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
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
Saturday, June 30, 2007
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...
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
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
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
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.
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.'
'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.
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.
Monday, April 30, 2007
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!! =(
Friday, April 27, 2007
Thursday, April 26, 2007
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...
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...
Which is your mindset?
Read this from some other blog, thought it was pretty interesting.... just to share....
-------------------------------------------------------------
A Chinese walks into a bank in New York City and asks for the loan officer.He tells the loan officer that he is going to Taiwan on business for two weeks and needs to borrow $5,000. The bank officer tells him that the bank will need some form of security for the loan, so the Chinese hands over the keys to a new Ferrari parked on the street in front of the bank. He produces the title and everything checked out.The loan officer agrees to accept the car as collateral for the loan.
The bank's president and its officers all enjoy a good laugh at the Chinese for using a $250,000 Ferrari as collateral against a $5,000 loan.. An employee of the bank then drives the Ferrari into the bank's underground garage and parks it there.Two weeks later, the Chinese returns, repays the $5,000 and the interest,which comes to $15.41. The loan officer says,"Sir, we are very happy to have had your business, and this transaction has worked out very nicely, but we are alittle puzzled. While you were away,we checked you out and found that you are a multi-millionaire. What puzzles us is,why would you bother to borrow $5,000?"
The Chinese replies: "Where else in NewYork City can I park my car for two weeks for only $15.41 and expect it to be there when I return?"However, its more than funny. Its thinking out of the box and being creative. That's why the client is a millionaire and the bank officers are just employees.This applies to our daily lives as well.
Is yours the millionaire's or the bank employee's mind set ?
-------------------------------------------------------------
A Chinese walks into a bank in New York City and asks for the loan officer.He tells the loan officer that he is going to Taiwan on business for two weeks and needs to borrow $5,000. The bank officer tells him that the bank will need some form of security for the loan, so the Chinese hands over the keys to a new Ferrari parked on the street in front of the bank. He produces the title and everything checked out.The loan officer agrees to accept the car as collateral for the loan.
The bank's president and its officers all enjoy a good laugh at the Chinese for using a $250,000 Ferrari as collateral against a $5,000 loan.. An employee of the bank then drives the Ferrari into the bank's underground garage and parks it there.Two weeks later, the Chinese returns, repays the $5,000 and the interest,which comes to $15.41. The loan officer says,"Sir, we are very happy to have had your business, and this transaction has worked out very nicely, but we are alittle puzzled. While you were away,we checked you out and found that you are a multi-millionaire. What puzzles us is,why would you bother to borrow $5,000?"
The Chinese replies: "Where else in NewYork City can I park my car for two weeks for only $15.41 and expect it to be there when I return?"However, its more than funny. Its thinking out of the box and being creative. That's why the client is a millionaire and the bank officers are just employees.This applies to our daily lives as well.
Is yours the millionaire's or the bank employee's mind set ?
For the greater good of Man United, pls let the Glazers die...
Dear oh dear, you all have been warned, but yet most of you chose to do nothing... and you shall pay the price...
------------------------------------------------------------------------
From Soccernet
United fans anger after hefty ticket price rise
Manchester United supporters are facing ticket price rises of up to 14% next season.
The Old Trafford outfit have released details of pricings for the 2007-08 campaign, which could yet see them defending the treble.
While a range of measures have been introduced to effectively cut the cost of concessionary tickets, meaning an adult with two children will pay less next season than they did this, full price tickets have risen sharply.
The biggest increases are in the lower tiers of the North and South Stands, which will rise from £665 to £722, while the most expensive seats in the stadium are the upper tier of both stands, which rise over 12% to £836.
In addition, all season ticket holders not currently a member of the club's automatic cup scheme, which forces fans to buy tickets for cup games whether they intend to watch the game or not, will be required to join.
Junior tickets in the Family Stand will be frozen at £190, while all junior tickets in other sections of the stadium will be £10, a 48.7% reduction.
Over 65s will pay £20 or half the cost of an adult ticket in the appropriate section of the stadium, whichever is the lower.
Despite those initiatives, United are sure to be condemned by fans' groups, who warned of hefty increases in ticket prices once Malcolm Glazer completed his controversial takeover two years ago.
However, United officials can argue their move - which bucks the trend of other north-west clubs such as Blackburn, Bolton and Wigan who have cut the price of tickets - is justified given Old Trafford continues to sell out for virtually every home game.
The lowest crowd for any Red Devils' first-team game this season is 61,325 for the recent FA Cup sixth round replay with Middlesbrough, while all 18 Premiership home games have had attendances topping 75,000.
Chairman of the Independent Manchester United Supporters' Association (IMUSA), Mark Longden, blasted the price hike, insisting there is 'absolutely no justification' for it.
He told PA Sport: 'Clearly, it flies in the face of the thinking all over the country, from Bolton to the Emirates (Arsenal's stadium).
'They have all frozen prices and in some cases reduced them.'
In particular, Longden believes it is hard to justify any price rises given the mammoth new television rights deals sealed by the Premier League in recent months.
'It's just slightly strange with the new money that is coming in from the TV deal - the club is getting £30 extra per seat across the board for the next three years,' he added.
'For every person that goes through the turnstile they could give them £30 back and not be any worse off, so surely there must be some scope for reducing prices or at least freezing them.
'There is absolutely no justification for putting prices up.'
The linking of season tickets to the automatic cup scheme will also prove highly unpopular with fans, Longden claimed.
'If they are tying tickets to going in the automatic cup scheme, that is going to be a step too far for a lot of people at Old Trafford.
'Every time there is a price rise people don't renew but they seem to be able to find new people to fill those seats - but whether that happens this time remains to be seen.'
The reduced prices for concessions were to be welcomed, Longden added, although he dismissed the cuts as 'just a bit of window dressing' in an attempt to appease angry supporters.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
From Soccernet
United fans anger after hefty ticket price rise
Manchester United supporters are facing ticket price rises of up to 14% next season.
The Old Trafford outfit have released details of pricings for the 2007-08 campaign, which could yet see them defending the treble.
While a range of measures have been introduced to effectively cut the cost of concessionary tickets, meaning an adult with two children will pay less next season than they did this, full price tickets have risen sharply.
The biggest increases are in the lower tiers of the North and South Stands, which will rise from £665 to £722, while the most expensive seats in the stadium are the upper tier of both stands, which rise over 12% to £836.
In addition, all season ticket holders not currently a member of the club's automatic cup scheme, which forces fans to buy tickets for cup games whether they intend to watch the game or not, will be required to join.
Junior tickets in the Family Stand will be frozen at £190, while all junior tickets in other sections of the stadium will be £10, a 48.7% reduction.
Over 65s will pay £20 or half the cost of an adult ticket in the appropriate section of the stadium, whichever is the lower.
Despite those initiatives, United are sure to be condemned by fans' groups, who warned of hefty increases in ticket prices once Malcolm Glazer completed his controversial takeover two years ago.
However, United officials can argue their move - which bucks the trend of other north-west clubs such as Blackburn, Bolton and Wigan who have cut the price of tickets - is justified given Old Trafford continues to sell out for virtually every home game.
The lowest crowd for any Red Devils' first-team game this season is 61,325 for the recent FA Cup sixth round replay with Middlesbrough, while all 18 Premiership home games have had attendances topping 75,000.
Chairman of the Independent Manchester United Supporters' Association (IMUSA), Mark Longden, blasted the price hike, insisting there is 'absolutely no justification' for it.
He told PA Sport: 'Clearly, it flies in the face of the thinking all over the country, from Bolton to the Emirates (Arsenal's stadium).
'They have all frozen prices and in some cases reduced them.'
In particular, Longden believes it is hard to justify any price rises given the mammoth new television rights deals sealed by the Premier League in recent months.
'It's just slightly strange with the new money that is coming in from the TV deal - the club is getting £30 extra per seat across the board for the next three years,' he added.
'For every person that goes through the turnstile they could give them £30 back and not be any worse off, so surely there must be some scope for reducing prices or at least freezing them.
'There is absolutely no justification for putting prices up.'
The linking of season tickets to the automatic cup scheme will also prove highly unpopular with fans, Longden claimed.
'If they are tying tickets to going in the automatic cup scheme, that is going to be a step too far for a lot of people at Old Trafford.
'Every time there is a price rise people don't renew but they seem to be able to find new people to fill those seats - but whether that happens this time remains to be seen.'
The reduced prices for concessions were to be welcomed, Longden added, although he dismissed the cuts as 'just a bit of window dressing' in an attempt to appease angry supporters.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Cyril - Magic Revolution = LACOSTE
All right besides the tricks pls notice the cute Japanese girl in white =)
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Friday, April 13, 2007
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Friday, April 06, 2007
Music to a football fan's ears
From Soccernet
Wigan's Whelan promises cheapest season tickets
Dave Whelan has promised Wigan fans the cheapest season-ticket prices in the Premiership next season should the club avoid relegation.
Earlier this year, the Latics chairman slashed matchday ticket prices to £15 and £20 - depending on opposition - in a bid to boost attendances for the club's final seven league games.
Now Whelan is planning to go one step further for the 2007-08 term should manager Paul Jewell keep the struggling club in the top flight.
'The town is coming round to the idea that Wigan Athletic are a Premier League side,' said Whelan.
'We're going to help next season with ticket prices; we want to fill this ground, we want atmosphere.
'We're going to charge £15, no more than that for all games, while the season tickets are going to be so good and such a keen price.
'We're going to be the cheapest in the land because we do want to continue to build Wigan Athletic's crowds.
'Wigan Rugby League Club are a sell-out against St Helens, which is fantastic, and we want that for Wigan Athletic week in and week out.'
Whelan insists the new television deal that comes into force next season is the reason behind the dramatic reduction, and he feels other clubs should follow suit.
Speaking to Channel M, he added: 'There is no doubt it has to be done across the board.
'There are only four or five teams in the Premier League who can command prices of £30, £40, £50. We cannot go anywhere near that.
'But we've got to grasp the nettle and say to people `bring your family'.
'It's not cheap. Even for four of them, that's still £60 to watch a football match. That's an awful lot of money.
'But there's mountains of money in this game from television etc, to let people watch this game for as little as £10 to £15.
'So let's lower the prices, let's get people back enjoying the game.'
Wigan's Whelan promises cheapest season tickets
Dave Whelan has promised Wigan fans the cheapest season-ticket prices in the Premiership next season should the club avoid relegation.
Earlier this year, the Latics chairman slashed matchday ticket prices to £15 and £20 - depending on opposition - in a bid to boost attendances for the club's final seven league games.
Now Whelan is planning to go one step further for the 2007-08 term should manager Paul Jewell keep the struggling club in the top flight.
'The town is coming round to the idea that Wigan Athletic are a Premier League side,' said Whelan.
'We're going to help next season with ticket prices; we want to fill this ground, we want atmosphere.
'We're going to charge £15, no more than that for all games, while the season tickets are going to be so good and such a keen price.
'We're going to be the cheapest in the land because we do want to continue to build Wigan Athletic's crowds.
'Wigan Rugby League Club are a sell-out against St Helens, which is fantastic, and we want that for Wigan Athletic week in and week out.'
Whelan insists the new television deal that comes into force next season is the reason behind the dramatic reduction, and he feels other clubs should follow suit.
Speaking to Channel M, he added: 'There is no doubt it has to be done across the board.
'There are only four or five teams in the Premier League who can command prices of £30, £40, £50. We cannot go anywhere near that.
'But we've got to grasp the nettle and say to people `bring your family'.
'It's not cheap. Even for four of them, that's still £60 to watch a football match. That's an awful lot of money.
'But there's mountains of money in this game from television etc, to let people watch this game for as little as £10 to £15.
'So let's lower the prices, let's get people back enjoying the game.'
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Beware the power of the internet....
Guess this warning is repeated too often but nobody cares about it until it hits them. But a real story that happened during this week reminds us all not to be too yaya papaya behind the computer screen.
