Embarassing Moments

A radio station in Australia ran a phone-in competition to find the Most embarrassing moment in listener's lives. The final four were:

4th Place

While in line at the bank one afternoon, my toddler decided to release some pent-up energy and started to run amuck. I was finally able to grab hold of her after receiving looks of disgust and annoyance from other patrons. I told her that if she didn't start behaving herself, right now, she would be punished. To my horror, she looked me in the eye and said in a voice just as threatening, 'If you don't let me go right now, I will tell Grandma I saw you kissing Daddy's willie last night.' After this enlightening exchange, the silence was deafening. Even the tellers stopped what they were doing. I mustered the last of my dignity and walked out of the bank, with my daughter in tow. The last thing I heard as the door closed behind me were screams of laughter.

3rd Place

It was the day before my 18th birthday. I was living at home, but my parents had gone out for the evening, so I invited my girlfriend over for a romantic night alone. As we lay in bed after making love, we heard the telephone ringing downstairs. I suggested to my girlfriend that I give her a piggyback ride down to the phone. Since we didn't want to miss the call, we didn't have time to get dressed. When we got to the bottom of the stairs, the lights suddenly came on as a whole crowd of people yelled 'SURPRISE'. My entire family parents, grand parents, aunts, uncles, cousins as well as my friends, were standing there. My girlfriend and I were frozen on the spot in a state of shock and embarrassment for what seemed like an eternity. Since then, no one in my family has planned any surprise parties.

2nd Place

A lady picked up several items at a discount store. When she finally Got up to the checkout, she learned that one of the items had no price tag. The checkout girl got on the public address system, which boomed out across the store for everyone to hear, 'Price check for Tampax supersize.' But it got worse. Someone at the rear of the store apparently misunderstood word 'Tampax' for 'Thumbtacks' , and replied in a business like tone, his voice booming over the same public address system: 'Do you want the kind you push in with your thumb or the kind one you belt in with a hammer.

1st Place.
And the winner is . . ..

This happened at a major Australian University, during a biology lecture. A professor was discussing the high glucose levels found in semen. A young woman raised her hand and asked, 'If I understand you correctly, you are saying there is as much glucose in male semen as in sugar?' The professor responded, yes, that's correct adding some statistical data. Raising her hand again, the girl asked, 'Then why doesn't it taste sweet?' After a stunned silence, the whole class burst out laughing. The poor girl turned bright red, and as she realised exactly what she had inadvertently said, she picked up her books, and without another word, walked out of the class. However, as she was heading for the door, the professor's reply was a classic. Totally straight faced, he answered her question. 'It doesn't taste sweet because the taste-buds for sweetness are on the tip of your tongue and not in the back of your throat'.

Remembering the Good Old Days

Photos by Rahimah.M

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I was looking through my emails and clearing off the old emails (something that I ought have done long time ago) when I came across this pictures of me any my Bruneians friends when we were chilling out at Arab Street. (in clockwise, Fahmy, Rahimah, Rena and myself) and Siti is behind the camera taking the shots. Well someone has to be taking the shots aint it. The camera doesn't function by itself.

Chilling out was an interesting affair back then especially when we took the opportunity of the precious weekends to escape from the confine of the training academy. Arab Street has been a favourite haunts for us as that was where we will meet to chill and puff our youths away, hahaha yeah you guess it, smoking Sheeha. It is an unhealthy habit but well it was an interesting way of passing time especially with friends. Armed with laptops on our right hands and the sheesha pipes on our left we will pass the time to the early hours of the morning.

Here, all of us were posing with my former car, sigh I miss this car of mine before calling it a night. And if you guys were wondering what car is that, it is my humble Mazda 3 sports edition which I have mocked up with an open hood for air intake, roof stabiliser, front lip and sports spoiler. Well it does turn people heads around whenever I drive it around as they cant figure it out whether they are seeing a Mazda 3 or a Subaru WRX.

Well, to my Bruneians friends, chilling out at Arab Street has never been the same without you guys. I will keep the seat warm for you guys till the next time that you guys come visiting Singapore.

Cheerios !!

Isn't the movies getting drearier?

Oh no, not another end of the world movie !. I was practically dragged to the cinema 'literally' at gunpoint..... well not really gunpoint per se but was dragged, begged and plead to follow my friends to the cinema to catch the movie "The Day the Earth Stood Still" starring Keanu Reeves. I supposed if it is not because of him I would not even give the movie a second consideration well maybe becuase of my friends persuasion also and the very fact that my presence there was free of charge and that I need not have to pay for my movie tickets.

