Evil Facebook

They call it “The Amy Cheong Saga” but personally I rather called it “The Fast & The Furious”. A racist Facebook post by a National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) employee named Amy Chong had her sack from her job less than 24 hours later.

On 8 October 2012, Amy Cheong posted comments on her Facebook page on noise from a Malay wedding. Angered by the noise of the wedding, she also mocked the Malay community for not holding their weddings at hotels and implied that Malay divorce rates were high because of their low-cost weddings.

The reckless and stupid post went viral. Criticism on Facebook and Twitter against Amy Chong soon followed and before you know it, calls were made for her to be fired from NTUC and a police report was made. Reactions were swift. The labor movement (yes, NTUC is supposed to be a labor movement) sacked her and several ministers including Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong got into the act, condemning her post and backing NTUC's move.

All these in less than 24 hours after Amy Chong first made the post!

Man if this incident does not tell you to be careful about what you put up on Facebook, nothing will! Thank the gods I almost never put anything up on my Facebook page. Fear Facebook my friend, for the consequence will come fast and furious. Fear Facebook and fear it a lot!

Too Late

Turkish forces fired across the frontier into Syria on Sunday after a shell launched from Syria landed in Turkey's border town of Akcakale. This is the fifth day Turkey and Syria had exchange fire and Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan once again said that Turkey does not want war, but warned Syria (again) not to test its resolve.

It’s a hollow threat and everyone knows it.

Hollow not in the sense that Turkey can’t or won’t enter the conflict in Syria; hollow in that Turkey is ALREADY in the conflict in Syria! It’s an open secret that Turkey has been helping the Syrian rebels in their rebellion against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Syrian rebels are using Turkey as a staging ground to launch attacks into Syria and Turkish “nationals” has been killed within Syria by President Bashar al-Assad's forces. So quite naturally, Syria is now hitting Turkey to stop the flow of rebels coming into Syria. Much like what America has been trying to do in Pakistan for years! 

So it’s a little late for Prime Minister Erdogan to warned Syria about Turkey entering the war. Whether he wants to admit it or not, Turkey is already in the war and Syria (quite rightfully) already consider Turkey an enemy. Turkey has already picked a side in the war; it's too late to back out now. 

New Cooling Measures?

A Housing and Development Board (HDB) executive maisonette in Bishan sold for $980,000. In the third quarter from the April-June, Singapore private home prices rose 0.5%. Resale prices of HDB apartments rose again by 2% quarter-on-quarter. All these are signs that the Singapore government’s cooling measures had failed miserably. So what does the Singapore government do?

It set new cooling measures! From Oct 6, Singaporeans can only have a max tenure of 35 years!

Uh? That’s my reaction when I heard it on the news. I mean the average loan for residential property is between 25 to 30 years. So can someone please tell me how does a max tenure of 35 years help cool the property market?

The biggest reasons for rising property prices are increased immigration, low interest rates and rapid credit growth. Since when did the length of the loan arrangement became a major factor? If the Singapore government says that this new rule will cool the market, they are either wrong or they are not serious in lowering property prices.

High Saving, High Worries

According to an international survey conducted by the Aviva Consumer Attitudes to Savings, Singaporeans are more inclined to save for their future than people in India, China, the U.S and the U.K. However, despite their high savings, the survey also noted that most Singaporeans have worries that they do not have enough for retirement.

 

To Singaporeans, the results of this survey will come as no surprise. The main reason is that in Singapore, we have rising cost of living along with little government spending on social benefits. It’s common to see old men and women in their 70s and 80s along the street hawking tissue papers or working as cleaners just to get by. The proud lack of a welfare system (for the government) and the policy of increased immigration (which leads to higher cost of living) have made Singaporeans turned more and more to savings. And that might still not be enough for retirement.

 

As for our CPF…well, the less said of it the better. I personally have no idea when I will be able to get my hands on my CPF money. So this survey which shows that despite our high savings, Singaporeans still worried about our retirement?

 

Par for course in this country.

Comics this week

Earth 2 #5- Things got into high gear here as the Wonders of Earth 2 takes on Rotworld Gundy. However, as good as the action is, the main high point for me was the introduction and hints of the other Wonders on Earth 2. The Sandmen, Captain Steel, Red Tornado, Sloan; if you include the Atom and Hawkgirl, the guys at the World Army have been busy. Good action with strong layout of the future sound like a great issue to me.   

