Still Kings Of The World

Six men, including 2 Singaporeans, have been arrested in the U.K following a sting operation by undercover reporters from The Daily Telegraph newspaper. The reporters uncovered an attempt to fix English football matches.

It was just in February that Europol said that it had found evidence of match-fixing in top international football matches, and now match fixing is uncovered in the U.K. This after alleged match-fixing king, Dan Tan, has been detained by Singapore police. What does this tell you?

It means Singapore’s match-fixers are still king of the world! The arrest of Dan Tan has little to no effect on the match-fixing network based in Singapore! Japan has their yakuza; Hong Kong has their triads; Singapore…has our football match-fixers. Despite the best efforts of police, it seem they are here to stay.

Comics this week

Infinity #6- The two halves of the conflict finally comes together as Captain America and the Galactic Council finally arrived on Earth. With the Builders out of the picture, writer Jonathan Hickman devote his full attention to the battle as the Avengers faced off against Thanos and his generals. On this great credit must be given to Jim Cheung and Dustin Weaver. The two artists show off their skills as the battle was breathtakingly beautiful. I also liked the fact that Thanos was rounding holding his own against the whole Avenger team but I also think the ending of the battle was cheap. Maybe they are trying to build up Thane as a threat for the future but for him to just walk in to take out his father seems to come out of left field. Not only did we not know he was anywhere near powerful to do this, he did it with a new undiscovered power to boot! This was a good issue but also a bad ending to a very good series.

New Avengers #12- In the main Infinity series, the Illuminati subplot struck out like a sore thumb. This epilogue issue was the perfect time to close off the storyline but writer Jonathan Hickman was more interested in setting things up for the future. Outside the fallout of what happened in Wakanda, the entire issue was setup for the future. Nothing wrong there, but if Hickman wanted to do that then this issue should not be the last issue of the Infinity crossover. Yes, I know Infinity is not marketed as a crossover but it is and this issue has almost nothing to do with Infinity.

Justice League Dark #25- Recently, JL Dark has been hijacked by first Trinity War, and then Forever Evil. After 2 back-to-back crossover...we are now at the start of yet another? Writer J.M. DeMatteis and artist Mikel Janin did a good job on this opening issue of The Blight crossover but frankly I have no interest in picking up Pandora and The Phantom Stranger to continue the 18 issue crossover. I have crossover fatigue. 

China In A Bind

When China declared a new airspace defense zone that goes over disputed territories they claimed against several other nations. The most famous dispute are the islands known as the Diaoyu Islands in China which is also claimed, and controlled by, Japan but the new zone by China also go over or come very close to territories claimed by South Korea, Vietnam and the Philippines.

So it's comes as no surprise to me when America, strong ally of Japan, South Korea and the Philippines, decide to sent a strong message to China. Two unarmed U.S. B-52 bombers on a "training mission" flew over disputed islands in the East China Sea without informing Beijing. Basically telling the Chinese the China's declaration of the new airspace defense zone is not worth the paper it is printed on.

This should come as no surprise. Not only is America a strong ally of Japan, China has no legal leg to stand on in their claim on Diaoyu. After World War 2, America was looking to give back the island and asked for nations to stake their claim on the island. Japan did, China did not. Now some people may argue Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek were too busy fighting against each other in a civil war to bother about making a claim on some islands in the middle of the East China Sea but the fact remains that they did not. Of course back then no one knew there were oil and gas beneath the islands so no one cared. 

Even Japan was guilty of this. Oil and gas were discovered in 1969, and the islands were only given back to Japan in 1972. That year, only then did the Chinese government began to declare ownership of the islands. Amazing what oil and gas could do right?

Personally I think China got itself into a real bind with this move because they are just going to lose face on the matter. America, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, and maybe a few others will just ignore the East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone and there's not much China can do about it. If China really want it, then they need to defend and enforce the zone, which means going up against the whole region.

Frankly, this zone by China just do nothing but create more problems for China. 

Just Say Sorry And Move On

Fugitive US intelligence analyst Edward Snowden has been causing consternation for many countries with his revelations of spying by the U.S government. This time is Singapore’s turn.

Reports published in the Australian newspaper, Sydney Morning Herald, said that Singapore and South Korea had played key roles in the "Five Eyes" intelligence network involving the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. Singapore was especially singled out as it is a major telecommunications hub, so we are a very important link in the surveillance network. Naturally, our neighbors are pissed at us for spying on them with Singapore's High Commissioner to Malaysia, Ong Keng Yong, been summoned to the Malaysian Foreign Ministry. 

In other news, the sky is blue and water is wet.

Look, every country spied on their neighbors and Singapore is no different. However when you are caught doing the spying, you apologize to the offended party, stop the spying, then after a few months go back to the spying. This was what happened when reports surfaced that the U.S were spying on German Chancellor Angela Merkel. U.S President Obama personally apologized to Chancellor Merkel and everyone moved on. 

This is probably what needs to happen now. The Singapore government say "sorry" to the Malaysian government and everyone can move on. In other words, say sorry and keep on spying at a later date. 

Surprise Win For Singapore

Last month, I posted that it was a great honor for Singaporean family drama "Ilo Ilo" to be awarded 6 nominations at the Golden Horse Awards but I did not think it was going to win there. So it’s with great pleasure to announce that I was utterly, totally wrong!

On Saturday, to the surprise of many people, "Ilo Ilo" was the surprise winner of the Golden Horse Awards. Director Anthony Chen's first feature-length film won 4 awards, including the coveted Best Film. The movie about a Filipina maid who befriends the troubled son of the Singaporean family she works for even beat off the challenge of Wong Kar Wai’s kung fu epic "The Grandmaster"!

The other awards won by the film were for the Best New Director and Best Original Screenplay for Anthony Chen and Best Supporting Actress for Malaysian actress Yeo Yann Yann.

Great work and congratulations to Anthony Chen and Yeo Yann Yann, especially to Anthony, for making Singapore proud!

The Game of Thrones Adventure Game

With the hit TV series, George R.R. Martin’s The Game of Thrones is now a franchise in the same vein as Star Wars. If there’s any doubt about this, you just need to read the latest rumors on the internet about an upcoming game based on Game of Thrones by Telltale Games.

Now a computer game based on The Game of Thrones is nothing new as there had been several of them already (most of them crap). What’s different this time is that Telltale Games is a gaming computer respected for adventure games!

If you have no idea what that means, adventure games is a genre of gaming that is based on point and click as well as choices you select within the game. Basically, it is a genre that’s based more on drama (or comedy) than fighting and action. Now for fans of the TV series, this might be a strange fit but with all the intrigue going on, I find the idea of a Game of Thrones adventure game very appealing!

What’s more, Telltale Games already has a history of successful licensed properties like The Walking Dead and Fables. I had played their The Walking Dead game and if their Game of Thrones is anywhere as good as that, count me in. 

Comics this week

Avengers #23- As the last Avengers tie-in/crossover issue to Infinity, it’s no surprise that writer Jonathan Hickman used this issue as the set-up to Infinity #6. However even counting that, this was a poor and unnecessary issue. As the Galactic Council fleet approaches Earth, they have to contend with Thanos’ fleet. Hickman was clearly trying to clear the deck so that the Avengers can have a final battle with Thanos but the way he did it was senseless. I know and can understand the need for Hickman to give a problem so that superpowers like Gladiator and Super Skrull will not be at the final fight against Thanos but Black Dwarf? The guy got beaten by Black Panther (the female one) and can't even beat Black Widow and Eden! This guy is the one who managed to delay Gladiator and Super Skrull? Come on! Hopefully the finale is better than this.