helping others

I was eating a quick meal in the hawker centre when an old lady appeared at my elbow, wanting to sell me a packet at tissues. Without a second thought, I brushed her off and finished my meal. No second thoughts then - but ever since I have been giving the matter considerable contemplation.

I have always been strongly against begging. It helps that the government has kept them off the streets of Singapore, such that we really come into contact with the less fortunate here. And I suppose as a kid/teen, I was not such an appealing target. Then when I first arrived in the US some years ago, one of the first talks I attended was given by the municipal police who told us not to give to beggers, because they would probably just use their gains for drink and drugs. This warning was reinforced by a friend who actually gave $10 to a bum, only to find him drinking a beer later.

It's not that I don't want to help them. I just try not to give money. If I meet a bum outside McDonald's I would even buy a burger for him sometimes. When a well-dressed man in a London subway asked me for money to call his family back in Africa, I even offered to let him use my calling card but he persisted on wanting only cash. A friend of mine was appalled when a begger in Delhi hit her child to make it cry before approaching them, bawling baby held aloft. I've also heard that they amputate the limbs of children to increase their pitifullness there. And even back home, I remember reading recently that the cripple outside Tangs for many years was found to be a fraud! And I in my last encounter with cripples selling plush toys at a hawker centre, I watched them board a van and depart, quickly and efficiently, probably heading for the next target like some organised syndicate.

I've held these cynical views for many years, despite the scant consideration I have given them. And reinforced by the general aparthy of my peers, I've continued this dispassionate view of the less privileged since my return to Singapore. But after much thought, I think it's about time I changed my ways. Because I do genuinely believe that many of these, especially those who busk or sell items, are trying to help themselves, and we should help them. And I won't let a few bad eggs and my own prejudice stop me from being more human.

So that next time I meet someone selling tissues for exhorbitant prices, I will think twice before I shrug them off.

working in Singapore

In the light of my previous post, I find it mildly amusing that in the last two weeks, two friends have expressed their interest in working in Singapore. One from the UK, one from the US; neither is Singaporean. It just goes to show that grass is always greener on the other side I guess.

Actually, there are a lot of good reasons to work in Singapore that we probably don't fully appreciate. The first thing is the low tax rate, which is only 20% in Singapore but ranges from about 40-70% in Europe and America. The second is the low crime rate which is great for stumbling home drunk at night. And of course, there's the low cost of living and excellent public transport.

Then again, I'm not the sort that goes "I will work harder", so a slower pace of working life would be rather preferable.

work

I've been thinking a lot about work lately. I used to wonder why people would leave family and friends to migrate to Australia. I think at last I am beginning to get an inkling; partly because friends, especially those abroad, are always mortified at the working hours I have come to regard as normal. This post is dedicated to all my recent graduate friends, about to enter the workforce.

Meaning and Money
A year ago, a young friend told me that in all jobs, you either make a lot of money to do meaningless work, or you don't make enough money doing meaningful work. Because if you found the work enjoyable, then of course you wouldn't be paid much to do it. I scoffed at it at the time, I suspect because I didn't want to believe it. But it seems a fairly straightforward supply and demand principle and it's making more and more sense to me.

Industry and Efficiency
My colleagues have evolved an extremely dangerous culture. That of staying back late in the office, whether or not they actually have real work to do. It is so prevalent to find people working till 9 or 10 at night, and I believe this is true of many other industries in Singapore, not just my own. But are these people really industrious, or just plain inefficient? Whatever the case, they are digging a hole for all of us, because if the expectation becomes to stay late in the office, especially on weekends, that will not do any good for anyone.

The Fallacy of Potential
As a recent entrant to the workforce, I find the organisation trying to load me and overload me with work. The reason, ostensibly, is to determine how much potential I have. Well, just because I can do it, why should I do it, especially if this means sacrificing my own free time? Ever since watching Ducktales decades ago, I have adopted Scrouge McDuck's mantra of Work Smart Not Hard. It worked very well in school, and I have three degrees to show for it (in the time most people get one or two), while travelling across the continent and imbibing my fair share of spirits. But at work I find that to be capable simply means you get loaded with more work. Somehow, I have to establish myself as someone who is capable, but not a mindless peon who happily accomplish every meaningless task put before him.