For starters if you have yesterday's Straits Times (040407) then may I refer you the first page of Home section.
The story goes like this... In late 2005, a young man took a MAZDA MX5 for a test drive along Upp Paya Lebar Rd. He flipped the car, crashed it into the opp direction road and in the process killed the young female SE. Time passed by and nothing was heard about the case.
However, recently, this driver went onto an online forum and opened a thread discussing about GOLF GTi vs WRX STi as he was considering changing his car. Nobody knew who that nick was and contributed comments but alas someone from the forum knows the female SE who died and recognised the nick of the thread starter. This guy was perhaps incensed that this guy still had not been brought to justice and was even thinking of changing to another performance ride. Thus he started another thread to remind people of this tragic incident. Initially the driver's details was not revealed but through trawling the internet, forumners unearthed his personal details like photo, home add, work place add, hp number, model of car he drives and even licence plate number. The thread soon spread to other forums like hardwarezone and was eventually picked up by a Straits Times journalist and led to the article today.
The GOLF vs WRX thread
Read the Straits Times Report in this thread
(The thread that the friend started was deleted by moderators...)
I am very uncomfortable with the amount of witch hunting that one can easily do in this internet day and age. Just like the girl in the "elitist" debate a few months ago, one's personal information can easily be dug up if one is determined/bo liao enough to go and trawl through the net. However what makes this case a bit special is that the guy probably dug his own grave... no matter whether he had been convicted of any wrongdoing or not.
Most people misunderstand that the intention is to witch hunt this guy but that is not the main bone of contention. The main issue is that starting a thread to ask which performance car to buy when you cannot even handle a good car like the MX5? Doesn't really show that one is guilty after causing such a tragedy... His various other posts also exhibit that he is still rather reckless and a racer wannabe. Nobody is denying he has the legal right to buy another car but a normal person with conscience would probably think twice about buying a performance car, much less discuss it online. Secondly, why wasn't his driving licence suspended while investigations are still ongoing? If I speed above 60km/h above the speed limit I would be hauled to court immediately, what more flipping a car into the opposite lane and causing 1 death? And why are the investigations taking so long? Surely people's memory would fade the further the time taken?
With the power of the internet, more and more of such things will happen, and this hopefully will make people think twice about posting too much personal information online. Things would also be harder and harder to "sweep under the carpet". So if you have done something wrong, it is wiser to keep a low profile and repent...
I sincerely hope that the investigations can be closed ASAP and the punishment given. RIP to the female SE who died and condolences to the family of the deceased. It probably is painful for them to have this reminded all over again....
For starters if you have yesterday's Straits Times (040407) then may I refer you the first page of Home section.
The story goes like this... In late 2005, a young man took a MAZDA MX5 for a test drive along Upp Paya Lebar Rd. He flipped the car, crashed it into the opp direction road and in the process killed the young female SE. Time passed by and nothing was heard about the case.
However, recently, this driver went onto an online forum and opened a thread discussing about GOLF GTi vs WRX STi as he was considering changing his car. Nobody knew who that nick was and contributed comments but alas someone from the forum knows the female SE who died and recognised the nick of the thread starter. This guy was perhaps incensed that this guy still had not been brought to justice and was even thinking of changing to another performance ride. Thus he started another thread to remind people of this tragic incident. Initially the driver's details was not revealed but through trawling the internet, forumners unearthed his personal details like photo, home add, work place add, hp number, model of car he drives and even licence plate number. The thread soon spread to other forums like hardwarezone and was eventually picked up by a Straits Times journalist and led to the article today.
The GOLF vs WRX thread
Read the Straits Times Report in this thread
(The thread that the friend started was deleted by moderators...)
I am very uncomfortable with the amount of witch hunting that one can easily do in this internet day and age. Just like the girl in the "elitist" debate a few months ago, one's personal information can easily be dug up if one is determined/bo liao enough to go and trawl through the net. However what makes this case a bit special is that the guy probably dug his own grave... no matter whether he had been convicted of any wrongdoing or not.
Most people misunderstand that the intention is to witch hunt this guy but that is not the main bone of contention. The main issue is that starting a thread to ask which performance car to buy when you cannot even handle a good car like the MX5? Doesn't really show that one is guilty after causing such a tragedy... His various other posts also exhibit that he is still rather reckless and a racer wannabe. Nobody is denying he has the legal right to buy another car but a normal person with conscience would probably think twice about buying a performance car, much less discuss it online. Secondly, why wasn't his driving licence suspended while investigations are still ongoing? If I speed above 60km/h above the speed limit I would be hauled to court immediately, what more flipping a car into the opposite lane and causing 1 death? And why are the investigations taking so long? Surely people's memory would fade the further the time taken?
With the power of the internet, more and more of such things will happen, and this hopefully will make people think twice about posting too much personal information online. Things would also be harder and harder to "sweep under the carpet". So if you have done something wrong, it is wiser to keep a low profile and repent...
I sincerely hope that the investigations can be closed ASAP and the punishment given. RIP to the female SE who died and condolences to the family of the deceased. It probably is painful for them to have this reminded all over again....
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Kimchi is the flavour of the month...
345am in the morning and I still can't get to sleep... Trying to lull myself to sleep with songs from the Korean show Goong's OST.
Korean shows are hopelessly templated. The females would usually be the more inferior in status kind while the males would be rich/famous and invariably would be rather haughty/aloof. But fate would somehow make them come together and eventually the cute little ways of the female would melt the heart of the male.
But still I am a sucker for such shows.
I guess the key in the shows are that the scenes whereby they are happy together (think walking along the street holding hands or running along the beach) are SOOOO rare that when they do come, you just can't help but to go AWWWWWWW.....
The second vital ingredient is that the females must be rather hyper. ie they must be the poor but happy go lucky kind and have a radiant smile. So when they are weeping because of the male once again your heart would go AWWWWWW.....
If you have enough time/budget, throwing in another guy who likes the poor female lead but no matter what he does/say, cannot get her love (for her heart is with the aloof male lead), would not hurt at all...
Add to that a nice OST which interjects the happy/sad scenes at appropriate intervals and you have a recipe for a hit!
Why can't Singapore come up with such "romantic" shows? Coz we are too sceptical about our own local situation. All of us would inevitably go "ZUN BO?" if say a hawker's daughter helping out at the market can fall in love with the son of an MP... you get the drift? Dreams are always more believable if they are overseas. Local artistes also can't cut it. The females are (generally) not pretty enough while the males are even worse, not charismatic at all (Li Nanxing is getting old liao...). Hard to get good "dreamy" locations to shoot in Singapore also. Anyhow you get the drift... I guess overseas markets might actually like our productions if we manage to get one out, but our own people would find it hard to accept it....
All these Korean shows are making me too much of an idealist....
Korean shows are hopelessly templated. The females would usually be the more inferior in status kind while the males would be rich/famous and invariably would be rather haughty/aloof. But fate would somehow make them come together and eventually the cute little ways of the female would melt the heart of the male.
But still I am a sucker for such shows.
I guess the key in the shows are that the scenes whereby they are happy together (think walking along the street holding hands or running along the beach) are SOOOO rare that when they do come, you just can't help but to go AWWWWWWW.....
The second vital ingredient is that the females must be rather hyper. ie they must be the poor but happy go lucky kind and have a radiant smile. So when they are weeping because of the male once again your heart would go AWWWWWW.....
If you have enough time/budget, throwing in another guy who likes the poor female lead but no matter what he does/say, cannot get her love (for her heart is with the aloof male lead), would not hurt at all...
Add to that a nice OST which interjects the happy/sad scenes at appropriate intervals and you have a recipe for a hit!
Why can't Singapore come up with such "romantic" shows? Coz we are too sceptical about our own local situation. All of us would inevitably go "ZUN BO?" if say a hawker's daughter helping out at the market can fall in love with the son of an MP... you get the drift? Dreams are always more believable if they are overseas. Local artistes also can't cut it. The females are (generally) not pretty enough while the males are even worse, not charismatic at all (Li Nanxing is getting old liao...). Hard to get good "dreamy" locations to shoot in Singapore also. Anyhow you get the drift... I guess overseas markets might actually like our productions if we manage to get one out, but our own people would find it hard to accept it....
All these Korean shows are making me too much of an idealist....
Friday, March 23, 2007
Why you should be more considerate...
If you are one of those fuckers who think nothing about giving other ppl's rides a ding or two, hope this video makes you think twice... Remember, somewhere out there there will be a bigger fucker than you...
O'SHEA GOAL - MANCHESTER UNITED VS LIVERPOOL
Down to 10 men, totally outplayed, home of your biggest rivals, vital to get 3 points, last minute winner... Need I say more?
EPMS, or Enhanced Performance Management System
http://siewkumhong.blogspot.com/2007/03/of-soldiers-and-teachers.html
Read the post a couple of days ago and it seemed like a rude shock to me that being a very good teacher will only get you an average grade. Why the need to do OTHER things well? Doesn't that seem to run contrary to the logic of outsourcing etc? But then again there will still be problems assessing how good a person is purely by the students' results I guess... I just hope that PB isn't all that I would care about next time
Read the post a couple of days ago and it seemed like a rude shock to me that being a very good teacher will only get you an average grade. Why the need to do OTHER things well? Doesn't that seem to run contrary to the logic of outsourcing etc? But then again there will still be problems assessing how good a person is purely by the students' results I guess... I just hope that PB isn't all that I would care about next time
SAF leaders too young?
Just wanted to copy the article below, right or wrong, perhaps only a real war can tell....
From Today
US soldier takes potshots at SAF
Mindef responds to criticism over inexperienced scholars, soft soldiers, status of Malays
Loh Chee Kong
cheekong@mediacorp.com.sg
ARE Singapore's top military commanders too young and inexperienced?
.
Are they fast-tracked to the upper echelons because of their scholar credentials, while more experienced non-scholars or "farmers" — as they have been unceremoniously labelled — toil in vain?
.
Are soldiers here soft because of the emphasis on safety during training at the expense of realism?
.
And do officers lack professionalism and commitment because mandatory retirement at 45 means many see their time in uniform "as a stepping stone" to a second career in politics or business.
.
These questions, and several others, are the subject of a critique of the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) published in United States-based journal Armed Forces & Society. The quarterly circulates some 2000 copies worldwide.
.
The article, which has made its rounds in Singapore and created a stir among the uniformed ranks, was written by an American soldier Sean Walsh, who was stationed at the United States Embassy in Singapore for several weeks in 2004, during his summer break from the US Military Academy.
.
In the article, The Roar of the Lion City, the writer also claimed that women have been held back from holding high posts in the SAF, and that there is a policy to keep Malays out of sensitive areas.
.
Despite his criticism of the SAF, Mr Walsh, who graduated from the US Army Ranger School, concluded his article by saying "there can be no doubt that the SAF is the most competent, well-equipped and best trained force in the whole of South-east Asia" — a claim the SAF itself has not made.
.
He also admitted that the SAF was "more than capable" of defending Singapore's borders, conducting peacekeeping missions and dealing with asymmetric threats in the wake of 911. It possessed a "world-class" special operations force which would not require outside assistance, he noted.
.
So, why the paradoxical praise and criticism of the SAF?
.
Mr Walsh, who is deployed in Germany, could not be contacted, but in his article he pointed to the age of SAF's top commanders — such as Brigadier-General Desmond Quek, who was 39 when he was promoted to the post of Army Chief — and concluded that "youth naturally corresponds to inexperience" and this "casts obvious doubts on their ability to lead in a conflict against battle-hardened troops".
.
However, responding to queries from Today, Col Benedict Lim, director of public affairs at the Ministry of Defence (Mindef), said: "The SAF does not seek out wars but will not flinch from putting its soldiers into harm's way to fulfil its primary mission of protecting the vital interests of our country."
.
