Should donors have a say in how to use charity money?

Categories: Singapore

Following the NKF debacle, many donors are now very weary about the use of donation money. This is a healthy development in itself. It is only fair for donors to know precisely how their money are going to be spent. But can donors decide on how fund should be used? [Today newspaper March 17, 2006].

Given the numerous charitable organisations in Singapore, it is easy to understand that some of their principal aims may be overlapped. Good example will be the National Kidney Foundation and the Kidney Dialysis Foundation (KDF), both of which helps in providing dialysis subsidy to renal patients. This is further complicated by the fact that there is an umbrella body that forsee and helps in raising charity money for its member. This body takes the form of National Council of Social Service (NCSS).

Currently, donors generally give money to such organisations based on their broad aims. For example, NKF for kidney patients and NCSS under the Community Chest scheme. This has the advantage of simplicity for donors. Donors do not have to wonder how exactly the money will be used but who will use the money. The downside is that sometimes the money may not be channelled to the intended use of the donor. For example, donation to the NKF may end up being used for education purposes and not for dialysis per se as what the donor may have intended. And given the worse case scenario as in the NKF saga, the funds can be easily abused.

On the other hand, giving the donor a say on how to use their donation may create numerous conflicts. Organisations like Singapore Heart Foundation spend most of its donation money on education which it feels is important in preventing heart-related condition in the first place. This may not be what the donors felt and thus donations may be inadequate. Then there are varied opinions as to what each donor may want the charity body to use his donations. This may give rise to many smaller funds resulting in lack of real overall funding as the already precious little donation money is spread into many funds. This may result in a charity body with large overall donations but too little to fund an individual project.

A possible solution is probably to let the public know exactly what the organisation planned to do and how much each project is expected to cost. The collected donation is then dispersed proportionately into each project. If this is not feasible, then have the project prioritised so that the most important will get the funding first followed by the rest. This method serves to create a little more transparency compared to the 'old' tried-and-tested method. Now the donor gets a better picture of how the money is to be spent. Further it prevents the chaotic situation where each donor has a say in how the money is to be spent. The charity body can steer the donation money to what it felt is most important for the members they serve.

Talking about transparency, it would be good if a charitable organisation can publish a simplified financial report in the newspaper - on how much it has canvassed, how and where the money was spent and left overs if any - before they have a campaign for donations. This is especially so for the those organisations that canvas their funds via the television as such events generally rakes in millions of dollars. Donors are 'shareholder' in such charitable organisations and this is only fair that a report card of sorts is published. After all a public listed company is also required to report to their share holders.

Whatever the outcome of this discussions, it is most important that the needy does not suffer as a result. Whichever method is used, the utmost important is transparency so that a repeat of NKF fiasco can be avoided. In the end it is not only the needy that benefits if all goes well, the donors also benefit because they know that their hard earn money is put to good use.

Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission

Categories: Malaysia

The Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Mohd Bakri Omar rejected the adoption of the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) in a speech marking the 199th Police Day celebrations. The setting up of the IPCMC is one of the recommendations made by the Royal Commission to Enhance the Operation and Management of the Royal Malaysian Police. This follows a spate of bad publicities on the country's Police, one of which was the Balai Polis video clips. In his speech, he said he had recommended to the Government that the Police Force Commission, which was created under Article 140 of the Federal Constitution, should continue to oversee police officers and personnel discipline.

The speech by the IGP is indeed surprising. Not only because of the rejection itself, but by the fact that Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi had already given an "in-principle" agreement on the setting up of the IPCMC on 24th January 2006. It further questions whether the Police do have something to hide.

The IGP must first realised that he is a civil servant appointed by the government - a political establishment. And the head of this political establishment is the Prime Minister, who in this case is also the Internal Security Minister; his direct boss. Therefore the IGP must not forgets that he is answerable to the Government. Even if he disagrees, he will have to abide by the Government's decision until a decision is made through behind-the-scenes negotiations with the Government.

PM Abdullah Badawi, known for his gentlemanly style, had hinted subtly that the implementation of the IPCMC is good for the Police because "When the situation reaches a stage where the public no longer cares about what the police do or whatever the force wishes to cover up, then (it means) the public no longer cares about the force and that spells trouble". What words of wisdom. Put another way: when there is a lack of trust, the Police will lost its authority. Therefore adopting the IPCMC will improve whatever little trust the public have of the Police, which can only be good. On the other hand, rejecting the proposals, reinforced the feeling that the Police do have something to hide!

The IGP's stand is not surprising given that he has to protect his fellowman - rightly or wrongly. However what is more surprising is why some ruling MP voiced their objections. This is despite Parliament as a body was very supportive of the Royal Commission when it was first set up. Many spoke out (which included MPs) in support of Pak Lah's great vision to rid our country of bad police. Their sudden change of hearts had raised questions of whether their postal votes may have played a part.

Finally, when the IPCMC is indeed implemented, it must be seen to be independant and fair. If must be daring enough to ask tough and embarrassing questions and make painful recommendations if needed. Therefore it is important for the Commission to be made up of people of good standings in politics (from both the government and the opposition), Suhakam (The Human Rights Commission), community leaders and top Government officials. Only then will the people have faith in IPCMC. Otherwise if the Police are cleared by the Commission, doubts will remain and the public will adopt "I told you so" attitude.

Syabas Malaysia!