I think about Singapore's competitiveness and the oft-credited wealth of human capital we have. And I wonder if our people are geniunely more capable and talented, or if it is merely because we work much harder, for longer hours. After all, we are the descendants of a Chinese diaspora that climbed the ladder in many societies through sheer hard work. It is people like us that are costing the Europeans their short work weeks, negligible working hours and social safety nets. They are losing the high quality of life they have been enjoying; how long before we lose what little quality of life we have now to the mainland Chinese?

I think it would be lovely to run off to Australia, but I wonder how long the good life there will last. There has to be a better solution.

faith

Today I attended a "Grill-the-Christian" session in which a panel of some of our junior pastors attempted to answer common questions asked by people exploring various religions. Questions such as "How do we know the bible is historically accurate and not a fabrication", "Do all religions lead to the same God" and "If God loves us why does he send good people to hell", as well as questions from the floor.

It soon became painfully obvious that it is much easier to give a sermon than to answer questions posed on the spot. And this was in spite of the fact that many of the questions had been prepared in advance, although the actual questions to be answered were chosen by vote. Being unprepared to answer prepared questions is quite preposterous. Such a session could be very enlightening for people searching for a religion, but badly conducted as it was today, it probably did more harm than good. I was quite glad that my friends had not taken up the invitation.

One of the questions they struggled with was "Does faith mean believing in things that do not make sense?" I cringed when after a lengthy explanation, the follow-up question was "But if you are believing in facts that is just reason, it is not faith." I have my own definition of faith, which I was tempted to share. I formulated it during the last argument over faith/belief at bible study, but since it was not well received I decided not to try again. Although personally, I think they were just being silly.

Faith is the gap between knowledge and belief. Faith is when you are 80% sure of something, and choose to believe in it completely. Blind faith (aka stupidity) is when you believe in something that contradicts your understanding, or that you simply have no understanding.

Faith is when you need to cross thin ice and you throw a rock onto it. Seeing that it can support the rock, you then proceed to cross. Stupidity is when you need to cross thin ice and you throw a rock onto it. Seeing the ice break under its weight you decide to cross anyway.

Christianity is different from other religions because if you do your research meticulously, fact and reason all point towards the truth of the bible and the existence of God. Faith is that final step towards belief.

Makes sense? Critiques are welcome.

another blow for blogs

So now, China wants all websites to register.

China orders all websites, blogs to register with govt
Straits Times, June 7, 2005

SHANGHAI - Authorities have ordered all China-based websites and blogs to register or be closed down, in the latest effort by the communist government to police the unruly world of cyberspace.

Commercial publishers and advertisers can face fines of up to 1 million yuan (S$200,000) for failing to register, according to documents posted on the website of the Ministry of Information Industry (MII)

Is this really possible? Because if it is, you just know that Singapore will follow suit. After all, the government's mantra here has always been that anyone who comments on politics must take responsibility for their words and actions. Think Catherine Lim.

Now, however, the government has developed a new system to track down and close those caught violating the rules, the ministry said.

'There's a 'Net Crawler System' that will monitor the sites in real time and search each Web address for its registration number,' said one document listing questions and answers about the new rules. 'It will report back to the MII if it finds a site thought to be unregistered.' -- AP

I really can't imagine how this is going to be effective unless they also stop people from maintaining blogs on offshore servers such as Blogger. Unless the police actively sniff out our the blog packets and track the IPs of the destination servers to detect who is posting. Would that be a violation of human rights and privacy? Does China have human rights and privacy? Would one of my nerd friend please surf in soon and explain the technical possibilies?

Soon we will all be blogging on servers that start with https://

fighting blind

The Straits Times today carried a report on worsening myopia in Singapore.

Kids' myopia getting more acute
By Radha Basu

SINGAPOREAN children are not only getting shortsighted younger than children in other countries, but their vision is also deteriorating faster, a study has found.

Between the ages of seven and nine, their myopia is increasing at the rate of about 80 degrees a year. That is 17 degrees faster than youngsters in Hong Kong and about 30 degrees quicker than those in America.

By the time they are 11, about 6 per cent have advanced myopia of 600 degrees or higher, about the same percentage as adults in countries such as Australia.

There, less than 1 per cent of children that age have such poor eyesight.

