The Holistic Side Of Life

Report Of Infancy Influence On Depression In Adulthood (Part 8)

2011-11-29T23:39:00.001+08:00

References
Blatt, Sidney J.(2004), Experiences of Depression: Theoretical, Clinical, and Research Perspectives, Washington DC.: American Psychological Association.

Chorpita, Bruce F. & Barlow, David H. (1998) The development of Anxiety: The Role of Control in the Early Environment, Issues in Psychological Bulletin, 124(1), pp3-21.

Coyne, James C. & Whiffen, Valerie E. (1995), Issues in Personality as Diathesis for Depression: The Case of Sociotropy-Dependency and Autonomy-Self-Criticism, Issues in Psychological Bulletin, 118(3), pp358-378.

Farmer, Anne (2004) Bad Luck and Bad Genes in Depression, in Dilalla, Lisabeth F: Behaviour genetic principles: Perspectives in development, personality and psychopathology, Washington DC: American Psychological Association, pp107-121.

Jacobs, Janis E.; Bleeker, Martha M. & Constantino, Michael J.(2003) The Self-System During Childhood and Adolescence: Development, Influences, and Implications. Issues inJournal of Psychotherapy Integration, 13(1), pp33-65.

Jacobs, Michael (2004) The Presenting Past: The core of psychodynamic counselling and therapy, Berkshire: Open University Press.

Little, Stephanie A & Garber, Judy (2005) The role of Social Stressors and Interpersonal Orientation in Explaining the Longitudinal Relation Between Externalizing and Depressive Symptoms, Issues in Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 114(3), pp432-443.

Malinckrodt, Brent (1992) Childhood Emotional Bonds with Parents, Develop of Adult Social Competencies and Availability of Social Support, Issues in journal of Counseling Psychology, 39(4), pp453-461.

Newman, Barbara M. & Newman, Philip R. (2004) Development Through Life, Belmont, CA: Thomson Higher Education.

Sideridis, Georgios D. (2005) Goal Orientation, Academic, Achievement, and Depression: Evidence in Favor of a Revise Goal Theory Framework. Issues in Journal of Educational Psycology, 97(3), 366-375.

Report Of Infancy Influence On Depression In Adulthood (Part 7)

2011-11-29T23:38:00.001+08:00

7 Conclusion

While we have two separate types of depression and relate them to the infant attachment with his caregiver, this is only partially responsible on how a person would react to situation. Performance oriented personality tends to fall into depression when they continuously enter into compromising position. Although the influence of infancy is not fully responsible for the character build up, this stage is considerably much more important than others. As a counselor we cannot ignore the need to explore through their relationship with their parents and spouses. It is not only helpful to the client in understanding himself, but also allows counselor to support his client more effectively. It is therefore crucial that we continue to study the infant stage and bring awareness to parents on the importance of their treatment of their children.

Report Of Infancy Influence On Depression In Adulthood (Part 6)

2011-11-29T23:37:00.001+08:00

6 Questions on Clarifying Depression

When counselling cases of depression, I might ask questions for various clarifications:

(6.1) Duration and Frequency
(6.1.1) How long have you been in depression?
(6.1.2) Has it been often that you feel this way?
(6.1.3) When it happened in the past, how long did it take to go away?

(6.2) Conditions for Occurrences

(6.2.1) When did you notice that you are depressed?
(6.2.2) How did you realized that you are depressed?
(6.2.3) Does your depression involved anyone else?
(6.2.4) Does your depression involve doing something?
(6.2.5) What or who do you think was involved causing your depression?
(6.2.6) How does this person do that cause you to feel depression?
(6.2.7) What happen during this occasion? How does it affect you?
(6.2.8) Did you find yourself a failure
(6.2.9) Is there any occasion when this person do the same thing / the same issue occurred but you did not get depressed?
(6.2.10)What happened on that occasion?

(6.3) Past Experiences

(6.3.1) The last time when depression hit you, what happened?
(6.3.2) Did it involve someone or something?
(6.3.3) What might be one or two things that you find similar between then and this round?
(6.3.4) What was different?
(6.3.5) Who were involved during that incident?
(6.3.6) How did you managed during that occasion?

(6.4) Relationship

(6.4.1) Tell me something about your family.
(6.4.2) Who are you closest to in your family?
(6.4.3) Between your father and your mother, who are you closer to?
(6.4.4) Who took care of you while you were young, may be when you are an infant?
(6.4.5) Were your parents around to take care of you most of the time?
(6.4.6) In terms of relationship with your father and mother, how would you describe it?
(6.4.7) How are they relating with your grand parents?
(6.4.8) Do you get angry with your parents from time to time? What did you do with your anger?
(6.4.9) Are your parents open with their emotion?
(6.4.10) How do you communicate with your parents?
(6.4.11) Can you describe you present or most recent relationship?
(6.4.12) Are you very close with your spouse?
(6.4.13) Do you find your relationship with others helps you to grow?

Report Of Infancy Influence On Depression In Adulthood (Part 5)

2011-11-29T23:36:00.002+08:00

5 Social Influences

With the society continues to progress especially in developed countries, cost of living continues to rise and it is inevitable that both parents need to work to finance the family function. Leaving the children in the care of others. It is trending to the build up of more personality with performance base in the future and therefore more casualties to depression.

The effect of the change to dual income family started in Singapore during the 70s has just begun emerge itself. Already we are witnessing more people are trending in the direction of Anaclitic and Introjective personality, with much lesser people with homogeneous growth of mastery. The society here has still not understand the significant of the influence of infancy to adulthood and many still unaware that they are in depression due to work.

Report Of Infancy Influence On Depression In Adulthood (Part 4)

2011-11-29T23:34:00.003+08:00

4 Case Study

4.1 The Story Of Den

Den was a product manager in a distributor company, he was a field application manager before changing to this post due to a re-shuffle. The job scope of product management is different from field application as it needs to work on profit and loss and maintain revenue. Den took on the job during a market down trend and when the economy was not doing well. Pressure built up on Den’s performance due to the drop in sales result in increase in budget gap and inventory. The product revenue kept being scrutinized during the monthly meeting.

Around half a year into his new post, Den’s performance at work deteriorated. He was not very interested in his work and did the bare minimum to survive. He started to be late at work and his time at work was utilized in surfing the internet on items unrelated to work.

At home, his only interest was to sit at the couch and watch television until very late at night. He has lost interest in his hobbies and became very quiet. His wife complaint that he is easily irritated and angered at trivia issues, he would release this anger to his wife most of the time. Den also woke up a few times in the middle of the night feeling very anxious for no reason. He frequently watched out for time to wake up and rarely has a good night sleep.

4.2 Den’s Personality

At work Den has changed through three supervisors, he managed to work well with the first two supervisors in the past who compliment on his hard work and contribution. He is considered friendly among his colleagues and friend and is known to be helpful in attending to their needs. However, he is also seen as someone working alone most of the time while putting in much effort in pleasing and satisfying other hoping to gain their support.

However, he was in conflict with his third supervisor in formulating promotion strategy for the product line that he is holding. The supervisor constantly compared him with product managers from other groups and interfered on how he should work. Although disagree with the supervisor’s opinion, he reluctantly followed the instruction lay out to him. Unfortunately his supervisor kept increasing the standard and he has a hard time chasing after. He also found difficulty in communicating with authority figures in the office and frightened of criticism from others, it may just play in his mind for days of which he constantly feel bad about.

4.3 Past Experiences

Similarity can be drawn on Den’s present emotional experience through two stages of his life:

4.3.1 Primary School
While Den attended primary school, he managed to get into a class consisting students with good grades in primary two due to his result. However, the schoolwork was overwhelming as the teacher prepared the students for competition ahead. Den has problem in catching up the amount of homework needed to complete and started to lag behind. He was frequently punished as a result but his behaviour in class has not improved. He also created distraction in class by being different with the way he sat while totally not attentive in class. He was engrossed in drawings and doodle that he was good at, while his result continued to deteriorate. An exceptional change happened during primary five when there is a teacher who took notice of him, at this point he was observed to have improvement in his schoolwork.