Categories: Malaysia

The Melbourne XVIII Commonwealth Games just concluded yesterday. Malaysia was placed eighth with a total of 29 medals of which 7 are gold medals. Once again Malaysia's strength lies with its badminton team having won a total of 4 golds (Men's single, Men's double, Women's double, Mixed team) and 3 silver. The other events that Malaysia did well was rhythmic gymnastics (4 silver 2 bronze), weightlifting (1 gold, 1 silver and 3 bronze) and shooting (1 silver and 4 bronze).

Malaysia should be proud of its achievement because all the medals were won by true-blue Malaysians. We had relied on our own strength and our programmes to advance in the sporting arena. Whatever achievements we gained are gained through the hardwork of Malaysians, not pseudo-Malaysians that are 'imported'.

This is the way to go in sports as there are no shortcuts. By taking shortcuts, there may be a vacuum when these 'foreign' sports talents retire as the locals may not make the mark. To achieve similar results, more foreign sports talent need to be recruited and the cycle feeds itself. Only by training our own atheletes and sending them to international events, sometimes just for the experience, is the slow but sure way to improve our sporting prowess. Malaysians must not be ashame of any failure because each failure is a lesson towards success.

I was lucky enough to watch the women's badminton doubles between Malaysia's Chin Eei Hui and Wong Pei Tty and China's Jiang Yanmei and Li Yujia. Oops! I mean Singapore...

Once again, syabas Malaysia and Malaysia Boleh!

Related blogs:
* It's about sportsmanship
* Foreign sports talent

Just completed assigning categories!

Just completed 'categorising' all my blogs! Thanks to Ayub for the method. Now it is easier to navigate my blogs.

It's about sportsmanship

Categories: Singapore
There were questions raised on why Singapore send the netball and swimming teams to the Commonwealth when they had failed to show any good results. This is very sad because somehow in the quest for excellence, some Singaporeans have forgotten such thing call sportsmanship. Everything had boiled down to dollars and cents.

There are many reasons for sending a team to a major tournament. One of which is to gain experience. This is invaluable because this is the only way you can gauge your standard. Sure by all standards the netball team lost miserably. But if the team was not sent to the Games, how do one know about such disparity? It is only by such participation that such things can be gained. Painful lessons indeed but unfortunately a necessary steps.

The were also talk about wasting taxpayers money by sending the swimming team. To quote a writer to the Straits Times: "The swimmers were in the last three places of every race, which tells us that we still have a long way to go to compete at the world level. Though they did us proud in the last SEA Games, sending them to the Commonwealth Games seems to be a waste of taxpayers' money. Did we send the team just for the sake of doing so?" How does one improve if one chose to avoid competition? No doubt it always feels good to win the gold but do you just want to win a regional competition only? Wouldn't it be cheating yourself if you just chose to win 'small' regional competitions and avoid the major meets? In the long run it will be counter-productive because complacency may creep in and other swimmers from around the region will catch up and we will loose our advantage. The only way forward is to compete in major international meets to gauge our standards, experience world class competition and push ourselves forward. Already some swimmers have supassed their personal best in this Games.

One should not forget about sportsmanship. This was the main theme in all sporting events until the advent of professional sports and the current renumeration system for the victors. Sportsmanship means "conduct (as fairness, respect for one's opponent, and graciousness in winning or losing) becoming to one participating in a sport" according to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary. Sure the netball team and the swimming team did poorly but I am sure they had tried their best for the country and that counts. In this respect, I must congratulate the Sri Lankan diver for participating in the Games. This is because the level of difficulty alone will already ensure that he will be last in his event but he chose to participate anyway. Winning or losing is not everything in sports, it is about participating to the best of one's ability. Along the way in our quest for excellence we seem to have forgotten about this.

Foreign sports talent

Categories: Singapore
This blog was inspired by a caller to UFM 100.3 who said that he did not feel very proud when our table tennis team won the gold but felt very proud when Vanessa Yong won the bronze because she is a true blue Singaporean. Of the three panelist, one agreed, one disagreed and another who married a foreigner wonders about her child if he represented Singapore in future.

Foreign sports talent is not new or is it unique to Singapore. A look through the list of participant in the Commonwealth Games official website will reveal that other countries are also represented by 'foreign' sports talent. I am not sure about the response there but certainly in Singapore, this question had cropped up time and again.

Are they any less Singaporean than a Singaporean by birth? I don't think so. They certainly must have shown their commitment during training and had excelled in their sports before they are chosen. As it is, Singapore sports do not tolerate failures. If they have shown commitment to their training, how are they different from the true-blue local sports person?

If they are not less Singaporeans why is it that their achievement is less sweet compared to that achieved by a Singaporean by birth? This question probably can be answered from three different aspects - the level of sports, whether team events or how involved is an athelete with the Singapore system.

For a long time, it is known that sporting results in Singapore had unfortunately been poor. Granted Singapore has Olympic silver medallist Tan Howe Liang in weight-lifting but that was back in 1960! Other successes had been bronze medals in weight-lifting events in the seventies and eighties Commonwealth Games. Great achievements given that during that time sports was not given as much emphasis as now and therefore less support from the Government. Now things have changed. Since the Foreign Sports Talent scheme come into play in 1998, Singapore had been actively scouting out foreign talents to be based here and then grant them citizenship if they made the mark. Table tennis benefitted the most from the scheme. Where previously, Singapore only managed to win the occasional bronze medal in the Commonwealth Games, in 2002, Singapore suddenly made a giant leap with 13 medals, 4 of them gold. However further scrutiny revealed that 12 out of 13 medals were from table tennis with only one from badminton. And all the players who won medals were originally from China! I think this is what Singaporeans are questioning. How can one be very proud when these athletes were pre-selected and not because they had followed the Singapore training schemes and systems? They are essentially made-in-China but repackage as a product of Singapore!