As I sat through the movie, I was suddenly hit with the sudden realisation that the movies nowadays tends to be drearier and are about the end of the world. Hmmmmm now let me recapped, we have Armageddon (1998), Deep Impact (1998), The Day after Tomorrow (2004), War of the Worlds (2006) and I am Legend (2007) just to name a view. The genre of such movie seems to have caught the interest of many movie makers in Hollywood who had predicted the end of the world scenario in tandem with the scientific community predictions that the end of the world scenario may come sooner than many of us would thought it would be.

For those that have not watched the movie yet, The Day the Earth Stood Still is about yet another end of the world movie. For those that have not watched the movie yet and would not want to spoil the scene, I suggest that you stop reading now, but for if you want to save your money and spent it on something more worthwhile, then I suggest you carry reading and dont bother running to the cinema for it. Just wait for the release of the DVD and mind you do not even buy it, Just rent it so that after watching it in the comfort of your own home and time, you can return it back to the rental shop before the expiry of the rental period and swear to yourself never to rent such a movie again.

The movie is about how a group of aliens who had been on Earth for quite sometime now watching and observing us decided that humans are not worthwhile of continuing occupancy of Earth. Our continuing wars and constant parching of the earth made the aliens feel that it is time for the time of man to end and for earth to be cleansed. Fast forwading the movie an hour earlier nearing to the end, human civilisation was once agains spared, like any other disaster movie becaused of 'Love' where the aliend "Keanu Reeves' decided that human civilisation should be spared after falling in love with one of the heroin of the movie... so predictable. So as the story goes, human civilisation was yet again allowed to live on and flourished to do whaterver we are so good at doing. Things remain status quo.

The genre of this movie has a stark resemblance as with any other movies of its genre family. Earth is threatened, human civilisation was in the brink of extinction, human civilisation prevails and earth is spared and America emerges as the champions.... oops did I just say that. Though the storyline may be different however the movie is as predictable as the other movies that came before it.

And how has all the movies impacted us? Hmmmm I must say on a scale of 1 to 10 one being no implication and ten being an experience opener that changes our way of living, then I would say, that the scale is tipped closely to between 1 and 2. Apart from the entertainment value, I do not think that anyone that had caught the movie brought back anything meaningful from it. We still pollute the earth, we still go to war, we still scourge the earth in the name of industrialisation and modernisation. The only difference that the movies offers I would think that the scale of the disaster is getting worst thanks the computer animation.

If you felt utterly devastated after reading this, fret not as this year yet another move of the same genre will be in the cinema called 2010. The movie is again about the prediction of the end of the world based on the aryan's calendar. I cannot wait how the movie will turn out but one thing for certain it will revolve around the same plot, the same storyline and the same outcome. Earth will SURVIVE and human civilisation will prevail. Why Hollywood producers do not come out a movie where Earth is totally destroyed, human civilisation is wped out and the next prevailing species is monkey, i wonder. For god sake, get it done and over with. Least there is a closure.

Why are we so Infatuated with Facebook

My friend asked me casually last week whether I have a face book. For a moment I was dumbfounded. I thought he was referring to my face being a book worm. Being naive as I was, I thanked him and asked what does he mean by that? What makes him think I am a book worm? He then looked at me perplexed and confused. The smile on my face quickly changed from that of pure delight to that of 'Oops I have said something wrong" I looked around at my friends who were all looking at me waiting for an explanation of what I had just said earlier. They were as confused as I am.

Not wanting to look stupid, though for that moment in time, I felt like the biggest idiot alive, I burst into a self made laughter and blurted out loud I am kidding. My conversation with my friend for the next few minutes was skillfully designed to solicit information on what face book is all about till I know what he meant was an online profile website.

I am not ashamed to admit that when it comes to technology, I am the last person to actually jump into the bandwagon of technology and immerse myself in the hype and rhythm of things. The rest of the evening with my friends thankfully went on without ever discussing about face book. Most probably my promise that I will add them in the face book closed the chapter solidly.

The same evening that I got home, I sat behind my computer with a hot cup of cocoa and log myself in to the internet. Goggling as I do, I type 'face book" and instantly was transported to the website. I followed the painless step of registering myself and opening up an account. Five minutes and a few clicks of the mouse later, 'presto' I am a member of the face book community.

