few in units where the COs shield them from the great ‘evils’ of SAF.

Hopefully I stay enlightened. Though I attempt to convince people on how good is Singapore and why we should stay one factor always make me question myself – the SAF.

-wonght
 Instead of collecting badges, do spent more time attempting to reform the breeding place of assholes who wastes taxpayers money

Our extremely planned education has resulted into an utter lack of critical thinking abilities in the masses. Far too few individuals possess powerful critical thinking abilities till the level that it can be a little shocking for a country that prides itself is moving towards being 1st world.

The highly rote learning style of teaching predominant in Singaporean schools has greatly diminished unconstrained creative thinking in youths. Although there has been a trend initiated by the MOE to move away from the rote learning style to a more free and creative style of teaching and promoting critical thinking in learners; getting them to learn more by themselves without needing teachers to learn. Sadly this trend is taking forever to catch on for by adopting such tactics the schools might potentially have a drop in results achievements as the current tactics are highly focused to achieve good PSLE/O Level/A Level results. For fear of having to answer to the board of directors, principals gennerally still get teachers to pile up on rote learning, making students memorise and not comprehend.

As such Singaporeans tend to focus on the little things and not upon the larger picture or just wish that by looking hard at the big pictures and ignoring the details that makes things happen. This is pretty much evident from forum discussions and web postings by Singaporeans. I dare say that Singapore’s netizens have a distinct style which set them apart. We enjoy looking at blogs where one blogger flames another on a personal level with little rationality. And we relish in following the saga which ensue. We argue over things for the sake of debating as can be seen from the latest budget discussion.

We debate about whether or not the jobs credit scheme is likely to be useful in saving jobs. And while I agree on the need to scrutinise this new creative and daring scheme,we should not be disagreeing for the sake of disagreeing and not think of a better alternative. In addition we allow the press to luring us into thinking that there is only 2 ways to save jobs by CPF cuts and the job credit scheme, to me this is a false dichotomy. There are other options that can be implemented like by injecting funds into companies to turn them into GLCs. Rather it is out of the various ways available, these two are the best contenders. Thus if by looking into the schemes and reaching that the job credits is the lesser of the two ‘evils’, then we should be attempting to see how best to implement it to help those who really require the assisstance.

Another seemingly lack of critical thinking is where Singaporeans tackle political issues. Opposition is but of course great to keep the party in power on their toes. But we need to engage the issue critically and not just blast it like some Drs as if it is a must to have free democracy like US for in our small country(no bigger than a state in US in terms of sizes) it could results in far too much disruption. We need free speech to talk about issues critically and not disagree with the government by carrying out arguments ad hominem attacking the people and not their arguments. Sadly some Singaporeans do get taken in by such ad hominem arguments. While I don’t always believe in PAP’s policies, they are ar sounder than those of the opposition. Our spineless opposition needs to learn to attract people of calibre and not those who only can disgrace our country on the international stage.

Hopefully one day we can correct our severe lack in critical thinking by making our students actually think. We tend to only start attempt to grasp these concepts in the working world without a proper framework, making it hard to catch up on lost time in schools. Hopefully, whatever little analytical abilities I have does not get fully erode by the place where having critical thinking will adversely affect your standing in the organisation.

-wonght
 Thinking critically starts with small steps like disagreeing with my arguments

Recently I started to read this book called ‘The No-Asshole Rule’. I picked it up at the Border’s fair last year. What caught my eye then was how bold and daring the title was. Well after reading a little, I’ve used what’s in there plus what little a lousy stupid man like moi has gathered be it at my unit and at elsewhere.

The biggest problem that I feel the SAF actually faced is having far too many bigots who are absolute utter certified assholes up there high ranking, with far too much power to abuse and sharply create problems.

How may some outsiders ask can we have such people lying around doing whatever they please. Well simple, signing on is an iron rice bowl, which the recruitment’s are done in a world of its own without the normal pressures in the outside world at work. Most importantly the bullied has absolutely nowhere to go to without reprise. Sadly all the channels of communications are just too fraud-full and utterly pointless. Unless you have a mountain of authority behind you, you just can’t shoot down these assholes. The military here actually helps promote such wondrous behaviour.

Let us move on in a fairly structured manner. The SAF, being a military organisation, is a regimental organisation where the exact rank and file is carefully followed with the higher rank always being the voice of rightness. Here lies the first flaw for the high ranks might not always be right. The feedback channel is frozen as lower ranks cannot speak out against these bullies for there is no one who would either 1) listen to them and carry out action, 2) not believe them for they are less trust-worthy than their direct superiors.

Sadly this causes the SAF to not have maximum effectiveness nor the best talent at work. Too many people fear getting the brunt of things and hide and grovel in one corner instead of coming out with better ways to solve things for they fear too much. Commanders rule by fear and this my dear audience is deeply ingrained in both the doctrines of SAF as well as the commanders.

Let us first examine out doctrines. We have an informal punishment system in place to mete out punishments against wrong doers. Sadly so punishments are not proportional to the ‘crimes’ committed. In addition we only punish and never reward the people who do things right. So how? We ALL proceed to heavily avoid trouble but doing the bare necessities.

Next is commanders. First would be selection of commanders. Of course we should be given a choice to go command school or not but with a choice the available pool of candidates you have shrinks so but of course don’t expect the best. Plus look at the real motivations behind why people chose to go command school. For monetary rewards, for power and to rule(already this shows the want to bully others of lower status) and more. Then look at the criteria. For both there is a certain level of fitness required, and at times it has become one of the key factor too, which sadly is NOT a key leadership skill. The motivations shows already that command school that to attract assholes more than anything because it gives them power.

Then what the schools ingrain into them is another wonderful thing. As trainees they are treated badly, showing that only after they get their rank they can bully others as they had been. This vicious cycle only adds to helping the assholes thrive and giving a legitimate reason to be assholes.

The choice of leaders is inherently flawed and the training just helps in bringing out the assholic beings in the if ever innocent trainees.

Well then now we move on to the key stone or the foundations that help SAF stands up – regulars. Regulars cover regulars and push everything to NSFs. NSFs being NSFs got nowhere to go, especially the other ranks. They can rant and throw their temper without fear for no one can stop them for the bullied get no outpost to let their grievances be aired.

As you can see assholes rule in the SAF and only by being one you don’t get eaten. So my dear readers should I become one to fit in? Well unlikely for I shall attempt to fight this comtemptable beast head on in whatever ways I can. Suppress too long and mutiny might be in the works. Even if the big boss is nice, having ‘wonderful’ direct superiors just meant one thing – you have no joy in what you do. Being mandatory already makes it something not well like. The wonderful track record and reputation just makes it THE place to spent 2 years of you life.

I now sincerely hope that those I know who have gone on for asshole training resist it all and not convert. The SAF does attempt to promote the no asshole rule in our ore values of care for soldiers and limiting the powers using the IPS. But guess what it gets ignore and applied in other ways. Such empty words remains just words.

-wonght
 Oh the controlled environment the assholes are in.