The Singapore football team also have at least 2 'foreign' talent donning the Singapore jersey. But there was no questions asked regarding their 'status'. This is partly because football is a team game and the contribution from 2 talented players may not make too much difference in the outcome. Therefore, the team is still essentially of Singapore flavours. This is unlike the female table tennis team. In 2002 Commonwealth Games, there were no Singapore-born peddlers. In the current games, at least there were 2 born-Singaporeans. However because the team event is dependant on individual results, there is still a lack of local flavours although the Singapore-born contribution is equally important.

Finally, how these athletes come to represent Singapore is significant. If they were born here as permanent resident and eventually they represent Singapore, then I think there is no issue. This is because for all intent and purposes, they are no different from a child born as Singaporean. They grow up in the same environment, study in the same education system and generally subscribed to the same ideology and aspiration. If they migrated here at young age and study the national school here, then they should still be considered 'true-blue' Singaporean. However if they are bigger but migrated not because of their sports skills then I think there should not be any 'discomfort' if they win for Singapore. However if from young they are enticed to Singapore because of their prowess and potential then unfortunately these are the ones that will not raise the same pride as that acheived by a true-blue Singaporean. That is why Stefanie Sun, the superstar singer, is very much accepted as a true-blue Singaporean although she is a second-generation permanent resident earlier on.

Pride and nationalism is a matter of the heart. Because it is a matter of the heart, judgement and common sense sometimes takes a back seat. Maybe the sporting community should look into the issue of imported talent in international events so that we won't be seeing 'China' versus China in table tennis or 'Indonesia' versus Indonesia in badminton, but that will be another blog.

In similar veins: why nobody expresses any discomfort when a non-Singapore-born talent was made a Minister? ..... matters of the heart, I guess.

Do you know... TGN1412

Categories: Do You Know?
TGN1412 is manufactured by TeGenero, a biopharmaceutical company based in Germany. It is a monoclonal antibody drug, and was designed to target a specific human protein involved in several diseases. Animal studies and clinical data has suggested that the drug could benefit patients with incurable chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, and others with auto-immune diseases such as multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis. These conditions are caused by the body's immune system attacking itself.

TGN1412 was designed to target the CD28 protein on a subset of immune system cells called T cells. The antibodies in the drug get into the bloodstream, seek out the immune cells, and then latch on to them. Most antibody treatments work by shutting down biological reactions, but TGN1412 is designed to do the opposite - activate the T cells. It was thought the drug would over-stimulate the rogue T cells, making them burn out and die.

The only known 'side-effect' is the temporary increase in size of the lymph nodes. Other than this, it has been shown to be safe when tested on rabbits and monkeys. There were no drug related side effects and there were no drug related deaths despite administering doses up to five hundred times the dose to be used in the phase I clinical trial (first human test).

[Ref1][Ref2][Ref3][FAQ]

Hand-Foot-Mouth Disease

Categories: Singapore
Today marks the first day of school in Singapore after a one-week break. This will also be the first day in school after the outbreak of Hand-Foot-Mouth Disease (HFMD) with started about 3 weeks ago around the region. With the recent school break, families in Singapore generally travel around the region and with the disease 1-week incubation period, [Ref] the opening of school may herald a spread of the disease. The Ministry of Health has already drawn up guidelines for schools and doctors in its contingency plan to combat a possible outbreak.

On March 10, the Health Ministry had set up a task force involving Ministry of Community, Youth and Sports which oversees nurseries and childcare centre and Ministry of Education and National Environmental Agency. With this multi-ministerial task force, it is hoped that the lag time for any useful policy implementation across ministry is shortened.

It was reported in the Straits Times today that any single child is down with HFMD, the parents of all classmates will be informed. And if at least 18 children are infected over a 3 week period, the school will be shut. Informing parents will highten vigilance and possible early quarantine if comfirmed and shutting down schools will serve to break the infectious cycle.

As for the primary healthcare, circulars had been distributed informing them of the need for extra vigilance during this period. They are to advice parents to keep their child indoors for seven days from onset of disease. During this time, the child is also to avoid contacts with their siblings and other children as much as possible. And they are only to attend school after being certified free of the disease by a doctor. Of course, good personal hygiene is of utmost importance during this time. And if a child down with HFMD showed signs of lung infection, heart infection or brain infection, they are to be referred to the tertiary institution of Kandang Kerbau Hospital or National University Hospital.

The Health Ministry also has a good FAQ on HFMD on its website for the public. Topics include what is HFMD, signs and symptoms, treatment and what parents can do if a child is infected with the disease. This very informative site is useful for the general public.

However, none is more important than personal hygiene. Because HFMD is spread by direct contact, adoption of personal hygiene is of utmost importance. Washing hands and covering mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing are simple yet effective means of breaking the contagion. All the measures taken by the Ministry may come to naught if simple personal hygiene is not practiced.

Given the experience with SARS back in 2003, Singaporean had shown that they are the robust lot. With the lessons learned, and the precautions taken, hopefully there will be little likelihood of a repeat of the 2000/2001 HFMD epidemic where deaths had occured.