To my surprise, being a newbie in the online community, I am instantly flooded with several requests to add me into my friend's face book accounts. Less than 15 minutes later I was connected to friends now and then and some that I do not even remember that I was acquainted with. But nevertheless they are still my online friends now. It now explains why I have been receiving several emails from unidentified sender informing me that I have a friend request. Those emails are actually from face book.

Two weeks into the face book community, I have been frantically hooking up with friends. Some I must say was of characters that I won’t even spend a minute talking to but yet we are online friends nevertheless. It makes me wonder what our infatuation with face book is.

We spent countless of hours behind the computer talking to each other and commenting on each other's walls but when it comes to actual conversation we could not last any more than a few minutes. Why are we so comfortable talking to each other behind the computer screen but when being faced to face words seems the hardest thing to come out?

Though I do appreciate the merits of face book accounts, I do not share my friends' sentiments that it connects us on a different level. It makes us reacquainted with our long lost friends and to catch up with the old times. Whatever happened to the good old method of picking up the phone and arranging for a meet?

Call me a traditionalists or a sucker to the nostalgia, I have always preferred to meet and reacquainted rather than getting to know people online. To me the problem with online community is that you do not really know who the person that you called friends are? So what if you see their online profiles and pictures? But does that really make you closer to them?

We are so engrossed in having more friends’ counts in the face book but we do not really care much about them. Our pursuit is to seek out but never to hook up. So is that the measure of friendship. Is the face book account a measure of how popular you are and by the number of friends that you are connected to? Is that the measure of how well connected you are?

I would think that the true measure of friends would be the number of people that you are always in touch with, those friends that you call regularly and meet up for a cup of coffee or tea, the friends that you share your secrets, joys, sorrows and doubts.

However, as the adage says, the only constant thing in life is change, I supposed then that we have to live with the facts that as we become more and more globalised so are our friends and the only way to keep in touch with each other are through the screen of your computer monitors.

My First Adoption - A Cat Called Ronnie

I have always wanted to adopt a cat after my beloved one of 17 years my wife that never was passed away. The day that my late cat passed away was one of the saddest moment in my life. Out of the sudden I felt a sudden void in the middle of my heart. The realisation that my cat was no longer with me only sank in at night when I twist and turn on my bed only to find it empty without her spread beside me. I have always thought of getting another one to replace her but the mere thought of getting another just made me feel guilty, the feeling of me not being faithful to her. Call me sentimental, but when you are closed to a cat since she was a mere one week old kitten to a cat of a ripe old age of 17 years old, you will know what I mean. Hell my relationship with her is even older and more lasting than most of the marriages nowadays. I bet it is even lasting than 3/4 of the current hollywood marriages, least my relationship with my late cat is cheap by standard and is not cluttered with the tussle and untidiness of couple dispute.

Months since 'belang' the name of my late cat, roughly translated as 'stripes' in English passed away, I have been giving it a serious thoughts of getting a replacement. Call it my weak spot, but I have always have a weak spot for a cat or any feline creature. The sight of a cat makes me 'awe' and ogle.

The decision to adopt another came on one faithful day of 8 December 08. As I was lazing on my bed surfing my facebook account, I came across a message on the 'marketplace' by another facebook user asking for someone to adopt her cat. As luck has it, I fell in love with the cat, not the user mind you. Though faith as it, she happened to be from the same school as I was back then. One thing lef to another and less than 48 hours later, I am the proud new owner of a two years old, health 16 kg cat. She is damn fat for a cat her age. I couldn't wait to see how our relationship will evolve. So far we are still in our honeymoon period and the walk is on a bed of roses.

Oh yeah I forgot, his name is Ronnie. Don't ask me how he end up having that name. I am thinking of changing his name since he apparently did not respond at all to Ronnie. Either he is ignoring it or oblivious to the fact that his name is 'RONNIE'. Either way in months to come I am sure gonna make him bilingual as my mum has difficulties speaking to him in English. The first bilingual cat in Singapore. I am quite sure that qualifies in some book of records somewhere don't you think so.

Photo Fun Mania

I came across this wonderful website and had a hell of a time to playing around with the photo images. The website requires you to load your own face picture and select any of the image templates that is available on the website for you to choose and presto you are famous overnight. There are lot more that I want to try out at http://www.photofunia.com

If Opportunity Doesn't Knock at Your Door, You Go Knocking At It.

