A foreigner once told me that many people here lack good social habits. He said that it seems they leave the good social habits at home and behave in ways unconcerned about others. To defend, I disagreed with him saying that not everyone is like that.

However, the truth is that there is a lack of social behaviour. Just look around and you see things like:

(1)     A group of uncles and an aunty sitting on a bench within the premises of the HDB estate and gossiping away about people – someone’s spouse, someone’s daughter or son, etc. Their envious talk tries to scandalize people’s lives and invade their privacy. They would be happy and laugh if they see people in trouble or their family going in disarray. The language is punctuated by series of vulgarities. All these are a form of mental pollution practiced by these idle useless old folks. They are parasite to social living.   

(2)     A man hides behind a wall and urinate which creates bad stench at the void deck.

(3)     Under the name of recreation, some old folks play mahjong and create a noisy environment at the park or void deck.

(4)     A bunch of stray cats are seen mewing at void decks, market place or in the parks.

(5)     Sound of distant dog barking disturbs the residents’ sleep at night. The dog fights continue nearly every night.  

(6)     Dog shits left on the ground or at void decks.

(7)     Graffiti (either drawing or vulgar words) are posted in public toilet cubicles.

(8)     A cheeky lad whistles loudly in public places like in a bus or a shopping centre.

(9)     The wet laundry drips on the ground and a person walking below receive some drops on his head.

(10)  A group of school boys after a football sessions practices using vulgar language and laughs gleefully.

The list can go on and on.

Bad social habits give a bad impression to others about us. It disturbs the social harmony and kills friendly spirit.

Good social habits must be reinforced back in Singapore. Let the practice of good values be made widespread.  

26 May 2008

Dear Administrator,

                               Recently, 3 incidents have galvanized my faith in our Creator.

                               First, it was reported in our newspaper that 2 pilots on a flight suddenly realised that there was no more fuel in the plane. Death was certain. They prayed very hard for a miracle to happen to save them. A miracle did happen. They landed safely along a pathway and stopped in front of a post reading " Jesus is our Lord" They themselves believed that it was a miracle.

                               Second, also from our newspaper about a couple conducting their marriage in an old church in certain part of Sichuan with hundreds of guests inside the church when suddenly the quake struck. The building was crumbling down. Miraculously no one was hurt, let alone death even though the top part of the church had completely destroyed. If anything, this shows that our living God protects  His people and His holy grounds.

                                Third, I heard from Ch.8 Chinese news this morning  that Mrs Lee had underwent a successful brain haemorrhage operation and is out of serious condition and resting in general ward. To me I believe that there was a divine intervention. At her age of 87 years old, however the skill of the surgeons, the risk is extremely high without the help of an unseen hand. Many of us have been praying daily for her successful operation.

                                 There will be critics who say all these are coincidental. I will respect their views.

MAY GOD CONTINUES TO BLESS OUR NATION AND INSPIRES SOUND JUDGENMET ON OUR NATIONAL LEADERS.

WARMEST REGARDS

高薪酬贤能.

何价比丹心?

若冷取羊毛.

若暖顾草青.

The human body has many organs like the lungs, heart, kidneys, liver and so on. The tongue is also an organ. Unlike the set of teeth which is strong and occasionally bites the tongue accidentally, the soft tongue long outlasts the teeth and stays with the human being for life. Many of us think that the teeth are source of trouble because it gives us painful toothache and the need to go to dentist regularly and settle dental bills which are costly. There is a wide range of dental job: drilling, extraction, polishing with pumice, root treatment, getting crown bridge, tooth implant, having a denture and so forth. To safeguard a warm presentable smile, some people go to great length to have a good set of white teeth. In spite of the soothing and sweet words from the dentist, I fear going to a dental clinic.

Ah, the tongue is so innocent. This is what many of us think so. However, think again. Like the teeth, the tongue is also involved with the ritual of food taking by humans. While the teeth chew, bite or grind, the function of the tongue is to taste the food. The taste may be sweet, sour, bitter, hot, sweet-sour, bland and so on. Also based on the texture of the food, it may be smooth, rough, sticky or difficult to swallow. The tongue governs the area of taste and if anything is not agreeable we quickly spit it out. Once I burned my tongue while quickly trying to gulp the hot tea because I was afraid to miss the bus to the workplace. The hot tea not only affected my tongue but gave a burning sensation to the throat and all the way to my stomach. I regretted ordering the tea at the last minute.