And again Mr Khaw Boon Wan, the Health Minister, should be commended for drawing up plans so early to combat the possible epidemic of HFMD.

Public Transportation Trust Fund in Malaysia

Categories: Malaysia
The Malaysian Cabinet decision to set up a Public Transportation Trust Fund with the savings the Government derived from its reduction of subsidy for fuel prices is indeed laudable. The savings amount to RM4.4bil.

This is the way to go if the Government is seriously urging its people to switch from private transport to public transport. Till now apart from words, no concrete steps had been taken so far. In order to solve the transport problems and urging people to reduce the use of private transport, there must be a viable alternative. If there are no public transport, how are those people who stop using the private transport commute?

The country cannot afford to keep building new roads because this does not solve traffic problems. It merely increases the ownership of cars because when there is perceived lack of traffic jams, this implies low car populations. This new roads and highways just serve to delay the inevitable.

With the various modes of transport available in the KL, it is important to optimise and integrate their use. There should be seamless transfer between the LRT, monorail, KTM and buses. By integrating, this increases the convenience of public transport and therefore address one of the advantage of private transport.

Bus service should also increase their coverage. They should ply into areas where the LRT, monorail or KTM cannot cover. The should serve as the link between LRT or monorail stations and residential, workplace or shopping areas. Not only should their coverage be big, their frequency should also be increased. A wide coverage means reduce private transport dependance on the area served. Higher frequency means more convenience. Reliability is also important.

I hope the Government do not only look into the transport problems of KL but all the cities of Malaysia. It is better to alleviate or prevent the breakdown of the public transport before it collapses. The public transport in Penang deteriorated to such an extent that it was mostly non-existence. It was recently just being revamped. How effective the revamp will work remains to be seen.

Another worry is the tendency for the Government to just start some project without following through it. Traffic woes is an on-going problem and needs an on-going study and review of transport policy. Officials cannot just sit tight after implementing some scheme because although it may work earlier on, it may slowly resurface with time due to changing demographics and land usage.

It is a good start for the Government to make good its promise to use the subsidy saved on petrol to improve the public transport. It remains to be seen whether they can sustain their effort in improving the public transport.

Jericho prison raid by the Israeli - a collusion?

Categories: Wormie Says

On March 14, 2006 the Israeli Defence Force stormed a jail in Palestinian-run town of Jericho and ‘captured’ Ahmed Saadat, the political leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. He was accused by planning the revenge killing of hardline Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi. His predecessor Abu Ali Mustafa was assassinated by Israel a year after the outbreak of the intifada. The Palestinian judiciary had cleared him of involvement, but he was kept in custody. He was elected to parliament earlier this year, and both Mr Abbas and the militant election victors, Hamas, had spoken of releasing him soon. The prison was under the charge of the Palestinian Authority but supervised by the US and British troops.

Britain and the US had repeatedly warned Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas that it would withdraw its monitors from the Jericho prison citing threats to its security forces monitors. Mr Abbas said the monitors had complained about small violations of the detention agreement, such as the unauthorised family visits or use of mobile phones, "but they never spoke of serious things". [Links] Certainly, for a long time the Palestinians have not been keeping to the rules they were meant to be following for running this particular prison. But there is a new element of uncertainty - from the perspective of UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and others - with the advent of the administration led by the Islamic militant group, Hamas. Hamas has said it will not recognise Israel, but it has hinted at continuity. [Links] Within 10 minutes of the US-UK forces, the Israelis manage to bring in bulldozers and other military equipment in its storming of the Jericho prison.

This raid brought 2 major questions. Firstly is there a collusion between the Israeli and the US-UK forces? Given that the Israeli manage to bring in bulldozers and all in their raid in such a short time certainly raises eyebrows. If the Israelis were not informed of the timing of withdrawal, could they have assembled such a force in so short a time? There were some examples of collusion between the British and the Israelis, and the Americans and the Israelis.
However, at this point, the evidence is not necessarily pointing in that direction. Strangely, there are no condemnations from the US or the British regarding the invasion and storming of the Palestinian prison.

Secondly, what is the legal status of the Palestinian courts? Ahmed Saadat was tried and cleared by the Palestinian judiciary. What right has the courts in Israel in trying him again? Is the Israeli judiciary of a higher standards or any more partial than that of the Palestinians? I guess the answer depends on who you talk to. If a country can just raid another country so as to retry a prisoner, where is justice then? Yes, I agree sometimes there are times when we do not agree with the outcome of a court proceedings but it does not mean we can take matters into our own hands. I hope this will not set a precedent to any countries as an excuse for invasion!

The fallout is to be expected. The British Council cultural centre in Gaza City were burned and foreigners were kidnapped. Although such actions cannot be justified, it is certainly understandable. This episode will sadly serve to strengthened the hands of the militant Hamas and justifies their existance and hardline attitude towards the Israel in particular and the West in general. President Abbas and his Fatah Party will be weakened further. It will take a long time for any compromise to be reached following this episode.

Mr Blair seemed to understand the problem in the Middle East when he said: "The only way we are ever going to get a peace process beginning again in the Middle East is if it is accepted that the solution the international community is committed to, a two state solution, can only be proceeded with if both sides accept the existence of the other state. We totally respect the mandate Hamas secured in the elections. We supported those democratic elections. We support them still. But if they want our help, both politically and financially to make progress, it has to be on an understood basis that means giving up violence, negotiating peacefully and accepting the existence of Israel. However his words does not hold any weight because there was no condemnation of Israel. By invading the Jericho jail, Israel once again demonstrated that the only law it will follow is Israel law. Since there is no respect and acceptance of the Palestinian state and its judiciary, how can they expect the Palestinian to respect and accept the existence of Israel?

