Random...

One of life's greatest tragedies is having a WRX offered to you on a plate but yet knowing that you can't accept it coz you are not earning enough to maintain it.

Higher road tax, higher insurance, higher petrol bill...

After all, it's not everyday that Santa comes knocking (nor would your father offer you everyday).

But after a good sleep, I am glad that I managed to control myself. Owning a car with my meagre salary is already not financially wise. Owning a turbo charged car is asking for trouble really. Especially with my impatient attitude on the road. Blah blah blah.

Actually, at the end of the day, I am just a loser who doesn't earn enough money to afford a WRX. Period. Who am I trying to kid?

Just as some other things are simply impossible, no matter what you do... Cannot means cannot.

Sometimes I just feel like giving up....totally....

The Most Amazing accident you will ever see!

I can't say anything except that the driver is a damn lucky guy... What brand of car was he driving???

Mentos/Diet Coke

Please pump Ron 92, and tell your father, brother whoever to do it too

Finally some in Singapore bothers to write about such a thing. If your car is a normal car, go pump RON 92 for goodness sake! Stop feeding the petrol cartel with your hard earned money! If most Singaporeans do this then maybe they will think twice about treating us as suckers who can be squeeeeeeeeeeeezed as and when they like. So for the record,

1. Consult your owner's manual when determining what grade of petrol to pump. Most likely, RON 92 will suffice. Yes your bloooody precious Altis only needs 92.

2. There is no performance or efficiency improvement if you pump a higher grade of petrol than your car needs. Read point 1. It's all in the head, probably your lower one too which wants you to impress the chick. V-Power is equivalent to V-Expensive.

3. Higher grade petrol costs more.

4. Higher grade petrol pollutes more.

Need any more reasons?

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From Asiaone:

Fuel paradise?

Motorists in Singapore are a high-octane lot, going by the fuels they fill their cars with.

Despite the rise and rise of pump prices in recent years, they still buy more high-octane - and pricier - petrol than the cheaper, lower-octane juice.

Trade statistics show that in 1999, 98-octane (the highest available here) accounted for 82 per cent of petrol sold. Even with pump prices hitting record levels two years ago, 98-octane petrol made up 62 per cent of sales. Figures for 2006 are believed to be similar.`

The irony is, the majority of cars do not need high-octane fuels. Consultant Ong Eng Tong, 63, who is a 40-year marketing and trading veteran of the oil industry, says most Japanese makes will do fine with 92-octane (the lowest rating available here).

He also points out that the higher-octane fuels contain more benzene, a cancer-causing substance. "In most cases, using higher-octane petrol is a waste of money," he says.

Octane refers to the petrol's ability to resist premature ignition in the engine. The higher it is, the more resistant it is.

Most modern engines are able to overcome pre-ignition - which causes what is known as 'knocking' and is detrimental to efficiency - and can run well on lower-octane fuels.

At current prices, the difference between the most expensive and the least expensive fuels is 30.8 cents per litre. If you use 100 litres a month (which is typical), the difference works out to about $370 a year - enough for a very elaborate dinner for two.

So why is high-octane petrol so popular here? Essentially, it has to do with the notion that lower-octane fuels are somehow inferior.

Ms Day-Lin Koh, 29, who drives an Audi A4 1.8T, fills up with 98-octane because she reckons that is what the turbocharged car needs. Ms Koh, a marketing and communications manager, admits however that she filled up with 95 "by mistake" once and "there was no difference".

Little wonder. Audi says 95-octane is the preferred grade for the A4 1.8T. Honda Jazz owner Lee Li Hua, 49, says she alternates between 95- and 98-octane petrol.

"The Honda salesman recommended 98, but it is quite expensive," says the private banker. "So I use it on alternate fillings." Honda says the Jazz will run fine with 91-octane and above.

Businessman Leslie Chia, 42, who drives a high-performance Volvo V70 T5, fills up with 98-octane. "I've tried Shell V-Power in Malaysia, and frankly I couldn't tell the difference," he says, referring to the popular ultra-premium petrol.

Actually, the V70 T5 will operate fine on 95 too, says Volvo. Singaporeans are not the only ones who love high-octane fuel. According to oil companies, motorists in the Asia-Pacific tend to fill up with 98-octane.

In Europe and the United States, the majority goes for 95-octane. And in China, 90- and 93-octane petrols prevail (in fact, 98 is a rarity there).

Even in Japan, touted as the world's most sophisticated market, 91-octane makes up the bulk of petrol sales - although 100-octane is also available there.

Caltex introduced 100-octane petrol here in 1997 but removed it from its range soon after amid accusations by rivals that the fuel was damaging to some engines and detrimental to the environment because of its high benzene content.

Automotive consultant and racing driver William Lyou, 58, notes that only race cars need such high-octane fuels. "We imported 104- and 106-octane fuels for races here," he says.

The high-octane fuels are more resistant to knocking in high-compression high-revving engines, thus allowing these engines to perform optimally.

Shell fuels manager Eric Holthusen says most engines today have knock sensors that prevent damage from knocking. Some manufacturers have also introduced active knock sensors.

"These systems not only protect the engine from knock by retarding the ignition, but they can also advance the ignition when a higher-octane fuel in used so the driver can benefit from better economy or higher performance," he notes.

He says the choice of octane rating is determined by your car maker, as well as 'your personal preference'.



But Life! understands that outside the race circuit, supercars are about the only cars that require a strict diet of high-octane fuels. The others are small three-cylinder engines. These engines are more prone to knocking because of their high-compression nature. Older carburettor engines tend to need high-octane as well.

Mr Lyou runs his Lotus Elise on 95 and his Nissan March and Nissan Latio on 92. "The only time I used 98 was for my original Mini," he reveals.

Octane levels aside, is there a difference between the brands of petrol? Unsubstantiated banter among drivers seems to suggest so.

Oil industry sources say the various brands here are differentiated largely by the types of additives each adds to its fuels. And each will have its own marketing proposition.

Caltex says its petrol with Techron keeps engines clean for better performance, while Shell promises better economy. Esso, on the other hand, claims its fuels have 'friction modifiers' for smoother and quieter operation.

"Just a tankful of Techron can remove the carbon deposits on your car's fuel injectors," claims a Caltex spokesman. Be that as it may, one industry insider claims most fuels here share the same basic recipe.

"High-density petrols give more power but less economy; low-density petrols give better economy but are not so powerful. The petrols here tend to be the low-density variety," he says.

But Mr Lyou says which brand of petrol you use can be a 'seat of your pants' decision.

"Some swear by Esso, others Caltex," he says. "There is no right or wrong."

Read more here

Why you should not smoke...

Facts about high octane petrol

Group B Rallying - Tribute

This is real racing...but check out the stupid idiots who go so close to take photos..

What an absolute disgrace...

Who is playing anti-football?

One side may not have the skill, but they played with big hearts, tremendous fighting spirit, and attacked the other side all the way.

The other team had players with better technical ability, but did nothing attacking wise, and could only kick the ball far away aimlessly. The sight of Gennaro Gattuso rolling around the field pretending to be injured is honestly quite sickening already. He maybe a very good defensive midfield player, but his whole attitude towards the game stinks. Can somebody please break his leg and end his career? The world of football will be a better place without him.

My heart goes out to all the Scottish players and their supporters today. They have walked the talk and fought long and hard, alas the referee robbed you of your night. Please do not let all the good work be undone like Wales...

Love at First Sight?

This story is freaking incredible lah! Like fairytale like that!

From Reuters:

http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSN0931018220071109?pageNumber=2&sp=true

New Yorkers rally to help online romeo
Fri Nov 9, 2007 8:21am EST


By Belinda Goldsmith

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A tale of online love inspired usually cynical New Yorkers this week to help a young man find the girl of his dreams after he spotted her on a crowded subway train.

For Web designer Patrick Moberg, 21, from Brooklyn, it was love at first sight when he locked eyes with a rosy-cheeked woman while riding in Manhattan on Sunday night. She was writing in her journal.

The train was so full that he lost her in the crowd when they both got off, so he set up a Web site dedicated to finding the mystery woman -- www.nygirlofmydreams.com.

He drew a picture of the girl, who was wearing blue shorts, blue tights, and a red flower in her hair, and posted his cell phone number, e-mail address and an appeal for help finding her.

It worked.

Within hours Moberg's inbox was overflowing with e-mails and his phone ringing non-stop. He told the New York Post that he even received e-mails offering him love. "Some people said I'm not the girl but you're so adorable, pick me instead."

Tuesday night a friend of the woman contacted him and sent him a picture so he could confirm her identity. "Found Her! Seriously!" a notice on his Web site said.

"We've been put in touch with one another and we'll see what happens."

The mysterious subway brunette was named Thursday as Camille Hayton, an intern at magazine BlackBook from Melbourne, Australia, who also lives in Brooklyn.

"This is crazy. I can't believe it's happening," Hayton, 22, told the New York Post.

