My new hobby - photography

Double the prejudice, twice the price

Present Chairman of the Table Tennis Association, Lee Bee Hwa, takes on an unexpected move to fire head coach of Singapore’s youth table tennis team – Mr. Xu Xiangdong, stating lame excuse like the overused term, “favoritism” and that he” lacks the ability to unite the team”.

This happened merely three months after the “Liu Guodong Incident”, where he was labelled as “biased” for not attending the match Gao Ning played and only concentrating his effort on the women’s team. No doubt, he is in the wrong. But he brought Singapore a silver medal after a long wait of 48 years. Well, I seriously think that deserves a standing ovation.

However, Mr. Liu Guodong was being fired right after Ms. Lee Bee Hwa became the president of the Singapore Table Tennis Association. This move shocked the public and caused many conflicts between the former head coach and the new president. In the end, both parties did not manage to solve the conflict and left an unhappy ending.

Now, after barely three months, Ms. Lee Bee Hwa yet again fires the head coach of the youth team, Mr. Xu Xiangdong, with the cliché excuse – favoritism. Although Mr. Xu Xiangdong explained that he was putting more of his attention on the son of the former president, a table tennis player, because he received such instructions given to him earlier in the year. However, there was no heed to his explanations at all on the association’s side.

Putting aside doubts on housekeeping as a political motive, Ms. Lee Bee Hwa’s decision to fire Mr. Xu Xiangdong still says a lot about common prejudice and stereotypes placed on Chinese people by some Singaporeans even in today’s society. China has proven itself to be the world no. 1 in table tennis, what right does Ms Lee Bee Hwa have to doubt a Mr Xu Xiangdong’s ability to coach? And perhaps the term, “favoritism” has been a bit overused, Ms Lee?

It was very touching in a sad way when Mr Xu Xiangdong expresses his feelings in Chinese, “After the team won a bronze medal in the Asian Youth Games, I expected the association to express some form of gratitude and congrats, yet what I got was a heartless letter asking me to resign. I feel so sad…so cold.”

Furthermore, Ms Lee’s actions have already unknowingly led to three dire consequences.

Firstly, Mr Liu Guodong and Mr Xu Xiangdong are very renowned and experienced coaches even when compared to other coaches in China. Both have been coaching the Singapore table tennis team for many years, only in different departments. Under the guidance of these two coaches, it is evident that our table tennis team have gave us good results: A silver medal in Olympics in 48 years and a bronze medal in the recent Asian youth games. We were hoping for continued winning of medal year after year as the coaches must have found the solution. But now they are gone, such experienced coaches are hard to find again; local talent is definitely out of the question.

Secondly, these actions have already caught a lot of attention from coaches all over the world. If Ms Lee is to find coaches to replace the two empty posts, I seriously doubt if one would give up the chance to be head coach for a less competitive country, and come all the way to Singapore just to run the risk of ending up in the same state as the two former coaches.

Lastly, this two unexpected moves by Lee Bee Hwa has unknowingly already affected the morale of the table tennis players. After all, it was them who led the team to get a silver Olympic medal in 48 years. Counting the time the coach and players spent together, their frienship have long ago left a deep hole in the soil.

No doubt, who is in the wrong.

What has the world become?

Ren Ci Hospital was under fire since its investigation by the Charity Council of Singapore for 3 possible violations of the Code of Governance for Charities and Institutions of a Public Character back in November 2007.

The investigation ended with an arrest of venerable Shi Ming Yi, a popular Buddhist representative of Singapore and a string of questions revolving around questionable loans, , Ren Ci’s irregular records, investments made under his name, even Ming Yi’s education qualification. The timing of this incident could not have been worse, just months after the infamous T.T. Durai case found guilty of misleading the charitable organization with a falsified invoice.

Almost 20 months down the road, Ming Yi trial still ongoing, and today he is being questioned on details of his investments, including properties bought and sold in Australia, Singapore and the U.S. It was also brought to the court’s knowledge about his purchase of golf club membership, 2 B&W cars and even a horse; mostly joint purchases with close affiliates. There was also a joint Citibank account of which one withdrawal evidently made out of a Casino in Australia.

Sympathisers and supporters backed him up on account of his ‘selfless’ contributions to the charity works, including how he had painstakingly set up Ren Ci, his courageous act to raise fund for Ren Ci patients, his multi responsibilities with other monasteries, temples etc Some even think the real culprit is his assistance and Ming Yi was dragged into the whole incident just because he was ‘too trusting and compassionate’ to help.