Children like to lick ice cream and some of them lose their teeth early. Sweets are another culprit. As for adults, we are also afflicted by good food. We love fried and oily food. They contain high content of fat or cholesterol which is bad for health. Junk food like burgers, chicken nuggets or even pizzas is dangerous for people suffering from illness like diabetes, high blood pressure or cardiovascular disease. While a person with high BP has to moderate his salt intake, the person with diabetes must be careful not to default with taking excessive sugar. It is not that diabetes is dangerous, but the complications arising out of uncontrolled diabetes can be fatal. For a person who is suffering from both high BP and diabetes, he have to take bland food i.e. food with very little salt and sugar. Imagine what a suffering is it. Once I had a bowl of very sweet chendol, I regretted it later for having upset my blood sugar level badly. I received sufficient dressing down by the doctor and I abstain myself from sugar totally for a few days. I took many bitter things like herbal medicine and bitter gourds and imagine how bitter the young small bitter gourds are. The ‘buah jering’ available at Geylang market is also very bitter stuff. The petai seeds are also good for regulating the sugar level but now I avoid taking the petais because I ever took the petai and crushed the light green worm living within the seed. As I quickly swallowed it, the petai worm was already in my stomach. It would surely have died when mixed with the gastric juice in the guts.       

The tongue is also useful in our speech. In our childhood days, the teacher would give us speech training whereby we roll or twist our tongue in accordance with the words. Proper pronunciation is important and good marks can be gained with good pronunciation. By the time we become mature, we are expert in our speech. However, people who have difficulty in pronunciation are those with dental problem. I do face such difficulty because sometimes the word runs due to lesser teeth.

Once someone told me that silence is golden and speech is silver. I did not fully understand what he meant because there are many interpretations to it. What we say has a bearing of our image. An image conscious person is careful about his speech. Talking less can mean that a person is shy but over talking can means courting trouble. Striking a balance is the best option. Once I saw a cartoon which showed that Tin Tin the sailor was so angry that he punched a person and the teeth of the victim fell out. I then realized that there is not only a close proximity between the teeth and the tongue but there also exist a close correlation. It is because of the tongue the poor teeth suffered the punch, shock and subsequent bleeding. On the contrary, if the person would have not uttered something wrong with the sailor, he would be enjoying food and drink.

For a lecturer or salesman, speech is important. He has to use his oral or language skill to good use. The way he talks and dress up affect the sales of the product. For the PRO or CRO, speech is important. Sales presentation, management meeting, product promotion, introducing a new service or explaining to the public is crucial areas in communication. How well we do enhances our career. People in the mass media are often well versed in the art of communication. Actor and actress have also that skill. The search for the Singapore Idol is a good example in communication skill because singing is also part of speech. 

REMEMBER 

It is our free and easy lifestyle i.e. not being careful about what we eat leads us to serious health complication. Also if we are not careful about our speech and we simply talk without much thought and consideration for others, we can jeopardize our relationship with people.

To summarise with what I said so far, we are actually victim of our own tongue i.e. of our taste and speech.  We are free to choose our own lifestyle but the reward or punishment is always waiting in attendance.     

Dear Administrator,

                              I blogged and suggested donations to help the Myanmar.

                              Several netizens are not sure where their monies will go to. This is a legitimate concern.

                              However I have a reply from one of the NGO:-

Quote -  "

elaine@worldvision.org.sg, reach@reach.gov.sg

In my childhood days, my parents used to tell that food should not be wasted. I used to hear the people talking about food shortages in many part of the world. Somehow it seemed that there was not enough rainfall and crop failures were common. Instead the rain fell at the wrong places for example at sea or there was heavy rainfall in certain places resulting in flood and crop failure too.

In the sixties when there was shortage of rice, our government used to emphasise on the wisdom of talking alternative food - bread, wheat, more fruits and so on. The radio used to tell about drought in many lands, shortage of rainfall, the introduction of Green Revolution in India, the taking of loans from UN, the important activities of the Food & Agricultural Organisation in the third world and leaders visiting famine spots.

Rice grains before they are harvested are not secured because anytime the weather become adverse to destroy the crop, birds would steal some of the grains and also there is the danger of fire if the season become too hot. Rice need a lot of water to be irrigated.

This year it is quite unfortunate because of the following:

(1) the cyclone Nargis has destroyed much of the Burmese rice fields. This would put pressure on rice supplies.

(2) many nations are facing rice shortage

(3) the price of oil is going up again and again (currently it has touched the US$126 per barrel; gold price is also soaring.

In view of all these sober news, please do not waste on food especially rice. If you cannot eat the amount within the plate, order lesser rather than waste it.

Remember:          EVERY GRAINS OF RICE COUNTS

I have thought that Singapore was a safe country. Until my mum got robbed in broad daylight recently. It happened on a Sunday afternoon 1.30pm. The atrocious robber just stood near my mum and pulled her gold chain, smiled and literally walked away. He then proceeded to climb up a slope, turned back and waved at my mum happily with the gold chain in his hand.