But Moberg said he is now pulling the shutters on his love life, scribbling out the cell phone number on his Web site and leaving a message on his phone saying he will do no more interviews.

"In our best interest, there will be no more updates to this website," he wrote.

"Unlike all the romantic comedies and bad pop songs, you'll have to make up your own ending for this."

Some New Yorkers may already, wondering if Moberg had made it sound too easy to find a needle in a haystack in this city of eight million people.

Bastards bullying Singapore senior citizen in his 70s

This is really too much, bloody assholes... This is why the European empires fell, coz of dogs like these

M1 Indian Restaurant TVC - Director's Cut

One of the best Singapore advertisements I have seen so far :D

Transport transport transport

Finally, someone has some interesting and out of the box ideas for the transport system in Singapore. Whether they will work or not is really open to question, but at least someone has the guts to propose sweeping changes to the present system, which is plainly not working well enough for the long term. It is a good start. Please do not let this die down...

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From The Straits Times

Transport system should try new routes

The Government is undertaking a comprehensive review of Singapore's land transport. Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Transport Cedric Foo has a few ideas on what it should cover

By Christopher Tan

IF THE head of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Transport has his way, the duopoly of the public transport industry enjoyed by SMRT Corp and SBS Transit would be done away with.

What Mr Cedric Foo would like to do is to carve up the island into regions and let companies - including foreign ones - bid for the right to operate in each region for a specified tenure.

One year into his role as chairman of the public advocacy group, Mr Foo, 47, makes it clear in an hour-long interview with The Sunday Times that Singapore needs 'to consider alternatives to the current structure' in the year-long Land Transport Review.

There is nothing like competition to ensure an efficient and cost-effective public transport system, he says.

But there is no competition in the current set-up, says the MP for West Coast GRC and group deputy president of shipping group NOL.

'Competition is defined as choice for the commuter. But there is really no choice today.' SMRT runs mostly trains and SBS Transit, buses. Also, bus services along MRT lines have been removed in the name of rationalisation so that commuters would ride the trains and ensure that the heavy investment in trains pays off.

Mr Foo suggests that Singapore adopt the regional operating model that is in use in places such as London, Sydney and the Scandinavian countries.

The Government pays the winning bidders a sum that covers operating costs plus incentives for meeting targets on service, ridership volume and reliability.

Those who excel may be rewarded with bonus payments; and those who fail may not be invited for the next tender.

Fares are collected by the Government, which uses the revenue to award the operating contracts.

He says: 'The fares are set by Government and commuters. And meeting service standards becomes the transport operators' primary concern.'

Such a regime can be applied here, despite what seems like a small market.

Dr Paul Barter, an assistant professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy who researches urban transport policies, reckons the approach 'involves assigning a single public agency with responsibility to integrate the planning of routes, timetables and pricing'.

In an article he wrote in Ethos, a Civil Service College publication, he pointed out that the Singapore market is comparable 'to that of the whole of Australia' in terms of total demand.

Professor David Hensher, director of the Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies, University of Sydney, also favours the regional operating regime.

He estimates that Singapore could probably have up to 10 operating regions. Sydney, which has 4.2 million people, has 15 bus regions. 'Have enough players so you can benchmark,' Prof Hensher says. 'Small is beautiful.'

Mr Foo, who is also NOL's chief financial officer, is of the view that 'the status quo we have is not optimal because one party is having high returns and either the Government or commuter is paying too much'.

He says the two public transport operators here enjoy returns that are not commensurate with an industry that is 'low-risk, not volatile or cyclical, and where ridership will be growing''.

Public transport companies around the world 'belong to a class of investments that trade more like bonds than shares', while SMRT and SBST enjoy returns which are 'high by any measure'.

According to their latest annual reports, SMRT Corp and SBS Transit posted returns on equity of 22.1 and 20.6 per cent respectively. Singapore Airlines, Asia's most profitable carrier, posted an ROE of 14.9 per cent last year.

But Mr Foo thinks that operators should remain listed companies, as making profit is a powerful incentive.

He does not necessarily buy the argument that Singapore should have one bus operator and one train operator. 'You need buses to feed the trains, and trains take the longer haul.

'That's usually the more efficient way. So for buses to be a real competition to trains may be hard to do.'

But if commuters are to be persuaded to switch from car or cab to bus or train, public transport must offer a competitive alternative in terms of cost, comfort and time.

One way is to to have a 'throughfare' system to ensure that commuters who make transfers do not end up paying more. The removal of bus services along new MRT lines has led to some riders making one or more transfers.

'From a macro standpoint, you want to rationalise the system to reduce overall cost. But the savings should be passed on to those who are affected by the rationalisation,' Mr Foo explains.

'If you ship something from Shanghai to Rotterdam, and the box is transhipped in Singapore and Colombo, you cannot charge the customer more. In fact, you might have to charge lower because of the time delay,' the trained marine engineer explains.

To persuade more people to switch to public transport, he believes that 'demand management measures' for cars such as imposing congestion charges and capping the growth rate of cars should continue to be exploited.

Motorists, he says, must learn to accept these measures. 'If you don't have explicit demand management, costs will also go up - traffic jams, the time, the fuel, the pollution, road rage.

'It will make Singapore less attractive to live in and companies may think twice before investing here.'

At the same time, he thinks the authorities must 'explore intensification of road use''. 'Usually, it's heavy traffic coming into the city in the morning, and the other side of the road is empty. Or heavy traffic going out of the city in the evening, and the other side becomes empty.'

To cater to such uneven demand, Mr Foo says Singapore should explore 'electronic ways' to switch the direction of some lanes in an underused carriageway.

Companies and schools should consider staggered work and school hours; and urban planning can be improved so as to minimise the need for travel.

The Government should also invest 'more aggressively' in land transport infrastructure.

He says he is 'a bit disappointed with the speed' at which new projects - especially MRT lines - are being built.

The parliamentarian says the Government should start planning for new rail lines despite having just started work on the 40km Downtown MRT Line, which is scheduled to be up in 2018.

'I think infrastructure should lead rather than lag demand.'

His suggestion contradicts the current stand that MRT lines should start running only when there are enough users to cover running costs.

'We cannot value infrastructure investment just on ridership. There are a lot of externalites that bring value to the country. When you have infrastructure, the adjacent land increases in value. We need a holistic approach.'

He notes cases such as the North-East Line's Buangkok station. SBS Transit had refused to open it for two years because there were not enough residents in the vicinity.

He says the Government should 'lay the line and sell the flats, rather than the reverse'.

The Government should adopt the same approach to land transport as it does to the expansion of expansion of Changi Airport. 'We were quick to establish a budget terminal. We announced Terminal 3 will be ready next year - well before Terminal 2 is chock-a-block.'

Mr Foo, whose GPC has asked to be 'engaged early' in the Land Transport Review by the Government, says: 'We should not have half measures. We should be bold so as to retain our competitive edge.'

Money money money

I have written about this issue on this blog quite a few years ago and I shall not repeat it again. But it is sad that the fortunes of the match going supporter, who puts in the most effort to support their team, are being ignored in favour of arm chair supporters like myself. In this world, money talks. Maybe we are still being colonised subconsciously, even our money faced attitude comes from the British...

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From Soccernet

When Sunday comes? October fixture farce

A new record will be set on October 6 with only one of the 10 Premier League games starting at the traditional Saturday 3pm kick-off.

Eight matches will take place on Sunday, October 7 and another at 12.45pm on the Saturday. Due to the demands of television and involvement with the UEFA Cup, only Aston Villa v West Ham remains at Saturday 3pm.

Fans' leaders are to complain to the Premier League about the timings, claiming that it will be 'a dark weekend' for match-going supporters.

Malcolm Clarke, chairman of the Football Supporters' Federation, told PA Sport: 'Fans still very much like the traditional 3pm Saturday kick-off and the decline in that element of the game is a matter of great concern.

'For there to be just one game kicking off at that time is quite extraordinary and it will be a dark weekend for fans.

'It's symbolic of the way things are going but the views of the match-going fan seem to be bottom of the list of priorities. We will certainly bring this up at our next meeting with the Premier League.'

Manchester United v Wigan is the other game taking place of Saturday, October 6 but is kicking off at 12.45pm as it is being televised.

Three other matches are being televised on the Sunday, four more games have been switched because teams involved are playing in the UEFA Cup on the previous Thursday and Manchester City v Middlesbrough has been moved for policing reasons.

The City game was originally due to be played in the last week of the season but as their ground is the venue for the UEFA Cup final, UEFA asked the club to switch their Middlesbrough matches to play at the Riverside on the last weekend of the season.

As United are at home on Saturday, October 6, City have to play on the Sunday.

A Premier League spokesman said: 'It is a combination of factors - teams featuring in Europe, television games and policing issues.

'We always try to give fans as much notice as possible as our research shows that if we do that, then they can make the appropriate travel arrangements.'