I wonder how long it will take for this to become a security concern. Already, the Air Force is offering free Lasik for pilot applicants with mild myopia. But at 600 degrees, a person is practically blind. In almost any combat vocation, this will become a severe handicap. I wonder how that will affect the morale of our half-blind soldiers, going out to war knowing their lives depend on their glasses even more than their rifles.

Imagine you're hiding in your foxhole when a nearby artillery shell slams you into the wall. You're shaken, but unhurt. Unfortunately your glasses aren't so fortunate. The frame is broken and one lens has shattered. How are you going to navigate the hostile warzone with just one lens? How are you going to use a weapon?

It's about time we started a new branch of military optics. We also have to stop taking sight for granted and start designing our operations around the very real constraint that half our soldiers can go blind at any time.

the beginning of the rest of my life

It kind of sucks when you have a new blog and nothing to write about. So I am going to write about the book I read over the weekend: Mitch Albom's the five people you meet in heaven.

Synopsis (because I do not reinvent the wheel):
On his eighty-third birthday, Eddie, a lonely war veteran, dies in a tragic accident trying to save a litle girl from a falling cart. He awakens in the afterlife, where he learns that heaven is not a lush Garden of Eden, but a place where your earthly life is explained to you by five people who were in it. These people may have been loved ones or distant strangers. Yet each of them changed your path forever.

Since I picked up the book from the self-enrichment section of Kinokuniya, I guess I shall list out the ways that it has helped me. Or rather the lessons it is trying to teach.
1) People (even strangers) change the course of your life in drastic ways
2) There is much unhappiness born out of misunderstanding
3) Take pleasure in the sacrifices you make for others
4) Life is short

I quite enjoyed the book, and I would definitely recommend it. The lessons are not profound, but they are conveyed in a very touching manner. It has some elements of Chicken Soup For The Soul, Tuesdays with Morrie and Speaker for the Dead all rolled into one.

I suppose the book was especially meaningful to me because I often ponder the first point above. I am definitely in a very privileged position now and it would be folly to think I made it on my own. There are so many of my friends, teachers and mentors who have helped me to where I am today, as well as one particular acquaintance (I could hardly even call him a friend) that shaped my life's path at crucial junctures not once, but twice. And he doesn't even know it; but I always remember, and someday I will thank him.

I was also reminded starkly of the brevity and fragility of life today when a tree almost fell on me. No wind, no rain; just the sudden rustle of leaves and the screaming of wood. It's amazing I heard anything at all, seeing as I was in the car with the music on and I was on the phone. I looked up and saw a wall of green bearing down on me, so I braked.

It was a really close shave. By close, I mean some of the peripheral branches actually took some paint off my bumper. My mind was a blank (certainly not flashing before my eyes) as the foliage came crashing down in slow motion, showering me with leaves and bits of bark. It was not really a tree, just a big branch; but it was a big branch that obstructed both lanes. A metre forward and I'd probably have lost my engine. Another metre and I might not be here blogging..

"It is because the human spirit know, deep down, that all lives intersect. That death doesn't just take someone, it misses someone else, and in the small distance between being taken and being missed, lives are changed.

"You say you should have died instead of me. But during my time on earth, people dies instead of me, too. It happens every day. When lightning strikes a moment after you are gone, or a plane crashes that you might have been on. When a colleague falls ill and you do not. We thing such things are random. But there is a balance to it all. One withers, another grows. Birth and death are part of a whole.

As a good civic-minded citizen, once I was out of harm's way I decided I should report the matter to the relavent authorities since the branch was blocking the entire road. I don't really know who to call, so I called 999 - and after a few rings they hung me up. I've never called 999 before, but if I ever have to again, I guess this has somewhat dented my confidence in our mah dahs. I'm just glad I wasn't being mugged or robbed.

I actually went back to the scene to take pictures but through supreme clumsiness I managed to lose them. So I guess this entry will henceforth serve as my only record of a very memorable non-event.

I still remember another time 8 years ago in the Mandai forest when a big thorny branch also hit me on the head. Thankfully again, no injury. But if my life ever comes to a sudden end, I infer by linear regression that it will probably be a tree or a grand piano and not a bullet.

The book was getting me thinking about what meaningful things I would like to accomplish with the rest of my life. The tree kind of drove the point home.