[Ref1][Ref2][Ref3][Ref4][Ref5]
Text of U.S.-UK letter to Abbas
Israel press justifies Jericho raid
Q&A: Israel's Jericho jail raid
Agreement on the Gaza Strip and the Jericho Area
History of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

A true story

Categories: Others
I would like to relate a true story. This story involves a relative of a friend. I am relating this story to highlight the misfortunes some kids go through and to make parents aware of their responsibility. Lastly, hopefully someone can provide a good solution to this unfortunate story.

I will call this family A. Hubby A works in a factory and Ex-wife A a housewife. They have 2 children, Son A1 and Son A2. Years ago, Hubby A was involved in smuggling cigarettes into Singapore. He did this so that he can earn more money for the family. However one day he wanted out and told the boss so but was persuaded to do one more consignment. Luck would have it that he was caught and sentenced to jail. His misfortune did not end there for Ex-wife A later left him saying that she does not want to spent her life with a poor man. All this while, the family of Ex-wife A actually supported Hubby A and understood why Hubby A was involved in smuggling. They actually chided Ex-wife A for leaving Hubby A. Eventually the couple divorced.

Ex-wife A insisted that the children should be with her. Hubby A relented although he had wished for the children. Things had not gone well for the children. Eventually Ex-wife A met Boyfriend B. Son A1 who was already in primary school cannot accept him. Boyfriend B presence brought about a lot of conflict with the boy. This made Ex-wife A to punish son A1. During this time, son A1 had been doing badly in school. Hubby A finally convinced ex-wife A to let him take care of son A1 while son A2 remains with ex-wife A. Following this move, son A1 results improved. Although son A1 is to spend weekend with ex-wife A, he generally refuses to do so.

In the meantime, son A2 is neglected. Ex-wife A spends a lot of time with boyfried B (understandable). She also spend time playing mahjong. Son A2 was sent to aunt C to take care of him. Although ex-wife A was suppose to take son A2 home in the evening, she sometimes defaulted on this. Worse, sometimes she did not even pick up son A2 or even call for a few days. Because aunt C already has financial constraint taking care of her own 4 children, this put tremendous strain on aunt C and finally this arrangement was ended.

Now son A2 is in school. His school work is bad. Homework was not done. Despite the school calling on ex-wife A to supervise his homework, this comes to naught. One day he was to stay back for remedial class which ended at 3 pm. The school had called ex-wife many times but received no reply. Only at 5 pm, did ex-wife A call her mother (A2's grandmother) to ask her to pick up the child. Excuse ex-wife A given was that she forgot to fetch A2. Unfortunately son A2 cannot be found in school with the school compound already locked! So grandmother called out the other siblings to help looked for son A2. Ex-wife A did not help to look for the son because she was not free!! And this incident happened at a time following Nonoi's incident.

Eventually, aunt C found son A2 at 6.30pm. He was sitting on a slide looking pale and tired. When aunt C asked how he was, he just said he was tired. Later on it was found that he only had a piece of bread for breakfast and nothing for lunch. So aunt C carried him home. When cousin C, who is still in primary school, saw son A2, she cried and keep asking why ex-wife A neglected son A2. Imagine a child sympathises with another child. Incidentally, ex-wife A did not come to fetch son A2. Son A2 was brought back to ex-wife A by uncle D.

It is especially sad because all this while Hubby A is willing to take care of the children but ex-wife A refuses. One wonders why this is so if she found the children to be a hindrance on her independance. She somehow has lost her maternal instinct. Even animals have maternal instinct to take care of their babies, why has this mother lost hers?

After reading this story, I hope parents are made aware of their responsibility towards their children. Children are innocent. We as parents brought them to this world and it is only right that we take care of them. We may not be able to give them everything but at least we should give them proper love, food and shelter.

If anyone out there has any idea to solve this problem without having to resort to the courts, please leave your comments.

Lost comments on my blogs

I removed Trackback from haloscan last night by manipulating the codes. Now I got back the original Blogger trackback but in the process I lost all the comments made on my articles!

The deceitful US

Categories: Wormie Says

The Dubai Ports World and the Greece Vodafone scandals are very good example of the paranoia and megalomanic attitude of the US. These saga exposed the lack of trust and confidence in its allies.

Dubai had hosted a US military airbase for the last 10 years and U.S. warships have called at Dubai's Jebel Ali Port, a massive man-made harbor. They also have trade ties amounting to US$10 billion a year. Dubai Ports World recently acquired the British-based firm, P&O that among others operated 6 ports in the US. This has created a furore and controversy with the US lawmaker when they feared that these ports may become the gateway for terrorists to the US. This is despite a State Department spokesman assertion that "Nothing in this acquisition has anything to do with the responsibility for security in American ports. That remains very firmly in the hands of the Department of Homeland Security." And this is despite Dubai being the first Middle East government to accept the U.S. Container Security Initiative as policy to screen all containers for security hazards before heading to America.