Teams involved in the UEFA Cup do not have to play on a Sunday but under Premier League rules they have a right do so if it does not impact on the opposing team.

Saturday Oct 6: Man Utd v Wigan 12:45pm; Aston Villa v West Ham 3pm.

Sunday Oct 7: Arsenal v Sunderland 12pm; Reading v Derby 2pm; Blackburn v Birmingham 3pm; Bolton v Chelsea 3pm; Liverpool v Tottenham 3pm; Man City v Middlesbrough 3pm; Newcastle v Everton 3pm; Fulham v Portsmouth 4.10pm.

Ole Gunnar Solskjær-compilation (Part 3/3)

Ole Gunnar Solskjær-compilation (Part 2/3)

Ole Gunnar Solskjær-compilation (Part 1/3)

Thanks for the memories Ole =)

As tired and stressed as I am, it wouldn't be fair for me not to post something about the great man who brought so much joy to Reds like me.

Yet another Manchester United hero whom I grew up watching has hung up his boots. And in Ole's case, it was much more frustrating for we were deprived of his services just when he seemed to have finally established himself firmly as a first team regular. And that was on top of his willingness to play the role of a substitute to the best of his abilities. His selflessness was further displayed in the famous hack on Rob Lee to prevent a Newcastle winner, earning himself a red card (without any complaints) in the process. Who can forget the wonderful 4 goal salvo against Forest, the winner against Liverpool in the treble season, and of course THAT goal in Barcelona. Perhaps there is destiny after all, that someone who gave so much loyal service would be the one to score the winner in the biggest game for the club in decades.

His popularity also stems from the fact that he always had the interests of the supporters at heart. None more so than when he became Shareholders United's patron. One of the rare breed who thinks about those cheering in the stands in this age of egoistic overpaid footballers.

I guess I will be only one out of the billions who will be sad at Ole's retirement, but I would still wish him success in whatever roles he takes up in future. He deserves it, unlike some scum who would throw his legend status away to play for the sworn arch rivals.

Thanks for the memories Ole! You were indeed the sunshine in our lives...

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11667_2690166,00.html

http://www.manutdnews.co.uk/?p=123

http://www.unitedonline.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=821&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=25

What's the worth of a banker, compared to an engineer?

Another letter on the forum which I do agree with to a certain extent. Some young people nowadays are too misguided on the importance of their profession, mistaking importance with glam. I have no doubt that for the world to advance, technological progress is important. That is not to say bankers are useless. Financial intermediaries are important too because they are a more efficient allocation of funds to investment projects. However, they are forever just that, intermediaries, not wealth creators! Think Albert Einstein, think Thomas Edison, you get the picture?

Anyway it's not that I regret studying Econs. I do not, I love Econs, even if I realise I won't fit into the "Albert Einstein world changing discovery" mould. My point is, study what your interests lie in, do not be seduced by the temporary boom or glam factor or certain occupations. And the world will be a better place for it!

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From The Straits Times

What's the worth of a banker, compared to an engineer?

I TRULY believe that the greatest contributors to the world today are the people who made what the world is today compared to 500 years ago.

Every nation is highly dependent on advance biomedical technologies, telecommunication, the Internet, drugs or aviation, et cetera. Professionals, engineers or research scientists play a major role in these developments since then. They are undeniably the people who contribute to the changing of an era.

There is today an overwhelming response of applicants for university courses on banking and finance. Instead, the number of applicants applying for engineering and science is going down.

Prospective students come to this decision most likely because of the booming financial sector now. These graduates receive higher pay packages compared to those of the other industries.

Banking and finance make only a small impact on the standard of living today compared to science and engineering. For example, a remisier or financial adviser assists an investor to make millions of dollars. They invest their money in funds and securities. This cycle keeps rolling. In what way does this contribute to improve technology to make a better world?

Compare this to engineers or research scientists. Which group makes a greater contribution that changes the world today? Do bankers deserve such income?

Teo Chet Hou

I don't want to be the middleman!

This is what I have noticed ever since this so called boom in Singapore is taking place. Everyone is talking about jobs in banking and the finance sector, and some are actually totally ignorant about what it entails and just wants to be in it for the glam factor and the money. This is yet another result of micro managing. And this cannot be the case! When will Singaporeans realise that it is important to study what you really like? One moment it's life science, another moment is banking, what will the next fad be? The only constant is yourself!!

And it is common knowledge in growth theory that long term economic growth can only come about through technological innovations. And this can only come about through sciences and engineering! If everybody goes into banking, we will forever be the middleman, helping the super rich to manage their wealth, and never becoming the super rich ourselves! Because we are not creating our own wealth!!!!! Sigh....

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From The Straits Times

Not enough takers for engineering scholarships

Defence technology agency DSO worries that switch to 'softer' courses will spell trouble for Singapore

By Liaw Wy-Cin

BETWEEN five and 10 of the 40 defence engineering scholarships offered to Singaporeans each year are not taken up.
This could become a serious problem for Singapore.

DSO National Laboratories chief executive Quek Gim Pew told The Straits Times recently that Singapore relies heavily on advanced defence technologies to compensate for what it lacks in size. This means the country needs a continuous supply of engineers in the traditional areas of electrical, electronic and mechanical engineering.

DSO is a defence technology development agency.

Said Mr Quek: 'Most scholarship applicants we interview want to study chemistry and biology and are interested in a career in life sciences, instead of physics and engineering.'

While other sectors can employ foreigners to address the manpower crunch, this is not an option in the highly classified field of defence technology research and development.

The number of scholarship applicants who want to study engineering has decreased by more than 10 per cent from 2002 to this year, he added.

The situation reflects the fact that the brightest students increasingly opt for 'softer' and more glamorous courses - in business and finance, for example.

In recent years, engineering has slipped from its heyday in the 1970s and 1980s as the career of choice among students. The profession had the highest number of job vacancies in the past two years, according to Ministry of Manpower figures.

About one-third of the 3,639 top 10 professional job vacancies last year were in engineering. The proportion was similar in 2005.

DSO has not been able to fill its quota of scholarship places in the past few years, said Mr Quek. And this year, it is 8 to 10 per cent short of its annual target of 40 engineers to conduct research into high-tech weapon systems, for example.

Universities and polytechnics here have also reported a decline in the demand for places in the physical sciences and engineering courses, saying students do not see engineering as promising an exciting career.

In an attempt to arrest the slide, some universities have relaxed criteria for entry to the engineering faculty by allowing those without a physics background to pursue engineering.

And to attract students flocking to courses in business and finance, the universities last year offered engineering double degrees with business courses.

With these options, universities here will hopefully avoid the fates of some others, like Reading in Britain which had to close its physics department due to falling enrolment.

In Singapore, the shortage of local engineers seems to affect smaller companies more than larger ones.

About 75 per cent of Keppel Offshore & Marine's 1,300 engineers are Singaporean, and only 6 per cent of ST Engineering's 2,700 are foreign.

In contrast, most of Sys-Mac Automation Engineering's 20 graduate engineers are from China and Malaysia; only three or four are Singaporeans.

Its managing director Lawrence Sim explained why.

'When I advertised in the local newspapers, I hardly got any response. It was only when I advertised in Malaysia's New Straits Times, could I field candidates for my job vacancies, mainly mechanical engineering positions,' he said.

Fifth Gear - Audi R8

Dear God, pls give me an R8 =D

Heal the world, make it a better place...

Just finished watching the Asian Cup final between Iraq and Saudi Arabia. I only started watching from the Japan vs Saudi Arabia semi finals. I am really impressed by the level of football in this tournament. The level of technique was pretty high among the top teams and the pace of play was fast and aggressive. Nice =)

Was rather happy that Iraq won too. Seems to be their destiny, after all that the country had gone through. Hopefully this victory would bring a teeny weeny happiness to the people of Iraq despite all their suffering. They were deserved winners in the final for Saudi lost their heads and were not able to penetrate the sea of white shirts at all. I can't remember the Iraqi goalie having too much to do. But Iraq winning also prompted a question of what if for Singapore. Singapore beat Iraq in the first game of the qualifiers, but in the end the Lions failed to qualify and Iraq gone on to win the whole thing.

Singapore really has a long way to go judging at the high level displayed by Japan, Korea, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and even Australia in this tournament. Raddy has turned us into a disciplined and fit bunch but to step onto the next level, ie Asian Cup qualification on a consistent basis and eventually World Cup qualification, we need some seriously technically gifted players. Players like SHunsuke Nakamura, Lee Chun Soo, Younis Mahmoud, Al Qhatani and Malek, Maxim Shatskih. These are the players who can help us win games against top class Asian opposition. How are we going to train these players? I really have no idea, but it is still my hope that one day Singapore can go on to win the Asian Cup and qualify for the World Cup. And you can bet your last dollar I will be dare screaming referee kayu when that happens =))))

Anyway I came across a very interesting thread in a forum recently...

http://www.mycarforum.com/forum/Others_C20/Lite_%26_EZ_F15/Does_religion_matter_alot_in_a_relationship_P1979957

Some very interesting views posted by forumners there. Some are of the opinion that love can conquer all and a compromise can be made. Some firmly believe that marriage is already very complicated, there is no need to introduce another time bomb into the relationship.