He also pointed out that the SAF carries out about 70 exercises annually with other countries' armed forces, some of which have considerable combat experience, and has been praised for its professionalism. The SAF has also carried out humanitarian missions, for example during Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.
.
Defence analyst Dr Alvin Chew told Today that the debate centred on Singapore's defence policy, which is based on diplomacy and deterrence. As such, the relative youthfulness of SAF officers, who are groomed in building bilateral or multi-lateral relationships with foreign militaries, was not a major drawback.
.
Also, given that fighting a war is not the Republic's most pressing concern, defence analyst Dr Bernard Loo said that early retirement meant that the SAF's best and brightest could be deployed for "broader or higher national purposes — whether it is in running the economy, or running the Government".
.
Defending Mindef's policy to aggressively recruit and offer scholarships to the "brightest and most capable young men and women", Col Lim said that the SAF, like the rest of the public sector, operates on the principle of meritocracy, and those "who do not perform adequately are released".
.
But are Singapore soldiers ready to be stand in harm's way?
.
Mr Walsh wrote that a heavy emphasis on safety and the fact that "any major injury or death causes a very public uproar among parents" has resulted in a force less than ready for deployment.
.
Taking a different view, Col Lim argued that "an emphasis on safety and rigorous, realistic training are not mutually exclusive" and that the SAF prepares its servicemen to "fight, survive and win" in battle.
.
As for women in uniform, Mr Walsh's claimed that one of the SAF's "greatest shortcomings" was that high rank and important commands were closed to most women. Admitting "there was no policy that pushes gender integration for its own sake", Col Lim said that women with proven merit in the SAF currently "command ships and army units, fly combat aircraft and serve in many combat vocations".
.
Perhaps the most controversial claim by the US soldier was that "official discrimination against the Malay population remains an open secret" and those of the race are "systematically kept out" of sensitive areas.
.
Mr Walsh claims that this has two major consequences: It "limits the involvement of the ethnic group most inclined to join the military" and it feeds the "perception of a second-class status among Malays, a fact which terrorist recruiters have taken advantage of before, and they may do so again" — referring to the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) members arrested in Singapore for plotting terrorist attacks.
.
Addressing this charge, Col Lim said: "The writer's prescription for ethnic integration in the SAF seriously underestimates the challenges of building ethnic and religious harmony in Singapore.
.
"Singapore has made much progress in ethnic and religious integration. Singapore does not gloss over the fact that there is yet more to be done and addresses these challenges directly and openly."
.
Stressing that integration in the SAF would proceed in tandem with nation-building, Col Lim added that there are a good number of Malay SAF officers, some with higher degrees, whose studies were sponsored by the SAF, and whether a Malay SAF officer makes it to a higher appointment depends solely on merit.
.
In fact, Malay officers have risen through the ranks and held senior appointments.
.
"We have Malay pilots, commandos and air defence personnel. Those who have shown the potential to take on higher appointments in the SAF are given every opportunity to do so. Malay officers in the SAF hold key appointments such as Commanding Officer," said Col Lim.
.
"In fact, the proportion of eligible Malays selected for specialist and officer training is similar to the proportion for eligible non-Malays."
.
Mr Zulkifli Baharudin, a Malay community leader and former Nominated MP, said that the JI arrests had shown that some Singaporeans "will not react primarily to our national interests and are not completely colour-blind in our instincts".
.
He added: "We have also seen in the past that events in India and China have had — and I'm putting it mildly — reverberations here."
From Today
US soldier takes potshots at SAF
Mindef responds to criticism over inexperienced scholars, soft soldiers, status of Malays
Loh Chee Kong
cheekong@mediacorp.com.sg
ARE Singapore's top military commanders too young and inexperienced?
.
Are they fast-tracked to the upper echelons because of their scholar credentials, while more experienced non-scholars or "farmers" — as they have been unceremoniously labelled — toil in vain?
.
Are soldiers here soft because of the emphasis on safety during training at the expense of realism?
.
And do officers lack professionalism and commitment because mandatory retirement at 45 means many see their time in uniform "as a stepping stone" to a second career in politics or business.
.
These questions, and several others, are the subject of a critique of the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) published in United States-based journal Armed Forces & Society. The quarterly circulates some 2000 copies worldwide.
.
The article, which has made its rounds in Singapore and created a stir among the uniformed ranks, was written by an American soldier Sean Walsh, who was stationed at the United States Embassy in Singapore for several weeks in 2004, during his summer break from the US Military Academy.
.
In the article, The Roar of the Lion City, the writer also claimed that women have been held back from holding high posts in the SAF, and that there is a policy to keep Malays out of sensitive areas.
.
Despite his criticism of the SAF, Mr Walsh, who graduated from the US Army Ranger School, concluded his article by saying "there can be no doubt that the SAF is the most competent, well-equipped and best trained force in the whole of South-east Asia" — a claim the SAF itself has not made.
.
He also admitted that the SAF was "more than capable" of defending Singapore's borders, conducting peacekeeping missions and dealing with asymmetric threats in the wake of 911. It possessed a "world-class" special operations force which would not require outside assistance, he noted.
.
So, why the paradoxical praise and criticism of the SAF?
.
Mr Walsh, who is deployed in Germany, could not be contacted, but in his article he pointed to the age of SAF's top commanders — such as Brigadier-General Desmond Quek, who was 39 when he was promoted to the post of Army Chief — and concluded that "youth naturally corresponds to inexperience" and this "casts obvious doubts on their ability to lead in a conflict against battle-hardened troops".
.
However, responding to queries from Today, Col Benedict Lim, director of public affairs at the Ministry of Defence (Mindef), said: "The SAF does not seek out wars but will not flinch from putting its soldiers into harm's way to fulfil its primary mission of protecting the vital interests of our country."
.
He also pointed out that the SAF carries out about 70 exercises annually with other countries' armed forces, some of which have considerable combat experience, and has been praised for its professionalism. The SAF has also carried out humanitarian missions, for example during Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.
.
Defence analyst Dr Alvin Chew told Today that the debate centred on Singapore's defence policy, which is based on diplomacy and deterrence. As such, the relative youthfulness of SAF officers, who are groomed in building bilateral or multi-lateral relationships with foreign militaries, was not a major drawback.
.
Also, given that fighting a war is not the Republic's most pressing concern, defence analyst Dr Bernard Loo said that early retirement meant that the SAF's best and brightest could be deployed for "broader or higher national purposes — whether it is in running the economy, or running the Government".
.
Defending Mindef's policy to aggressively recruit and offer scholarships to the "brightest and most capable young men and women", Col Lim said that the SAF, like the rest of the public sector, operates on the principle of meritocracy, and those "who do not perform adequately are released".
.
But are Singapore soldiers ready to be stand in harm's way?
.
Mr Walsh wrote that a heavy emphasis on safety and the fact that "any major injury or death causes a very public uproar among parents" has resulted in a force less than ready for deployment.
.
Taking a different view, Col Lim argued that "an emphasis on safety and rigorous, realistic training are not mutually exclusive" and that the SAF prepares its servicemen to "fight, survive and win" in battle.
.
As for women in uniform, Mr Walsh's claimed that one of the SAF's "greatest shortcomings" was that high rank and important commands were closed to most women. Admitting "there was no policy that pushes gender integration for its own sake", Col Lim said that women with proven merit in the SAF currently "command ships and army units, fly combat aircraft and serve in many combat vocations".
.
Perhaps the most controversial claim by the US soldier was that "official discrimination against the Malay population remains an open secret" and those of the race are "systematically kept out" of sensitive areas.
.
Mr Walsh claims that this has two major consequences: It "limits the involvement of the ethnic group most inclined to join the military" and it feeds the "perception of a second-class status among Malays, a fact which terrorist recruiters have taken advantage of before, and they may do so again" — referring to the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) members arrested in Singapore for plotting terrorist attacks.
.
Addressing this charge, Col Lim said: "The writer's prescription for ethnic integration in the SAF seriously underestimates the challenges of building ethnic and religious harmony in Singapore.
.
"Singapore has made much progress in ethnic and religious integration. Singapore does not gloss over the fact that there is yet more to be done and addresses these challenges directly and openly."
.
Stressing that integration in the SAF would proceed in tandem with nation-building, Col Lim added that there are a good number of Malay SAF officers, some with higher degrees, whose studies were sponsored by the SAF, and whether a Malay SAF officer makes it to a higher appointment depends solely on merit.
.
In fact, Malay officers have risen through the ranks and held senior appointments.
.
"We have Malay pilots, commandos and air defence personnel. Those who have shown the potential to take on higher appointments in the SAF are given every opportunity to do so. Malay officers in the SAF hold key appointments such as Commanding Officer," said Col Lim.
.
"In fact, the proportion of eligible Malays selected for specialist and officer training is similar to the proportion for eligible non-Malays."
.
Mr Zulkifli Baharudin, a Malay community leader and former Nominated MP, said that the JI arrests had shown that some Singaporeans "will not react primarily to our national interests and are not completely colour-blind in our instincts".
.
He added: "We have also seen in the past that events in India and China have had — and I'm putting it mildly — reverberations here."
Sunday, March 04, 2007
Outcasts in their own country, because of love...
Just wanted to take some time to copy the following article. Some of us might find it hard going to find that special someone in our life, and might be grumbling at our fate etc, but I guess we can still count our blessings that we most probably would not be in a situation like the couple below... Love should be able to unite, not separate... sad innit?
P/S, On a side note, as Gary Neville told John O'Shea, he had just completed the dream of a lifetime for many of us, scoring a last minute winner in front of the Kop for Man United in a vital game, now that's what life is all about...
---------------------------------------------------------------
From The Straits Times
March 4, 2007
STAR-CROSSED LOVERS IN WEST BANK
Love under fire
She's Jewish, he's Muslim - and they're treated as outcasts in Israel and Palestine
JERUSALEM - SHE is a 26-year-old Jewish Israeli. Her name is Jasmine Avissar. He is a 27-year-old Palestinian Muslim, Osama Zaatar.
Jasmine and Osama's tale is a love story, and it tells you so much about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
They met when they worked at the same place in Jerusalem, and three years ago they got married.
First they tried to live in Israel but the Israeli authorities would not allow Osama to join his wife there.
Then they tried living in the occupied West Bank, but some Palestinians made life difficult for them. Now they've given up and are moving to Europe.
'We ran out of choices of finding any solution to live in either Israel or Palestine,' says Jasmine as she packs her bags.
'We were naive and thought we could win this fight but we can't. So we have to go abroad and start a new life.'
Jasmine already has permission to go. Osama hopes to follow her soon. On the roof of their village home, the sunlight is so harsh you have to squint to look at the view. Stone walls hold earth terraces onto the hillsides, olive trees hundreds of years old dot the landscape.
'I feel like a stranger here,' says Osama. 'Even in my homeland. This place is a holy land, but they're killing each other. It's like it's already a lost cause. Here there's no chance. I just want to start again.'
They are an almost unique couple. Neither Israeli nor Palestinian society has accepted their marriage. On Jasmine's Israeli passport, it still says her marital status is 'under investigation'.
'Our marriage was a human thing. We just fell in love,' she says. 'The society around us is making it political. I feel like a refugee. The moment I decided not to be part of the mainstream, I was told that I was not a part of my country anymore.'
A taxi turns up and Osama helps Jasmine with her bags. The drive takes them through occupied Palestinian lands. They pass a tall grey Israeli army watchtower. They drive through army checkpoints. Israel has been in control here for almost 40 years.
'Even here in Osama's homeland, I am superior as an Israeli,' says Jasmine, as she looks out the window. 'It's easier for me to move around. The soldiers let me through checkpoints. They don't arrest me like they might arrest Osama.'
Jasmine has given up on her own country.
'Jewish people were abused for thousands of years, but my nation has switched from being victims to being abusers,' she says. 'That's hard for me to acknowledge. The Jewish people are occupiers now, and we are racist.'
The car arrives at a final checkpoint. Osama then explains why he has also given up on his own people.