Critics and some angry public on the other hand, labelled all these acts as ‘hypocritical’ to pursue personal gains, many felt their trust had been abused and that Ming Yi deserved to be punished severely by the law.

After doing a bit of readings on the Ming Yi’s case, including the progress of the trial, the different authority’s comments, blog discussions, Ming Yi’s defence statement etc it is quite clear to me the inconsistencies of Ming Yi’s defence position. Ming Yi’s position shifted from ignorance, to ‘selective amnesia’ ,to implicating the blame to his affiliates, and now he is actually saying ( in his own words) “ While helping others, I must take care of my myself as well” ( Chinese Evening Lianhe Wanbao April 2009) and now he can blatantly insist his right to invest and entitlement to a luscious lifestyle because ‘the world has changed’

No qualms on personal right to enjoy and invest. It is also well noted of Ming Yi’s contribution and effort to turnaround Ren Ci. However, Ming Yi is a public figure, he represented much more beyond himself. The public has placed their trust upon him and therefore made the donations. Not only is he a public figure, Ming Yi has also over the years build himself up ( also with the help of the media) as a religious figure. Now the public is utterly disappointed and will no longer trust any charitable organization.

Ming Yi has misrepresented himself. I felt flabbergasted as I watched the video of his interview as he completed his walk down from Suntec city building. As he teared eyrily commented on the needs of the patients and how we should all help to donate more. That speech raised more than 150,000 calls across the island.

There is no such thing as using the rights to undo the wrongs.

The counts of his forgery, providing false or misleading information to the Commissioner of Charities, conspiracy to falsify a payment voucher and the misappropriation of Ren Ci funds all could account to his guilt, and as a special religious and public figure, I think he deserves to be even more severely punished by the law.

7.5. Incident, China – Uighurs' Actions Understandable

The Muslim Uighurs’ have recently wreaked havoc in the Xin Jiang Province . The incident had escalated very quickly into a violent racial dispute with the province demography make up estimated at 50% Uighurs and 50% other races dominated by the Han.

Uproar , discussions and criticism in the cyberspaces are as usual, not helping the situation. Many reports were being blown out of proportion.

On the 5th of July, the Muslim Uighur race in Xin Jiang Province ( or known as Xingjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region) staged mass protests actions which quickly deteriorated into violence and social unrest. Among others, there were lootings , robberies , violence and fightings , even killings . It is believed the Uighur's hatred had accumulated over the years through dissatisfaction towards the Han majority. Many Muslim Uighur perceived they had been treated inferior compared to the majority Han in the country. According to them, many Uighurs are poorly educated, could not find good job and are under paid. This gap or disparity had increasingly become more apparant as China progressed economically ; opened its door to the Western world and enriching many residing in the major cities.

Embedded with this jealosy and bitter feelings towards the Han majority, the 'Guang Dong Incident' happened, which had acted as the main catalyst of the resulting unrest, so critical that the President had to leave the G8 summit meeting in Italy to handle the case personally.

The Guangdong incident: A woman was said to be raped by some Uighurs when they were actually believed to be just making fun of her. She had screamed after the Uighurs made some strange noises at her. Upon hearing the screams, many Han people went into the room and started hitting the Uighurs, and killed two of them!

Many believed this incident had not been handled well by the China Authorities and with the exaggerations from the media, caused an uproar among the Uighurs and with an slanted version of the incident, provoked them to rebel, causing the havoc we see today.

The China authorities insisted the Uighur's action are the result of political manupulations from Uighurs influence outside the country and viewed this as an act of terrorism.

First of all, we must understand that abject contempt had been put on the Uighurs for a long time. This has caused their anger and hatred towards the Han majority accumulated over the years. The Guang Dong Incident is like a last straw on the camel's back. This was like the spark that set off the fire amidst the sea of oil.

Not all Uighurs wanted to join the rebellion against the Han initally. Many were being forced unknowingly into the action. When one is in a mob effect, where everyone is doing the same thing, you will be automatically influenced to do the same , without thinking deeply about the consequences. This lead to the havoc created today.

Who is in the right and who is in the wrong? What is the truth of this matter? Frankly I do not have the answer. I guess this is very complicated with emotions, media influences ,perceptions , even historical enthenic feuds and so on at play.