Which side are you on?

To be honest, I really can't understand why religion should stand in the way if 2 people really love each other. But that's just me. I wouldn't settle for somebody I like less just because she happen to be same/no religion as me. Similarly I wouldn't give up on someone I really like due to religion. The world does not need to be so divisive... But I guess of course it's easy theorising here behind the computer screen when I do not need to do anything drastic yet.

But the reason I posted this is because, it does mean something pretty impt for me.... and this thread had to be there at this time. Maybe there really is someone up there after all......

The art of acting busy...

This letter is really accurate, the art of acting busy and acting blur is still essential to survival in the work place. Check out the comments on the letter in The Straits Times online, they are very accurate comments too.

I admit I am guilty of acting busy also. But it is only because people only choose to see when you are slacking. They do not see you staying back in camp to prepare for ATEC while the rest of the battalion are enjoying themselves in Sentosa. They do not see us coming back during offdays to do security checks coz MSD is coming etc. They will only choose to see us play games in the office and make their conclusions straightaway.

From The Straits Times

Bosses need a mindset change

IT IS good that the Civil Service is taking the lead to help employees achieve work-life balance ('Top brass to champion work-life balance'; ST, July 25).
However, middle managers and heads of department need to be educated on the merits of such a policy.

Many a time I have heard comments like 'Going off early will show to others that our department has nothing to do, hence it is better for you not to go off early' and 'We need to show the CEO that our department is very busy, therefore I cannot allow you to leave early.'

Comments like these will only serve to demoralise the workforce and render the policy ineffective.

Statistics...

Once again this is proof that statistics can be bent in anyway you like. Wouldn't it be more accurate to find the mean or median salary of engineering grads? If that is impossible then don't publish this article at all! After years of emphasising other professions, now you find not enough engine grads. This is one of the major perils of micro managing. Normal demand and supply economics will dictate the number of people going into each profession! If there is anything that this article proof, it is that you must go into mgt if you want high pay, no matter what degree you hold.

From The Straits Times

Lucrative engineering degrees

Many highly paid chiefs of listed firms have degrees in engineering
By Michelle Quah

FINANCE, banking, law and accountancy are often tipped to be the university courses which students hoping for a lucrative career should take.
Too often have we heard parents and peers alike extolling the fiscal benefits of earning one's livelihood in the financial and legal sectors.

But now, a recent bit of research by The Business Times might suggest otherwise.

Our examination of the most highly paid chiefs of listed companies here shows that it is the engineering and hard-science degrees that have stood these professionals in good stead. A BT check of annual reports and corporate websites found that senior executives with engineering degrees form the bulk of top earners from companies in the Straits Times Index (STI).

This list of the 55 best-paid executives of STI companies gained fame when it was distributed by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in Parliament in April - to illustrate the earning power of the private sector during the debate over the increase in ministerial pay.

An updated version by BT shows how much these executives - mostly CEOs, executive chairmen and managing directors - earn. Their annual pay packets range from above $250,000 to more than $9 million.

RELATED LINKS
Singapore's best paid executives
And engineers feature prominently among the big earners. Seventeen of the 55 executives - that is, 30 per cent, the most of any profession - graduated with engineering degrees.

Science degree holders were the next best achievers, with 12 of them making the top 55 list. It is possible that some of these also specialised in engineering - with most engineering degrees being bachelor of science - but further information was not available.

As a group, accounting, business administration, economics and commerce graduates made up 11 of the top 55. Others, like UOB chief Wee Cho Yaw and DBS Group Holdings chief operating officer Frank Wong, have not said what first degrees they hold but are well-known bankers.

Arts graduates took two positions on the list. Dr Lim Cheok Peng, managing director of Parkway Holdings, is the sole doctor - he is a cardiologist. City Developments executive chairman Kwek Leng Beng is the sole law graduate. And Total Access Communication CEO Sigve Brekke is the sole holder of a degree in public administration.

The others have not stated, either in their companies' annual reports or websites, what first degrees they hold.

The findings should assuage the fears of those who worry that engineering may be less lucrative than other professions.

Such concerns arose when the Government published the benchmark to which civil service pay will be pegged. The median salaries of the top eight earners for six professions used to compute the salary benchmark indicated that the earnings of engineers were a far cry from those of other professions.

Member of Parliament Lee Bee Wah addressed those concerns in Parliament, pointing out that some engineers have gone on to do very well as CEOs of top companies. Other than those in the top 55 list, she also said 'that more than 40 per cent of our current ministers and many more top civil servants are engineers by training too'. And 'this shows the flexibility of someone with an engineering background'.

PM Lee picked up on Ms Lee's remarks, saying: 'Lee Bee Wah did us a favour explaining that engineers have done very well and lots of bright students ought to go and study engineering.'

Of the engineers, the most highly paid is Keppel Corp's executive chairman Lim Chee Onn, who took home between $7.25 million and $7.5 million in the financial year just ended. Mr Lim is a science degree holder with a doctorate in engineering.

The trio from Venture Corp - all engineers - also featured prominently. Chairman and CEO Wong Ngit Liong took home between $4.25 million and $4.5 million for the year ended Dec 31, 2006. He holds a first class honours degree in electrical engineering from the University of Malaya.

He was followed by fellow executive directors Soo Eng Hiong and Tan Choon Huat, who were paid between $1 million and $1.25 million in 2006. Mr Soo has a degree in electronics from the University of Southampton in the UK, and Mr Tan has a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Liverpool in the UK.

SembCorp Marine group president and CEO Tan Kwi Kin and ST Engineering CEO Tan Pheng Hock - both engineering graduates - also received impressive pay packages last year.

But it is not just engineers working in engineering-related fields who are among the top earners. Many others have made good in other industries.

Property giant CapitaLand's president and CEO Liew Mun Leong graduated from the University of Singapore with a civil engineering degree and is a registered professional civil engineer. He was the fifth-best-paid executive on the list, with a pay packet of $5.14 million in 2006.

Fraser & Neave chairman Michael Fam and Singapore Airlines CEO Chew Choon Seng each took home between $2.75 million and $3 million in FY06. Dr Fam has a first class honours degree in engineering from the University of Western Australia, Perth. Mr Chew has a first class honours degree in engineering from the University of Singapore.

Genting International's executive chairman Lim Kok Thay holds a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering from the University of London; Keppel Land's managing director Kevin Wong holds a first class honours degree in civil engineering from Imperial College, London; and Singapore Press Holdings' CEO Alan Chan holds a diplome d'ingenieur from the Ecole Nationale de l'Aviation Civile in France, which is equivalent to an engineering degree.

THE SEED - Very good story

A successful business man was growing old and knew it was time to choose
a successor to take over the business. Instead of choosing one of his
directors or his children, he decided to do something different.

He called all the young executives in his company together.

"It is time for me to step down and choose the next CEO," he said. "I
have decided to choose one of you."

The young executives were shocked, but the boss continued. "I am going
to give each one of you a seed today - a very special seed. I want you
to plant the seed, water it, and come back here one year from today with
what you have grown from the seed I have given you. I will then judge
the plants that you bring, and the one I choose will be the next CEO."

One man, named Jim, was there that day and he, like the others, received
a seed.

He went home and excitedly, told his wife the story. She helped him get
a pot, soil and compost and he planted the seed.

Every day, he would water it and watch to see if it had grown. After
about three weeks, some of the other executives began to talk about
their seeds and the plants that were beginning to grow. Jim kept
checking his seed, but nothing ever grew.

Three weeks, four weeks, five weeks went by, still nothing. By now,
others were talking about their plants, but Jim didn't have a plant and
he felt like a failure.

Six months went by - still nothing in Jim's pot. He just knew he had
killed his seed. Everyone else had trees and tall plants, but he had
nothing. Jim didn't say anything to his colleagues, however. He just
kept watering and fertilizing the soil - he so wanted the seed to grow.

A year finally went by and all the young executives of the company
brought their plants to the CEO for inspection. Jim told his wife that
he wasn't going to take an empty pot. But she asked him to be honest
about what happened.

Jim felt sick at his stomach. It was going to be the most embarrassing
moment of his life, but he knew his wife was right.

He took his empty pot to the board room. When Jim arrived, he was amazed
at the variety of plants grown by the other executives. They were
beautiful--in all shapes and sizes. Jim put his empty pot on the floor
and many of his colleagues laughed. A few felt sorry for him!

When the CEO arrived, he surveyed the room and greeted his young
executives.

Jim just tried to hide in the back.

"My, what great plants, trees, and flowers you have grown," said the
CEO.

"Today one of you will be appointed the next CEO!"

