In the news today...

The Government yesterday hardened its stand on Singapore Airlines (SIA) pilots, saying it will tighten the law to remove union members' right to have the final say in any negotiations with management.

This right, unique to the Air Line Pilots' Association-Singapore (Alpa-S), requires its elected leaders to get the approval of members before it can conclude any collective agreement or settle a dispute with the national carrier.

Right. So now trade unions come under the rule of the gahmen as well. And to think that I once believed the role of trade unions was to protect their members from unjust treatment (now I know it's just to provide for discounted stays in overpriced chalets). But I guess trade union members too fall under the category of people-who-cannot-think-for-themselves-and-therefore-need-to-be-mothered. This is starting to sound too familiar...

In all other unions in Singapore, the elected leaders have the power to bargain and make a deal with a company's management which is binding on their members.

So why enforce it now when the union has been in existence for so many years? Step out of line, my friend, and they'll whack you until you cry.

Against such a backdrop, 'we cannot allow confrontational industrial relations to add to the problems of SIA, Changi Airport and our travel industry. It will put jobs and Singapore's economy at risk,' said the statement.

When business is not good and wages are cut, it's ok. When times are better and the members cry out for fairer treatment, it's confrontational. Got it.

And incidentally, when the company makes a stunning $306 million profit, it would appear that profits did take priority over jobs when times are tough. It might've justified the layoffs and the cuts in the eyes of the investors, but mistreat your workers, and very soon you'll have no one wanting to work for you.

Perhaps they could use some of the money to upgrade their inflight entertaiment facilities (playstations, anyone?). At least that'd probably help take the passenger's minds/eyes off the the sour faces and substandard services of disgruntled employees.

The term 'Thinking Soldier' is an oxymoron.

Soldiers are soldiers because they follow orders, not because they come up with brilliant ideas that turn the tides of war.

I read with much disgust this article in The Straits Times today about abstinence and premarital sex. First oral sex is illegal, now pre-marital sex makes you a bad person. Pardon me if I don't think I'm alone in feeling a little disoriented; Twilight Zone wouldn't have made less sense if it was in actual fact reality TV. Other rubbish that made the news recently includes how white horsies in the army don't get special treatment. Heck, it's not like most of us whine about not getting preferential treatment; for the vast majority who were not born with a silver spoon in their mouths, there's always malingering, or more fondly known as chao keng *grin*. But for goodness sake, don't take us for idiots! What utter rubbish ! Seriously, this white horse thing (along with the trials for the drowned sergeant and the naval collision) takes the art of wayang to new heights man.

Ok. On with the rampage. My comments in italics, in case my scathing tones are not enough for you to differentiate between me and what's written in the article.

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Taking the pledge
by Tan Tarn How

A PRO-VIRGINITY lobby group has since May last year convinced more than 6,000 teenagers and young adults to pledge not to have pre-marital sex, and now plans to hold an Abstinence Day and a Purity March down Orchard Road on Valentine's Day next year.

Called Focus On Family, it is also organising a series of seminars next week on preventing homosexuality and reforming homosexuals.

Set up here in 2000, it is an offshoot of a worldwide United States-based movement that promotes Christianity by preserving traditional and family values.

Its most popular programme is the No Apologies workshop that tries to get teenagers to remain virgins and 'save themselves for marriage'.

Well done. Perhaps the people who are responsible for the workshop has skipped adolescence themselves somehow, but last I heard, teenagers rebel. And the last thing that you should probably do if you want them to listen to you is to PREACH TO THEM.

The group's vice-president for programmes, Mrs Joanna Koh-Hoe, said that about eight in 10 of the 8,000 attendees in the last 1 1/2 years have signed this abstinence pledge:

'Believing in saving myself for marriage, I make a commitment to myself, my family, my friends, my future spouse and my future children to be sexually abstinent from this day onward until the day I enter a lifelong, committed, monogamous marriage.'

Right. And they lived happily ever after. They do. In a perfect world. And we do live in a perfect world, don't we?

Students from 28 schools, including Raffles Girls' School, Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) and East View Secondary, have attended workshops, as have teens and adults from churches, technical institutes and youth organisations. Convicted juveniles under probation have also participated.

And I'm sure the students and convicted juveniles attended the workshops out of their own freewill. Which would, of course, account for the programme's/workshop's popularity. And for those to whom the workshop meant more than a welcome break from the monotonous grind of the Matrix (oops, I meant the Singapore education system), I'm sure they would be suitably impressed by the holier-than-thou attitude.

Said Mrs Koh-Hoe, 29: 'Our message is this: If I have pre-marital sex, I am not a person of good character. In fact, any sex outside of marriage is immoral whatever the age of the person.'

No kidding. I suppose that makes a good majority of the population 'bad people'. They'll probably now be losing sleep over their sinful ways. But hey, I suppose guilt is as good a weapon as any when it comes to getting people to do what you want. That's right, make them so ashamed of what they have done they'll probably want to hide it from whoever it is they love. Afterall, virginity is highly prized and honesty among couples is by far overrated.