'There were threats. People said if I brought my wife here we'd be in danger. Even my friends said that. They say I am a traitor,' he says. 'It makes me wonder whether I want to be a Palestinian any more. Some see me as some sort of Israeli envoy.'
They turn and walk the short distance to the checkpoint that leads out of the West Bank and into Israel. They put down their bags, and hug one another. There's a short kiss.
Asked what he hopes for from his new life, Osama replies: 'I want to be able to walk in the street and not be stopped by the Israeli army or police. I want to feel safe. I have never felt that.'
Jasmine smiles. 'I just want to be a normal couple, with normal problems about rent and money,' she says.
'I don't want to have these huge gigantic problems interfering in our marriage.'
Even now though, they are not quite free. Osama cannot go through the checkpoint with Jasmine. They don't know when he will be able to join her in Europe.
They are still a couple caught in the middle of the Israeli Palestinian conflict.
BBC NEWS
P/S, On a side note, as Gary Neville told John O'Shea, he had just completed the dream of a lifetime for many of us, scoring a last minute winner in front of the Kop for Man United in a vital game, now that's what life is all about...
---------------------------------------------------------------
From The Straits Times
March 4, 2007
STAR-CROSSED LOVERS IN WEST BANK
Love under fire
She's Jewish, he's Muslim - and they're treated as outcasts in Israel and Palestine
JERUSALEM - SHE is a 26-year-old Jewish Israeli. Her name is Jasmine Avissar. He is a 27-year-old Palestinian Muslim, Osama Zaatar.
Jasmine and Osama's tale is a love story, and it tells you so much about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
They met when they worked at the same place in Jerusalem, and three years ago they got married.
First they tried to live in Israel but the Israeli authorities would not allow Osama to join his wife there.
Then they tried living in the occupied West Bank, but some Palestinians made life difficult for them. Now they've given up and are moving to Europe.
'We ran out of choices of finding any solution to live in either Israel or Palestine,' says Jasmine as she packs her bags.
'We were naive and thought we could win this fight but we can't. So we have to go abroad and start a new life.'
Jasmine already has permission to go. Osama hopes to follow her soon. On the roof of their village home, the sunlight is so harsh you have to squint to look at the view. Stone walls hold earth terraces onto the hillsides, olive trees hundreds of years old dot the landscape.
'I feel like a stranger here,' says Osama. 'Even in my homeland. This place is a holy land, but they're killing each other. It's like it's already a lost cause. Here there's no chance. I just want to start again.'
They are an almost unique couple. Neither Israeli nor Palestinian society has accepted their marriage. On Jasmine's Israeli passport, it still says her marital status is 'under investigation'.
'Our marriage was a human thing. We just fell in love,' she says. 'The society around us is making it political. I feel like a refugee. The moment I decided not to be part of the mainstream, I was told that I was not a part of my country anymore.'
A taxi turns up and Osama helps Jasmine with her bags. The drive takes them through occupied Palestinian lands. They pass a tall grey Israeli army watchtower. They drive through army checkpoints. Israel has been in control here for almost 40 years.
'Even here in Osama's homeland, I am superior as an Israeli,' says Jasmine, as she looks out the window. 'It's easier for me to move around. The soldiers let me through checkpoints. They don't arrest me like they might arrest Osama.'
Jasmine has given up on her own country.
'Jewish people were abused for thousands of years, but my nation has switched from being victims to being abusers,' she says. 'That's hard for me to acknowledge. The Jewish people are occupiers now, and we are racist.'
The car arrives at a final checkpoint. Osama then explains why he has also given up on his own people.
'There were threats. People said if I brought my wife here we'd be in danger. Even my friends said that. They say I am a traitor,' he says. 'It makes me wonder whether I want to be a Palestinian any more. Some see me as some sort of Israeli envoy.'
They turn and walk the short distance to the checkpoint that leads out of the West Bank and into Israel. They put down their bags, and hug one another. There's a short kiss.
Asked what he hopes for from his new life, Osama replies: 'I want to be able to walk in the street and not be stopped by the Israeli army or police. I want to feel safe. I have never felt that.'
Jasmine smiles. 'I just want to be a normal couple, with normal problems about rent and money,' she says.
'I don't want to have these huge gigantic problems interfering in our marriage.'
Even now though, they are not quite free. Osama cannot go through the checkpoint with Jasmine. They don't know when he will be able to join her in Europe.
They are still a couple caught in the middle of the Israeli Palestinian conflict.
BBC NEWS
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Which would you choose? Who is right?
http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/story/0,4136,123403,00.html
Sad story... I hope I never would have the misfortune of choosing between the devil and the deep blue sea.
Sad story... I hope I never would have the misfortune of choosing between the devil and the deep blue sea.
Monday, February 19, 2007
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Car Scratcher
http://202.157.174.100/20060808-carscratcher/Player.html
You never know who is watching you when you scratch a car!
You never know who is watching you when you scratch a car!
How much is a blow job worth?
http://cupcate.vox.com/library/audio/6a00c2251f58b7549d00d10a7beb598bfa.html
Click on the above link to listen to this radio program. Pretty cruel. Not necessarily saying what the guy who was cheated on did was correct, but whoever said "Hell hath no fury a woman scorned" would seem to be incorrect!
Beware of what you do!
Click on the above link to listen to this radio program. Pretty cruel. Not necessarily saying what the guy who was cheated on did was correct, but whoever said "Hell hath no fury a woman scorned" would seem to be incorrect!
Beware of what you do!
Monday, December 25, 2006
Hooligans The Untold Story
| The ugly side which continues to plague English football, albeit a minority... | |
Gary Neville Interview
Gary Neville: United in my veins
By LEE CLAYTON
'Gary Neville, he's a red, he's a red, he's a red... 'Gary Neville, he's a red... 'He hates Scousers.'
The Manchester United supporters love Gary Neville. And not just because he hates Scousers. He is the ferociously competetive shop steward of a right back who has become the leader of a team hoping to win back the title from Chelsea. It would be his first title as captain.
And here, in a remarkable insight into his love and passion for Manchester United, Neville looks back on the joys of his career and reveals what it takes to become a cult hero at Old Trafford.
--------------------------------------------------------------
'United, Liverpool. Barcelona, Real Madrid, Juventus and Milan... they are the clubs with real tradition, history and power. Others may try but nobody else breaks into that and they never will.'
When I stop playing, I’d love just to travel round Europe watching United with my mates. What’s better than watching your team play football and having a few drinks and something to eat after? Criticising them if they lose, jumping around hysterically if they win.
I saw men screaming, with the veins coming out of their neck, on Deansgate the day after we won the European Cup. Nothing in their life made them do that before, nothing in their life made them do it since. You can spend 30 quid on nothing these days, on absolute rubbish. Or you can get the buzz of your life out of watching United.
I always tell the young players here, if you look down at your shirt and see a Manchester United badge, you’re not having a bad day. You’re doing all right. The day I don’t have the United badge on my chest will be a sad one for me. I don’t think I can ever have the same feeling playing for another football club. That is no criticism of anyone else, but I am so ingrained in United and it is such a big part of my life.
I’m not naive enough to think there is only Man United. Barcelona, Real Madrid, Juventus, Milan and Bayern Munich have more than got enough right to suggest they’re at the very top of the game, with United and Liverpool. Those clubs are the ones with the real tradition and history and power. They have the immense following. Others can try, but nobody breaks into that.
And they never will.
The biggest clubs can have bad seasons, bad decades even, but they will never be abandoned or forgotten. That might be seen as me having a go at others, but it’s the reality. I know because I’ve seen United climb back up from the depths. I didn’t grow up watching United win championships, but that didn’t stop me loving the club or feeling it.
I always say this to the fans when they talk about who owns the club or who the directors are or who the chairman is: when you first walked into that ground at the age of five or 10, you didn’t walk up the steps from the refreshment bar and think, who’s that sat over there in the directors’ box? You fell in love with that team running out in that red shirt, in that great ground, on that green pitch. That was what drew you to the club and made you think, wow, that’s got me. And it’s an addiction you have for life.
Managers are important, so are directors and players, but we all come and go. It was walking into the stadium, that’s what gripped me, the size of it – I was in awe of the whole place. I just love everything; the badge, the history.
You can fall in love with a player but, deep down, you know he’ll leave one day. That’s why I always say that the people within the club are just there to serve it. It’s the club and the badge that matters so much. The players are just adding their little bit to a massive depth of history.
'Medals are great, but the real miracle is that I shared a dressing room with six of my best mates and my brother for more than 10 years.'
You will find a few people around United, influential ones, who weren’t sure I would make 50 games, never mind 500. I spent most of my teenage years waiting for rejection. I still remember my shock at being one of the 16 picked out of 200 kids in the under-11s. That letter through the post was the most unbelievable thing I had ever seen.
I still wonder why I was invited back every year, and it can only have been attitude. If training started at 5pm, I would be there at 4.15, passing against a wall. I knew I had to do that when I saw the skills of local lads like Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt at 13. Then the out-of-town kids joined us, like David Beckham, Keith Gillespie and Robbie Savage. I was a central midfield player and I thought, ‘I’m not as good as this lot, nowhere near’.
People assume that a career in football falls into your lap, that you were always going to play for Manchester United. They don’t see the challenges you have to overcome and they forget the dozens of players who never quite make it.
If you aren’t the most talented player in the world, you have to sprint to keep up. You have to make sacrifices. When I left school at 16, I made the conscious decision that I would cut myself off from all of my mates. It sounds brutal, and it was selfish, but I knew that they would be doing all sorts of teenage things that I couldn’t get involved with, even if that was just having a few drinks.
I’ll always remember my dad telling me: ‘You’ve got two years to give it a real go. Never look back and wish you’d done more.’ Medals are great, but the real miracle is that I shared a dressing room with six of my best mates and my brother for more than 10 years. It sounds like a cliché, but I’ve been living a childhood dream.
There are times when I could have played better, games when I might have made fewer mistakes, but one thing I would like to say for myself is that, from the age of 16 to 31, I’ve given everything. Your best is the least you should give, but we’ve all seen players who have fallen short because they haven’t applied themselves. Players with much more talent than me. And if I ever thought I’d cracked it, that would probably be the end of me.
'Schmeichel used to hammer me, Bruce ripped me to shreds, some of the first team were animals, they were so aggressive and so demanding. It was brutal. Now foreigners don't expect to be shouted and screamed at...football is becoming softer.'
It will go down as a legendary youth side (1992), and that’s not me bragging. It has to when you look at Ryan Giggs captaining Wales, David Beckham captaining England, me winning 80-odd caps, Paul Scholes becoming one of the very best United players, Nicky Butt winning six championship titles, and the same with my brother, Phil.
It was a freak that will still be talked about in 50 years, and not just because of the six of us, but because of all the others who have gone on and are still playing or working in football. Robbie Savage and Keith Gillespie have been Premiership players, internationals.
We were brought up in a hard school. Our youth coach, Eric Harrison, was tough with us, the manager was tough with us and then, when you got close to the first team, you had to deal with Mark Hughes, Eric Cantona, Roy Keane and Paul Ince. You couldn’t be a wimp with those lads.
I’ve always said that they saw us as a threat to them as a winning group. Those players had already won medals and they were thinking, is this bunch of kids going to keep me in championships?
Peter Schmeichel used to hammer me. We would be practising and he would just pluck my crosses out of the air as if to say: ‘You’re not good enough.’ It was only three or four years later that he came up to me on a team day out and said: ‘You’ve proved me wrong.’ That is the education that people don’t see.
I still remember Steve Bruce ripping me to shreds at Elland Road, Mark Hughes charging at me just because I hadn’t played the ball into the channel, Eric Cantona giving me the stare, Keaney and Incey snarling. And that was before you had to face the manager. It was a hard school, but the best education imaginable.