All of a sudden, the CEO spotted Jim at the back of the room with his
empty pot. He ordered the financial director to bring him to the front.

Jim was terrified. He thought, "The CEO knows I'm a failure! Maybe he
will have me fired!"

When Jim got to the front, the CEO asked him what had happened to his
seed.

Jim told him the story.

The CEO asked everyone to sit down except Jim. He looked at Jim, and
then announced to the young executives, "Here is your next Chief
Executive! His name is Jim!"

Jim couldn't believe it. Jim couldn't even grow his seed. How could he
be the new CEO the others said?

Then the CEO said, "One year ago today, I gave everyone in this room a
seed.

I told you to take the seed, plant it, water it, and bring it back to me
today. But I gave you all boiled seeds; they were dead - it was not
possible for them to grow.

All of you, except Jim, have brought me trees and plants and flowers.

"When you found that the seed would not grow, you substituted another
seed for the one I gave you. Jim was the only one with the courage and
honesty to bring me a pot with my seed in it. Therefore, he is the one
who will be the new Chief Executive!"

Moral:

If you plant honesty, you will reap trust

If you plant goodness, you will reap friends.

If you plant humility, you will reap greatness.

If you plant perseverance, you will reap contentment

If you plant consideration, you will reap perspective.

If you plant hard work, you will reap success.

If you plant forgiveness, you will reap reconciliation.

So, be careful what you plant now; it will determine what you will reap
later.

County Court papers have been served on Manchester United Football Club Limited.

County Court papers have been served on Manchester United Football Club Limited.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - 13 JULY 2007

The implementation of a compulsory automatic cup ticket scheme (ACS) has been widely condemned by thousands of Manchester United supporters as well as the major independent supporters’ groups MUST, IMUSA and the fanzines.

Now MUST is backing legal action being taken by one of its members against Manchester United over what many season ticket holders at Old Trafford see as an unfair move to force them to join the ACS, in addition to paying a 13-14% price rise on their season tickets next season. On top of steep rises for the last two seasons, it means that many season ticket holders will be paying well over £1000 a year to watch games at Old Trafford, more than twice what they were paying 2 years ago.

County Court papers were served on Manchester United Football Club Limited last week and they now have until 19th July to respond (either admitting or defending the claim) before a date is set for the hearing.

Many supporters cannot afford this kind of increase and the anger among United season ticket holders is growing at what they see as an abuse of their loyalty to the club over many years. Being forced to buy up to £500 worth of additional home cup tickets, whether or not they can actually attend the games (e.g. midweek, school nights for kids), has triggered this anger. Up to now the cup scheme has been voluntary. The change has stirred one season ticket holder to take legal action based on what he regards as a clear breach of contract but MUST has a list, already over 100 and growing daily, of others interested in pursuing similar claims..

MUST has engaged a law firm, Underwoods, to help with initial advice on mounting a class action on behalf of aggrieved ST holders. MUST is also talking to another major City of London firm on ways of challenging the compulsory ACS but as such an action is complex and potentially expensive, the quickest and most cost effective route initially is to support an individual member's claim in the County Court.

The purpose of this is to test the legality of the compulsory ACS through an action alleging (i) breach of contract; and (ii) in the event that the contract is not deemed to be breached, that it is invalid and unenforceable to the extent it requires compulsory ACS membership. The individual taking this legal action is MUST member John Mayall, who renewed season tickets for himself and his son in May at a cost of £1444, receiving confirmation shortly after that his purchase had been successful and that the tickets would be delivered in June. About one week later United wrote to him refusing to supply the paid-for tickets unless he joined the ACS, which would commit him to purchase cup tickets for all home matches at unspecified cost likely to amount to hundreds of pounds. Mr Mayall and his son have not joined the ACS and United officials have been unmoved by his efforts to persuade them that he and his son will not be able to go to midweek games due to cost and school commitments.

We have also heard of similar issues from Irish United fans where it is impossible for them to attend mid-week cup games due to the distance and yet United is unwilling to make any exception to the compulsory nature of the cup scheme. United say that fans can sell their tickets if they do not want them, but if it were that easy to sell them United would not be forcing fans to buy tickets they do not want in the first place. Additionally you can only sell the tickets through United's own system Viagogo - on which they make a profit! Viagogo adds on a charge of about 25% so the seller gets less than they paid and the buyer has to pay more than face value too. Furthermore supporters cannot sell their tickets on Viagogo until United have sold all of their own remaining tickets first. Therefore it will not be available for unpopular midweek matches that don't sell out - exactly the matches where most people would wish to sell the unwanted ticket that the club have forced them to buy. So supporters end up paying for tickets they didn't want and cannot sell and the Glazers have the money in the bank.

Many other fans have joined the ACS under protest, while we understand that over 6,000 fans have not renewed their season tickets at all next season. Those renewers who refuse to join the ACS have been threatened with cancellation or invalidation of their season tickets. We believe all of these fans may have grounds to take action similar to Mr Mayall.

Success in this legal action, and others which will inevitably follow, could ensure that the ACS remains voluntary for all season ticket holders, which would be a victory for loyal fans who feel that they are being exploited by the Glazers to help pay the family’s debts. It could also undermine the Glazers’ efforts to refinance their debt by issuing a bond secured on stadium income (including ‘guaranteed’ ticket income from the ACS) as the banks will shy away from any controversy which jeopardises this revenue.

United say that this system is fairer than at some other clubs where you pay for all cup games up front. That is irrelevant - just because some other clubs are exploiting their supporters loyalty to an even greater degree it doesn’t make it any better for Manchester United supporters. Furthermore United have not so far come clean on what the cup tickets will cost, but they expect fans to sign up agreeing to buy them.

MUST member John Mayall says: “United are threatening to stop me and my son from attending premiership games using the season tickets we have already bought unless we also join the automatic cup ticketing scheme. This would add hundreds of pounds each to the £1444 I have already paid for our season tickets. It’s disgraceful."

"I think the ACS (Automatic Cup Scheme) should be renamed the BCS - the blank cheque scheme. They expect fans to enter into a contract obliging them to buy all cup tickets for all three competitions without knowing what they will cost. In my understanding they could charge outrageous prices for these tickets after fans have signed up and there is nothing they could do about it. I think the OFT should look into this".

“If the Glazers think unwanted tickets for evening cup games would be that easy for fans to sell on through Viagogo then I don’t understand why they are trying to force us to by them in the first place. Why don’t they just sell them themselves?”

MUST Chair Nick Towle added: “As a supporters trust, MUST is responding to the anger of match-going members who have asked us to do something about this decision. We don’t recommend legal action against our club lightly, but attempts to change minds about this have been brushed off. This decision clearly comes from the Glazers, against the advice of senior management we understand, so that they can get fans to pay off more of the debts they took out to buy the club. This shows contempt for many thousands of loyal Reds who have held season tickets for years but who cannot now afford them with the cup games on top.”

“We call on United to return to the status quo now and retain the ACS as a voluntary scheme because it is inherently unfair to force fans to buy tickets they do not want or cannot afford. We are supporting this initial legal action and we expect more will be on the way both from individuals and possibly also on a collective basis”.

that we are still a young species, and we have much to learn...

From The Straits Times

Escape from hell

Born in a North Korean prison camp, Shin Dong Hyok never knew family life and thought torture was a normal way of life until he learnt about the outside world and escaped at age 23

By Choe Sang Hun

SEOUL - ON NOV 29, 1996, 14-year-old Shin Dong Hyok and his father were made to sit in the front row of a crowd assembled to watch executions.
The two had already spent seven months in a North Korean prison camp's torture compound, and the teenager assumed they were among those to be put to death.

Instead, the guards brought out Shin's mother and his 22-

year-old brother. The mother was hanged, the brother was shot by a firing squad.

'Before she was executed, my mother looked at me,' Shin, now 24, said in a recent interview. 'I don't know if she wanted to say something, because she was bound and gagged. But I avoided her eyes.

'My father was weeping, but I didn't cry. I had no love for her. Even today, I hate her for what I had to go through because of her.'

Shin's story provides a rare glimpse into one of the least-known prison camps in North Korea.

He was a political prisoner from birth. He had known no other life from the day he was born in 1982, in Camp No. 14 in Kaechon, until he escaped in 2005. Guards beat up children, tortured grandparents and, in cases like Shin's, executed family members. But Shin said it did not occur to him to hate the authorities. He assumed that everyone lived this way.

He had never heard of Pyongyang, the capital city 90km to the south, or even of Kim Jong Il, the North Korean leader.

'I didn't know about America, or China or the fact that the Korean Peninsula was divided and there was a place called South Korea,' he said.

'I thought it was natural that I was in the camp because of my ancestors' crime, though I never even wondered what that crime was. I never thought it was unfair.'

Since 1992, about a dozen former North Korean prison camp inmates have fled to South Korea. But most were held in the 'revolutionising zone' at Camp No. 15 in Yodok in eastern North Korea. The emphasis was on 're-educating' the prisoners. If they survived long enough to complete their sentences, they were released.