How true is the adage above, 'If Opportunity Doesn't Knock at Your Door, You Go Knocking At It". The above comic strip was forwarded to me from a friend of mine. It depicted how a doctor, obviously suffering from declining patients visit devices a way of increasing the number of visitor to his clinic by casting stones to the shape of a ball. The doctor subsequently distributed the stones after having painted it white resembling a ball all around the city and went back home exhausted after his night time escapade. The following day, beholds everyone sought treatment at his office for injured leg.

Opportunities are everywhere… opportunities to do and be anything and everything you ever wanted to be! In fact, Bill Gates is quoted as saying “there has never been a time like the present, with so many opportunities.” Its almost like the California gold rush, only it’s so much bigger, because of the global reach of the internet and other global technologies. The possibilities are endless!

Everybody is “looking” for opportunities, but very see it and even fewer exploit it. There’s the now famous story of the two men who visited India together. Upon their arrival in India one of the men was so struck and rather appalled by the abject poverty of the masses. His companion however, saw something else. He saw an opportunity, an opportunity to shoe millions of feet and make himself a fortune in the process. This man is said to have gone on and established a shoe company which produced millions of shoes and made him a very wealthy man.

There are thousands of other similar stories, of people who turned what seemed to be somebody’s problem into a fortune, including the story of South African born Hotel magnate Sol Kerzner. Kerzner turned an Island in the Bahamas which was considered only good enough to be used as a rubbish dump, into what is today known as the resort Island, Atlantis.

Opportunities come disguised in many forms and shapes. They may come disguised as hard work, hardships, difficulties and obstacles. When you see them as opportunities and take them, who knows where you may end up?

Consider this: You may say I’m not going to knock on that door, because I don’t like knocking on doors. The person opening that door may give you the big break you have been looking for, but you may just have missed it forever. After all how could you have guessed? That’s right! You couldn’t have.

Ever heard someone say, “It was a blessing in disguise?”

There are opportunities to make money, opportunities for happiness but there are also opportunities for personal growth. Opportunities to discover what you are capable of, to turn weaknesses into strengths. Opportunities to help others and help your self in the process. There are opportunities to bless and be blessed in return.

Do you see all these opportunities? And if you do, do you take them? Or are you like those people who are ONLY looking for that one BIG opportunity that will turn you into an instant millionaire. Sun Tzu puts it so eloquently when he says, “opportunities multiply as they are seized”

People who disregard all other opportunity, while waiting for that one big opportunity don’t know what they are missing. They may in fact be missing the Big Opportunity itself, because you never know where every opportunity may take you, if you embrace it. However there’s one thing I know, won’t get you anywhere. And that is sitting in your comfort chair, trying to figure out which is opportunity and which is not.

So, here is my advice, try everything and test everything. So what, if you failed or if things didn’t work out. You have would have learned at least one thing. That particular venture isn’t worthwhile or the method doesn’t work. Don’t allow your own cynicism or that of other people rob you of what may potentially be your Biggest and Best Opportunity.If you currently do not see any opportunities… then you need to change your focus and look at the world differently.

Madagascar "Escape to Africa"

I was at the cinema together with my friend looking through the monitor screen which were showing all the shows that were presently being screened. Debating with each other over what is good and what is not we finally decided to go for something in the middle. My mind was so set in watching a horror movie but my friend is not. The answer to our cinema choice was "Madagascar: Escape to Africa".

Not another animation movie I thought to myself. I dragged myself into the cinema seat down. My last animated movie, Kung Fu Panda, I must say has been a pleasant experience but animated movie has always have its ups and down. The movie surprisingly surpasses the quality of the first film made. Though the story is scattered as it tried to wedge several different narratives into a movie that is less than an hour and a half long, but thankfully the animated comedy genre where good joke-writing and cute characters compensated the plot deficiencies. The animation is sharp, and whenever things start to get confusing, a penguin or lemur comes onscreen and does something really funny distracting us from ever trying to figure out what was going on.

"Madagascar 2" begins where the last one left off, with the lion, giraffe, zebra and hippo from "Madagascar" leaving the titular country and heading back to their homes at the New York Zoo. These first 10 minutes of the movie are genius, with the mercenary-for-hire penguins from the first film piloting a restored plane that crashed into the jungle decades earlier. One character reads an old Life magazine with Joe DiMaggio on the cover, trying to ignore the skeletons scattered throughout the cockpit and the engine that's smoking outside the window.