No car went past. No bus went past. No one around. This happened at Bartley Road area. We are talking about something which is serious because there was no eye witness, this robber may just strike again. The police came shortly after. A very helpful officer assisted my mum on Sunday and told her that they are arranging for her to identify the robber via skits/portraits. He was not the officer in charge of this kind of cases so he passed my mum a namecard to the correct person in charge of this kind of petty thefts.

This person did nothing at all to help. Nothing at all. I have encouraged my mum to call him with regards about the identification session that they were supposed to arrange before my mum forgets the face of the robber. This senior officer told my mum that the gold chain may not be recovered ever. But they can help her to catch the robber. Most cases, in about 1-2 years time or never. This is what the officer told my mum. We meet an atrocious robber and this irresponsible senior officer who does nothing brushes my mum off by saying he's busy and will call her again. 1 mth has past. No one called. Now its nearing 2 mths.

This kind of attitude has made me want to lodge an official complaint about him. My mum had stopped me from doing that saying that they may be very busy. I seriously doubt so. My mum has since refused to go out anymore. She is being traumatised by the whole experience. Nothing useful was being done. This area is under the Marine Parade GRC. I have in mind to bring this matter up to them.

With this kind of heck care attitude, it is no wonder Mas Selamat will never be found.

To: His Excellency General Thein Sein (PM of Union of Myanmar)

Few years ago, the capital was shifted to Nawpidaw on the hills as protection from possible disaster due to storms from the sea.

Our beloved PM Lee Hsien Loong has sent a message to you of our government feeling sad about the tragedy brought by Cyclone Nargis. Many people has lost their lives. Singapore is sending aid to Myanmar.

All of us feel sad. Kindly accept the foreign aid that are waiting to go to your land to help in relief and rescue work.  

In this hour of crisis, all nations and people are friends ready to assist.

Accept our sympathies.

from Om Nath Panday

9.5.2008  

Dear Administrator,

                               I believe all of us know that by now about 100,000 Myanmar people mostly villagers had perished because of the cyclone.

In the early days, fare cheats were common sight. Some passengers would board in through the back door and avoid the conductor who used to sell the bus tickets. Then there were a few who would declare that they had no money or even one or who who flashed a fifty dollar note whereby the helpless conductor was unable to give the change in many small denominations of coins.

Those were the eras of 1970s and 1980s. Then in the mid-1980s with the advent of the magical farecards cheating was reduced. However there are still cheats around. From 1 July onwards, cheats would be dealt with a fine. LTA has given the green light to punish SBS or Trans Island Bus cheats. I believe that this ruling came much too late.

In the early days, the conductors and subsequently drivers were quite sympathetic to these cheats because they thought it was better to allow these cheats to come up in life, just close an eye so that they can pass college and subsequently get a good job to help society. There was a certain degree of tolerance for such poor people.

Reflecting on this issue, some of the ways a person can cheat is:

* by tapping the exit device much earlier before alighting

* avoiding tapping the entrance device and alighting quietly as forgetting to tap on the exit device

I read some time in the news that an anonymous person return to SBS Transit an evelope with about $300/- , saying that she has taken many free SBS rides. The fact that now she was successful with good pay and respect in society, she felt the urge to return back to SBS. I felt that this was distasteful and the person fears of reprisal from the law if she reveal her identity.

Some of the would be cheats would lament that things are becoming too strict and there is no room for free things anymore in Singapore.   

Say to  these cheats have no idea of much losses the SBS Transit have to cope with all these years. SBS & Trans Island have been silent victims all these years. I say that a cheat is just as damaging as a vandal; both acts go on to contribute losses for these service provider. In Singapore we have excellent service by SBS Transit & Trans Island and we should pay our fares promptly and correctly.     

On Page 3 of TODAY dated 7.5.08, there is a letter of PM Lee published. It is addressed to Myanmar PM Gen Thein Sein expressing sadness and sympathy for the many loss and death in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis.

In the spirit of ASEAN unity and cooperation, Singapore is providing US$200,000 in humanitarian assistance to Myanmar. Singapore is ready to send medical & rescue team.

Other nations are joining in to help Myanmar, setting aside their ideological difference over Myanmar style of governance. Already more 22,000 people has died and the death toll is still increasing rapdily while the count is not over yet. Over 40,000 people are still missing.

Said by some that this cyclone has inflicted damage worse than the Tsunami of 1994, the Burmese nation has to pick up reconstruction and resettle everything - from settlement to building of roads and other facilities.