Friday, January 31, 2014

Be gracious, there is no entitlement in Singapore

Drop the dream, and brace reality. You are not born to have entitlement to everything you want. You should be gracious when Samaritans give you slack and you should accept when no help is given (but with positive attitude). In Singapore, don't always expect government to do you help and assistance and function in God-like ability but with ordinary salary. When ministers ask for CEO salary, people complained, but when government can't perform God-like function such as mitigate flood caused by freak storm, complain flooded.
In MRT, don't expect people to give you seats; go ask for it humbly, don't expect and harbor hatred. You are not entitled to seats. People who seemed healthy might need seats too, because you might not know if they might be suffering from back-pains or foot injury. If you are offered seats, be thankful and gracious. Disability don't affect your humility, so don't act bad or else people will become apathetic to you. 

Praise as much as you criticize the government and authority. Be realistic, be gracious as well as critical. Don't be blinded by the illusion of entitlement, you are not entitled to anything unless you earn it. Ask, work, study, self-improve, be proactive if you want something. Be gracious and thankful always.

I've seen how people complained about Gods saying that this God and that God as being useless or ineffective (apply to polytheism). How their wishes for great fortune wasn't realised. How we complained about stupid deadlines when we procrastinated half of the time given for certain assignments. How we complained about meagre salary when we failed to self-improve or change our attitude. How our team sucks when we don't provide team spirit in the first place. 

Love, compassion, help. When we are capable, how many times and how frequent we helped others? Don't give the stupid excuse as "I've been poor all my life and hence I am incapable as giving help". Your time, your care, your little action can help in many ways. Money isn't everything. If you can proudly say you did something, you can criticise other people for not helping. If not, you lost the rights to say anything.

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Re: Singapore PM hits back at social media "pack behaviour"

Based on this article, it is sad to see that the people who shout freedom of speech are so eager to crucify another person for just making fun to his friends on Facebook about his son and him taking the MRT. There was never any Ill-intention when he posted his message on Facebook EXCLUSIVELY for his friends. Unfortunately, one of his so-called friend made a fuss, exposed the message, and placed Anton Casey and his family in harm's way. 

PM Lee said it is a pack behaviour, which is true because everyone in the pack is so eager to hunt and savage the target prey without much thought to understand the situation. This is akin to mob mentality in old time villages where and when there is news of outsider causing "disturbance", the whole herd comes in droves ready for mob attack. What we did to Casey is similar; no matter how much apologies he utters won't make a difference because we are just angry people. Worst, there are people who loves to incite (fan-the-fire), making a trivial matter from bad to worst. I never liked instigators (troublemakers). They don't help a bit to resolve matters. They love to destroy rather than mend. In Casey's case, it could have been mended with ease if not for the eagerness to see him destroyed. Did we all know him personally to pass judgement? To me, I see him as a caring and loving father who took his son in the MRT but unfortunately for him, his bad sense of humour costed his job and destroyed his name. Shame to all bigots in Singapore. What we did to Casey is not a question about being a nationalist, it's more like being a petty bigot.

We should forgive Casey. It's not that he has consistently made bad judgement and behaved erratically. We hardly know him before all of this, and hence shouldn't that present a caveat for our perception on this individual? Should a bad sense of humour destroy someone? Haven't we made stupid humours that hurt other people in our lives? How many times had we been forgiven for our stupidity? It's time to reciprocate that with graciousness.

Monday, January 27, 2014

Establishment vs student, latter admit defeat and fined sgd400

Student fined sgd400 because she used the power outlet at MRT station. She pleaded guilty. Plenty of people felt bad for her. Most thought the action was inappropriate considering that the outlet was not locked and there was no warning telling people not to use it. LTA should have known better than to "bully" a student. How much is litigation cost anyway? I would be terrified to plead guilty too if I was her. This scenario is akin to establishment versus individual or in this case student. Her case helped others when LTA said they will review penalties for flouting MRT rule. Just to remind them, please let the public know in advance what are the rules before executing them. We wouldn't want poor students to be poorer because they are ignorant of these rules. 

Last, appreciate the LTA for the prompt response and action. Appreciation goes to the power of social media for highlighting the student's trouble and I have to admit that alternative media helped the most in "hammering" this case to the right people for action. I wonder what all this is going to do to the student.. would she still be paying the hefty fine for being ignorant of her "crime"?

What's next, being fined for using power outlets in library, schools, fast food outlets, museums, hospitals? Common sense would be to place warnings before carrying out any action as deterrence. Hope such unilateral action as demonstrated by SMRT or LTA won't happen again.

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Singapore student charged court over usage socket mrt station?

Singapore student charged in court over usage socket mrt station? Link to therealsingapore sensational news?
The story starts off with, I want to share... (second-personal experience) of someone. By Gabriel Bai.
Who is he?

Is the story credible? A normal person will seek classification with smrt, which a significant people did. The reply from smrt was, "we did not take any legal action" (full stop).
How on earth could the girl in the story fined sgd 400 then?
The content of the story is incredible and mock Singapore judicial system. First offence, no warning signage, etc. couldn't possibly make a case.
This story is an example of "freedom of speech" with malicious intention. If smrt wants to take legal action, Gabriel Bai (or anonymous) shouldn't scream "NO freedom of speech". There was in this case because evidently, plenty of people read your story. But freedom of speech don't preclude responsibility. If you have been found to harbor Ill-intention to cause harm to reputation, you are liable to justice.
Remember, freedom-of-speech and libel come hand-in-hand to protect both parties in question.
Update (24 Feb 2014): How angry can a person be if SMRT lied to people? I know... because I was lied (or rather misled)... in the above case, Gabriel Bai is brave to voice out for his friend. SMRT played with words when their rep said this, "we, the SMRT have not taken any legal action (but she was caught and handed to the authority and LTA pressed charges and the student pleaded guilty; and indeed the student was fined sgd 400) against the commuter who utilized our power outlet for her electronic device". The bracketed information seemed to be on a need-to-know-basis and hence omitted from the statement WHICH MISLED NUMEROUS PEOPLE INTO THINKING SHE WAS NOT FINED.
Read penalty for flouting MRT rules here. In this case, score one for alternative news. I've not been a fan of alternative news, but I have to admit they scored a solid goal this time, all thanks to SMRT for trying to cover their butts.