The group detours to Africa, where Alex the Lion runs into his father, Zuba. From here, the story splinters into several directions - some boring and some inspired. Alex's father issues and the romantic subplot between the hippo and the giraffe are tired. Any scenes with penguins or the lemur are bound to generate a few laughs, even though the Julien-related volcano sacrifice subplot doesn't quite work.

Much of the humor in "Madagascar 2" is broad, but the script avoids flatulence jokes and broad slapstick, adding a sophisticated level of parody in several scenes. A subplot involving New Yorkers who get trapped in Africa goes in unexpected directions, which are mostly very amusing. Some monkeys show up to help build a new plane, and spend the majority of their time negotiating on behalf of their union.

However I must say that of all the characters in Madagascar, either the prequel or sequal, the penguins are the most adorable characters. They are the plot-movers and laugh-shakers of the movie, cobbling together a plane wreck and a giant slingshot in a bid to send Stiller's lion, Rock's zebra, Schwimmer's giraffe and Pinkett Smith's hippo from Madagascar back to Manhattan. Unfortunately, Air Penguin as it is known gets no further than mainland Africa before making an unexpected crash landing in a nature reserve. Undeterred, and with the help of enough monkeys only after the Union demands were made, to take a crack at Shakespeare, the penguins set about rebuilding the plane.

I have to say that the movie was worth the time spent. Least I do not have to spend too much time trying to figure out what was going on and where the how the plot was developing and unveiling itself. I just need to laugh as and when the crowd laugh out. I couldn't wait for the next movie to be released only that I hope it will be sooner, to quote Cohen's lemur king, "Hurry up, before we all come to our senses!"

Stomp - Citizen Journalism or Journalistic Outcry?

The Straits Times Stomp or more officially known as Straits Times Online Media Print integrates the content and activities in the three platforms of print, online and mobile into a single website. The website has gained much popularity in Singapore partly due to an increasing ownership of handphones which are capable of taking photographs and video clips and the high penetration of broadband usage in Singapore. This are the two crucial important development contributing to the popularity of the stomp website.

How Popular Has the Site Been?

Netizens have been logging in to the website to load photos and video clips of the daily seen, sights and happenings in Singapore. Known as the 'Singapore Seen' (sic) you will be able to find all forms of postings from accidents to public show of affections, fighting to pure strange behaviours amongst Singaporeans. The website has also been a placed where Singaporeans expresses their grunt and complaints and anything that they see out of the ordinary.

Singaporeans record the interesting happenings that they witness such as a quarrel on board a bus, inconsiderate driving and riding, indiscriminate parking to unsocial behaviours amongst other Singaporeans. But more and more, the website has become a place where petty complaints and comments were posted. I supposed it is easier to be a shadow person who posts such scene on the websites without revealing their true identity from the active participants correcting those act in the first place. It is much easier to snap a photo of students making out at the void deck without having to confront them, it is easier to express the disgust of a person enjoying a seat on a train or bus and ignoring an elderly or a pregnant woman standing without having to tell them to give up their seat.

Singaporeans are more comfortable in observing from afar and quick in logging on to the internet and loading up their observation at the very first opportunity that they are hook up to the internet but they are very slow in taking the proactive action of correcting those actions. We give our comments and complaints but never lift a finger to do anything about it. So what are we? A society of concerned people or a society of complaint masters. I would think that the latter would aptly describe us more than the former.

I couldn't help but expressed my astonishment at the type of complaints that could be read on the website. Singaporeans already known for being quick to complain but slow to react reaches a new level with the introduction of the website. Here, you will be able to see a sort of ranting and comments. The mocking that they received online hasn't stop the website to gain popularity.

Many would say that the advent of the website is a natural progress in the continuing interest in citizen journalism but to me it is more of an outlet where Singaporeans may express their views without doing anything about it. As the saying goes why make your hand dirty.

The Black Hole - Humanly Greed

This is an interesting clip that I came across whilst I was wasting my youth (what is remaining of it) behind the computer. Though humorous it succinctly and aptly describe how greedy man can be. It is genetically imbue on us since the beginning of time. Are human beings “naturally” greedy? Is greed so much a part of human biology that it will always shape human social life?

Girls Not Welcome Please

I met my friend a few days back and it happened that he is invited to a wedding dinner of our common friend. Casually he asked me, “Would you be bringing your partner along?” I thought he was daft. It was, after all, an invite to the wedding of a close friend of ours – an event that ideally should be filled with crude dirty jokes, unfettered laughter and mens' gossip and vigorous back slapping and butt kicking with more mates and buddies..