In Greece, a member of the EU, a scandal broke after a story in Athens daily Ta Nea in February reported on a phone-tapping conspiracy described in some quarters as a Greek Watergate. The mobile phones of approximately 100 people whose ranks include journalists and Arabs living in Greece, as well as the country's political and security elite including that of Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis and cabinet ministers were monitored after snooping software was illegally installed on the systems of Vodafone Greece, the country's second largest mobile operator. This happened for about a year around the time of the Athens Olympics. Communist MP Liana Kanelli said the material used was "very sophisticated", and that its use pointed to US involvement. Further, a former American diplomat based at the US embassy in Athens, who resigned three years ago, told the BBC he was convinced the Americans were involved because they did not trust the Greek authorities on the issue of protecting the Athens Olympics from any potential terrorist attack.

These two incidences highlighted a few problems with the US. Firstly, it doesn't matter if you are allies or foe, you have to succumb to the US policies. It is always US first and then the rest of the world. All talks about allies and cooperations are sheer nonsence. You are US friend when needed otherwise it is just lip service.

Secondly, it emphasises on the megalomanic attitude of the US. Anything US is good, anything else if bad - allies or not; unless you subscribed to US means. If US intelligence is so good, why the Oklahoma bombings and the tragic and unnecessary 9/11 World Trade Centre bombings?

Thirdly, one wonders whether there is any Arab-phobia or Islam-phobia with US lawmakers. There had been many countries that run port operations in the US including China. Why do these deals get the go ahead when the DP World does not?

Whatever the outcome of these controversies, it is not difficult to see why the US is not the most popular country in the world. Here is a country that professes free trade, human rights, rule of law, democracy but in effect, carried out just the opposite. One wonders if the US is any better on this count when compared to the former Soviet Union. At least Soviet Union's action was consistent with its policies and not hide under a cloak of deceit and propaganda.


Links: Dubai1 Dubai2 Greece1 Greece2

Bahasa Rojak in Malaysia

Categories: Malaysia
Last week Malaysia's Education Minister said that the government would consider passing legislation to strengthen the national language. This comes about as the country is seeing a gradual erosion of Bahasa Malaysia. In my opinion, this problem started some twenty years ago when the Dewan Bahasa and Pustaka (DBP) started using 'Malay-nised' English words in place of Malay words that was already in usage.

Example are words like situasi (keadaan semasa) and produksi (keluaran). Such erosion should had been contained but it wasn't. With time, more and more English words were introduced into the vocabulary. Granted that some words have no Malay equivalent. This neccessitates new words to be coined or borrowed from other languages. However given the ease of borrowing foreign words, this unfortunately was the chosen course.

It is timely that the Education Minister look into the erosion of the national language. The transformation of native Malay words to the 'Malay-nised' English words fortunately is a slow process and therefore probably easier to contain. The problem is with the language of SMS which because of its popularity, spreads like wild fire. Not only does SMS corrupt Malay words, it also destroy the grammar and worse still it created non-existant words. This is the menace that the government should try to contain. However how the government will implement the ruling and its implementation effectiveness remains to be seen. SMS being a private thing should prove difficult to be monitored, short of invading one's privacy.

Utusan Malaysia has been spearheading a campaign for correct usage of Bahasa Malaysia. However reading the online version of Utusan Malaysia alone leaves me wonder why they do not follow what they professed. All examples below were obtained from Utusan Online 8 March 2006. I will try to recall what I had learned in school some twenty years ago and 'correct' the examples given.

Examples:
> Pemimpin berkualiti mempunyai visi jelas = Pemimpin yang bermutu mempunyai pemikiran jauh yang jelas
> Secara jujur, kita berada dalam dilema = secara jujur, kita berada dalam keadaan yang tertekan
> Karnival = pesta
> informasi = keterangan
> interaksi = pergaulan
> prosedur = langkah-langkah peraturan
> soal sosial = soal kemasyarakatan


The following extracts were taken from an essay written by Nordi Achie, of Pusat Penataran Ilmu dan Bahasa, Universiti Malaysia Sabah entitled Satu Bahasa, Satu Bangsa. It is a great essay commenting on the state of the national language today and the possible reasons why. Problem is, there were a lot of 'Malay-nised" English words. I will highlight some below with their 'corrected' versions.


> dalam konteks pembinaan bangsa Malaysia = dalam suasana pembinaan bangsa Malaysia
> jika benar kita serius untuk menghakikatkan gagasan = jika benar kita memegang kepada kepentingan untuk menghakikatkan gagasan
> rancangan merealisasikan Wawasan 2020 = rancangan mewujudkan/menjayakan Wawasan 2020


In one of its editorials, the Utusan Malaysia also placed some blame on the local councils and the Housing and Local Government Minister when it wrote:


Berleluasanya papan iklan yang langsung tidak menghormati Bahasa Kebangsaan ini, mungkin ada kaitan dengan sikap pihak berkuasa tempatan (PBT) seluruh negara. PBT di bawah Kementerian Perumahan dan Kerajaan Tempatan dipimpin oleh menteri bukan Melayu maka kita faham `kekurangannya' dalam memberi keutamaan terhadap soal memartabatkan bahasa Melayu. Tetapi majoriti pengarah dan pemimpin PBT adalah Melayu sepatutnya peka dan sedar tentang kecelaruan penggunaan bahasa Melayu yang menghiasi bangunan dan jalan raya di kawasan pentadbiran masing-masing.