4.3.2 Junior College
Den managed to enter a junior college after his secondary school. During his study at there however, he found that the subject he studied was beyond him and there is a big gap as compare to his secondary school’s work. He was not able to understand well the subject taught to him. He did not stop trying to improve his schoolwork, but his felt bad all the time during all this time. He was reluctant to go to school every morning although in the end he managed to reach there on time. He was increasingly isolating himself from his class mates during lesson and have little communication with others, he considered himself a loner.

There were also time when he managed to have good grades in his study:

4.3.2 Polytechnic and University
He entered a Polytechnic due to an unfavourable result from Junior College. During the two years there his performance continued to improve and he managed to do well in his study. After which he managed to get into a University in England and again he continued to perform well in his studies, graduating with a second class honor in Engineer. It is interesting to note the continuous improvement in his performance as there is a change in his life after Junior College. He is in relationship with a girl during all this while and he continued to look forward to build a better life with her after his graduation. This led to him striving to do better in his work.

4.4 Analysis

The symptoms that Den has experience show various signs of depression as described in 2.1.1. His constant failure in performing at work deprived him of feeling successful in life, the frequent comparison and criticism from his supervisor also contributed to his anxiety. His condition was further worsen with him keeping the issues all to himself.

From the case study, I noted that he is prone to both types of depressions. However, his personality suggests that he trends towards the anaclitic type due to the fact that he needed mandate to progress. It is evident that he can improve in his performance if he enters a relationship. This gives further proof of his constant need for others appreciation.

4.5 Coping Mechanism

While Den continued to be depressed about his work, he coped with the stress at work by leaving his office and drove aimlessly to release the tension. It is also interesting to note that he learned to running away from the factor causing the anxiety in him, which is the work place. Other than that there was no evidence of him trying other method to remove the depressed feelings.

4.6 Influence of Infancy

Den is the eldest son in the family. However, prior to his existence, his mother has a miscarriage. Although both parents came from a large family, they have little experience in taking care of Den. Further to that it was during the 70s that dual income family started. Both Den’s parents needed to work to support the family and Den did not manage to live with his parents except for Saturday and Sunday.

Den was handed over to a neighbour while the parents went to work right after confinement period of one month. Unfortunately Den was contracted with an epidemic flu during his stay there and was admitted to hospital which he stayed for forty five days. Upon discharge his parents decided to asked a distant relative to take care of him, which lasted only a short while when he was moved to a close relative. Unable to cope with the work load of taking care of him, the close relative turned down the job after another short period of time. He was finally settled with his grand mother at the age of one where he lived on for the next four year.

The sequence of events described above have led to Den not having a secure attachment with his parents, the issue was made worse with the constant changing of caregivers leading to Den’s need for comfort and care. His parents feedback that he was crying non-stop every time they left him with the temporary care gives and when reunited with them, he would cling on tightly to them. They have mistook this as closeness when in actual fact he needed their comfort due to the insecurity caused by the constant shift. This led to the strong anaclitic tendency in Den.

While examine the infant stage of Den, there was no evidence of insecure-ambivalent influence on Den, it is assume at this moment that this influence comes much later in his life.

Report Of Infancy Influence On Depression In Adulthood (Part 3)

2011-11-29T23:30:00.003+08:00

3 Attachment Theory and Origin of Depression

Newman and Newman (2004, pp149) described the attachment system as “caregivers provide protection from potential dangers and stressors while allowing the infant opportunities to learn the skills needed to function independently”, while Mallinckrodt(1992, pp454) mentioned that “The consistency with which caregivers respond to these signals forms the earliest basis for the child’s sense of outcome expectancy and self-efficacy”. Attachment is crucial to the development stages not only as the base to initiate the first step for the infant’s growth but also forms his personality, this is supported by Jacobs (2004, pp58) that “As an adult a securely attached person is confident of those with whom he or she closely related”. Evidence of depression development can be explained by Attachment Theory, which separates into two categories base on the “strange situation” experiment:

3.1 Secure Attachment

As described by Bates, Masling and Frankel (Cited by Sidney 2004, pp192), “Sensitive and responsive caretaking throughout the first year of life leads to secure attachment”. It helps with the process of growth, the person is more open with his emotion and he is able to cope with situations more constructively. He will fit our personality profile of Mastery mentioned in (2.1.2);

3.2 Insecure Attachment

Ainsworth, Bell & Stayton (Cited by Sidney, 2004, pp192) reflected that “insecure attachment seems to be related to parental rejection of the infant’s attempts at closeness or an insensitivity to signals from the infant”. The parents do not respond properly to fulfill the needs of the infant. This triggers the defense system in the infant to react in a certain way to remove the pain of dissatisfaction. There are three sub-groups in this category:

3.2.1 Insecure-Avoidance
The infant in this group does not exhibit anxiety to the caregiver on separation. He also avoids the caregiver upon reunion although he is willing to befriend another stranger.

The caregivers as described by Main & Goldwyn (cited by Sidney, 2004, 194) “dismissed attachment relationships as being of little concern, value or influence”. They are enmeshed with their children and often very critical of the infant’s behaviour. They set high standards and are demanding and can be hostile and abusive towards the infant.

I feel that the reason for the infant to avoid the caregiver is to protect himself from further harm, it feels bad to know that you are not up to standard. However, the prolong influence of the caregiver causes the infant to be unsure of the intention behind the abuse. This builds a strong super ego in the person who sets very high standard for himself. He excessively idealize in the task he performs and success becomes very important to him. He is prone to Introjective depression mentioned in (2.2.4).

3.2.2 Insecure-Abivalent
The infant in this group is constantly wary of the existence of the caregiver and is very unsettled during separation. He cries uncontrollably when the caregiver leaves his side. When re-unite with the caregiver, he is not able to calm down. He seems to have a thirst for comfort and continues to cling onto his caregivers.

The caregivers as described by Main et al ( cited by Sidney, 2004, 194) “seems ‘ preoccupied’ with their dependency on their own parents and often ‘still actively struggled to please them’”. They tends not to take care of their children, they are uninvolved and unconcern about what the children was doing.

Lacking in the attention that he needs, the infant continuously strive to let the caregiver aware of his presence with the limited resources available. Thus it leads to constant crying during separation to externalize his fear of desertion. At the same time, he is restricted in his exploration to the outer world and constantly feeling helpless as he lacks in a secure base. This builds a personality of dependence on others. He has an urge to please others in exchange for affiliation. He is therefore prone to the anaclitic depression as described in (2.2.3) should the expectation is not realized.

3.2.3 Insecure-Disorganised
The infant in of this group tends to be unsure what he does during separation and is dazed in re-uniting with his caregiver, their interaction with their caregivers tends to be “punitive or in a ‘pseudo-caretaking’ manner” (Sidney, 2004, pp194).

The caregiver of this group tends to have lost a significant others such as a sibling or major caregiver before their maturity. The infant becomes a substitute to fill the emptiness in the caregiver, as Sidney (2004, pp195) described “parent to their parents”. This affects the child to become
“the overcompensating, subtly hypomanic, seemingly efficacious type of individual who deals with his or her intense depressive dependent longing through denial and reversal-as compulsive-givers” (Bowlby, Cited by Sidney, 2004, pp195)

This person tends to intrude into others life due to his over caring nature. I feel that the denial of depression cause him to externalize the negative affects towards others. However, it is unclear during this study on the type of depression he might fit into.

Reputation does not mean reality

2011-11-29T22:59:00.003+08:00

My new job requires me to travelling frequently and my latest trip led me to Shanghai then Xiamen before returning to Singapore.

The flight that my company book is under the flagship fo Singapore airline. However, because Singapore Airline does not fly to places such as Shen Zhen and Xiamen, the passengers are travelled on Silkair but with SIA ticket.

Before going further, what exactly do you expect on SIA flights? I would say a first class service from the crew, Video On Demand, ready blanket and pillow, snacks, full service of meal (appertiser, main course, desert, biscuit and cheese, with Magnum as after math).

With Silk Air I wouldn't expect SIA standard of service but should at least meeting certain standard. But my experience on the Xiamen's flight shocks me (to some extend).

First of all, its a flight from Xiamen to Singapore! There is a cabin full of Chinese nationals. Yet of the 4 crews assigned for the flight, 2 are non-Mandarin speaker. The poor guy sitting behind me asked for a cup of Chinese tea at the start of the flight and it took the stewardess 2 over hours to bring him one, simply because she could not understand mandarin and did not bother to get the Chinese speaking stewardess to translate for her. The guy was so frustrated until I told her what he wanted.