It’ll be just like old days, I thought. The missus werestaying home where they belong.

Time slips by before you even notice: It’s been several years since we laid eyes on each other or met to catch up. We’ve ORD-ed, finished university, changed jobs, changed yet another girlfriends, hairstyles or lack off or growing hairless, homes and a few – like my office mate – even taken the bold, uninsured step into the deep plough of marriage.

Expectations on my part were high. I was hoping for a guffaw-filled, booze-guzzling, heart-to-heart catching-up session with the rest where we exchange history and notes of our former friends and buddies. Male gossiping and jokes.

At the hotel, I swear I’ve never seen my once petite looking decent faced buddy turned-bridegroom dressed in his evening suit look better. I met a few of our common friends and this particularly guy which used to be closed to me. I greet him, he yells back an enthusiastic reply before pumping my hand for a full 30 seconds, mouthing the usual “What’ve you been up to?” spiel before i ushered him into the ballroom.

I find my seat and plonk myself down. A few vaguely familiar faces stare at me. We smile, then erupt into enthusiastic handshaking, and – yes – some backslapping and exchange of crude and friendly insult.

But two of my academy mates brought along their partners – one a wife, the other a girlfriend. The nitwits.

Suddenly, our conversation topics became awfully restricted. No reminiscing about the time an entire squad of 30 took five minutes to shower, towel off and get dressed again for the “water parade” just before bed. No more coarse jokes about how fat each of us had become. No more cussing. We had to behave.

It was so awkward we were actually feeling… shy. Imagine a bunch of guys who’ve seen each other butt naked before – guys who’ve crawled, dug, run, marched and slept in mosquito-infested forests wearing week-old fatigues – actually feeling reserved at the wedding of our best mate.

It was ridiculous.

God bless the squad joker: The gold chain, gold bracelet and gold earring-adorned bloke (who still possessed an idiotic sense of humour) cheered things up a little.

Then we got nostalgic. We spoke of our squad FI– a regular who was the archetype of the Devil in our BMT days – now badly in debt. We all took a solemn nod at a squad mate who died of asthma after completing his NS, who incidentally shared the same first name with the more popular platoon joker. We all thought the latter had kicked the bucket instead. (That drew a few more chuckles.)

All this while, the ladies rolled their eyes and tried their best not to look utterly bored. What else did you expect academy blokes to talk about other than well, our lives there?

Lesson learned: Meeting up is essential for the friends you want to keep – make time for that, because money can’t buy you true friends. We left the hotel with a final flurry of handshakes and promises to meet up. But the next time we are meeting, I will make them leave the women behind. They have no place in our gathering.

Spare the Time

I have always wondered what it would be like when I am old? How the simple tasks that we take for granted such as climbing the stairs and holding a cup, day to day tasks that I once found easy to carry out would become more difficult?

At times as I sat back on the bench in a park and pondered on life as it passes by me, it occurred to me that that I am stuck in a fit of frustration that things aren’t the same as they used to be while I am still called upon to earn a living the same as everyone else?

This frustration had inevitably lead to an increase in grumpiness and discontent in me and many other, which made me realise why so many uncles and aunties, for that matter, in Singapore seem to walk around with a perpetual frown on their faces. The saying “worked to the bone” really makes sense in this case.

We all feel invincible when we are young, the feeling that nothing is impossible and that life is a a journey of endless opportunity and happiness. Aging is the furthest thing from our minds. We want to live in the biggest house and drives the most fanciest cars. We want to date the most attractive girls and party all night out. As the saying goes 'we want to paint the town red'. As we want to seize the proverbial day and, in doing so, get caught up in the daily grind and work our butts off just to pay the bills, put food on the table and chase that promotion that we always wanted… allowing ourselves a bit of leisure along the way. And then, before we know it, we find ourselves collecting our CPF and deciding what to do with the remaining years of our lives.

As I walked around the town after work, what gets to me is seeing these uncles and aunties having to eke out a living at fast foods restaurant and shopping centres, when, at their age, they should be at home, relaxing and enjoying themselves, reaping the benefits of a life of hard work and retirement and enjoying their time with family and children or their grandchildren.

It is no surprise that as we transcended from a third world to first in such, Singapore became ever more competitive and those who either can't or don’t keep up – even the elderly – risk getting left behind. This has been echoed by the political leaders many times. It’s just the nature of the society we live in. If you don’t continue earning your keep, what else is there left for you to do but lie down and die? You cannot be a burden to the society. Cruel, but true.