Shin is the first North Korean who came south who is known to have escaped from a prison camp. Moreover, he was confined to a 'total-control zone'.

According to a report released last month by the government-run Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul, 'prisoners sent to a total-control zone can never come out. They are put to work in mines or logging camps until they die. Thus the authorities don't even bother to give them ideological education. They only teach them skills necessary for mining and farming'.

The Yodok camp's name has become synonymous with human rights abuses, thanks to the stories of former inmates. But there are at least four other prison camps in North Korea, including Camp No. 14 in Kaechon. These others are far less known because so few have emerged to describe them.

Shin 'is a living example of the most brutal form of human rights abuse', said Mr Yoon Yeo Sang, president of Database Centre for North Korean Human Rights in Seoul, where Shin is taking temporary shelter.

'He comes from a place where people are deprived of their ability to have the most basic human feelings, such as love, hatred and even a sense of being sad or mistreated.'

A North Korean named Kim Yong who came south in 1999 and now lives in the United States said he spent two years in Kaechon, but some refugees have questioned his claim.

Ahn Myeong Cheol, who worked as a driver and guard at four camps before reaching South Korea in 1994, has no doubts that Shin was in a total-control zone. He said that when he met Shin in June, he immediately noticed the telltale signs: the avoidance of eye contact and arms warped by heavy labour from childhood.

'An instruction drilled into every guard's head is: Don't treat them like humans,' the ex-guard said.

According to Shin, the prison authorities matched his father, Shin Kyong Sup, with his mother, Chang Hye Kyong, and made them spend five days together before separating them. This sort of arrangement was known as 'award marriage', a privilege given only to outstanding inmates. An exemplary worker might be allowed to visit the woman chosen as his wife a few times a year.

Shin's brother was born in 1974 and Shin himself in 1982. Young children lived with their mothers, who worked from 5am to midnight. Once they turned 11, children were moved to communal barracks, but they were allowed to visit their mothers if they excelled at their work.

'I got to visit my mother only once or twice a year,' Shin said. 'I never saw my whole family together. I don't think I saw my brother more than a few times.'

There were up to 1,000 children but no textbooks in the school at Valley No. 2, the part of the camp where Shin lived. Pupils were taught to read and write, and to add and subtract, but little more. After school, children worked in the fields or mines. In most of North Korea, villages are decorated with Communist slogans and portraits of Kim Jong Il. Valley No. 2 had only one slogan carved into a wooden plaque: 'Everyone obey the regulations!'

Inmates were fed the same meal three times a day: a bowl of steamed corn and a salty vegetable broth. They scavenged whatever else they could find: cucumbers and potatoes from the fields, frogs, mice, dragonflies and locusts. Shin said he once ate corn kernels he found in cow droppings.

When a teacher found a girl had hidden wheat grains in her pocket, he beat her on the head with a stick. She died the next day.

Shin's life changed in 1996, when his mother and brother were accused of trying to escape. Guards interrogated him in an underground torture cell about a suspected family plot to flee the camp. They stripped and hung him by his arms and legs from the ceiling, and held him over hot charcoal.

During the interrogations he learnt for the first time that his father's family belonged to a 'hostile class' - a category that entailed punishment over three generations - because his uncles had collaborated with the South Korean Army during the Korean War.

Shin owed his unusual escape from the camp to two friends: an older cellmate who helped him recover from his torture wounds, and a man he met in the garment factory where he worked in 2004, who told him about life beyond the camp.

'Everything he told me about the outside world - the food, China - was fascinating,' Shin said. 'I loved his stories. Once I heard about the outside, I thought I would go crazy. I wanted to get out. I couldn't focus on work. Every day was an agony.'

On Jan 2, 2005, when Shin and his co-worker were collecting firewood near the camp's electrified fence and could not see any guards, they ran.

Shin is still struggling to understand what happened next. His friend fell against the high-voltage fence, his body creating an opening.

'I climbed over him, through the hole,' Shin said. 'I ran down the hill like a mad man. I looked back and he wasn't moving.'

In July 2005, Shin reached China. In February last year, a South Korean helped him seek asylum at the South Korean Consulate in Shanghai. He arrived in Seoul last August.

Today, he bears burn scars from the torture and the electrified fence, and walks with a slight limp. He says he has recurring nightmares about being back in Camp No. 14. Awake, he wonders what happened to his father and about the man he left behind at the fence. Did he sacrifice himself to help Shin escape?

Now in Seoul, Shin said he sometimes finds life 'more burdensome than the hardest labour in the prison camp, where I only had to do what I was told'. His limited vocabulary has caused him to twice fail the written driver's licence test. And there is his struggle to reconcile with his dead mother.

'However I try, I can't forgive her,' he said. 'She and my brother severely hurt me and my father by trying to escape. Didn't she think (about) what would happen to us?'

Shin said he sometimes wished he could return to the time before he learnt about the greater world, 'without knowing that we were in a prison camp, without knowing that there was a place called South Korea'.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

At times reading these stories really puts things in your perspective. Could anything else be worse than not even knowing about the possibility of love? And not even knowing that there is a free world outside?

I wonder how many of you weeped when Bumble Bee was captured and freezed by Section 7. I did. And the words of Optimus Prime could never be more appropriate after reading this article...

that we are still a young species, and we have much to learn...

Mexican Fisherman Joke

An American businessman was standing at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish.

"How long it took you to catch them?" The American asked.

"Only a little while." The Mexican replied.

"Why don't you stay out longer and catch more fish?" The American then asked.

"I have enough to support my family's immediate needs." The Mexican said.

"But," The American then asked, "What do you do with the rest of your time?"

The Mexican fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take a siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos, I have a full and busy life, senor."

The American scoffed, "I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds you buy a bigger boat, and with the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats."

"Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the consumers, eventually opening your own can factory. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually NYC where you will run your expanding enterprise."

The Mexican fisherman asked, "But senor, how long will this all take?"

To which the American replied, "15-20 years."

"But what then, senor?"

The American laughed and said, "That's the best part. When the time is right you would announce an IPO (Initial Public Offering) and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions."

"Millions, senor? Then what?"

The American said slowly, "Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take a siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos..."

The Mexican replied, "You mean that is what you will need to do in your lifetime to get to where I am today?"

Daft Hands - Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

You must be kidding me?

It takes quite a bit to be pissed off at letters in the Straits Times forum these days, given the amount of ridiculous letters that I have read over the last 5 years or so. Such as those letters which actually have the cheek to demand all cyclists (think about the old wobbly uncles and aunties cycling leisurely on their way to the market every morning) stay on the roads andface the might of the bendy buses, concrete mixers, construction lorries etc. I mean seriously? These are the same people who have NEVER cycled on our roads before and think human rights is the best thing since sliced bread. What is needed is a huge dose of common sense and politeness and the problem is solved! Fast, competitive (and by that I also mean the 2 FT workers who 2F2F on Orchard Road and beat the red lights) cyclists go onto the road, uncles and aunties cycling to the market stay on the pavement. Young kids educated on civic responsibility to limit their speed on pavements. Must we really have regulations for everything?

But I digress. Like I said, I wasn't even moved enough by those letters to post them here, until I read the letter below. When I saw the title I was like wow! somebody has guts to point out a customer was wrong in the first place. Until I read that the manager fired his 2 staff in the end ANYWAY coz they are in the service industry.

All together now, WTH???????????? Seriously, this is a world gone politically mad! If the customer is unreasonable beyond doubt, stick to your guns! After all 2 persons' livelihoods are at stake here! I would be extremely pissed if this becomes the United States whereby you can sue your neighbour when you trip over a tile in front of his home because he did not fix it, and you are a bigot and intolerant if you say Merry Xmas instead of a dumb Happy Holidays.

Lighten up world!! I hope the customer is happy he caused 2 persons to lose their jobs.

From Straits Times

Customer who complained of service was unreasonable

I AM writing to clarify Mr Ong Weisheng's letter ('Atrocious manners from Max Brenner staff and supervisor'; ST Online Forum, June 30) pertaining to an incident at my shop on May 30. Following his initial feedback, I conducted an investigation. I also had an eyewitness account from another customer present that the situation was entirely provoked, resulting in the unpleasant exchange between my supervisor and Mr Ong.
I had told Mr Ong he would be updated on the outcome of my probe in an earlier e-mail reply. However, I am not surprised at his lack of patience in allowing due process in the matter as he displayed the same impatience while waiting outside my shop on May 30.

My CCTV recording paints the full picture as follows:

Mr Ong and a friend arrived outside my shop and waited a grand total of 48 seconds before approaching staff who were all busy with a full house inside. Mr Ong and his friend then returned to the queue post and waited a further two minutes before approach the same female employee and that is when the exchange took place with my supervisor joining in to assist the female employee.