In the mid of the flight, there was air turbulence, the pilot asked everyone to go back to their seat and buckle up, fair. But it seemed like the pilot conveniently forgotten to swithc off the warning sign when the coast was clear, so passengers were forced to sit in their seat for over 1 1/2 hours. Every time some one stood up to go to the loo, they were asked to sit down. In the end, the passengers got fedup and refused to follow the instruction any more, ignoring the seat belt sign and queue for the toilet.

Seriously, I have never seen such popular toilets on flight. At all time, there were at least 10 people on queue and noone wanted to move even when the next air turbulence happened. the air stewardess could not even get their trolly through to serve food. the queue only ended when the landing announcement was made.

The crews were not working in harmony neither, during food serving, one stewardess tried to ask for help by using the service button, but was ignored by the other stewardess most of the time. meal service was a dragging process.

Food is certainly bad with only a main meal and fruits, I lost my appertite as the noodles were over cooked and felt a little soggy.

Of course, what expected would be no VID and those online games that you could play when you are on true SIA flight.

By buying a ticket from SIA and getting such service, it certainly feels like being cheated by the airline, even when the price is truly that of Silk air. I have travelled on other airlines before such as air India, Dragon Air, Southern China Airline and most recently Eastern China Airline, none of them with bad service as close as silk Air. If SIA is truly concern about its reputation, it better reconsider using Silkair for some of its routes.

Report Of Infancy Influence On Depression In Adulthood (Part 2)

2010-03-25T23:58:00.001+08:00

2 Broad Review of Relevant Literature

2.1 Personality In Relation With Depression

Various studies have been done on depression and its relation with developmental stages, particularly on infancy and adolescence. This report focus its exploration in the influence of infant stage on depression. Depression is defined by Farmer (2004, pp108) having various symptoms such as “low mood; poor sleep; concentration, and memory; and a diminished appetite are relatively common in the general population.”. She further elaborated a few factors contributing to depression, such as a person’s genes, environmental influence such as early age, series of events and personality. Of these factors, Farmer(2004, pp109) stated that “recent twin studies have shown that between 48% and 75% of the variance in liability to develop depression is contributed to by genetic risk factors (McGuffin, Katz, Walkins, & Rutherford, 1996)” while the rest are environmental influences. I feel that the statistic provided no conclusion of the extend which the genetical influence on depression as the statistic presented by both findings varies greatly. I would consider the environmental factor more important in this study as it is something that we have more control over and use to help our client.

Certain people are more prone to depression than others. We can define two personalities in relation to depression:

2.1.1 Performance-Oriented
This personality “ focus on proving their competence, worth, and likability with normative evaluative standards has implications for how they view failures.”( Sideridis, 2005, pp367)

2.1.2 Mastery-Oriented
This personality engage “in task arises from an inherent need for growth, learning, and improvement and has been considered a consequence of secure attachment”(Sideridis, 2005, pp367)

Mastery oriented personality focus on inherent growth that allows the person to look at situation as an opportunity for growth, including failure. He is more open to his emotion, capable of handling stress situation and less likely to be affected by setbacks. Performance oriented personality on the other hand constantly need success as a gauge to grow and to perform well in life. If they consistently fail in their task, thus lacking feel of achievement, creates stress that tends to cause strong anxiety in him together with lowered self-esteem. Anxiety as described by Gary (Cited by Chorpita & Barlow, 1998, pp3) as “a state of the conceptual or central nervous system characterized by activity of behavioral inhibition system (BIS)” and is different from fear and panic. This leads to depression. Anxiety as Sideridis (2005, pp367) described should “should be absent both prior to and in the aftermath of the challenging task”. Performance-Oriented personality is susceptible to depression. However, I find Mastery-Oriented personality to be rare and close to ideal. Most people are Performance-Oriented in nature, but some are more than the other, therefore the level of depression experience by individuals differs over similar situation.

2.2 Types Of Depression

There are two categories of depression which Coyne and Whiffen (1995,pp358) described as “sociotropic or dependent” and “autonomous or self-critical”. They elaborated both terms as:

2.2.1 Sociotropic or dependent
Person with such type of depression “seeks to establish secure interpersonal relations to bolster low self-esteem”;

2.2.2 Autonomous or self-critical
Person with such type of depression “is concerned with the achievement of internalized standards and goals and becomes self-critical when thwart”;

Similar definition of depression is also reflected by Sidney (2004), who termed both types of depression as Anaclitic(Dependent) and Introjective(Self-Critical) which I will adopt in this report. Sidney (2004, pp31) further elaborated the primary feeling of both depression:

2.2.3 Anaclitic
“ Helplessness, weakness, depletion, and being uninvolved”;

2.2.4 Introjective
“Severe conflicts with guilt”;

Although both depressions are triggered following external event, I find that Anaclitic depressor concerns on how people look at him while Introjective is more critical on meeting his own standard.

It is important for an Anaclitic depressor to be praised and appreciated by others. He needs to be noticed. Relationship to him is important as long as it satisfy his need of belonging and self-esteem. The importance of the relationship however is not about whom he is with but the gratification that he gained from it. Losing a relationship only mean finding a replacement figure to cling onto. His aim for success in his task is only a demonstration to others of his capability, in return for praise, appreciation. He is constantly wary of how others see him. Unable obtain gratifications from the relationship regularly creates anxiety and leads depression, as he finds himself not able to meet others standard and not accepted into the group. In comparison, he is like a child constantly seeking attention from his parents by performing task to catch their attention, and will feel disappointed when his parents failed to notice his work.

An Introjective depressor works hard for achievement and perfection. However, his success only provides temporary satisfaction to fulfill his self-esteem. He rarely contents with the present achievement and is self-critical that he can do more to improve the situation, therefore tends to over achieving at time. He is constantly filled with guilt and is harsh on himself to go higher. Failure therefore is a blow to an Introjective personality self-esteem and he has difficulties in accepting defeat. He has to be better than other people through demonstration of his success. It reminds me of a class mate during primary school who cried because she came in second in her school result, she needed to be first in order to have her self-esteem needs satisfied.

I find that both types of depressions are distinctly different. Anaclitic constantly seeks to belong in a group, therefore continuously trying to please others to be accepted. Introjective on the other hand, seeks to break away and to stand out from the crowd. He does not seek other’s approval but only his own recognition. The commonality in both personality however is their lack of self-esteem, with Anaclitic lacking in confidence over relationship with others while Introjective lacking confidence in himself, therefore constantly in search of gratification to fill the emptiness.

These two personalities have much relationship with childhood development, especially during infancy. Infancy is the stage when confidence building in a person started, typically in the infant’s attachment to the care giver. As Jacobs, Bleeker and Constantino (2003, pp37) have mentioned “an infant’s working model of self have been linked to parents’ level of responsiveness” and that “parental responsiveness and warmth during the first year are associated with positive working models of self for children (Rubin, Stewart, 7 Coplan, 1995)”. It is therefore important for us to explore the influence of attachment on Depression.

Report Of Infancy Influence On Depression In Adulthood (Part 1)

2010-03-25T23:49:00.003+08:00

A few years ago, I took up a course on Graduate Diploma on Social Science (Counselling). I have done a few course work on the course and tonight I suddenly have a thought, why not I share it here? Partly I was reviewing my recent psychological development as I seem to be drifting into another round of depression myself. It is not the first time I am in depression, the first time was 2002-2003.

Anyway, here goes. First the contents and chapter 1.

Content
1 Introduction 3
2 Broad Review of Relevant Depression 4
2.1 Personality Inrelation With Depression 4
2.2 Types Of Depression 6
3 Attachment Theory and Origin of Depression 9
3.1 Secure Attachment 10
3.2 Insecure Attachment 10
4 Case Study 13
4.1 The Story of Den 13
4.2 Den’s Personality 14
4.3 Past Experiences 15
4.4 Analysis 17
4.5 Coping Mechanism 17
4.6 Influence of Infancy 17
5 Social Influences 19
6 Questions on Clarifying Depression 19
7 Conclusion 22
8 References 22

1 Introduction

The world is having a population explosion partially because the lack of predator to prey on human. As a result, we face increase competition among human beings, which leads to increasing stress in our lives. This is especially true in the developed world where societies are becoming more complex. Stress is good as long as it promotes positive development, especially when it brings out the survival instinct in us. The negative side of stress however, may create anxiety in us, and prolonged exposure to anxiety may lead to depression.