The other day I was at volunteering my time at an elderly home when i overheard a young person asked an elderly old man how he feels about being old. The elderly man sat solemnly on his wheel chair staring blankly at the face of the questioner; look up at the ceiling, in an apparent deep thought. Upon seeing his reaction, she was immediately embarrassed by her question. However as if the passage of time reached up to him, he glanced back at the youth and said, "That it an interesting question, and I would ponder it, and let you know."
I look at all the residents of the old folk’s home and decided that Old Age is a gift. They are now, probably for the first time in their life, the person they have always wanted to be. The wrinkles, the baggy eyes, and the sagging butt are not something that they despair any longer.

The old man's answer strikes me hard to the core. He would never trade his amazing friends that he had made along the years, his wonderful life and loving family for less gray hair or a flatter belly. He said that as he aged, he became kinder and less critical to himself. He has become his own friend.

We chide our self for eating that extra cookie and snooping at night for a late night supper, or for not making our beds in the morning. As we grow older, I realised that we are entitled to a treat, to be messy, to be extravagant. As they saw too many of their dear friends leaving this world too soon; before they understood the great freedom that comes with aging.

I observed with great interest as the elderly residents dance to themselves to those wonderful tunes of the 60&70's and laughs at the simplest of joke and the innocence of conversation. I know like them, I am sometimes forgetful. But there again, there are something in life is just as well forgotten and I eventually remember the important things. Sure, over the years my heart has been broken. How can your heart not break when you lose a loved one, or when a child suffers, or even when somebody's beloved pet gets hit by a car? But broken hearts are what give us strength and understanding and compassion. A heart never broken is pristine and sterile and will never know the joy of being imperfect.

I supposed the elderly residents are blessed to have lived long enough to have their hair turned gray, and to have the youthful laughs be forever etched into deep grooves on their faces. So many have never laughed, and so many have died before their hair could turn silver. As you get older, it is easier to be positive. You care less about what other people think. You don't question yourself anymore. You even earned the right to be wrong.

Without hesitation the elderly man answered the youth "I like being old. It has set me free. I like the person I have become. I am not going to live forever, but while I am still here, I will not waste time lamenting what could have been, or worrying about what will be. And I shall eat dessert every single day.

For us whose still enjoys the youthfulness of life and still have to be bothered by the dealings of day to day demands let us do our small part to make things a little easier for the aged. Clear your tray the next time you finish a meal at the hawker centre. Mop up that mess you made at your neighbourhood fast food outlet. Make way for that old auntie who’s rushing to get a seat in the train even before you disembark. Place not one, but two dollars in the hand of the uncle who spends his days selling tissue paper on the street corner and wondering where his next meal will come from.

These are all tiny sacrifices, but they would make a big difference. Because one day, it might well be an aged you or me in some eatery mopping up spilled sundaes, creaky bones notwithstanding, and we’d be thankful for every little gesture that made our remaining years that little bit easier.

Water - The Next Big Commodity ?

The opening of the Singapore Marina Barrage marks another milestone in Singapore’s history as we take yet another step forward away from our dependency on our neighbours for our livelihood. Recently finished after about three years of construction, the $176 million Marina Barrage will create a new source of precious water in a city-state with almost no natural resources of its own.Built across the mouth of the Marina Channel, the Marina Barrage creates Singapore’s 15th reservoir, and the first in the heart of the city. With a catchment area of 10,000 hectares, or one-sixth the size of Singapore, the Marina catchment is the island’s largest and most urbanised catchment. Together with two other new reservoirs, the Marina Reservoir will boost Singapore’s water catchment from half to two-thirds of the country’s land area. The Marina Barrage is the result of Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew’s vision nearly two decades ago when he envisaged damming the mouth of the Marina Channel to create a freshwater reservoir.

If Singapore is known as a green city because of its lush tropical growth, it may soon be recognized as a blue town for the pristine clear blue water right at the doorstep of the city. That is the hope of civic officials behind a project to seal off the city-state’s waterfront from the sea and create a three-in-one water source for drinking, flood control and recreation.Water has always been the contentious issue between Singapore and Malaysia. The rise and fall between the cross straits relations have always been link closely to the water issue. Singapore has been depending on Malaysia for nearly forty percent or more of its water supply. The importance of water to the Republic, economically and otherwise, cannot be questioned, and the historical and present role of Malaysia in assuaging this aspect of Singapore's vulnerability has been nothing less than crucial until recent years.