It was all about the levels, the standards that you have to produce, and they were incredibly driven. They were animals, some of them. To be honest, you could say that they weren’t nice people to play with at times. They were so demanding, so aggressive. You lived or died by it, but we came through it.
They were brutal at times, some of them, and it is getting harder and harder to be like that now. Generally, you’re talking about a more sensitive player now, a more technically gifted player.
Foreign players don’t expect to be shouted and screamed at. Football is becoming softer.
'I was playing for England and earning £210-a-week, now money has created a distance between the working class and football, but I can't stand it when a fan says "I paid your wages"'
I came into football at the right time, in the sense that the money has catapulted. I’m not going to apologise for that, but it wasn’t why I came into the game in the first place. I signed a contract at 16 which promised me £29.50 a week for two years, so I didn’t come into this for the money. I came here because I loved playing football and playing for United.
At 18 I got £210 a week and I was playing for England. In fact, I was playing for England for £230 a week, because it went up 20 pounds a year. Because it went up to £1,000 a week after that, it didn’t make me a different person, and am I going to turn it down when the club increases it to £5,000?
You can’t tell me that the players of the 60s weren’t earning a lot more than the plumbers or the electricians so, while I appreciate that football has given me a great lifestyle, I don’t think I should apologise for that. But I do accept that, combined with the media coverage and the superstardom of players, the money can create a distance between the working class and a working-class player.
You can see that sometimes when you hear a fan say: ‘I paid this or that, I paid your wages.’ I can’t stand that, to be honest. My dad would never say that when he was taking us to watch United.
Of course we appreciate what the fans spend to watch the club, but I honestly believe you get your money’s worth when you consider the rewards you get. You could spend the same on 10 beers or a family night out at the cinema, and I can’t believe you’ll get the feelings that come from watching United.
If you were watching in the ’99 season, whatever you spent following us around, believe me, you were still well in credit. You have memories that will last you a lifetime. It has given you feelings that made you shiver.
People talk about the crowds changing, especially at United, and maybe it has, but there are still those moments when it is incredibly raw. And you can still sense that passion when you go to the pubs in Salford and you see the MUFC tattoos on the knuckles. This club can enthrall you. That’s what Manchester United does, it grips you and gets you if you really want it.
'No, I don't think another team will ever win the treble... and I say that as part of of a team that hopes to do it again'
The ’94 team is always mentioned as being one of the best United teams, certainly the most powerful, but I think the manager realised in 1995 that it was never going to win the European Cup. They were obviously ageing and they were set in the British way, very powerful.
He needed to bring in a more fluent type of football with elements of the ’94 team still in place, like Keane and Schmeichel. He then brought in the younger players, a couple of foreign ones and then David May, Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke, and we went through our European education.
No, I don’t think there will be another treble winning team and if there is, good luck to the team that does it because they will have one hell of a time.
I’m saying that as part of a team that hopes to do it again, but also as somebody who knows what it takes. And everything has to go like you wouldn’t believe. You have to win game after game in the last minute.
Everyone remembers the celebrated matches that season – the European semi-final in Turin, the FA Cup semi at Villa Park and the European Cup final itself – but they forget that there were others like against Liverpool in the fourth round of the FA Cup.
We were one goal down with five minutes to go and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer ends up scoring the winner in the last seconds. So many things have to go well. If Dennis Bergkamp scores a penalty against us in the FA Cup semi, Arsenal probably win the Double. But we came away from Villa Park that night thinking something might be happening, and then we knew nothing was going to stop us once we won in Turin.
Even at 2-0 down to Juventus, I remember Becks coming over and saying: ‘C’mon, we can do this,’ and he’s not really the type for that.
To have belief even in that situation was incredible, because the defence had endured a 20-minute nightmare. I was caught out for one goal, losing Inzaghi, and Jaap Stam was being run ragged down that side. Ronny Johnsen was all over the place. We were playing very poorly but we were a decent bunch of lads who managed to pull off a freak. The Treble will be a freak. I just can’t see it being repeated.
By LEE CLAYTON
'Gary Neville, he's a red, he's a red, he's a red... 'Gary Neville, he's a red... 'He hates Scousers.'
The Manchester United supporters love Gary Neville. And not just because he hates Scousers. He is the ferociously competetive shop steward of a right back who has become the leader of a team hoping to win back the title from Chelsea. It would be his first title as captain.
And here, in a remarkable insight into his love and passion for Manchester United, Neville looks back on the joys of his career and reveals what it takes to become a cult hero at Old Trafford.
--------------------------------------------------------------
'United, Liverpool. Barcelona, Real Madrid, Juventus and Milan... they are the clubs with real tradition, history and power. Others may try but nobody else breaks into that and they never will.'
When I stop playing, I’d love just to travel round Europe watching United with my mates. What’s better than watching your team play football and having a few drinks and something to eat after? Criticising them if they lose, jumping around hysterically if they win.
I saw men screaming, with the veins coming out of their neck, on Deansgate the day after we won the European Cup. Nothing in their life made them do that before, nothing in their life made them do it since. You can spend 30 quid on nothing these days, on absolute rubbish. Or you can get the buzz of your life out of watching United.
I always tell the young players here, if you look down at your shirt and see a Manchester United badge, you’re not having a bad day. You’re doing all right. The day I don’t have the United badge on my chest will be a sad one for me. I don’t think I can ever have the same feeling playing for another football club. That is no criticism of anyone else, but I am so ingrained in United and it is such a big part of my life.
I’m not naive enough to think there is only Man United. Barcelona, Real Madrid, Juventus, Milan and Bayern Munich have more than got enough right to suggest they’re at the very top of the game, with United and Liverpool. Those clubs are the ones with the real tradition and history and power. They have the immense following. Others can try, but nobody breaks into that.
And they never will.
The biggest clubs can have bad seasons, bad decades even, but they will never be abandoned or forgotten. That might be seen as me having a go at others, but it’s the reality. I know because I’ve seen United climb back up from the depths. I didn’t grow up watching United win championships, but that didn’t stop me loving the club or feeling it.
I always say this to the fans when they talk about who owns the club or who the directors are or who the chairman is: when you first walked into that ground at the age of five or 10, you didn’t walk up the steps from the refreshment bar and think, who’s that sat over there in the directors’ box? You fell in love with that team running out in that red shirt, in that great ground, on that green pitch. That was what drew you to the club and made you think, wow, that’s got me. And it’s an addiction you have for life.
Managers are important, so are directors and players, but we all come and go. It was walking into the stadium, that’s what gripped me, the size of it – I was in awe of the whole place. I just love everything; the badge, the history.
You can fall in love with a player but, deep down, you know he’ll leave one day. That’s why I always say that the people within the club are just there to serve it. It’s the club and the badge that matters so much. The players are just adding their little bit to a massive depth of history.
'Medals are great, but the real miracle is that I shared a dressing room with six of my best mates and my brother for more than 10 years.'
You will find a few people around United, influential ones, who weren’t sure I would make 50 games, never mind 500. I spent most of my teenage years waiting for rejection. I still remember my shock at being one of the 16 picked out of 200 kids in the under-11s. That letter through the post was the most unbelievable thing I had ever seen.
I still wonder why I was invited back every year, and it can only have been attitude. If training started at 5pm, I would be there at 4.15, passing against a wall. I knew I had to do that when I saw the skills of local lads like Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt at 13. Then the out-of-town kids joined us, like David Beckham, Keith Gillespie and Robbie Savage. I was a central midfield player and I thought, ‘I’m not as good as this lot, nowhere near’.
People assume that a career in football falls into your lap, that you were always going to play for Manchester United. They don’t see the challenges you have to overcome and they forget the dozens of players who never quite make it.
If you aren’t the most talented player in the world, you have to sprint to keep up. You have to make sacrifices. When I left school at 16, I made the conscious decision that I would cut myself off from all of my mates. It sounds brutal, and it was selfish, but I knew that they would be doing all sorts of teenage things that I couldn’t get involved with, even if that was just having a few drinks.
I’ll always remember my dad telling me: ‘You’ve got two years to give it a real go. Never look back and wish you’d done more.’ Medals are great, but the real miracle is that I shared a dressing room with six of my best mates and my brother for more than 10 years. It sounds like a cliché, but I’ve been living a childhood dream.
There are times when I could have played better, games when I might have made fewer mistakes, but one thing I would like to say for myself is that, from the age of 16 to 31, I’ve given everything. Your best is the least you should give, but we’ve all seen players who have fallen short because they haven’t applied themselves. Players with much more talent than me. And if I ever thought I’d cracked it, that would probably be the end of me.
'Schmeichel used to hammer me, Bruce ripped me to shreds, some of the first team were animals, they were so aggressive and so demanding. It was brutal. Now foreigners don't expect to be shouted and screamed at...football is becoming softer.'
It will go down as a legendary youth side (1992), and that’s not me bragging. It has to when you look at Ryan Giggs captaining Wales, David Beckham captaining England, me winning 80-odd caps, Paul Scholes becoming one of the very best United players, Nicky Butt winning six championship titles, and the same with my brother, Phil.
It was a freak that will still be talked about in 50 years, and not just because of the six of us, but because of all the others who have gone on and are still playing or working in football. Robbie Savage and Keith Gillespie have been Premiership players, internationals.
We were brought up in a hard school. Our youth coach, Eric Harrison, was tough with us, the manager was tough with us and then, when you got close to the first team, you had to deal with Mark Hughes, Eric Cantona, Roy Keane and Paul Ince. You couldn’t be a wimp with those lads.
I’ve always said that they saw us as a threat to them as a winning group. Those players had already won medals and they were thinking, is this bunch of kids going to keep me in championships?
Peter Schmeichel used to hammer me. We would be practising and he would just pluck my crosses out of the air as if to say: ‘You’re not good enough.’ It was only three or four years later that he came up to me on a team day out and said: ‘You’ve proved me wrong.’ That is the education that people don’t see.
I still remember Steve Bruce ripping me to shreds at Elland Road, Mark Hughes charging at me just because I hadn’t played the ball into the channel, Eric Cantona giving me the stare, Keaney and Incey snarling. And that was before you had to face the manager. It was a hard school, but the best education imaginable.
It was all about the levels, the standards that you have to produce, and they were incredibly driven. They were animals, some of them. To be honest, you could say that they weren’t nice people to play with at times. They were so demanding, so aggressive. You lived or died by it, but we came through it.
They were brutal at times, some of them, and it is getting harder and harder to be like that now. Generally, you’re talking about a more sensitive player now, a more technically gifted player.
Foreign players don’t expect to be shouted and screamed at. Football is becoming softer.
'I was playing for England and earning £210-a-week, now money has created a distance between the working class and football, but I can't stand it when a fan says "I paid your wages"'
I came into football at the right time, in the sense that the money has catapulted. I’m not going to apologise for that, but it wasn’t why I came into the game in the first place. I signed a contract at 16 which promised me £29.50 a week for two years, so I didn’t come into this for the money. I came here because I loved playing football and playing for United.
At 18 I got £210 a week and I was playing for England. In fact, I was playing for England for £230 a week, because it went up 20 pounds a year. Because it went up to £1,000 a week after that, it didn’t make me a different person, and am I going to turn it down when the club increases it to £5,000?
You can’t tell me that the players of the 60s weren’t earning a lot more than the plumbers or the electricians so, while I appreciate that football has given me a great lifestyle, I don’t think I should apologise for that. But I do accept that, combined with the media coverage and the superstardom of players, the money can create a distance between the working class and a working-class player.
You can see that sometimes when you hear a fan say: ‘I paid this or that, I paid your wages.’ I can’t stand that, to be honest. My dad would never say that when he was taking us to watch United.
Of course we appreciate what the fans spend to watch the club, but I honestly believe you get your money’s worth when you consider the rewards you get. You could spend the same on 10 beers or a family night out at the cinema, and I can’t believe you’ll get the feelings that come from watching United.
If you were watching in the ’99 season, whatever you spent following us around, believe me, you were still well in credit. You have memories that will last you a lifetime. It has given you feelings that made you shiver.