Abela & D’Allesandro, Nolen-hoeksema, Girgus & Seligman ( cited by Sideridis, 2005, pp366) reflected that “Depression in children and adults has become more prevalent recently, and rates have increase between 10% and 17% in the general population”. Little & Garber(2005) reflected that depression is also related to other types of disorders, and that to some extend can be intergenerational. In the Singapore context, a shift is seen in the social pattern since the 70s with increasing numbers of families needing dual income. This may have already impacted the behaviour pattern of the present generation. Counselors need to understand the influence of infancy on depression as it is getting more common among the working class, who are born during the 70s.

This report looks into depression and how infancy may influence the susceptibility to depression. I will also explore the social impact in Singapore context on depression.

The Great Singapore Levy Debate

2010-03-03T21:22:00.004+08:00

To start with, I did not really follow up closely with the Levy Debate. I only picked up bits and pieces of it in the newspaper and forum. Nevertheless I roughly have some idea that the Government is going to increase the levy for foreign workers to curb companies from further intake. This is to satisfy the complaints of the people about overwelming influx of foreigners to Singapore, and in the process competing with them on job availability.

To start with, I think the Singapore Government is climbing up the wrong tree here, since Singaporean do not want the job of those levy workers, therefore, increasing the levy will only seek to further burden the companies into cutting costs else where, such as jobs of the locals.

I caught up with Low Thia Kiang's speech in the Parliament on a total removal of the levy and instead introduce the quota system. He further described the levy is an opium to the Government. I supported him briefly in the forum thread and was responded by a supporter of the levy. He/she claimed that removing the levy will not help improve competitiveness. At the time of reading the response, I was in fact at a lost of words, and that made me think, "what exactly is the consequences of removing the levy?"

To start with how does this levy comes about? I believe it was a result of a labour shortage in the 80s that the Garment decided to take in foreign workers to cover the vacuum. The levy was used as part of the tool to control companies in application of inttake. That made me think further, "how did this shortage comes about?"

Simple, Economic boom causes more development at a single point of time requiring an increase of labour, thus companies first started grabbing from one another for more labour, but there simply not enough Singaporeans to go about. In addition, people are attracted by higher pay from companies' competitors. Now this puzzles me, because my poly management class did mention that people just don't work for money. The Macclaws hierarchy of needs stated that there are 5, physiology, safety, social, self esteem and self actualization. How is it that Singaporean can't even move onto the next step of the ladder?

I believe it is a mindset problem, not on the part of the workers, but the bosses. Even as we speak, there are still many bosses nowadays who still think, " I am not worried that this guy leave, I can afford to hire another one to take over his job." There is simply no respect given to the workers.

I recall during my younger days that the usefulness of a worker equates to how long hours he works. So if you stay up until 11pm at night and come back to work the next day, you are a good worker. If you go home on the dot, the manager will tell you that he has not loaded you enough.

This is true even in 2004 when I encountered the same thing myself. I recalled that year when I have a change of manager and one evening me and my product marketing engineer was called into his cubicle. He pointed out that the night before while he was still in the office, he saw 2 person, one product manager still wotking at 11pm and the other still replying e-mail at 2am. He praised their commitment to the job, then turned to me and my PME and ask, " can you stay back after work on those days that you don't go for courses?" I gave him my piece of mind and eventually he took me out of his team. He hired another person to take over me and to my amusement, the whole business went down the drain due to his new hired hand.

So what's the point here? Companies do not value their workers, they are always expandable and commitment questionable. The problem is: how can you expect their loyalty when you don't even vaue them? How can you blame them for leaving when you squeeze them dry at every opportunity just to make your money worth while? So even though I would jump from one shit to the other, the other shit pays me better.

People who work are not encouraged to developed their passion in the job, they are simply paid to do what the company wants them to. They are not given the opportunity to grow.

Imagine that in the Western world, there are people who are still Engineers at 60 and they are proud of it. It is almost unheard of in Singapore, once you graduates, no matter what Engineering discipline you are in, you will only use less than 1% of it.

Such mentality is not limited to companies, just look at the biggest party in Singapore, aren't they doing the same thing? The "I can afford to hire another one" is certainly alive and well in PAP. I remember the case of the SIA pilots "revolt". There was simply no negotiation on the company's part to discuss the well being of their pilots, all it needed then was to have LKY stepped in, get the Government to revoke the PR-ship of the union leader, kicked him out of the country. The pilots obediently went back to work the next day.

After all these being said, what does this have to do with the levy? Levy is a symbol of unfair treatment to the workers, it allows the companies to continue with their mindset of " there will always be others". As long as they can find replacement easily, they will never consider the rights of the workers. It will never lead to growth of staff's skills and loyalty because levy workers would change once every few years and the cycle will start again. If the reset button is kept pressing, how would the game be developed?

Garment has recently been playing their recorders on improving productivity, I would see this as a potential failure because they failed to address the most important issue, that is to take every human as human and develop base on their strength. Training is useless when effectiveness is halved when one is not interested in what he does. I can go to a seminar and at the end of the day, the most I can get out of is 10% of the whole lecture.

You want productivity? Make sure the companies value their people and not encourage them to take the easy way out, like hire another one from other country.

Shreaded Chicken Salad - Chinese style

2010-01-20T12:59:00.002+08:00

This dish is more of an inspiration from San Zhong Liang Jian's (SZLJ) Sam Sui Chicken. Some might be concern over how to make the ginger sauce from SZLJ, the recipe is very easy.

1 Ingredients:
1.1 Chicken leg x 1;
1.2 Ginger x 1 lump, grinded;
1.3 Romanian Lectuse X 1;
1.3 Sesame oil X 2 table spoon;
1.4 Salt 1/2 tea spoon for sauce and 3/4 tea spoon for stock;
1.5 Spring onion x 1 stock;

2 Preparation:
2.1 Chicken:
2.1.1 Boil up a pot of water, place in 3/4 tea spoon of salt and a stock of spring onion;
2.1.2 Place in the chicken leg when boil, continue boiling the chicken leg for 5 minutes, turn off the fire and cover the content for another 45 minutes;
2.1.3 Take the chicken leg out, shread it with hands. Eat the rest (knuckles and bones area) because your hands have limit and you don't want to waste the chicken;
2.1.4 Leave to cool;

2.2 Romanian Lectuse:
2.2.1 If your Romanian lectuse has been in the fridge for a while, it would be dehydrated. Take the lectuse, remove the leaves from stem piece by piece, cut into smaller pieces;
2.2.2 Soak in cool water for about 15-20 minutes, this will rehydrate the leaves to give the crunchy texture. You can also use the same technique on other leafy vegetables;
2.2.3 Take the leaves chunk out from soaking and remove excess water ( for best effect, use the spin dryer);

2.4 Ginger sauce:
2.4.1 Heat up the frying pan, pour in the sesame oil and heat;
2.4.2 Pour in the grinded ginger, stir fry for a while;
2.4.3 Take a scoop of the stock that you used in boiling the chicken and pour it into the frying pan;
2.4.4 apply 1/2 tea spoon of salt, stir and mix well;
2.4.5 turn off the flame;

2.5 Integration:
Place all ingredients into mixing bowl and toss, it will be ready to eat.

Fish fillet and Zucchini in home made tomato sauce.

2010-01-18T13:02:00.002+08:00

Okay, it taste better than its look, except for the Enokitake (straw type mushrooms). The composition of my lunch today is Zuchinni and fish fillet in tomato sauce. What I want to create is a tomato flavour sauce so to cook my fish in.

The ingredients as follows:

1) Zuchinni X 1;
2) Enokitake one packet;
3) Fish fillet X 1;
4) Tomatos X 3 (large ones);
5) Salt and pinch of dried Parsley;
6) Garlic chopped;
7) Olive Oil 2 table spoons;
8) Chicken stocks;

Process:

1) cut the Zucchini and tomato into chunks;
2) Marinate the fillet with salt;
3) Separate the Enokitake mushrooms;
4) Heat up the frying pan, add 2 table spoon of olive oil, add in garlic when heated up, stir fry for a moment or so;
5) Pour in the tomatos, add in the chicken stocks, cover lid;
6) Open the lid after 2 minutes or so, use a squasher to squash the tomatos into paste;
7) add in the Zucchini chunks, ried parsley and Enokitake, let the dish cook for a while;
8) clear a space on the frying pan, place the fillet onto the pan, then covers it with the sauce and some of the vegetables.
9) Covers the lid and let it cook for 3-5 minutes or so;
10)turn off the fire and ready to serve.