The issue of supplying water to Singapore has, at times, been brought to the forefront of the Malaysian and Singapore political arena. This can be traced to as early as 1965, the year when Singapore was separated from Malaysia. Since then, Singapore has sometimes been the target of resentment, or a political “whipping boy” from segments of the Malaysian polity (ruling and opposition members) and some of its constituents, especially when bilateral relations between these countries have become strained. This was sometimes brought about due to a perception of Singapore’s inadequate consideration of ethnic and religious sensitivities in Malaysia, sentiments arising from the widening disparity of affluence due to Singapore’s “uncaring” economic competition, “violations” into the territorial airspace of Malaysia, and views expressed by politicians from both sides of the causeway. The threat of cutting water supplies would often accompany such disagreements and tensions.

With the water agreement between the two states set to expire, Singapore began to take the bold step of cutting the dependency of our water supplies from Malaysia totally, first by the introduction of the Newater, the purification and reusing of waste water to make it fit for consumption and the conversion of all the canals and rivers to become a natural reservoir. Such is the bold step the the republic is taking and it has not gone unnoticed.

Academicians and experts believed that Singapore moves should be emulated. Water is set to be the next commodity. As the dependency on oil is set to be reduced with the introduction of renewable energy such as wind, solar and thermal energy and nuclear energy, water is fast identified as the next big commodity. Though Singapore may be at the forefront in the water technology in the Southeast Asia, Europe, America and Canada is fast moving ahead in the modernisation and privatisation of water technology with many private infrastructure set up to meet the demands of the locals. As the demand of oil deep in the realisation that the oil well around the world set to be drying up in less than 50 years and the ever advancing technology in renewable energy, the demand for water is never set to reduced.

As the population of the earth is set to increase in leaps and bounds over the next century so will the demand of water. Let us faced it, we all need water to live. As useful as oil, copper and corn may be, we could get by without them for a while or may even be dependent from it sooner then expected, but water? Water is a necessity. And for some, this makes it the ultimate commodity.People invest in commodities for a lot of reasons: for diversification; as a way to play growth in the developing world; because they think demand growth will outstrip supply.

Demand for water is steady and never-ending, meaning water investments should not be correlated with broader economic developments. Meanwhile, history shows that as economies develop, citizens will demand more and more water to support richer lifestyles, making water an interesting play on countries like China and India. And finally, the world is in a silent water crisis, with rising demand set against limited supply; a classic commodities squeeze. The reality in the current water supply is that the distribution of existing water resources around the world is horribly uneven with almost 60% of the world's fresh water located in just nine countries. Unlike oil or other natural resources such as oil or precious minerals or metals water isn't portable; it simply doesn't make economic sense to transport water from one continent to another even if the value of water rises tenfold. In location where water is actually available it is more than often not suitable for consumption either because it is too hot or too old, or, perhaps, too dirty or too salty or increasingly, it's also too polluted.

With the rise in industrialisation significant percentage of water reservoirs are rendered unfit for human consumption.In countries, where water is generally available, the infrastructure supplying it is old and decaying and there were still no real efforts to upgrade the infrastructure to make it more efficient and cost effective. However all this are set to change. In a few years to come, we will be seeing more and more industrialised countries upgrading their infrastructure and tapping into the reservoirs of sea waters to convert it to drinkable water. Singapore for one has already joined the band wagon and moving ahead.

What Are Our Kids Learning In School??

Have we ever asked ourselves what our children learnt in school? I remembered when I was still in the school bench, where my innocence is still intact and kissing a girl is the most gross thing one could ever do, back then lessons are simple arithmetics and calculations were '1+1 = 2 or 11' depending on how you looked at it. Homework is a quick half an hour browse through my notes and revision books and the next few hours is an outdoor learning experience of catching spider and butterflies and football with neighbourhood friends. 

I spent more time in the classroom of life and adventure with the open fields as my backyard and the sky my ceilings rather than the classroom of books and lectures. It has been several years since my eyes lay itself on a book and the last attempt that I had in trying to help my dear nephew in his homework sent me running for two tablets of extra strong penicillin just to rid the headache spell away. That was my first and last attempt to ever help him with his homework. 

My friend forwarded me an email about some of the work that our students produced in school and I can't help it but burst into laughter at the answers that were provided. Though it may seems silly at first glance, but if you were to see the questions through the eyes of the innocence, I supposed my answer would be not too dissimilar then the one that was provided.