Some even asked why did China even want to control and 'manage' the Uighur, an Eastern Turkic enthnic race, with so vast a difference in culture, language, religion etc

PPSMI Nullified by Malaysia Policy Makers

The government is undoing its own move and wasting six years of money, time and talent by deciding to end the policy of teaching Mathematics and Science in English in both Primary and Secondary Schools effective from 2012.

Deputy Prime Minster Muhyiddin sells the government’s move by explaining that the PPSMI “did not achieve what it was supposed to achieve” and this move was for “the future of their children”.

Many argue that the government is doing this to gain the favor of the locals, so as to defend their government in the next election.

Whether the government is doing this for political reasons, I strongly feel that the government is really wasting time and talent.

Six years ago, Dr M introduced this policy to teach Science and Math in English for a greater vision that is to move towards globalization. Malay Scientists and Mathematician can also be exposed to different points of views from other people in the world and improve by learning from one another.

Like what Dr M said, “It is not trying to learn English; it’s not about trying to learn Malay. It’s simply just acknowledgement of the fact that today’s knowledge comes to us in the English language…today; the knowledge is with people who write in English. And for that reason, we want to learn English to acquire that knowledge.”

Now, after six years, the government completely erases this policy and sells their move by saying that it has not achieved its purpose of raising the people’s standard of English.

This is not only wasting time and money, but also significantly shows the government’s irresponsibility.

They are not just undoing a move that has been carried out forcefully for six years despite the difficulty of teachers teaching these subjects in English, but also limiting themselves again from being a globalized country and confining “knowledge circulation” to themselves, or rather, only people who can speak Malay.

What about those people who have already converted to speaking English for Science and Math? They have to take the time to learn the two subjects in Malay and learn the Malay term for Bunsen Burner?
This is totally ridiculous, irresponsible.

First of all, the government shouldn’t even have forced this six-year policy to start when more than 80% of teachers are incapable of using English in the classrooms. Now, the policy has already caused so much inconvenience, the government announces that their move to backtrack is a wise decision? If they want to even start this six-year policy, they should have trained the teachers, if not replaced the Science and Math teachers not fluent in English with teachers who are capable of teaching in English;.

Now all efforts and money are totally thrown down the drain, the government has nobody to blame but itself for this abject failure.

Sigapore Casino - Gambling addiction

The casino being built in Singapore is supposed to be a money-maker and job creator. However, many people have spoken against it. And I strongly agree with these people.

Firstly, one of the objectives of the casino is to create jobs for the locals amidst this economic crisis. However, a detailed tally shows that more than 50% of the workers selected to work for the casino are foreigners! Since Singapore thinks that foreigners are more professional in this big project, the first objective’s potential has been minimized by a lot.

Secondly, from an analysis done by tourism geographer, Dr T.C. Chang, he has proven that the IR would not succeed in making money. He said, “Singapore’s IR project is overly globalized that it has lost its local flavor. Why would foreigners come to Singapore to visit the IR when they already have many at home? People come to Singapore to see something different, something they cannot see at home. The IR would not succeed, because for a tourism project to succeed, it must bring out local flavor with global standards.” The second objective is most likely unachievable.

Lastly, from a moral/ethic point of view, I asked my parents first before writing this post. My mother said, “It will corrupt a person and make him obsessed till he doesn’t care about his family or work. In the end, he will still lose all his money and become homeless” I strongly agree with her.
The moral/ethical issue is that the IR promotes gambling. Locals will no longer need to travel to other countries to gamble in the casino, but now, right in front of their doorstep.

It is destined that some people would gamble until they become so obsessed with it. They would keep trying and trying for a turnover, not caring about their children, family, or work. In the end, he would definitely lose all his money and job, because normally out of 10 tries, you would lose 9 times. An interviewer from a youtube video – “Compulsive Gambling, Problem Gambling, Gambling addiction” said, “I lost 30, 000 dollars on gambling. It was my retirement money.” Unbelievable isn’t it?

The IR turns from a job creator to a job destroyer.
More and more people would fall into this gambling vicious cycle. They would keep trying and trying for a big win and keep losing and losing money, job and family. After all, we are kiasu people.

So, after weighing the pros and cons, is the IR still worth it?

I seriously doubt so.