The water came out from the Zucchini after a night of cooling in the fridge, making the dish very watery. It would be best if served immediately. However, there is no artificial additives (except for the chicken stock) so the sauce can be drunk off.

My lunch for today

2010-01-14T12:40:00.002+08:00

This is my lunch for today. It consist of a fish dish and a Lady's finger dish. The fish dish is simple to prepare because the preparation is very little. The Lady's Finger dish would need more work.

1 Tomato Fish:
1.1 Ingredients:
1.1.1 Fish Fillet;
1.1.2 One Tomato sliced;
1.1.3 Salt;
1.1.4 Aluminium foil;
1.1.5 Olive Oil;

1.2 Process:
1.2.1 Place the tomato as base on top of the aluminium foil, apply salt;
1.2.2 Place the fillet on the tomato, follow by some salt, then cover the fish with the rest of the tomato;
1.2.3 Apply a table spoon (approx) of Olive Oil, wrap the whole thing with the Aluminium foil;
1.2.4 I would normally use the Oven but in this case, I used the flat bottom frying pan to cook the piece for 10 minutes, turn the piece from time to time to ensure it is evenly cooked.

2 Lady's Finger:
This is more conventional way of cooking because I do not want to spend a lot of time preparing my meal.

2.1 Ingredients:
2.1.1 Lady's finger one packet, sliced thin;
2.1.2 one Red Chillie, sliced thin;
2.1.3 Tofu for frying, cut into cubes;
2.1.4 Garlic,chopped;
2.1.5 salt and soy sauce;

2.2 Process:
2.2.1 Apply oil to the wok when it is hot, pour in the tofu when the oil is hot, stir fry for a minute plus;
2.2.2 Add in Garlic and Chillie, apply some salt, continue frying for a minute;
2.2.3 Add in Lady's fingers, stir fry for 30 sec to a minute, sprinkle with some water, cover the wok for a minute to 2;
2.2.4 Open the cover, stri fry for a while, then apply some soy sauce across;
2.2.5 Turn off the flame and ready to serve.

After tasting the food I noted that:
1 There is still a strong smell on the fish mainly because I have not put any herbs or Ginger to cover the "stench". It would probably be better when Chinese Parsley is added to create the fragence. I would also normally add black pepper but my dishes recently has been using a lot of that and I want to cut down.

2 The Lady's finger dish is definitely less spicy than I expected, the number of chillie can be increased to 2. Further to that, adding dried shrimps would help to improve the taste.

Are Female Lawyers always that bitchy?

2010-01-13T23:27:00.004+08:00

I do not have much opportunity to meet a lot of lawyers. Those who I normally see are the legal counsels employed by my company. My experience of female lawyers to be honest are not really that pleasent.

My company has so far been through 3 legal counsels, 2 of which are female. We were quite alright with the guy personally but as my boss mentioned, he is not that reliable at work ( keep missing details ), I guess his personality as a perceiver does not work well with the trade.

As for the 2 female legal counsels, I find some similar pattern between them, there are:

1) They love to talk telling people of their opinion while shut their ears on others;
2) They form a barrier surrounding them which seemingly protect themselves from being hurt by others. They are very comfortable behind a table because that is their fortress;
3) They will ask you what you want to discuss and when you make attempt to do so, they will cut in inpolitely, hurry you to cut it short and claim that they have no idea what you are talking about;
4) Rather than listening they will just tell you what you should do, let them know what you want. The irony part is that they don't listen when you tell them so. The best part is that when you need them to do something, they will ask you thousand and one questions and in effect silence you to give up on the request;
5) They always seems to be into details and fail to see the BIG PICTURE;
6) They show much disrespect to others yet demand others to respect them;
7) There is only one way to get things done, theirs, all other ways are wrong.
8) They do not and don't want to understand others, but expect others to understand them;
Of course this statistics are base on my experience of the 2 female legal counsel my office has employed. Others might have a different experience.

The cake from Art Pastry @ Upper Aljunied Lane

2010-01-11T16:24:00.005+08:00

I brought my son to our regular doctor at an old estate in Aljunied today after he came down with a bad case of cough. While we were there, we visited the Cake shop next door. The name is Art Pastry which I considered was newly open considering the age of the estate. I believe it is opened here for not more and a year. It is a quiet estate and the only people crossing the shop are the residents and patients of the 2 clinics next door.

While looking for some pastry for my little boy ( yes, the one with needles and tubes poked into him when he was born ), I just happened to remember that it was November last year that I have bought a Birthday Cake for my daughter. I meant to write about the episode but was delayed by procastination. Since my son is now asleep in his bed, I guess this is a good time to do so.

It was during November last year that we needed to celebrate my daughter's birthday at school. One of the important item on our list was the cake and we were asking each other where to get it? Eventually this apstry shop came into my mind and 2 days before the event, I went to make an order for it.

Although it was very isolated, I was surprise that the shop was quite busy. They do not have off the shelf cakes and every cake has to be pre-ordered. The Chef also expressed concern that he might not make it. Eventually after a brief negotiation, the Chef think he could deliver if it was after lunch time (12:30PM-1:00PM). I made an order of a Chocolate Truffle Cake, my daughter's favourite.

I was in a hurry on that very day, after taken half day off my work, I have a few errants to run. I collected the cake without much examination. It was at my daughter's class that I have my first glance at the cake. The first surprise I have was that the cake looked really thin for a 2Kg. I gather that it is the most 2 inches instead of the normal 3inches. My first fear was that there might not be enough to go around with 16 5 year-old, 2 teachers with added 2 adults.

My worries were unfounded after I have my first taste of the cake, I immediately understand the reason for such thinness. The cake was compress and a single bit let off a feeling of richness in Chocolte in your mouth, yet the swetness is well controlled to my standard. It is relatively moist as compared to those made of standrd sippon cakes.

Another part of the Chef's winning recipes in this cake was the amount of Almond that he put in. It is almost impossible to miss out Almond with every single bite. The almonds added a crunchy texture to the soft sticky sensation made by the chocolate.

Other than that, the chef also made an effort to give enough decoration to the cake, so that it pleases the children.

On my way out, I met with a teacher from another class. There is enough cakes afterall to even distribute to teachers of other classes. The comments from the teacher was very positive and even she was surprise of how tasty the cake is. I guess my instinct was right on picking this shop. Perhaps the most valuable part of it is that this shop built on order, guaranttee for the cake's freshness.

What happened to my 1/2 cooked chicken?....

2010-01-11T13:26:00.001+08:00

Want to know what has become to my 1/2 cooked chicken? Check out my lunch today....

I made sure the chicken is fully cooked, shreaded all the meat, mixed it back with the sauce. I chopped up some tomato, mixed with extra virgin olive oil, salt, black pepper and chopped up Chinese Parsley. Lastly, I chopped up some lettuce.

After taking the picture, I mixed them up ( after warming the shreaded Chicken to separate the whole thing ). Surprisingly the whole thing turned up quite well. The sourness of the Tomatos created just the right effect on the dish, added with the rich flavors of my left over chicken. The Lettuce provided the crunchy feelings to enhance the biting sensation.

Fig 1 Shreaded Chicken Salad

Our Dinner on Saturday...

2010-01-11T13:15:00.001+08:00

Fig 1 Whole Dinner Presentation, Baked Vegetables on the left, Roast Chicken in the Middle and Stir Fried Brown Button Mushroom on the right

Fig 2 Roast Chicken Dish

Fig 3 Baked Vegetables Dish

I have decided on Saturday that we would make our dinner simple. So we went for Roast Chicken and Oven Baked Vegetables plus Stir Fried Brown Button Mushroom (Whole). The recipe was from Kylie Kwong. I have done this once before but kind of forgotten part of the recipe.