Despite Mr Ong's inflated claim of how long he waited and the eyewitness who came forward to vouch for my employee's behaviour, I have asked both staff to resign in view of the fact that we are, after all, in the service industry and that means good service to all - regardless of the situation. Mr Ong has been told of the outcome of my investigation in an e-mail reply.

Kenning Koh

Managing Director

Max Brenner Chocolate Bar

Negative Negative Me

As it is with every major change in TosH's life, TosH tends to get negative and worry excessively unneccessarily.... However, this time the worries seems to be more macro in nature, things that even the most optimistic of persons will concede that he is rather powerless to do anything about....

1. The environment

You know in secondary school Geography we learnt so much about the problems with the weather, climate etc and I was really quite worried. Melting of glaciers, rising sea water level, desertification, floods, droughts etc seemed so worrying then, but somehow nobody seemed to care about them. As I moved onto JC, I stopped taking Geography and somehow or rather, as they say, out of sight and out of mind. I stopped thinking about these issues, after all, the world could not end in my lifetime isn't it?

But all of a sudden, the shit has hit the fan! The buzzwords are now global warming and climate change. What a drastic change, and it seems like we have less than a decade to really save ourselves, dear oh dear... I must admit I have not been the most devoted environmentalist. I mean I do try and recycle most of my waste now that I have a bin outside my place and I do not use the air con in my room to save electricity... but I am guilty of one of the biggest sins - driving around. Even when it seems taking the bus is possible. I am just too lazy and short tempered to take public transport regularly now... In addition, I really love the feeling of freedom when cruising along the TPE at nigt. So even though the thought of giving up my Altis sometimes crosses my mind, I am still pretty unwilling to do so, will Mother Nature forgive me?

2. Singapore

Don't think I feel comfortable enough to talk about everything here on this public place. But I guess the layman will also know that the income gap, elitism etc are problems that will threaten the long term fabric of this country. I know I do not have the answers, so I am not really willing to be those who only complain with no solutions, but is this really the best that we can do? Can't we have our cake (economic progress, clean government, cosmopolitan) and eat it at the same time (equality, cohesiveness, quality of life)?

3. Myself

OK maybe this is something that I am not so powerless but still.... Even at this stage, I am still not sure if I made the right choice. Will I be able to survive the bond? Or would I be sacked for some gross misconduct? Will I be a good mentor? Will I earn enough money to support my parents and my above mentioned Altis? Will I save enough money for my retirement? And at the risk of sounding very very despo here.. Will I ever get married? If yes, where is THE SPECIAL ONE going to come from? Or is it a case of finding someone whom I can live with, rather than someone I can't live without? What do I do if i manage to survive my bond after 6 years? Go out and get more experience? Take risks? Pursue a PhD and try to find ways to eradicate poverty and global warming profitably? Or would I be forced to stay in even if I do a bad job simply because it might pay well or I have too many commitments? Or will I be happy to stay on coz i am doing a good job?

Questions, questions and more questions, and questions to which I have no answers at all.. Is it really the case that I can only take each day as it comes? What does life have in store for me? I really want to know.... but yet I fear I do not have the energy to keep on going...

Asia fighting poverty by helping poor to save

From The Straits Times

Asia fighting poverty by helping poor to save

Microfinancing schemes can be useful in reducing income inequality, says NUS professor

By Shefali Rekhi, Assistant Foreign Editor

SMALL loans to help the little people have been taking off in Asia as a way to help tackle poverty in the region.

Microfinancing, as a financial tool, began when Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus started an experiment in 1974, during a famine in his home country, to give the poor small loans.

That proved immensely successful and, through the Grameen Bank that he founded in 1983, he managed to change the lives of more than 6.61 million people.

Today, bringing the 'unbanked' within the formal financial system has become the mantra in financial circles, with the phenomenon fairly widespread in Asia, and many involved in India, China, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam and elsewhere.

According to Washington University's Centre for Social Development director, Mr Michael Sherraden, the potential is enormous, with nearly half the people in the world not having access to secure and low-cost financial services.

Consequently, banking and financial institutions have been widening their reach to add a social dimension to their regular businesses as a way to tap into the untapped cashflow and contribute to reducing income inequality.

In China - where millions live in rural areas under poor living conditions - a local government initiative called the Hu Du Bi project in a county in western China has been attracting the central government's attention. It allows farmers to withdraw money from their social insurance accounts as loans for investments in agriculture.

According to Professor Yang Tuan of the Institute of Sociology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, the default rate has been zero in the past eight years of the scheme, and thousands have benefited.

In India, where close to a quarter of the people live below the poverty line, Basix, founded in 1996, has supported the livelihoods of more than a million rural poor households through microcredit, savings and insurance services.

But the task is by no means easy.

Said British researcher Stuart Rutherford, who heads a non-governmental organisation in Bangladesh: 'When poor people save, sometimes they have a goal, and sometimes not. It >really depends on whether they view it as risk management or are thinking of it (the savings) in terms of a lump sum.'

Accordingly, banking and financial institutions need to devise suitable tools. Mr Rutherford's Safesave Bangladesh has been working to introduce the poor to simple banking services.

The method of financing might also be applied to relatively more affluent Singapore, said Associate Professor Ngiam Tee Liang, head of the Department of Social Work at the National University of Singapore (NUS).

He argued that with globalisation, all countries, including Singapore, need to consider financial inclusion of all sections of society.

'With economic growth, you do not want the economic divide to widen, and you have to understand - how do you empower the low-income poor with facilities to motivate them to save?'

Prof Ngiam was speaking to The Straits Times on the sidelines of a global symposium - Savings, Assets and Financial Inclusion - organised by the NUS, together with Washington University in St Louis, the New America Foundation and the New York University, with Citi Foundation as its lead sponsor.

The three-day event, attended by delegates from across the world, ended yesterday.

Microfinancing follows from a belief that the poor can also save when encouraged to do so.

Many banks and financial institutions have been developing affordable schemes for the poor to do so, and Prof Ngiam said that Singapore could adapt some of the schemes to address the needs of the low-income groups here.

'The notion of saving and the purpose of saving may not be the same for all. We need to understand the dynamics of how people make choices,' he said. 'You cannot have policies for the middle class and just trim them down to the basic model for the poor.'

shefali@sph.com.sg



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


EMPOWERING THE POOR

'With economic growth, you do not want to widen the economic divide, and you have to understand - how do you empower the low-income poor with facilities to motivate them to save?'
ASSOCIATE PROF NGIAM TEE LIANG, who says microfinancing could help reduce income inequality in Singapore

Article 3

And the Independent:

Brian Viner: I was as ridiculously wide of the mark last week as a penalty hitting the corner flag

Published: 09 June 2007

Hell hath no fury like Manchester United fans scorned, and as the dispenser of some of that scorn, I have this past week been the object of the fury. There have been long periods when emails have been dropping into my in-tray at the rate of about one a minute, not all of them questioning my parentage and making suggestions about my perverse habits in the bedroom, but not all of them not.

My act of provocation was to write last Saturday, in the "Who I Don't Like" item adjacent to this column, that with another league title won and £50m worth of new players already lined up for next season, the United fans who waged a campaign of hatred against the Glazer family should be feeling a little apologetic. I suppose I had in mind the people who burnt effigies and issued threats of violence.

To those United fans who raised my own club loyalties - "I would have thought that an Everton fan with its great history and tradition of loyal support would have understood exactly why many Man U fans remain bitterly opposed to these carpetbaggers taking over our club," wrote a Mr Paul Roby - I replied that I feel the same contempt for the Evertonians who scrawled "Rooney die" on the walls near Goodison Park. The game has no place for such sentiments, whether aimed at wonderful young footballers or rich American "carpetbaggers".

But I am drifting away from the point, which is unequivocal contrition. I have read every email sent from outraged United fans, or at least the relatively temperate ones, and I have also consulted journalistic colleagues who know more than I do about the situation at Old Trafford. As a consequence, I realise that what I wrote was ill-considered, naive, and as spectacularly wide of the mark as a penalty kick hitting a corner flag.

The Glazers, and chief executive David Gill, and even to a certain extent Sir Alex Ferguson, are plainly entitled to the disgust of United fans; indeed, I have been astounded by how low Ferguson has sunk in the estimation of many. None of them question his brilliance as a manager; lots of them question his character. "Lifelong socialist? He's an absolute hypocrite," wrote one of my correspondents. "I would rather go for a pint with Tommy Doc than 'Sir' Alex any day of the week."

My journalistic source, a man with impeccable contacts at Old Trafford, tells me that the Glazers, terrified of a major boycott by fans after saddling the club with debts of over £650m, knew that they had to keep Fergie on-side. "They are also personally scared of him," my friend said, "and he loves that. He's having a much better time than he did in the latter days of the plc."

In the meantime, season-ticket prices have been hiked by 26 per cent since May 2005 and next season, season-ticket holders will not have the option to pay for cup games as well as Premiership games, but will be compelled to do so, taking the cost of most season tickets well over £1,000. Clearly, the fans are being asked to pay off the Glazers' unwieldy mortgage, and Ferguson, as many of them see it, is complicit.