People talk about the crowds changing, especially at United, and maybe it has, but there are still those moments when it is incredibly raw. And you can still sense that passion when you go to the pubs in Salford and you see the MUFC tattoos on the knuckles. This club can enthrall you. That’s what Manchester United does, it grips you and gets you if you really want it.
'No, I don't think another team will ever win the treble... and I say that as part of of a team that hopes to do it again'
The ’94 team is always mentioned as being one of the best United teams, certainly the most powerful, but I think the manager realised in 1995 that it was never going to win the European Cup. They were obviously ageing and they were set in the British way, very powerful.
He needed to bring in a more fluent type of football with elements of the ’94 team still in place, like Keane and Schmeichel. He then brought in the younger players, a couple of foreign ones and then David May, Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke, and we went through our European education.
No, I don’t think there will be another treble winning team and if there is, good luck to the team that does it because they will have one hell of a time.
I’m saying that as part of a team that hopes to do it again, but also as somebody who knows what it takes. And everything has to go like you wouldn’t believe. You have to win game after game in the last minute.
Everyone remembers the celebrated matches that season – the European semi-final in Turin, the FA Cup semi at Villa Park and the European Cup final itself – but they forget that there were others like against Liverpool in the fourth round of the FA Cup.
We were one goal down with five minutes to go and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer ends up scoring the winner in the last seconds. So many things have to go well. If Dennis Bergkamp scores a penalty against us in the FA Cup semi, Arsenal probably win the Double. But we came away from Villa Park that night thinking something might be happening, and then we knew nothing was going to stop us once we won in Turin.
Even at 2-0 down to Juventus, I remember Becks coming over and saying: ‘C’mon, we can do this,’ and he’s not really the type for that.
To have belief even in that situation was incredible, because the defence had endured a 20-minute nightmare. I was caught out for one goal, losing Inzaghi, and Jaap Stam was being run ragged down that side. Ronny Johnsen was all over the place. We were playing very poorly but we were a decent bunch of lads who managed to pull off a freak. The Treble will be a freak. I just can’t see it being repeated.
Sunday, November 05, 2006
Monday, October 30, 2006
20 Legend
As one of the Strettie End Favourite goes...
You are my Solskjaer,
my only Solskjaer.
You make me happy,
when skies are grey.
Oh Alan Shearer,
Is fucking dearer.
Please don't take,
my Solskjaer away...
After having enjoyed the services of loyal players like Solskjaer, Keano, Giggs, Scholes etc etc etc, can anyone blame us for lamenting the level of commitment of the likes of Richardson?
As one Stretford End banner reads simply>> 20 Legend
Steve Tongue meets a man who really does smile at adversity
Independent 29 October 2006
Amid all the excitement of Manchester United's struggle to evict Crewe Alexandra from the Carling Cup last Wednesday night - two long-serving heart-patient managers, the late winning goal from a teenaged debutant and so on - one significant aspect was understandably overlooked: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer played 120 minutes of football.
During long periods of the little pixie's career, that might have been the ration for half-a-dozen games. Worse, for the past three seasons this time of year has resembled not so much the autumn of his playing days as the grim Norwegian winter. But suddenly, delightfully, Solskjaer is enjoying an Indian summer, the calendar no longer ringed with knee operations.
Ask how many of those there have been and the baby face creases up in concentration. "Let me have a think now. The first one in September 2003, then a major one in August 2004 - that was the [cartilage] transplant - and another one in summer 2005, same type of injury but a different place in the knee. So three decent-sized operations. And lots of arthroscopy and things in between. They've been inside the knee a few times!"
The day after undertaking a full shift like last Wednesday's, rather than one of his famed cameos from the substitutes' bench, he takes things "a little bit easy - swimming, on the bike, no running, not at my age". But there is no apparent discomfort as he bounds up the stairs at United's training centre, where over the past three years he spent so many long, hard days of rehabilitation.
As recently as last December Sir Alex Ferguson looked and sounded wretched when admitting that the prospects of a return to full fitness for one of his favourite sons were not encouraging, and that a testimonial match was under consideration. Solskjaer insists that his own concern was whether he would be able to return to the high standard demanded by himself as well as his club.
"There were times when I had pain in the knee and thought, 'Is this ever going to be 100 per cent again?' After the main operation, it was a test of patience. I had a cast on for three months and was in bed, just moving the knee, eight or nine hours a day. But I never went to sleep thinking I wouldn't play again. I was always positive about that, mentally preparing myself every night.
"There was a woman who worked with the Norwegian Olympic athletes and she made me keep a diary, writing things down about how I felt, which I did during training as well. When you write something negative, you realise that's bad and you must start thinking positively again."
Not that introspection was everything. Typically, Solskjaer was concerned to lift the spirits of fellow sufferers in the treatment room such as Alan Smith, who described his "inspirational" effect in these pages last week.
"I knew that I would be out for a whole season and that I couldn't contribute on the pitch, so trying to be a good example would help the young lads and anyone feeling sorry for themselves. As for me, I knew I would get back to playing but the worry was, 'Am I going to be good enough again?'
"Towards the end of last season, after a few niggles I must say I was a bit more doubtful. I didn't play particularly well in the reserves and dominate the games. But I noticed the difference after this pre-season. I played and trained with the first-team lads all the time and my own performance got up to that level. When you've had it in you before, you can find it again if you're determined and motivated enough."
The enthusiasm has never waned and can rightly be described as "boyish", stretching back as it does to earliest days in Kristiansund, a tiny town situated on three islands just off the Norwegian coast. Such was the hunger there for English football that consignments of Match Weekly and Shoot! would arrive every Thursday, the highlight of young Solskjaer's week.
As a footballer, he was a self-confessed late developer, whose professional career was further delayed by serving in the army for two years; he was 22 before joining a leading club, Molde. Success there led to an international debut in 1995 and, the following year, one of those chance occurrences that change careers and lives.
United wanted to sign Norway's central defender Ronny Johnsen and sent Ferguson's assistant, Jim Ryan, to watch an international against Azerbaijan. Ryan not only got his man, but found his eye taken by a young forward called Solskjaer, who scored two dazzling goals and was recruited as well, at a cost of ?1.5 million.
It was hardly a leap into the unknown for him. "I think I knew everything about Eighties football in England," he smiles. "Match Of The Day was always on and I used to write down all the team-sheets and formations. So I just jumped at the chance. Eighteen months after playing at a very low level with my local team in front of 50 or 60 people, I was playing with Eric Cantona, Ryan Giggs and Roy Keane."
Making an early impression at a club who had just done the Double was important. Ferguson gave him a couple of reserve games, then threw him on at home to Blackburn for the first of what are now almost 150 substitute appearances in a total of 345. "I've been asked many times what's the greatest moment of my United career. Scoring that goal in my first game and turning round to see that Eric Cantona was the first one coming towards me celebrating, that just made me realise, 'I'm at Old Trafford now'."
Those questioners might reasonably have expected an answer relating to events in Barcelona on the night of 26 May 1999; United's attempt to make history by completing a treble of Premiership, FA Cup and Champions' League. Despite having finished as leading scorer in his first season, two years earlier, Solskjaer had become less of an automatic choice than a supremely reliable supersub. Many players might have resented the role.
Ferguson knew he had a genuine team player in his hugely popular Norwegian, and would drop in a carefully chosen phrase occasionally as a reminder of his faith. Such an occasion was the final League game of the season, at home to Tottenham, when victory was required to complete the first leg of the Treble.
"The main strikers were Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole, who rotated with me and Teddy Sheringham. The last couple of months of that season I didn't play many games, but I was on the bench. We were drawing against Spurs and the gaffer put Coley on for Yorkey and said, 'If you haven't scored with 10 or 15 minutes left don't panic, I'll just put Ole on'. I still remember how my confidence shot up. That was his man-management, and it will always be with me."
As it happened, Cole scored the winning goal and Solskjaer was not needed. His reward, as well as a second Premiership medal, was a place in the FA Cup final victory over Newcastle the following week. Two down and a European Cup final to go.
"I just felt something big was going to happen to me that night. I spoke to a friend of mine before the game who said he was working a night shift and wouldn't be able to watch the last half an hour of it, but I asked him to make sure he did.
"It was one of those stupid things you feel. At half-time, one-nil down, I was looking at the gaffer and thinking, 'Why don't you put me on, I need to get on here,' but he put Teddy on. And eventually I came on and, well, we got two goals in the end."
Right at the end, of course, in quite sensational fashion, the second of them as David Beckham swings in another corner, Sheringham gets the faintest touch on and the slender choirboy with the machine-gun finishes off Bayern.
Best day of your life? "No, I wouldn't say that. But professionally, yes, I would say you can't top the last 10 days of that season, winning three trophies in 10 days. And all in it together, that's the best thing of all. I could never have been an individual athlete, like my dad, who was a Greco-Roman wrestler. I'm so happy to be part of a team, see how people gel together and work for each other and win together. That's one of the things that makes me want to go on in football after I've finished playing, as a coach or manager."
There is more to achieve before then. Aged 33 now, he has a contract until the end of next season, by which time United hope to have pushed Chelsea a whole lot harder than in the past two years and sustained a more lasting challenge in Europe. The boy from Kristiansund wants to play his part, even if he has more reason than most players to welcome the advent of those new, lavishly furnished, substitutes' seats.
"There's no chance you'll get me moaning about being a sub. I'm so proud of having been a part of the history of Man United. To be known as a good substitute at Man United is better than to not be known at all. My dad still says, 'You've been very, very fortunate, you've been at the best club'. It's just fantastic having been a part of it."
LIFE & TIMES: From the fjords to Old Trafford
NAME: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
BORN: 26 February 1973, Kristiansund, Norway.
VITAL STATS: 5ft 10in, 11st 6lb.
POSITION: Forward.
CLUB CAREER: Clausenegen FK; Molde 1995-96 (42 games, 31 goals); Manchester Utd '96-current, fee ?1.5m (345 games, 123 goals);
Premiership title '97, '99, 2000, '01, '03; FA Cup '99, '04; League Cup '06; Champions' League '99. Patron of Manchester Utd
Supporters' Trust.
INTERNATIONAL CAREER: 61 caps, 21 goals for Norway; debut v Jamaica '95; World Cup '98, Euro 2000.
AND ANOTHER THING: His father was Norway's Greco-Roman wrestling champion '66-71.
You are my Solskjaer,
my only Solskjaer.
You make me happy,
when skies are grey.
Oh Alan Shearer,
Is fucking dearer.
Please don't take,
my Solskjaer away...
After having enjoyed the services of loyal players like Solskjaer, Keano, Giggs, Scholes etc etc etc, can anyone blame us for lamenting the level of commitment of the likes of Richardson?
As one Stretford End banner reads simply>> 20 Legend
Steve Tongue meets a man who really does smile at adversity
Independent 29 October 2006
Amid all the excitement of Manchester United's struggle to evict Crewe Alexandra from the Carling Cup last Wednesday night - two long-serving heart-patient managers, the late winning goal from a teenaged debutant and so on - one significant aspect was understandably overlooked: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer played 120 minutes of football.
During long periods of the little pixie's career, that might have been the ration for half-a-dozen games. Worse, for the past three seasons this time of year has resembled not so much the autumn of his playing days as the grim Norwegian winter. But suddenly, delightfully, Solskjaer is enjoying an Indian summer, the calendar no longer ringed with knee operations.
Ask how many of those there have been and the baby face creases up in concentration. "Let me have a think now. The first one in September 2003, then a major one in August 2004 - that was the [cartilage] transplant - and another one in summer 2005, same type of injury but a different place in the knee. So three decent-sized operations. And lots of arthroscopy and things in between. They've been inside the knee a few times!"
