The Blame Game

As quickly as that, the Singapore national football team are out of the AFF Suzuki Cup. The biennial football competition is contested by the national teams of Southeast Asia and Singapore had slumped to their worst showing in the 20-year history by finishing last in their group.

The blame game has already began with the players, the coach, the management, are getting some of the blame. To me, the blame game starts and ends on one thing; age.

Simply put, the national team is too old. The defence is anchored by 38 year old Daniel Bennett, our main striker is 31 year old Khairul Amri, and our captain is 32 year old Shahril Ishak. Our team is just too old to compete and that’s not something the players or the coach can control.

That’s on the Football Association of Singapore. Our youth development has failed so if there’s anyone to blame on the Singapore team getting kicked out on the first round of the Suzuki Cup, it’s on the FAS.  

Comics this week

Spider-Gwen #14- What happened? The first half of this issue was excellent with Matt Murdock finally making a play to make good his deal with Gwen. Then…the art went to shit. I had said several times I do not agree with Marvel’s use of duel artists on an issue and this issue is Exhibit A on why. The difference in style between artists Robbi Rodriguez and Chris Visions is so huge, for a moment I thought there was a printing error. It was just terrible and that’s bad because writer Jason Latour threw the kitchen in this issue with a guest star from Jessica Drew and showing how awesome of a villain Matt Murdock would make. Too bad about the art switch. 

Ditto Is Here!

You have to give this to Niantic; they do not rest on their laurels. Since Pokémon Go was launched, Niantic has been making subtle changes to the game and while some changes have not went down well with fans, other changes had been welcomed.

Ditto for the Ditto. The final missing Pokémon in Pokémon Go outside the legendary has finally appeared in the game and Niantic did not just stop there. Taking advantage of the Pokémon shape-changing ability, Niantic threw in a twist by having Ditto show up in the map as another Pokémon. This means you could catch a simple Rattata, and then after catching it, it shows up as a Ditto!

That’s brilliant! Using the power of Pokémon to give a sensible twist to the game? Not only is it great, it also give an explanation on why Ditto was missing till now. Smart and clever at the same time!

Goodbye F1

Formula One (F1) supremo Bernie" Ecclestone has publicly said that he believed both Singapore and  Malaysia will no longer be hosting the F1 Grand Prix once their current agreement expires in 2018. I can only say one thing to that; it’s about time!

I don’t know about Malaysia but I never thought Singapore was a good fit for the F1. It’s an open secret to everyone in Singapore the race has been losing money since it came to Singapore and it’s became a yearly nightmare to close off part of the Marina Bay area for the race. Though the visual of the night race was great, the fact is neither the racers nor the teams were all that interested in coming to Singapore in the first place.

Singapore is a small country with no car manufacturing industry to speak of. The price of cars in this country is so high, most Singaporeans who own one has to take multi-years loan just to own it. We are just not a good fit for the F1 so goodbye night-race, and I hope the Singapore replacement is a better fit for you.

Comics this week

Jessica Jones #2- Putting writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Michael Gaydos together was the smartest move Marvel did recently. I know, between Civil War 2 and The Spider-Clone Saga, there’s not a lot of competition but you only need to read this series to know why the few people who read it are all raving about it. The dark and gritty series probably won’t last very long so enjoy it while it’s still here.

Justice League #9- Someone has managed to hack the power rings of the Green Lanterns, the computer in the Batcave, and even Cyborg’s body. The Justice League is under attack from a foe with a vendetta against them, and this person is…a recent widow who did all this from the basement of his house? Really? That’s the best writer Bryan Hitch can come up with? Hopefully, there’s a twist somewhere in the next few issues because this explanation is just stupid.

Trinity #3- After reading, I have to say this issue is something you will either get or not, depending on how well you like going through Batman’s origin story. Writer Francis Manapul goes through similar ground in Batman's purpose and guilt but put in enough freshness to just about get a pass from me. He’s a little lucky artist Clay Mann did some excellent work here to compensate for the been-there, done-that story. A good enough issue on its own, but I’m still waiting for this series to launch. 

Not Dead Yet

Who says Pokėmon Go is on the wane? Niantic Labs sure didn’t and they got the stats to prove it. Recently, Niantic Labs held their first Pokėmon Go event for Halloween and it was a huge success.

Niantic Labs said that during the 5 days event, players caught 1.3 billion Pokémon with the ghost Pokémon, Gastly, being caught the most. However, most players don’t do the event for the Pokėmon. Most players, like me, were there for the candies!

The event increased Pokémon Candy payouts for every Pokémon caught and even the Professor got into the act, giving Trainers two Candies instead of one for every Pokémon transferred to him. Some players even say the best part of the event was the Buddy Pokémon which award four candies instead of the usual one.

With such rewards, players responded.  So don’t believe the rumours. The death of Pokémon Go has been greatly exaggerated.

'Strong' Deterrent

There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that the verdict was meant to prove that Singapore will not tolerate people using the local banking system for money laundering. I am of course talking about the case of Singapore private banker, Yak Yew Chee, who was jailed on fraud charges relating to Malaysia's 1MDB financial scandal on Friday.

Allegations that huge sums were misappropriated from the Malaysian state fund through money-laundering have triggered a massive corruption scandal which Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak seems to have survived. However Yak Yew Chee, a former managing director at the Singapore branch of Swiss bank BSI, was not so lucky as he became the first figure to be convicted in the international saga. Mr. Yak pleaded guilty to four charges of forgery and failure to report suspicious transactions related to the investment fund and was sentenced to 18 weeks in jail by the court. He was also fined $24,000.

The crime involved transactions that include a transfer of $110 million that went through six banks and nine accounts before landing up at the Swiss bank account of Selune Ltd. Yak was paid a bonus of $7.5 million for his part of the deal.

Wait, what? He was paid over $7 million for a crime that was over $110 million, and his punishment was 18 weeks in jail with a fine of $24,000? I know this is white collar crime and the $7.5 million he got was given to the Singapore government but come on!

Like I said earlier, there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that the verdict was meant to prove that Singapore will not tolerate people using the local banking system for money laundering. However I’m afraid the fine and punishment involved is not going to deter anyone.  $24,000 for a crime that was over $110 million? That's really going to deter people.