On the new players, the chairman of the Manchester United Supporters Trust, Nick Towle, wrote: "The money for these transfers does not come from the Glazers. It comes from the club's own funds. The Glazers have not put a penny of their own money into the team and never will. All funds for the team and even for the Glazers to acquire United has been borrowed by the club itself at vast cost to it (£62m a year paid out in interest, confirmed by the Glazers' own spokesman). So who actually pays for these players? Why, the fans of course. One reason why you have not heard from anti-Glazer fans about these transfers is that we are busy preparing legal challenges against the club for (i) raising ticket prices by 11-14 per cent next season, the third large rise in the two years since the Glazer takeover, and (ii) forcing season-ticket holders to join the 'Automatic Cup Scheme'."

The only good thing to have come out of the Glazer takeover, I have been told time and time again this week, is Bury-based FC United of the Northern Premier League, formed by disillusioned Reds and thriving. I have been invited to a game next season and look forward to it, if I can tear myself away from my perverse bedroom habits.

As for another bedroom habit I have been accused of this week, they say that it makes you blind. Yet I have had my eyes opened, to the determination not only of the Glazers but of all the Americans flooding into Premiership football to make money, not least Messrs Hicks and Gillett at the other end of the East Lancs Road. They are not interested in the trickledown effect, in the grassroots of the game being watered, because they are not interested in the game. I apologise for elevating them on this page last week. I should have known better, and now I do.

Article 2

And Jim White in the Telegraph....

'Over the last couple of weeks there has been a growing feeling abroad, as demonstrated in newspaper columns and on various radio phone-ins, that the Glazer administration is proving to be nothing like as bad for Manchester United as the naysayers and doom mongers insisted it would when the first family of Florida took over at Old Trafford three years ago.

Consider the evidence, say the Americans' new found supporters: United have won the League, Sir Alex Ferguson tells us he has never been happier in his job, the team have played the most sparkling football imaginable.

What's more, in the last fortnight, Ferguson has embarked on a transfer spending spree that has left his rivals floundering. Owen Hargreaves, Anderson and Nani have been signed for big, big money. Far from being constricted as he once was by limits imposed by the plc, under the Americans' benevolent ownership, the manager has been able to pay whatever is required to bring the top talent to Old Trafford. And in the case of Cristiano Ronaldo's new contract, to pay them to stay once they have arrived. It is all, so we have been told, thanks to Uncle Malcolm and his smiling, hands-off way of doing things.

Anyone who has recently received an invitation to renew their season ticket to Old Trafford, however, will know precisely how way off the mark this new received opinion is. Far from the Glazers cheerily dipping into their bottomless pockets, the demands now popping through letter boxes reveal precisely who is financing not only the development of the team but also the Glazers' very ownership of the club.

To watch United's home Premiership games during 2007-08, season-ticket holders will have to pay 14 per cent more than they did last time round, with typical prices rising from £665 to £760. In short, the kind of above-inflation rise that not even rail companies would impose on their customers. It is important to remember there is no additional benefit to the fan in this new charge: their seat is not to be padded during the summer break, there will be no increase in leg-room or any addition of central heating.

Moreover, this is not the end of the extra cost. A pernicious additional charge is there in the small print, overlooked by many who automatically renew year on year. For the privilege of buying a season pass, holders are obliged to buy tickets for every home cup game.

Now many of them may wish to. But the point is, from now on they will have to. Even if work or family circumstances prevent them from attending a midweek Carling Cup game, they are required to fork out for it. Thus, in effect, if United have a decent cup run, season tickets will be costing as much as £500 more than they did last term.

Where all this extra money is going to is simple: it is to pay down the Glazers' mountainous debt. That plus financing the purchase of the new players whose presence is absolutely essential to maintaining a saleable product. In other words, far from being proven wrong by what has been happening recently, what the anti-Glazer movement said all along is coming to pass: it is the fans who are buying the club for a set of owners they were never consulted about in the first place. The only choice they have in the issue is to walk away and no longer support their team.

Before followers of rival teams snigger too hard into their beer, this is precisely the threat to Manchester City diehards should the Thais take over, or Arsenal fans if the Americans move in. Don't be fooled by glitzy promises of new investment. The only investment the new style of foreign owner makes is in the initial purchase. For everything else, there's the fans.'

Article 1

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/manchester_united/s/1008/1008808_glazer_protesters_were_right.html

Glazer protesters 'were right'
Stuart Brennan - Comment
11/ 6/2007


I'LL bet those United fans who protested about the Glazer takeover feel really stupid now.

How many times have you heard that said over the past fortnight?

Actually, those United fans who protested long and hard about the occupation of their club feel more justified than ever that they were right to stand up to what amounts to an insidious threat not just to Manchester United, but to English football, and even European football, in particular.

The fact that United have just won the Premiership in thrilling style, have splashed out on three players who could boost them from top English team to a European super-power once more, and continue to play in front of packed houses, is irrelevant.

The argument was never about that.

If you truly think that the Glazer takeover was a good thing, try asking the people who can no longer afford to go and watch their beloved team, on top of 12 per cent price increases in 2006, 14 per cent price increases in 2007, and the introduction of the compulsory automatic cup ticket scheme.

And then consider where this is leading. Talk to people in the Glazer camp and one thing becomes crystal clear - the economic cleansing of Old Trafford is not yet over.

There will be more price increases, more ways of screwing every last penny out of the support, until there is a threat of empty seats. Then the Glazer family will either ease off or cut and run.

United's response is that ticket prices still represent good value for money, and that there is a 14,000-strong waiting list for season tickets.

That last point is a sickening reminder of where United fans now stand. If you don't like it, clear off because we will find someone else to take your place.

United are no longer interested in their traditional fan base. Your average Joe from Stretford turns up at five to three, cheers on the team and then goes home for his tea and a couple of pints in his local boozer. All you get out of that particular economic unit is the price of his ticket.

But if you can get rid of him, and replace him with an economic unit called Henry from Surrey, the club also gets money from his Megastore shopping spree, dining at Red Cafe, museum visit, hotel stay and so on.

Shackles

It makes perfect business sense in the short term, get rid of the old fans, bring in McFans.

And if, or when, the football boom starts to grind to a halt as the yuppies find a new craze, it is the traditional support to whom United will turn, to find that they have discovered the joys of FC United, bird- watching, or DIY on a Saturday afternoon.

When the battle raged over the rights and wrongs of the takeover two years ago, the pro-Glazer lobby said that the family would bring a wealth of business nous, a pedigree of sporting success with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and would free the club from the shackles of reporting its every move to the Stock Exchange.

Those people are now smugly pronouncing themselves right, but that was never the issue.

The title success this season was achieved despite the Glazers, not because of them. It was entirely down to the genius of Sir Alex Ferguson and the enduring quality of the likes of Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs.

And the money that has been splashed on Nani, Anderson and Owen Hargreaves is not the Glazers' money. They have not put a penny into Manchester United - the money the club has been spending has been from its support, is a result of last year's windfalls from the sales of Ruud van Nistelrooy and Jon Obi Mikel, and from the unexpected bonanza from the sale of overseas TV rights.

What the Glazers have done is take £44m OUT of the club, to pay some of the interest on the debts they incurred to buy United. That money could have been used to peg back prices.

It is curious that at a time which should have been one of great exhilaration for United fans, and then bringing in interesting new players, the internet was full of cries of anguish.

I wrote an article two years ago which claimed that the Glazer era might just coincide with a new era of trophy success, but that many of the club's traditional support would be left with their noses pressed against the window, watching the party going on in what used to be their house.

This is not a `told-you-so' but a warning - the situation will continue to get worse.

Everton vs United - Rooney Goal - 2-3

It's only in football that you get grown men behaving like idiots =) I miss going to matches!! =(

A Very Good Indian Commercial

Quite funny...

It's never just about you...

Those of you have caught the news about 2 days ago would probably have noticed the news about a traffic accident along Changi Coastal Road. If not, can read some of the news here...

Changi Coastal Rd accident

Pictures(warning, could be disturbing)

The extent of the damage is truly disturbing, and the driver probably died instantly =S Being rather bad tempered and a bit of a speed lover myself, I always need to be constantly reminded of such stuff to be a more responsible road user. I can only imagine the fear that the driver felt when he saw the lorry heading towards him at high speed (whether it was the speed of his own car or the lorry doesn't really matter...)

Rumours has it that the driver was racing with another car and in order to overtake he went onto the oncoming lane and it was there that he collided headon with the lorry. To be honest it doesn't really matter now, if he did race, he paid with his life, if he did not, some couple had just lost a son, some girl lost a bf etc etc.

As much as it is to remind myself, let this be a lesson to all too.

SPEEDING, IT'S NEVER JUST ABOUT YOU...