The four-hour workshop also warns participants of the health risks of pre-marital sex and the unreliability of condoms.

That's right. If guilt doesn't work, there's always fear.*grin*

Its funds have come mainly from the Ministry of Community Development and Sports (MCDS) and the students' Edusave accounts. But now, the ministry has decided to fund only non-school workshops as the Education Ministry has a sex education programme called Growing Years.

Tax payers pay other people to teach their own kids about sex. I suppose if the gahmen funds it, it has to be good. Nevermind that guiding their children through their growing years themselves is probably the best way for parents to bond with them.

Meanwhile, Focus On Family hopes to spread the abstinence message next year through its Feb 14 march in the city.

This week, it is holding seminars to show teachers and counsellors how to stop people from 'becoming homosexual'.

How ? By telling them that homosexuality is wrong ? Do you reaaallly believe that homos become homos because they don't know what's right and what's wrong? I'd like to see how these seminars would handle questions on the gahmen's policy of hiring homos in the civil service though.

It believes homosexuality is sinful (ahah!); that homosexuals are made, not born; and that they are not 'normal, healthy, everyday people'.

More Fear ! More Guilt ! Not that I like homos, but calling them 'not normal' is just not right... they're worse. *grin*

Focus On Family is a registered charity whose mission is 'to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in disseminating the Gospel of Jesus Christ to as many people as possible, and, specifically, to accomplish that objective by helping to preserve traditional values and the institution of the family'.

It runs an hour-long radio programme on 93.8FM every Monday promoting family values and also holds workshops on parenting and marriage.

The charity has four full-time staff and is funded by fees from its workshop, MCDS and donations. Its president is retiree Tan Thuan Seng, 62, who owns the group's premises, a three-storey terrace house in Niven Road near Selegie, that he is letting it use for free.

Focus On Family has also trained workshop facilitators from the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Muis), one of whom said that the group's values on pre-marital sex are the same as in Islam.

Asked if people are pressured to sign the pledge, Mrs Koh-Hoe said: 'Sometimes, like when most want to sign and there is this poor kid who doesn't.

And this kid is 'poor' because... what? Because he/she knows how to make up his/her own mind and stand firm in the face of opposing opinions ?

'I remember one school where a few were quite adamant that they did not want to be abstinent. It can work both ways, and we prefer to use peer pressure to our advantage.'

What happened teaching the kids to decide for themselves? Get real. All that peer pressure is probably going to ensure is that even if the students break the pledge, they'll probably just not admit it. You guys are in serious denial man.

Psychiatrist Ng Koon Hock said most people would agree that guidance is good for teenagers who aren't mature enough to decide what is best when it comes to sex. But convincing adults, especially couples planning to get married, people already cohabiting, or older singles, would be hard, he said.

Probably not as difficult as convincing our dear friends that their efforts are futile and grossly misguided.

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Related article : The Virginity Hoax

Coming up next ! Top Ten List of Things Not To Say When You Sign The Virginity Pledge ! Stay tuned !

Watching TV, it's rather disturbing to see what TCS is trying to pass off as humour these days. It's bewildering as to why the artistes subject themselves to such humiliation. It's not like they can't station hop to Mediaworks.

Just imagine what'd happen if there's only ONE broadcaster in Singapore.

Competition is good, bleeding accounts or not. 8 )

Lines are open for donations. 8). Please call personally for my bank account number.

make it bigger

make it longer

Awww... so sweet !

taken from Trinity Christian Center's website

>> The Matrix Reformatted

Follow the above link to read about (warning: lengthy post) the way it could've been. While I'll say that I AM happy with the way the Matrix trilogy was wrapped up, I'll admit that it would've made a lot more sense to finish things up the way the writer of the above posts predicted.

Brilliant.

It's one of those days when it feels like no one wants to be your friend, no one wants to talk to you, and no one really cares about how you feel.

I might be just getting paranoid again, or perhaps even schizophrenic. I thought I heard the mess on my table talk to me today.

It started with a low rumble. It was the groan of the table on which a mini-civilizaition has grown (to a respectable size) since I first left a spindle of burnt CDs on it. I tried to ignore it, but it just wouldn't go away. Then came the screams of the hundreds of CDs that had been put through the flames of my TDK Cyclone, their scars burnt permanently onto their delicate underbellies. It nearly drove me mad (if it is possible at all to drive the insane even further over the edge), their cries rising in orchestrated cacophony, begging to be melted, thrown away, broken up, anything ... than to live a life of lonelines, having been branded, marked, and left to collect dust for all eternity, and never to be used.

It came as no surprise when the books started whispering (come on, surely you too suspected that books could talk!) among themselves, their pages producing an eeriely serene rustling backdrop that stood in odd contrast to disquiet that blanketed the rest of my desk (or my mind, depending on your preferred school of thought).