The day after undertaking a full shift like last Wednesday's, rather than one of his famed cameos from the substitutes' bench, he takes things "a little bit easy - swimming, on the bike, no running, not at my age". But there is no apparent discomfort as he bounds up the stairs at United's training centre, where over the past three years he spent so many long, hard days of rehabilitation.
As recently as last December Sir Alex Ferguson looked and sounded wretched when admitting that the prospects of a return to full fitness for one of his favourite sons were not encouraging, and that a testimonial match was under consideration. Solskjaer insists that his own concern was whether he would be able to return to the high standard demanded by himself as well as his club.
"There were times when I had pain in the knee and thought, 'Is this ever going to be 100 per cent again?' After the main operation, it was a test of patience. I had a cast on for three months and was in bed, just moving the knee, eight or nine hours a day. But I never went to sleep thinking I wouldn't play again. I was always positive about that, mentally preparing myself every night.
"There was a woman who worked with the Norwegian Olympic athletes and she made me keep a diary, writing things down about how I felt, which I did during training as well. When you write something negative, you realise that's bad and you must start thinking positively again."
Not that introspection was everything. Typically, Solskjaer was concerned to lift the spirits of fellow sufferers in the treatment room such as Alan Smith, who described his "inspirational" effect in these pages last week.
"I knew that I would be out for a whole season and that I couldn't contribute on the pitch, so trying to be a good example would help the young lads and anyone feeling sorry for themselves. As for me, I knew I would get back to playing but the worry was, 'Am I going to be good enough again?'
"Towards the end of last season, after a few niggles I must say I was a bit more doubtful. I didn't play particularly well in the reserves and dominate the games. But I noticed the difference after this pre-season. I played and trained with the first-team lads all the time and my own performance got up to that level. When you've had it in you before, you can find it again if you're determined and motivated enough."
The enthusiasm has never waned and can rightly be described as "boyish", stretching back as it does to earliest days in Kristiansund, a tiny town situated on three islands just off the Norwegian coast. Such was the hunger there for English football that consignments of Match Weekly and Shoot! would arrive every Thursday, the highlight of young Solskjaer's week.
As a footballer, he was a self-confessed late developer, whose professional career was further delayed by serving in the army for two years; he was 22 before joining a leading club, Molde. Success there led to an international debut in 1995 and, the following year, one of those chance occurrences that change careers and lives.
United wanted to sign Norway's central defender Ronny Johnsen and sent Ferguson's assistant, Jim Ryan, to watch an international against Azerbaijan. Ryan not only got his man, but found his eye taken by a young forward called Solskjaer, who scored two dazzling goals and was recruited as well, at a cost of ?1.5 million.
It was hardly a leap into the unknown for him. "I think I knew everything about Eighties football in England," he smiles. "Match Of The Day was always on and I used to write down all the team-sheets and formations. So I just jumped at the chance. Eighteen months after playing at a very low level with my local team in front of 50 or 60 people, I was playing with Eric Cantona, Ryan Giggs and Roy Keane."
Making an early impression at a club who had just done the Double was important. Ferguson gave him a couple of reserve games, then threw him on at home to Blackburn for the first of what are now almost 150 substitute appearances in a total of 345. "I've been asked many times what's the greatest moment of my United career. Scoring that goal in my first game and turning round to see that Eric Cantona was the first one coming towards me celebrating, that just made me realise, 'I'm at Old Trafford now'."
Those questioners might reasonably have expected an answer relating to events in Barcelona on the night of 26 May 1999; United's attempt to make history by completing a treble of Premiership, FA Cup and Champions' League. Despite having finished as leading scorer in his first season, two years earlier, Solskjaer had become less of an automatic choice than a supremely reliable supersub. Many players might have resented the role.
Ferguson knew he had a genuine team player in his hugely popular Norwegian, and would drop in a carefully chosen phrase occasionally as a reminder of his faith. Such an occasion was the final League game of the season, at home to Tottenham, when victory was required to complete the first leg of the Treble.
"The main strikers were Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole, who rotated with me and Teddy Sheringham. The last couple of months of that season I didn't play many games, but I was on the bench. We were drawing against Spurs and the gaffer put Coley on for Yorkey and said, 'If you haven't scored with 10 or 15 minutes left don't panic, I'll just put Ole on'. I still remember how my confidence shot up. That was his man-management, and it will always be with me."
As it happened, Cole scored the winning goal and Solskjaer was not needed. His reward, as well as a second Premiership medal, was a place in the FA Cup final victory over Newcastle the following week. Two down and a European Cup final to go.
"I just felt something big was going to happen to me that night. I spoke to a friend of mine before the game who said he was working a night shift and wouldn't be able to watch the last half an hour of it, but I asked him to make sure he did.
"It was one of those stupid things you feel. At half-time, one-nil down, I was looking at the gaffer and thinking, 'Why don't you put me on, I need to get on here,' but he put Teddy on. And eventually I came on and, well, we got two goals in the end."
Right at the end, of course, in quite sensational fashion, the second of them as David Beckham swings in another corner, Sheringham gets the faintest touch on and the slender choirboy with the machine-gun finishes off Bayern.
Best day of your life? "No, I wouldn't say that. But professionally, yes, I would say you can't top the last 10 days of that season, winning three trophies in 10 days. And all in it together, that's the best thing of all. I could never have been an individual athlete, like my dad, who was a Greco-Roman wrestler. I'm so happy to be part of a team, see how people gel together and work for each other and win together. That's one of the things that makes me want to go on in football after I've finished playing, as a coach or manager."
There is more to achieve before then. Aged 33 now, he has a contract until the end of next season, by which time United hope to have pushed Chelsea a whole lot harder than in the past two years and sustained a more lasting challenge in Europe. The boy from Kristiansund wants to play his part, even if he has more reason than most players to welcome the advent of those new, lavishly furnished, substitutes' seats.
"There's no chance you'll get me moaning about being a sub. I'm so proud of having been a part of the history of Man United. To be known as a good substitute at Man United is better than to not be known at all. My dad still says, 'You've been very, very fortunate, you've been at the best club'. It's just fantastic having been a part of it."
LIFE & TIMES: From the fjords to Old Trafford
NAME: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
BORN: 26 February 1973, Kristiansund, Norway.
VITAL STATS: 5ft 10in, 11st 6lb.
POSITION: Forward.
CLUB CAREER: Clausenegen FK; Molde 1995-96 (42 games, 31 goals); Manchester Utd '96-current, fee ?1.5m (345 games, 123 goals);
Premiership title '97, '99, 2000, '01, '03; FA Cup '99, '04; League Cup '06; Champions' League '99. Patron of Manchester Utd
Supporters' Trust.
INTERNATIONAL CAREER: 61 caps, 21 goals for Norway; debut v Jamaica '95; World Cup '98, Euro 2000.
AND ANOTHER THING: His father was Norway's Greco-Roman wrestling champion '66-71.
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Bye bye Schumi...
In racing, he will always be my hero....
From The Straits Times
Farewell Schumi
German star thanks fans, Ferrari family for their support after his final race
SAO PAOLO - WHEN the end finally came, Ferrari's Michael Schumacher was left struggling for words.
His glorious career had come to a dramatic end at the Brazilian Grand Prix on Sunday.
'Today, my racing career comes to an end,' said the German star. 'Obviously it's a special moment for me and I am proud to have lived my career with some fantastic people - namely everyone who is a part of the Ferrari family.
'There is so much to say - I can't find the right words.
'The things I will miss are probably the fans. In every moment, they have been behind me and have always supported me.
'Their support helped me perform, especially in moments when it was difficult.
'Over the years, that was immensely important. I can only say thank you to those people and those fans.'
The seven-time world champion finished his career with one of his most stirring drives. He started in 10th place and worked his way up to finish fourth and just off the podium.
But he still managed to find a metaphor to end his 15 years of extraordinary racing.
'In a way, it's a closed circle now for me because my Formula One career started and finished after 500 metres which was, maybe, a symbol of what happened on Sunday.'
His words referred to his first race and his last, which were hit by problems thatwrecked his hopes of victory.
But his actions on the track spoke volumes for his talent, speed, courage and determination as he stormed from the back of the field after a puncture.
'The race was chaotic, I think that's the right word,' he said, as rival and second-time champion Fernando Alonso began his celebrations.
Alonso finished second behind Ferrari's Felipe Massa, but it was enough to give him the drivers' championship.
Said Schumacher: 'We really had a superb car. From the pure speed, we could have lapped everybody.
'So I have to say it was the perfect end to the season in terms of car performance. But for me, it didn't work out well.'
He needed to win his final race to keep alive his remote chance of another title.
But he punctured a tyre less than 10 laps into the race, dropped into last place, and finally finished fourth.
His plight brought tears to grown men in his hometown in Kerpen, Germany.
Around 750 fans watched the Brazil Grand Prix on giant television screens, many with faces painted in Ferrari colours.
'It's just so sad, sad, sad,' said one weeping middle-aged man after Schumacher suffered his punctured tyre.
'Formula One without Schumacher is over,' added another heavy-set man who was also in tears at the crowded sports arena near Cologne.
Schumacher won his last five world championships driving for Ferrari, for which he also helped win six constructors' titles from 1999-2004.
He added that his best memory was his win in 2000.
He said: 'We had a lot of hard work and setbacks, so when we finally won it, it was the most beautiful championship.'
Any regrets?
'There were things I would do differently. But if I went into that, it would get too intense and we don't have time right now.
'But there is the song 'My Way' and I think that is true right now.
'My dad was happy to see me after the race and he said: 'Finally, it's over'.'
'He was quite happy. I feel more relaxed although I think his heart rate was higher during the race than mine.'
Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel paid tribute to the driver, calling him one of the 'real greats of German sport'.
She said that Schumacher was helped by 'what are called German virtues in sport: hard work, meticulous preparation and, above all, the absolute will to make it.'
She added that he 'enriched his sport with a touch of genius'.
From The Straits Times
Farewell Schumi
German star thanks fans, Ferrari family for their support after his final race
SAO PAOLO - WHEN the end finally came, Ferrari's Michael Schumacher was left struggling for words.
His glorious career had come to a dramatic end at the Brazilian Grand Prix on Sunday.
'Today, my racing career comes to an end,' said the German star. 'Obviously it's a special moment for me and I am proud to have lived my career with some fantastic people - namely everyone who is a part of the Ferrari family.
'There is so much to say - I can't find the right words.
'The things I will miss are probably the fans. In every moment, they have been behind me and have always supported me.
'Their support helped me perform, especially in moments when it was difficult.
'Over the years, that was immensely important. I can only say thank you to those people and those fans.'
The seven-time world champion finished his career with one of his most stirring drives. He started in 10th place and worked his way up to finish fourth and just off the podium.
But he still managed to find a metaphor to end his 15 years of extraordinary racing.
'In a way, it's a closed circle now for me because my Formula One career started and finished after 500 metres which was, maybe, a symbol of what happened on Sunday.'
His words referred to his first race and his last, which were hit by problems thatwrecked his hopes of victory.
But his actions on the track spoke volumes for his talent, speed, courage and determination as he stormed from the back of the field after a puncture.
'The race was chaotic, I think that's the right word,' he said, as rival and second-time champion Fernando Alonso began his celebrations.
Alonso finished second behind Ferrari's Felipe Massa, but it was enough to give him the drivers' championship.
Said Schumacher: 'We really had a superb car. From the pure speed, we could have lapped everybody.
'So I have to say it was the perfect end to the season in terms of car performance. But for me, it didn't work out well.'
He needed to win his final race to keep alive his remote chance of another title.
But he punctured a tyre less than 10 laps into the race, dropped into last place, and finally finished fourth.
His plight brought tears to grown men in his hometown in Kerpen, Germany.
Around 750 fans watched the Brazil Grand Prix on giant television screens, many with faces painted in Ferrari colours.
'It's just so sad, sad, sad,' said one weeping middle-aged man after Schumacher suffered his punctured tyre.
'Formula One without Schumacher is over,' added another heavy-set man who was also in tears at the crowded sports arena near Cologne.