The ingredients as follows:

1 For the Chicken:
1.1 Chicken (Whole);
1.2 Salt (to rub on Chicken body);
1.3 Butter ( to be placed in between the skin and flesh of chicken);
1.4 Rosemary ( it was not in original recipe but I added this since I have a pot of this herb);

2 For the Baked Vegetables:
2.1 Zucchini;
2.2 Pumpkin;
2.3 Parsnip;
2.4 Big Onions;
2.5 Carrots;
2.6 Olive Oil ( 1 table spoon);
2.7 Sea Salt ( 1/2 tea spoon);
2.8 Black Pepper;

3 For the Stir Fried Brown Button Mushrooms:
3.1 Raw Brown Button Mushrooms (whole);
3.2 Garlic (finely chopped);
3.3 Dried Parsley;
3.4 Extra Virgin Olive Oil;

4 Baking Process:
4.1 Preheat the Oven to 175 DegC;
4.2 Fill the oven container with the mixed vegetables;
4.3 Place the Chicken on top of the vegetables;
4.4 Place the whole thing into the Oven and bake for 1 hour;
4.5 Tune the oven to 240DegC and continue to bake the whole thing for another 1/2 to 3/4 hour;

I actually covered the set with Aluminium Foil for the first part to retained the moist and probably it was a wrong strategy because the chicken was only 90% cooked and blood were all over at the end. Removing the foil would probably enable the chicken to be fully cooked.

5 Stir Fried Brown Button Mushroom:
5.1 Heat up the frying pan to medium heat and pour in 2 table spoon of Extra Virgin Olive Oil. You will spoil the aroma if you turned to high heat;
5.2 Pour in the chopped garlic and stir the content;
5.3 Pour in the Mushrooms and continue stirring for another 5 - 10 minutes, add salt;
5.4 Pour in a pinch of Parsley, stir for another 1 minute;

Home cooked lunch

2009-12-16T23:58:00.004+08:00

I read an e-book that I bought on the web lately on a slimming program called Every Other Day Diet. Basically it calls for one to staggard the type of food intake to full the body while depriving it on carbohydrate.

Anyway, to cut the long story short, alternate days, I am to eat food with high protein, low carbohydrate and high in fibre. Since the food outside mostly contain high carbohydrates and calories ( which is the diet for the next day ), I have decided to test the diet and did some home cooking for 2 weeks.

Fig 1 Black Pepper pan fried fish with vegetable cabage roll
This dish turned out to consume more time than I needed and the effect was not that great. The concept is to use cabage for the wrapping with fillings contain tofu, raw carrot, straw mushrooms, spring onion. Since I boiled most of the vegetables, I prepared a gravy using corn flour (I know this is carbohydrate, but it did state that "low" and not "no") with oyster sauce. As for the fish, I marinate with black pepper and salt, then pan fry with olive oil.

Unfortunately the cabage roll turned out quite big and because it is REALLY HIGH in fibre, it took a while for me to manage. It is difficult to break the cabage using my teeth!

As for the fish, I have put a little too much and the fish is rather salty.

Fig 2 Raw garlic boiled fish and salad with spicy vinegrate

This is the dish that I took today. Again most of the vegetables are boiled, icluding the straw mushroom, Chinese Leaf (cut into smaller size), asparagus. I have also used a 5 spice tofu, sliced thin and boiled to make it softer. As for the sauce, I mix the vinegrate with chillie power to create the taste close to Kimchi. Both Chinese Pasley and Onion are cut into shread but uncooked.

While I consider the salad to be quite successful, it is a little unfortunate that the sourness fall short of my expectation. A little more and it will taste more like KimChi.

I left the cabage roll cold but heated up the fish and sauce.

As for the fish, I boil it with the water I used for the vegetables and tofu and cut it into smaller pieces. I then chop some Garlic and mixed with salt and Extra Virgin Olive oil ( 1 1/4 table spoon ). I place the sauce in between 2 lumps of fish while they are hot. This in effect reduce the pungent taste of the garlic after it was slightly cook.

The whole meal is taken cold.

Malaysia's policies and judicial screw ups

2009-12-10T22:16:00.004+08:00

I have encountered 2 different stories today, one about the judicial system in Malaysia while the other about a policy they are adopting to curb petrol smuggling.

The first article source from the Channel News Asia Forum and believe me this is what they want to implement.

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA: Foreign-registered vehicles will only be allowed to pump a maximum of 20 litres of fuel when travelling within a 50km radius from the border, said Domestic Trade, Co-operative and Consumerism Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

Enforcement authorities at the checkpoints were also directed to ensure such vehicles leave the country with no more than 20 litres of fuel in the tank, he said.

Ismail added that the directive would be implemented soon.

Ministry officers were in the midst of issuing a circular on the matter to petrol stations in the affected areas in Kedah, Kelantan, Johor, Sabah and Sarawak, he said.

"This measure is to curb the increasing cases of fuel smuggling, as the prices for fuel are subsidised and cheaper in Malaysia compared to those prices set by neighbouring countries such as Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia," he said.

Ismail said for RON 95, it was sold at RM1.80 (S$0.73) a litre in the country compared to RM4.01 in Thailand, RM4.31 in Singapore, RM2.26 in Indonesia and RM5.42 in the Philippines.

"It is unfair if foreigners get to enjoy the fuel subsidy provided by the Government," he told reporters at the Parliament lobby here yesterday.

He said the decision to limit the sale was made under the Control of Supplies (Prohibition of Export) 2000 Regulation.

Ismail warned that petrol station operators caught selling fuel exceeding 20 litres to foreigners risk facing action from the ministry, such as having their licences withdrawn.

In May 2008, the then Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Shahrir Samad had barred petrol stations located in border states like Johor and Perlis from selling petrol and diesel to foreign-registered cars.

However, this ban was subsequently rescinded following complaints.

So imagine that Singapore requires its cars to have 3/4 tank of petrol before leaving the country. Let's make it simple and assume that the car actually takes 40L of petrol full tank. So 3/4 tank means 30L. We also assume a model of a car with 10KM/L consumption rate. So if a car enters Malaysia with 3/4 tank, it has to travel a total of 100KM before it can leave for Singapore. The distance travel is as far as Machap!

Further more, in order to pump 20L of petrol AND not get your car confiscated, your car practically has to run out of fuel before refuelling. Of course, I am only making a modest assumption using the Nissan Latio with 40L tank with 10L reserve. Which means that I can only have 1/4 tank left for my car before I can be released to Singapore.

Singaporean therefore can kiss goodbye to weekend shopping, weekend feast in Johore Bahru because believe me, you are never going to see your car again once you enter JB.

The second event a that made me laugh is regarding a lawsuit filed by Anwar on Mahathir. His case was thrown out by High Court and he went to the Court of appeal. Here is the article.

Anwar's suit struck out as document was in English

Hafiz Yatim
Dec 9, 09
2:42pmThe Court of Appeal has ruled that all court documents must be filed in the national language, because the supremacy of Bahasa Malaysia is enshrined in the federal constitution.

Justice Abdul Malek Ishak, who on Oct 20 had dismissed Anwar Ibrahim's appeal in his RM100 million defamation suit against former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad, said the courts are required to strictly enforce the procedure.

In his 31-page written judgment made available today, the judge said failure to satisfy the ruling would result in applications being dismissed.

Anwar's lawyers had filed the memorandum of appeal in English rather than use the normal procedure of filing it in Bahasa Malaysia and English.
His lawyers then sought an extension of time to file the necessary documents when Mahathir's application to strike out the suit was heard, but this too was rejected.

"We have seen the memorandum and it is obvious it is not drafted in Bahasa Malaysia," Abdul Malek said.

"The failure to do so amounts to blatant breach that would compel us to conclude that no memorandum has been filed at all."

Anwar, he said, should have filed the memorandum of appeal in the national language as "no other language will be entertained".

"This is ordained in the laws of this country. The filing of the memorandum of appeal in the English language constituted an injustice to the respondent (Mahathir) and it was a pure and simple abuse of the process of the court," the judge said.

"Article 152 of the constitution, read together with the National Language Act, states all proceedings other than the giving of evidence shall be in the national language.

“The purported memorandum in English must accordingly be rejected outright. What is mandatory, must be strictly adhered to. Otherwise dire consequences will follow.”

Abdul Malik said the failure of Anwar's counsel to file the memorandum in Bahasa Malaysia had rendered the purported record of appeal useless.