In the burning jungle of primordial angst that was the mess on my desk, I sought refuge in the comfort of the waterfall in the distance that were my books. I flipped a page and gleaned the wisdom that laid between the covers....

"Whatever the cause, keeping your Sims employed is crucial to success. Joblessness not only causes abandonment, but it also increases crime."

hmmm...

The opinions expressed are my own and would not necessarily represent others who have also watched the same movie.

Such is the subjectivity of human experience.

Trapped at the train station at Mobil (an annagram for LIMBO, i.e. middle of nowhere) Ave, Neo engages in conversation with an Indian girl named Sati (Sathi?) and her father. 'Love' is but a word, and more important than what the word is is the meaning that is attached to it. Meaning is formed by subjective experience. Beyond the universal laws of science, mathematics and the love of God, there can be no objectiveness in anything else. Knowing someone is to know what is the meaning they have attached to words. Those of you who have read 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being' will know what I mean. For the rest of you, here's a quote from the Bard himself : "What's in a name ? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

Reloaded was pretty depressing with it's take on the illusion of free choice (the Architect knew everything Neo was going to do) and hope (the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength, and your greatest weakness), Revolutions' message was somewhat more positive. Does knowing that all possible outcomes of our actions are predetermined make freewill somewhat of an illusion ? Hardly.

Choice, or freewill, becomes the only and ultimate reality.

If life is a journey for which the all possible routes, obstacles and pitfalls have been mapped out, the 'reality' of where the journeyman arrives at eventually is determined by the choices he makes at crossroads and junctures. Hence, choice moulds reality. Choice becomes reality.

Neo fights not for freedom, not for peace, not for love, but because he chooses to. Freewill, or the ability to choose, is the one thing that can never be taken from him. As far as he decides to fight, he cannot die, especially not in the Matrix, where the first step to dying is usually believing that you can and/or eventually will.

When he died (yes, in case you're still wondering, he did kick the big virtual bucket) it was also because he chose to. Smith exists as the Anti-Neo (sounds familiar?), and as our hero comes to realise the implications of that fact (after a glorious long drawn-out CG fight sequence), it also came to him that the possibility of having only either him or Smith exist is about as high as the possibility of the existence of a one-sided coin. It just doesn't happen. Smith cannot exist without Neo, as much as the Architect cannot exist without the Oracle and vice versa. When Smith killed Neo, he signed his own death warrant.

One of questions left unanswered at the end of Reloaded was that of why was Neo able to use his 'powers' in the real world against the squiddies. There has been much talk about the existence of a bigger 'Matrix' beyond the one that we see and this question was finally answered when Neo lost his sight. Blinded to the 'real' real world, Neo began seeing the 'essence' of the real world. Where in the Matrix, in which people and objects are represented by lines of cold, green pseudo-japanese code, the 'essence' of the 'real' world is seen to be formed of and by what seems to be light or fire, much more organic/dynamic/chaotic in nature. There IS a Matrix within a Matrix, and in this matrix, even the machines themselves have a Creator. And like the orginal Matrix, rules in this bigger Matrix can be bent too, hence Neo's powers.

Another interesting point to note - Neo only saw the real world for what it really was after he lost his literal sight. Ok, before you go gouge your eyes out and expect to start seeing pretty lights, Neo's lost of sight is a metaphor for the tearing way of the veil that is the 'reality' that we have pulled over our eyes and bound ourselves to, the reality that we have chosen for ourselves to be 'real'. While Neo's sight was forcibly taken from him, how many of us has taken the concious choice of closing our eyes to consensual reality and seeing or 'feeling' the World for what it really is ? Beyond words, beyond sights, sounds.. touch. Beyond senses, lies what's real. Meaning is real.

"It is only with the heart can one see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye" - The Little Prince


Because I cannot see God's love for me, it makes it all the more real, for me. Because He gave me the choice to receive, and I did, He will always be real, to me. Because when I gave my life to Him, He blessed me with a new pair of eyes to see, and a new heart to feel with. To see in my life the works that He has done and is doing, to feel with a tender heart the love He pours out to me each and every day. I give thanks.

If today you are not doing something to move yourself towards what you have always dreamed about, then you would have done everything else that would have moved you a step further.

Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.
-Henry David Thoreau

Life eats you up. Life chews you like some piece of gum that has lost its flavour. Life then spits you out.

You are GUM!
-Anonymous

But only if you believe it to be. I believe me to be an angel, and in my dreams I have wings. How many of you have let yourself be chewed up by life, to grow old to become all wrinkled and lifeless, to have the taste sucked right out of you?

You are STILL GUM!
-Anonymous (slightly irritated now)

But only if you continue to let life chew you up. I refuse to be chewed, and when I walk, I am a giant. I walk with my head in the clouds and my feet on the ground, and when I run, the wind bears me up on its mighty breaths, soaring with me when jump.

*chews*
-Anonymous

Ah well. *spit*