This is obviously barking up the wrong tree because signboards alone does not ensure the proper use of a language. Language is a 'living' thing and signboards and advertisements are merely symbols. What is important is the usage of the language. Even bumiputra nowadays choose to speak English. The question is how to encourage the citizens to use Bahasa more in their daily lives - and this includes the bumiputras as well. Furthermore why blame a non-Malay minister when certain quarters which championed the Bahasa chose to call themselves Persatuan Linguistik Malaysia when it could have been easily been called Persatuan Bahasa Malaysia. and people like Nordi Achie chose to use Bahasa rojak for their cause.


It further mentioned that:


Usah biarkan tanggungjawab untuk mendaulatkan Bahasa Kebangsaan ini diserah bulat-bulat kepada DBP. Jika DBP bersuara lantang pun apa maknanya jika mereka tiada gigi dan taring untuk `menggigit' pihak yang enggan mematuhi peraturan bahasa Melayu.


But it was DBP which started 'Malay-nised' English terms during my school days. I still remember my Physics book which was in Bahasa. Nobody could understand what the book was trying to say and this was not because our Bahasa was poor; it was because of the atrocious translation, so much so that we gave up and used the English version instead! I was lucky because I was in pioneer year when the medium of instruction was switched to Bahasa.

I think the problem of 'rojak' Malay is not a new one or an unique one. This problem had surfaced several times over the years. The following are some of the extracts after a search on bahasa rojak in Utusan Online's archives which revealed nearly 120 entries.

> Bahasa rojak, Melayu hamburger (04/07/1998)
> Stesen TV dan bahasa Melayu (05/11/1998)
> Bahasa rojak jejas kedaulatan bahasa (24/02/1999)
> "Bahasa Rojak" Is Out, Says RTM (03/02/2000)
> Krisis generasi bahasa rojak -Pandangan dua tokoh tentang penguasaan dua bahasa (17/03/2002)
> Apabila bukan Melayu tegur bahasa rojak (16/07/2003)
> Pakar bahasa tolak istilah `Infotainmen' (12/08/2004)
> Ada akta tapi tiada kuasa (02/12/2004)
> Masih adakah pejuang bahasa? (31/03/2005)


The challenge ahead for the use of Bahasa is how to encourage the citizens to use the language in their daily lives. Part of the problem is in the lack of reading materials. I am not talking about magazines, for there are plenty of Bahasa magazines available. There are certainly lack of technical, and scientific journal and magazines that are translated into Bahasa. Only when such reading materials are available, can there be a realistic chance that the slide of Bahasa standards be arrested.

To conclude, I highly recommend everyone to read the exclusive report entitled SEMINAR ANTARABANGSA LINGUISTIK MELAYU 2005 by Cikgu Isa of Jabatan Pengajian Melayu. It is surprising that a champion of the Bahasa should write the way he did - using so many 'Malay-nised' English - when he could have easily used original Bahasa terminology.


Links:
DBP patut gulung tikar? by Lee Ban Chen, Malaysiakini, 17 September 2004

Counter, counter can you count?!

Installed NeoCounter and CounterSpot counter on my blog on March 5. Started counting from March 6 for NeoCounter and CounterSpot counter starts from 398. Arrived at this figure from the stats from Singaporeblog.

Up to this moment, the three counters gives me different results:

Singaporeblog: total 506 with 34 views from Mar 6 till now
NeoCounter: 21 views from Mar 6
CounterSpot: total 476 views

What is happening? Which counter is the most accurate? I wish I know.

By the way, (so far) I like NeoCounter because it tells me where the viewer originates from, Singaporeblog because of its ranking and CounterSpot because it is gives a breakdown of when the page is visited.

Are there others out there I wonder?

Overloaded kids

Categories: Singapore
The Sunday Times today [March 5, 2006] highlighted kids in Singapore who were overloaded with school work. One was quoted as having so little time that she even have to take her meals in the car while being ferry for yet another tuition. Another was given 40 pages of homework over a three-day holiday. A few was reported to have dreaded school so much that they refuse to attend school. Why are school children having so much pressure? Whose fault is it?

Some school here set their examination standards very high. They feel that if standards are set high those that do not do too well in school will still have a higher chance to get good grades in public exams. However, seeing such 'poor' results propel parents to enrol their child in tuitions and enrichment classes with the hope of improving their results. School at fault.

Some schools here had been piling up homework for their kids. This was done with the intention of giving the kids extra practice so that they can be better in their work. Some of the parents I met have told me their children find it difficult to finish their homework before the next school day. This leaves the kids with very little time for rest let alone play. And we have not considered time for tuition yet! Score: school 2 parents 0

On the other hand, we have school which does not give much homework. All school work are to be completed in school. Only when the child cannot complete their work, then do they bring these back as 'homework'. However here we also have rumblings from parents who asked why there are no homework for the child! Do not be fooled into thinking that these children have a lot of free time. Because in their 'free' time, these children can go for tuition classes and therefore they also are hard pressed for free time. Parent's fault.

Some parents have high ambitions for their kids. Their kids must top in everything they do. If they obtain highest marks, anything less than full marks won't do. They must be first in class. If they are already first in class, then they must strive to be first in form. So if the child can't deliver, tuition is it! Score: school 2 parents 2.

Yet there is another group of parents who are feel that children must grow up with some stress so that they will be tough. Sounds very true. But the problem is how much stress is enough stress? So the children are piled with assessment books, tuitions and any form of enrichment class you can think of.