Schumacher won his last five world championships driving for Ferrari, for which he also helped win six constructors' titles from 1999-2004.
He added that his best memory was his win in 2000.
He said: 'We had a lot of hard work and setbacks, so when we finally won it, it was the most beautiful championship.'
Any regrets?
'There were things I would do differently. But if I went into that, it would get too intense and we don't have time right now.
'But there is the song 'My Way' and I think that is true right now.
'My dad was happy to see me after the race and he said: 'Finally, it's over'.'
'He was quite happy. I feel more relaxed although I think his heart rate was higher during the race than mine.'
Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel paid tribute to the driver, calling him one of the 'real greats of German sport'.
She said that Schumacher was helped by 'what are called German virtues in sport: hard work, meticulous preparation and, above all, the absolute will to make it.'
She added that he 'enriched his sport with a touch of genius'.
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Who do you share your secrets with?
Thought that the article below is pretty interesting...
From The Straits Times
Oct 23, 2006
No bosom pal? You're far from alone, study shows
LONDON - LONGER working hours and a growing Internet society have left young men with almost no close friends, a study has found.
Researchers at Duke University in North Carolina repeated research conducted by sociologists 20 years ago and found that the average man has only two friends with whom they feel they can share their closest secrets.
This compared with 3.5 'confidants' in the earlier study, reported Britain's Sunday Times.
A quarter of the men in the study said they had no one in whom they could confide - twice the number of those who felt so in 1985.
These are mostly men in their 20s who have lost touch with their school friends, and pensioners who have outlived their peers.
The study found that close friendships have been replaced by groups of 'semi-detached' work colleagues and 'chatroom chums' on the Internet, The Sunday Times reported.
Duke sociology professor Lynn Smith-Lovin said people typically have as many as 750 acquaintances, but nearly all of them fail the 'trust test'.
'You would only share your most vulnerable secrets with a true confidant if it is already proven you can trust them,' she said.
'Another significant change is who we trust: 20 years ago, a young man might have discussed sports or politics and avoided the personal. Now, the best friend is more likely to be a spouse with whom we share more interests.'
About 38 per cent of the study participants said that they trusted their spouses, compared to 30 per cent previously.
The researchers surveyed 1,500 people and found that middle-aged men in their 40s and 50s had almost three close friends each.
From The Straits Times
Oct 23, 2006
No bosom pal? You're far from alone, study shows
LONDON - LONGER working hours and a growing Internet society have left young men with almost no close friends, a study has found.
Researchers at Duke University in North Carolina repeated research conducted by sociologists 20 years ago and found that the average man has only two friends with whom they feel they can share their closest secrets.
This compared with 3.5 'confidants' in the earlier study, reported Britain's Sunday Times.
A quarter of the men in the study said they had no one in whom they could confide - twice the number of those who felt so in 1985.
These are mostly men in their 20s who have lost touch with their school friends, and pensioners who have outlived their peers.
The study found that close friendships have been replaced by groups of 'semi-detached' work colleagues and 'chatroom chums' on the Internet, The Sunday Times reported.
Duke sociology professor Lynn Smith-Lovin said people typically have as many as 750 acquaintances, but nearly all of them fail the 'trust test'.
'You would only share your most vulnerable secrets with a true confidant if it is already proven you can trust them,' she said.
'Another significant change is who we trust: 20 years ago, a young man might have discussed sports or politics and avoided the personal. Now, the best friend is more likely to be a spouse with whom we share more interests.'
About 38 per cent of the study participants said that they trusted their spouses, compared to 30 per cent previously.
The researchers surveyed 1,500 people and found that middle-aged men in their 40s and 50s had almost three close friends each.
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Work blues
My boss is currently attached somewhere else until the end of the year. Which means that he has to do jobs on 2 sides. Which also means that I would also have to do 2 persons' jobs when he is not around. Which totally sucks because I am only a one bar, not meant to do a 3 bar job at all.
As if I am not dying under the pile of work (or rather the level of difficulty of work, I mean you don't ask level 3 hero to go fight a level 20 monster right?), along comes something extremely extremely shitty which creates extra work for me and my guys.
All I can say is, if you can't help, at least don't fucking screw things up. You can ORD happily but people got to clean up the mess after you! BIG FUCKING CHEEBYE!
And NO! I am a fucking normal human being. I am not the boss when you like it and someone whom you can push around when you feel buey song. If you so li hai, go talk to the star and bring my boss back lah!
At the moment, I feel dying is much better than being tortured till I ORD. WHY OH WHY???
As if I am not dying under the pile of work (or rather the level of difficulty of work, I mean you don't ask level 3 hero to go fight a level 20 monster right?), along comes something extremely extremely shitty which creates extra work for me and my guys.
All I can say is, if you can't help, at least don't fucking screw things up. You can ORD happily but people got to clean up the mess after you! BIG FUCKING CHEEBYE!
And NO! I am a fucking normal human being. I am not the boss when you like it and someone whom you can push around when you feel buey song. If you so li hai, go talk to the star and bring my boss back lah!
At the moment, I feel dying is much better than being tortured till I ORD. WHY OH WHY???
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Instinct
You know the kind of feeling whereby you can just FEEL that what you are doing is right?
The feeling whereby you will just smile while doing something, because you know it's going to turn out great?
I THINK I am blessed with that kind of feeling. Somehow or rather, most of the time I can just feel instinctively whether I am doing the right thing.
Like when Tong Leng clicked VJC for me, I did not kbkb and change it back to HCJC, because somehow instinctively I knew it was the RIGHT choice.
Like when I decided to take Economics in JC (and subsequently Uni). No second thoughts needed even though I knew nuts about Econs before I went JC. And no regrets either.
Like when I decided I wanted to be a staff instead of a PC.
Like when I decided to buy that pair of ADIDAS Clima Cool shoes at half price. When I tried them on, they fit just nice and when I went to the cashier, I KNEW I would love this pair of shoes. And I can't stop wearing them since.
Hmm, perhaps then you might be wondering why TosH screws up so many times then. Why are there so many clothes hanging in your wardrobe that you seldom wear because in the end it turned out to be crap. Why are there a couple of pairs of footwear that you bought even though they did not really fit you? Why are there so many wrong decisions that you had taken?
I have been thinking about it too, and I could only think of this explanation. Because that "Ah Har!" feeling is just too rare, just too scarce. It doesn't come all the time you know. And you start to doubt yourself. Have you lost that instinct? Or if it IS your instinct telling you not to buy, is it because your instinct is now NOT accurate?
I felt that today at Top Man. There was a long sleeve shirt going at $35 bucks which was a pretty good deal. I went to try it, but the sleeves were too long for my shorty hands, but there wasn't any smaller size available.
I was in a dilemma. "It's cheap! Buy it!" "The sleeves are too long! Don't buy!" I started to try to imagine the sleeves were not that long. I started to con myself that the style of the shirt is like that. Just to recapture that happy feeling of buying something that really suits you.
And after a while, I got confused as to which was my "real" instinct. But somehow or rather, I knew that if I had gone to the cashier, I would not have that feeling of satisfaction like when I bought the Adidas shoes. In the interest of my bank account, I decided not to buy. But yet now, I am still thinking whether I should have bought it....
Ok this seems to be a damn shopaholic post but that's not my main point...
http://ickleoriental.livejournal.com/591645.html#cutid1
I have been reading this blog for quite a while, and I feel it's one of the better blogs out there. The author and her husband seems to be a picture perfect couple. Newly married, good looking, and into endurance sports for good measure.
Looking at their wedding photos, you can just feel (and this is just my own feeling, whether it is true or not is none of my business...) that when the Father (is he called the father? or priest?) asks "Do you agree to take XXX as your lawfully wedded wife blah blah blah", they instinctively knew it was the right decision to take.
You just feel that they had that "AH HAR!" feeling.
And this made me think, one day, if (and it's a big if...) I ever have the chance to be in that position, would I have that instinct? The "AH HAR!" feeling that tells me that I should say "I do?"
Or would I be struggling just like today to make a decision? Or worse still, would I make excuses to make myself to say "I do", in the hope that everything would turn out just fine as though I had that "AH HAR!" feeling? You know, buying a shirt that doesn't really suit you, just coz you are scared somebody bought it and you will regret that you chose to follow that silly "AH HAR!" feeling?
I suppose I won't really know until that day comes. But I do pray that when that day comes, I can see myself smiling in a mirror somewhere, knowing that I have made the right decision, that she is THE ONE, and we will grow old together....
Just like my Adidas Clima Cool...
The feeling whereby you will just smile while doing something, because you know it's going to turn out great?
I THINK I am blessed with that kind of feeling. Somehow or rather, most of the time I can just feel instinctively whether I am doing the right thing.
Like when Tong Leng clicked VJC for me, I did not kbkb and change it back to HCJC, because somehow instinctively I knew it was the RIGHT choice.
Like when I decided to take Economics in JC (and subsequently Uni). No second thoughts needed even though I knew nuts about Econs before I went JC. And no regrets either.
Like when I decided I wanted to be a staff instead of a PC.
Like when I decided to buy that pair of ADIDAS Clima Cool shoes at half price. When I tried them on, they fit just nice and when I went to the cashier, I KNEW I would love this pair of shoes. And I can't stop wearing them since.
Hmm, perhaps then you might be wondering why TosH screws up so many times then. Why are there so many clothes hanging in your wardrobe that you seldom wear because in the end it turned out to be crap. Why are there a couple of pairs of footwear that you bought even though they did not really fit you? Why are there so many wrong decisions that you had taken?
I have been thinking about it too, and I could only think of this explanation. Because that "Ah Har!" feeling is just too rare, just too scarce. It doesn't come all the time you know. And you start to doubt yourself. Have you lost that instinct? Or if it IS your instinct telling you not to buy, is it because your instinct is now NOT accurate?
I felt that today at Top Man. There was a long sleeve shirt going at $35 bucks which was a pretty good deal. I went to try it, but the sleeves were too long for my shorty hands, but there wasn't any smaller size available.
I was in a dilemma. "It's cheap! Buy it!" "The sleeves are too long! Don't buy!" I started to try to imagine the sleeves were not that long. I started to con myself that the style of the shirt is like that. Just to recapture that happy feeling of buying something that really suits you.
And after a while, I got confused as to which was my "real" instinct. But somehow or rather, I knew that if I had gone to the cashier, I would not have that feeling of satisfaction like when I bought the Adidas shoes. In the interest of my bank account, I decided not to buy. But yet now, I am still thinking whether I should have bought it....
Ok this seems to be a damn shopaholic post but that's not my main point...
http://ickleoriental.livejournal.com/591645.html#cutid1
I have been reading this blog for quite a while, and I feel it's one of the better blogs out there. The author and her husband seems to be a picture perfect couple. Newly married, good looking, and into endurance sports for good measure.
Looking at their wedding photos, you can just feel (and this is just my own feeling, whether it is true or not is none of my business...) that when the Father (is he called the father? or priest?) asks "Do you agree to take XXX as your lawfully wedded wife blah blah blah", they instinctively knew it was the right decision to take.
You just feel that they had that "AH HAR!" feeling.
And this made me think, one day, if (and it's a big if...) I ever have the chance to be in that position, would I have that instinct? The "AH HAR!" feeling that tells me that I should say "I do?"
Or would I be struggling just like today to make a decision? Or worse still, would I make excuses to make myself to say "I do", in the hope that everything would turn out just fine as though I had that "AH HAR!" feeling? You know, buying a shirt that doesn't really suit you, just coz you are scared somebody bought it and you will regret that you chose to follow that silly "AH HAR!" feeling?
I suppose I won't really know until that day comes. But I do pray that when that day comes, I can see myself smiling in a mirror somewhere, knowing that I have made the right decision, that she is THE ONE, and we will grow old together....
Just like my Adidas Clima Cool...
Friday, September 22, 2006
Thursday, September 21, 2006
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