“It is our judgment there is no proper or competent appeal before us. Furthermore, the Rules of the Court of Appeal 1994 state that, if the memorandum is not drawn up in the prescribed manner, the appeal may be dismissed.

“To add insult, the memorandum in English was not signed by Anwar's lawyers and not dated, rendering the memorandum invalid and to be defective and invalid.”

Deficiencies not rectified
The judge also found that, as early as between Aug 20 and Aug 22, 2007, Anwar's lawyers had been alerted to this deficiency by Mahathir's lawyers and to their proposed course of action.

“Hence there was ample opportunity for the appellant's counsel to rectify the appeal record. For the whole year of 2008, the counsel remained idle.

“In our judgment, Mahathir's counsel did not ambush Anwar's lawyers with respect to the striking-out application. The filing (to strike out) was done without any malice afterthought.”

He noted that everything seems to go wrong for Anwar and that “flagrant breaches of rules seem to be a hallmark of his case”.

“It is rather unfortunate but the law must be strictly adhered to,” he added.

In January 2006, Anwar had sued Mahathir for RM100 million over allegedly defamatory remarks the latter had made on the sidelines of a Suhakam conference four months earlier.

In July 2007, the Kuala Lumpur High Court struck out the suit without hearing the merits of the case, leading to an appeal being filed.

On Oct 20 this year, a three-member bench of the Court of Appeal unanimously dismissed the appeal and ordered Anwar to pay costs.

Sitting with Abdul Malek were Justice Azhar Ma'ah and newly-elevated judge Syed Ahmad Helmy Syed Ahmad.

Anwar was represented by lawyer Karpal Singh and SN Nair, while Mahathir was represented by VK Lingam.

What so strange about the event? The judge wrote his judgement in English.

Karpal's jibe: Judge harps on BM but writes in English Rahmah Ghazali
Dec 10, 09
7:45pmKarpal Singh is puzzled. The senior lawyer cannot fathom why Justice Abdul Malek Ishak would want to stress on the supremacy of Bahasa Malaysia using the English language.

The DAP MP was taking a swipe at the Court of Appeal judge for striking out his client Anwar Ibrahim's RM100 million suit against former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad based on language technicalities.

The court ruled that all court documents must be filed in the national language, because the supremacy of Bahasa Malaysia is enshrined in the federal constitution.

In his written judgment released yesterday, Justice Malek said failure to satisfy the ruling would result in applications being dismissed.

Anwar's lawyers had filed the memorandum of appeal in English.

However, Karpal wondered why the judge did not pen his judgment in Bahasa Malaysia if the issue was of such grave importance.

"I would have thought there was more than a need for him to have written his judgment in Bahasa Malaysia in view of the strong language he uses in support of it," he said.

Make English official 2nd language

Speaking at a press conference in Parliament, Karpal also urged the government to 'carefully consider' amending the constitution to include English as the second official language of the country.

He said although Bahasa Malaysia was given pride of place in the country as stated in the constitution, the courts are still bestowed "with inherent jurisdiction to ensure justice is not denied to litigants."

"Every effort should be made to ensure that suits are not thrown out on technicalities. In the end, it is the substantial justice of the case which must be given the highest premium," he added.

He also noted that the High Court, Court of Appeal and Federal Court proceedings in point of submissions and arguments are still in the English language.

"This is a necessity in view of law reports being essentially in the English language. The time has not come to completely eradicate the use of the English language in courts.

"The position is further compounded as English has gained recognition as the language of commerce internationally, particularly in view of globalisation,” he said.

"Therefore, the National Language Act has to be considered in the context of this development. Otherwise, the country will be left behind and be deprived of the progress it can attain," he added.

According to Karpal, as result of English not being given prominence in court proceedings, foreign investors, including multinationals, will resort to arbitration instead of referring disputes to the courts.

"This is not a step in the right direction as it reflects the loss of confidence in the judiciary.

"The English language, both in schools and in administration of the country, is perhaps at its lowest ebb, unlike the position in Singapore where English is virtually the national language of the country.

"We should not lose out to Singapore," he added.

It is not protest that people migrate, but delusion of hope

2009-12-02T11:24:00.002+08:00

I putting this entry as a response to Malaysia's debate of brain drain. The official arguement of migration was better life else where. It seems to me that such excuses are lame and only scratches the surface.

I was in Perth for tour during May this year and we went to a town called Mandurah. I was surprised to see that there are 3 Chinese Restaurants there with 2 of them belong to Malaysians. I spoke to one of the owner and noted that he came from Ipoh more than 10 years ago.

I myself remained a Malaysian even when I have stayed in Singapore for more than 30 years, I am a professional, Engineer in training and Manager of a group of Design team. I am married to a Singaporean and children with Singapore citizenship. However, my family's relationship with Malaysia ends with me, unless my children intend to migrate in the future.

The only thing pulling me back from converting is my root as a Malaysian. It is really not easy to make a decision to forego your citizenship, there is always a conflict with the sense of loyalty to the country of your origin.

For one to convert to citizenship of other country, one must really consider hard because he is letting go of his identity. Your new citizenship is definitely not as precious as your original one. Only extremity will drive people to such drastic action. To me, it is only delusion over the treatment by their own countrymen which will lead to such decision.

Malaysia while promoting its multi-culturalism, has always been a country of Apartheid. The worst is that the privilledged group who govern is with such incompetence and yet demand exotic treatment. What's more reason can one give to proof of delusions of hope?

One might say my case is different or exceptional. Well, surprise surprise, I have a few friends who are as exceptional and different as I am. They have studied in Singapore, worked in Singapore ( among the best companies in the world), married to Singapore wife and have chilren with Singapore citizenship. Not only that, the company that I worked in has more than 60% Malaysians, all none Malays.

While the Bumiputra Government may claim that these are of lesser qualification, the market claimed otherwise. I have met with a friend of mine who owned an accountign firm in KL furign 1998. Many Malaysians went back because of retrenchment in Singapore, and he commented that their performance was superior as compared to those locals. Singapore's migration might be negligible, the quality of the people it attracts makes it significant.

What's the minority ( it is now for Chinese and Indians )are asking for is not special treatment but fair treatment with equality. Yet the present Government acted like a lazy SOB yelling at his workers to accept unequal treatment because of their race and religion so that the SOB can drain more from them without doing any work. For those who migrate, they have enough of this and if they can't change the SOB, they make changes for themselves. For those who can leave, they leave.

Many countries implemented cool off days? Bullshit!

2009-12-02T08:58:00.003+08:00

I have been following up on the recent anouncement by PM Lee Hsien Loong to add cool off days prior to election. He has sighted the reason of reducing the risk of disorder for such implementation. All I can say is bull shit!

It has nothing to do with public disorder, it has nothing to do with letting people to be rational in writing their crosses. It is a foregone conclusion that such move is meant to give PAP an unfair advantage. To be honest, Who would in their right mind would think PAP play fair? It is by nature that people would want unfair advantage against their opponents and Lee is just doing what anyone would have done in nature. But the excuses given is really lame and hypocritical.

The ST further quote a few countries including Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia having such policies. It is the first time I heard them having this!!!

In fact, I was in Malaysia the day before their election and RALLIES POPS UP LIKE HOT CAKES EVERYWHERE! Same with their by elections, you don't see a halt on last minute vote pulling.

The same with Indonesia and Australia, our ST faithfully reports on electoral efforts to pull more voters to their side. ST is trying to pull a fast one on the readers.

I think it is shameful for a mass media to do such thing to GIVE SUPPORT to its master through broadcasting of falsehood.Of course, ST's is not a servant of PAP nor Lee, everyone in Singapore knows that. Probably they are mis-informed.

Such moves, the news articles publicity stunts by ST to promote the hardworking PAP MPs while no reporting on oppositions and the "INTENSIFIED" MPs and Ministers home visits tell a chilling fact that the ruling party is panicking on the coming Election, which is drawing closer everyday.

For instance, one of the Minister just made a walk about visit around a month ago to my area with his followers giving me a 2 weeks advance notice, it was to ensure I would be there when he walked through the corridor of my house. I have never seen his appearance for more than 8 years I moved into the area.

Same with my mother-in-law who stayed in Circuit Road for more than 30 years. She has just been visited by her MP followed with an army of assistants. I was more lucky than her because she was given a 10 minute time frame to prepare for it, she was taking her shower when the messenger came to her house. I later asked her when was the last MP visit? Her answer was this is the first time.