Then there is the classic kiasu parents. Such parents always live their children's live for others. If the classmate has 98 marks, their child must be at least 99 marks. If the classmate got first in class, then their child must be first in standard! Never mind their child had already been studying for 5 hours a day. Never mind the child already has no time to watch TV or play. Just do better then the next guy. Final score: school 2 parents 4

The Education Ministry is not entirely free from blame. Previously they rank school causing school to push their students so as to improve their ranking. Although school are no longer rank, its legacy can still be seen. It is not uncommon for anyone to see banner outside school proclaiming that they have the best result in a certain subjects in previous year's PSLE results.

So it seems parents are the main culprit. However isn't school and parents form part of society? Therefore to solve this problem everyone must play a part. Already the Education Ministry has adopted the philosophy of "Teach Less, Learn More". So maybe the rest is up to the schools and parents to lower their 'unreasonable' expectations.

The 'New' Penang Bus Service

Categories: Malaysia
With the new revamped bus system in Penang it is hoped that it will provide a better service to the public. Now they have introduced a zoning system where each bus company can only provide its service within their bus zone. But can this system works? I am not so sure not because of the system per se but because the same companies that provided the lousy service we have now will continue to provide their 'service' under the new revamped system.

Why can't the authority realise that it is not so much of the system that is at fault but the underlying philosophy of the company that is the problem. There don't seem to have any mission statement and they don't even have a formal employee system. Apparently, most of the bus drivers are 'free-lance' driver that just signed up to run a route for the company. As such, there is no company philosophy to talk about. If such system is to be continued, then I think the problem will continue.

I am surprise the old company were not terminated because past record do count. If you look at any transaction, any past track record of the company is important. If previously they had run into some difficulty, then they will have a harder time in convincing the potential trade partner how they have changed. In our case, it is strange that with such lousy 10-year track record, these companies are still given a second chance.

Another surprising thing is why no tender is called for the bus service. If a tender is called, at least the authority can study a companies new action plan, fresh ideas from a different angle and this may help in further improved the system. Granted that because of our affirmative policy, such companies may be persuased to go into a joint venture with other companies. The end result is a 'win-win' policy where the company with the best ideas won the day, a joint venture is created and most importantly, Penangites get to have a good bus service.

Only time will tell. Maybe I am too pessimistic but judging from previous examples, maybe I am justified.

Teen curfew

Categories: Singapore
The Singapore Police recently announced that the police may report teens under 17 years old to their parents if they are found loitering in public places after 11pm. Police will send parents letters stating when and where their children were spotted as well as the contact number of the nearest police post which parents can call for more information. According to the Police, they have noticed an increase in the number of robberies, snatch thefts and rioting cases where youths are the targets. On the surface, this come as something useful and a preemptive move to prevent any crime or to prevent teens from mixing with the wrong company. But how practical or realistic is it?

From the parents point of view, this is indeed welcome. Now there is an added safety net for the children. Delving deeper, there are at least three broad groups of parents.

The first group are those with 'good' parenting skills. Good is in inverted commas because the parenting skill is good simply because it works, No magic formula to be applied to all. Children of such parents usually poses no problem to their parents. They are likely to inform their parents where they are and are most unlikely to be out and about after 11pm. So, no issues here.

The second group of parents are those that cannot handle their children. They have problem coping or controlling the children. Their children generally do not care to listen to these parents. For these parents, one wonders how useful is it for the Police to inform them of the whereabouts of their children because even if they wanted to do something, they probably could not. They would have probably tried to prevent their children from staying out late but to no avail.
However, this group may benefit in the sense that maybe for once they know exactly what their children is up to at night. And maybe such liason with the Police may open an avenue for the parents and their children for counselling which till now may not be known to the parents.

The third group of parents are those that are too busy to take care of the children. For this group of parents, they tend to leave their children alone, usually without much guidance. To these parents, even with the Police notification, will it make any difference to them? Maybe they will just brush it off saying the children are not in any trouble so why bother.

What about the children? Good obedient children has little needs to stay out this late. Even those with tuition rarely has to stay out till 11 pm. The occasional midnight movie would probably have the parents permission. Therefore, their parents already knows their whereabout, and so such policing is redundant.

To the problemed teens, such measure may seen as a lack of trust on the part of the State and the parents. They may feel that they are unfairly targeted and their 'freedom' curtailed. This may make them even more rebellious and worsen an already difficult situation for the parents. What is worse is that some of these teens may go to places that are less frequented so as to hide
themselves from the Police. This may be counter-productive because this may increase their chances of being robbed, etc. With the open-minded teens nowadays, such places may also increase the likelihood of intimacy between the sexes as now they are away from public scrutiny.

Although such measures by the Police is laudable, this step may be seen as interference by the State. Already the State has 'interfered' into individual lives when they encourage the people to get married and have children. Now with this the Police monitoring the teens, what next? The State simply cannot be seen to act like a nanny!

Already parenting nowadays are mostly in remote control mode - most of the time parents are busy working and the children minding is either left to the grandparents, childcare or even maids. It is feared that with such action by the Police, some parents may be even more lax with child-minding as there is a sort of safety net in place for them. Now they may even spend less time with the kids.

Because of a rather efficient government, Singaporeans had come to expect a lot from the State. They tend to be rather quick to speak up if things doesn't measure up. Therefore, by committing to police the teens, they are opening up another 'source' for complaints when teens gets into trouble. This may use up valuable manpower to answer complaints when these can be better utilised to safeguard the society against terrorisms.

It is good to know that the Police are trying to prevent teens from getting into trouble by such a pre-emptive move. However how practical it is remains to be seen.