 

Green Lantern #13- Writer Geoff Johns is trying to do something different with Baz, the latest Green Lantern. I know that but he need to move things into gear quickly. This issue has more focus on the reactions of the US Government and Baz’s family than with anything to do with Baz itself. Nothing wrong with that but with a brand new GL on the table, it’s strange to see the reactions of other people instead of Baz himself. Hopefully, things will get better because Baz seem an interesting character like a GL who could be considered a villain on Earth kind of way.

Review of Dredd

A reboot directed by Pete Travis, Dredd stars Karl Urban as Judge Dredd, a “Judge” in the vast dystopian metropolis of Mega-City One. America is now a post-apocalyptic wasteland called “Cursed Earth” and the whole of the human population is now packed into 3 mega-cities in the country. A Judge is a law enforcer given the power of judge, jury and executioner in the city.

 

From the get-go, you know this movie is full of action when Dredd chased after and shoot dead 3 criminals in a bloody and exciting chase through the streets of Mega-City One. It set the tone for the whole movie.

 

Immediately after the shootout, Dredd is tasked with evaluating rookie Judge Anderson (Olivia Thirlby), a psychic mutant who just failed her Judge test. Investigating a triple homicide in a 200-story slum tower block called Peach Trees, the duo learn of a drug den (one of several within the block), and assaulted it. They arrested a criminal named Kay, who Anderson psychically detects has some involvement in the murders.

 

Unable to them, Kay is also one of the top man in the Ma-Ma gang. Ma-Ma (Lena Headey) is the resident drug lord of Peach Trees and to prevent Kay being removed from the building, Ma-Ma ordered her forces to shut down the block and the death of Dredd and Anderson. From there on, it’s one shootout after another as the duo tried to survive to the top of the block where Ma-Ma has her residence.

 

First off, forgot everything about the crap that was Sly Stallone’s Judge Dredd! Yes, that movie is also a science fiction action film based on the 2000 AD comic strip Judge Dredd just like this one but that’s all the similarity they have.

 

Dredd is a blood-soaked action-packed movie that is miles better than the original. For one, the guys making the blood for this movie made a killing. Blood flow freely in this movie and it has been quite some time since we saw a movie that is so unabashedly bloody.  

 

Dredd remains faithful to the comic. Judge Dredd's face, except for his mouth, is never shown in the movie! In the comics, Judge Dredd never takes his helmet off because he is the faceless, ruthless, and merciless face of the law and I am glad they kept that. It just wouldn’t be Judge Dredd if we can see his face.

 

Also I love the fact that they were honest about the fear citizens has of the Judges. In the comics, ordinary citizens are as fearful of the Judges as they are of the criminals. And this movie is not afraid to show you why. It’s not just the matter of corrupt Judges, even upright Judges like Dredd are feared as they hold the power of life and death over everyone.

 

Of course there are a few things that could have work better. I read that this is the first movie directed by Pete Travis and in some ways it showed. The main story of the movie is about “Slo-Mo”, an addictive new drug that slows down the user's perception of time to 1% of normal. Pete Travis used this as a way to have a lot (and I mean a lot) of slow motion shootout. It was great the first few times, but after the sixth or seventh…

 

Also we were never told why the Judges were so intend to stop “Slo-Mo”. Yes it’s an illegal drug but that seems a strange reason for all the bodies.

 

Still, these are minor points. Pete Travis did a good job bringing the city to life and he fearlessly showed the Judges’ merciless duties. Compared to the Sly Stallone’s flick, Dredd is a breath of true Mega-City air.

Safe Driving

Last week I met up with an old friend of mine who is taking his driving test right now. As I got my license over 15 years ago in the army, I was interested to know what he was doing. Personally, I think I was interested in what is being taught now and how different it is from when I got my license.

 

Generally, I found that it’s mostly the same. Theory, test, then practical. Not a whole lot of difference really. What is different is the safety lessons they give now. Driving lessons always has a safety section but now they are teaching new drivers about ABS, airbags and how safe they will be even when in an accident.

 

Frankly, I think that’s too much information. New drivers usually drive faster than older drivers and frankly I don’t think it’s such a good idea to tell them how safe they will be even if they crash the car. Yes, of course there are safety features in the car. Everyone knows that but logically speaking, wouldn’t drivers drive more slowly (and safely) if they think they are going to die if they crash?

 

The aim of the safety lessons is to get new drivers to drive safe. Frankly I think giving new drivers so much info about airbags is counterproductive.