The thing is that visiting is one thing, you inconvenient people because you make them wait for you, but as long as there are some benefitial outcome to such visit, it is still fine. I recall the question that the MP and Minister first post is "what problem do you have?" Seems to me that they want to solve our problems, or they are expecting us to want them to solve our problems.

If you believe so, wait till you spill out your problems! It is in fact a formality that they ask such questions. Then they will tell you that this is not their department, they can't help and and they simply wash hands on the matter, most of the time.

Seriously, if this is the answer that they give to the people, I prefer them to stop such visits. It is a waste of time and does not even benefit anyone, primarily themselves. Such are publicity goes wrong and it gives people more negative impression on them. They need to change marketing strategist for better effect ( look for me!!). I think their posters would work better than their visits, at least it gives people illusion that they are standing there 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Funny wushu sect in China

2009-10-21T22:48:00.001+08:00

Found this clip on youtube.com, very funny. Sometimesif you listen carefully, you can hear dog barking.

Cow Head Protest saga

2009-09-09T22:49:00.004+08:00

I only have 2 videos courtesy from http://www.Malaysiakini.com.

The first video is about a group of protesters against the building of a Hindu temple near their residents, although all requirement has been satisfied. They desecraded a cow head to humiliate Hinduism.

When the Chief Minister from Selangor intended to meet them to resolve the issue they have resorted to threat of killing the men and women who stepped into Section 23. One guy with pony tail is even seen pulling a chair away when an Indian wanted to sit down, causing the Indian to fall.

Here the Home Minister met the group and claimed that they are innocence of the act. Malaysia Boleh!

Note: The videos has been requested by MCMC of Malaysia to be withdrawn because it is deemed offensive by the authority. They are killing the messenger will letting go of the culprit.

This is what happen if none Barisan Nasional hold a peaceful candlelight virgil for peace and harmony.

What is the priority?

2009-09-04T12:14:00.003+08:00

I was reading the recent news about the demolision of Kampung Puah Pala in Penang, Malaysia. while I continued to follow up with the event unfold. Memories of my younger age continues to flow back into my mind.

During my younger age of 5 to 6, my father used to bring me to this house situated in a Chinese village at Sungai Besi. The narrow road into the village is pure earth and very often turned into mud when it rained. Travelling by car you can feel the bumpiness as it rocked left, right front and back. All the houses were built randomly near the narrow roads and some in worse shpe than others. There are also many stray dogs that barked at passerbys and some time gave chase to those less couragous children.

The house was once owned by my grandfather and my father lived there when he was young. As the children grew up the family moved further into the city and this house was left vacant. Eventually my father and one of my uncle converted this house into a cottage factory. My father produced formical glue while my uncle made rubber products.

I enjoyed my childhood there exploring the quiet and ghostly part of the house while irritated by the mass numbers of hungry mosquitos preying on my blood. My father worked very hard to earn a living. My father was a one man show and at times he would have to travel out of the village to make deliveries. That left me alone with my uncle workers, the stray cat and at one point the rabbits and Guinea Pigs.

Next to the house were 2 families, one Indian while the other Chinese (used to be the un-official head of the village). I have frequent interaction with both houses but quite shy away from the Chinese family because of the presence of the dogs. I often played with the children from the Indian family because we were of similar age. Although we have very limited verbal communication since I do not speak Tamil while they not Cantonese.

As I grew older (12 years old), I was made to help my father in the operation during my school holidays to expose me to a life of working adults. I often dread going to "work" because of the boredom and inaccessibility to my toys.
Nevertheless, life were pretty relax at the factory as I over see the spinning of the stirer to melt the glue ingredients. At times, I even enjoy the rambutans when seasons set in. On Saturday, my father's friends would gather at the house and then I would enjoy a sumptious meal. To think back, life is still good.

My romance with this house ended when I was about 19 during which a developer came to the village and requested for the "chief". They have bought over the land to develop into a Condominium estate and they would want to negotiate compensation to the villagers. After a few rounds of talks, the compensation package was settled base on the size of each residential units and the amount was a few hundreds to a few thousands. Eventually the village was dispersed and some moved into the new Sri Petaling residential estate near by.

The village was there since my Grandfatrher's time, he came from China when he was 16 and the village I guess would be more than 100 years old by now if it was not demolished.

While it was sad to see the despersion of villages, one must keep in mind the most important aspect of the whole event, which is the welfare of the residents. In the case of my childhood village, the people recognised that no matter what, they are on the losing end of the law.

To start with they are by law squatters even though they made payment to the authorities for the land use and electricity (There was no need to pay for the water bill because the residents used well water). By law, the developer has every right to shoo away the residents. If the developer is willing to negotiate for a deal to vacate the village(for whatever reason), it would be wiser to have the issue settle amicably, because there is absolutely no gain in going against notion.

The residents in Kg Buah Pala can blame the Gerakan for selling away their land, they can blame Lim Guan Eng for breaking his promise and not able to reverse the situation. Bare in mind that all these will not help to bring back their home because even the state government has to respect the law and the court already ruled in favour of the developer.

The event also brought along politicians trying to take advantage of the situation. They voiced out strongly with criticism to the present, past state government as well as the ruling party. They are the "voice of the people". Yet throughout all these criticisms, the "voice of the people" remains a voice and will not help in bringing back the houses. More over, such move only divert peoples attention away from the real issue.

Eventually people move on, the developer get his piece of land legally, the state government focus its effort on the economy, the Federal Government did not even response, the "voice" of the people voice else where, the media redirected into something new and juicy. What's left would be 20 families without a house. This would be the reality, the 20 families have outlived their usefulness, they no longer able to capture more attention and slowly they will be faded away. Their situation would not even put a dent on the next election result.

In my life, I was taught that no one owe me a living, I cannot depend on anyone to feed me. I give the same advice to the villagers, they should be the one to decide for their own fate, if they don't others will decide for them, and it won't be pleasant.

I eat salt more than you eat rice...

2009-09-02T22:14:00.002+08:00

I was on the ChannelNewsAsia forum the other day when I came across this thread starter trying to link Japan's stock market performance to the recent Japan election.

Another forumer counter argued on his ideology and he responded with the phrase" I eat salt more than you eat rice..". This made me think about the meaning of the phrase since I am interested in throwing in a prank.

The phrase was originated from the Chinese who are rice eater. The Chinese phrase is actually "我食盐多过你食米”. Literally it means "I eat salt more than you eat rice", it is used to belittle someone who is younger or less experience. Of course for the Chinese where rice is a stapple food, a lot is consumed in a person's life time. So if someone can eat more salt than he eats rice, that person has indicated a vast difference in age and experience.

The problem with this is that one can never eat more salt than another eating rice, unless he is comparing himself to an infant. The catch of this phrase in Chinese is however the word "米", which tells that it is rice in raw form. The cooked rice is known as "饭“. The raw form is hard and difficult to chew, and the taste is definitely not pleasing. So naturally very few people eat more than a few grains in their lives. Thus making it logical.

However, when the whole phrase is translated into English, the chinese word is replaced by a single "rice" which does not specify if it is cooked or raw. So if a person uses this phrase in English, he has to justify by eating more and a single bowl of salt per meal throughout his life. Now, it become rediculous to do so.

So as a response, I replied "take care of your health, and you need to check with your doctor about your Hypertension".

How to turn away customers?

2009-07-13T14:31:00.002+08:00

My son started talking a week ago and my wife reminded me of the promise I have made. I was to take leave for my son for a day. So today is the faithful day. Both my wife and I took leave, sent our little girl to her nursery and took our son for an outing.

While doing so, I took the opportunity to visit my bank HSBC for some funds transactions. I needed to renew the time deposits to ensure that they do not fall a sleep. True enough one was found dormant and I requested for it to be closed and have everything deposit into the other account, thus a long wait of an hour was expected.

While waiting for the whole process, I was witnessed to two incidents:

1 Man making deposit
A Chinese man (I think he is a Singaporean) was trying to deposit some money into his account. I have managed to glimpse at the stack of money he held and the first piece was orange color and total thickness around 8mm. I gather that it is a stack of SGD1,000 amounting to SGD30,000?

When he tried to go through the process with the bank teller, he was asked to answer where he obtained the cash. He questioned the purpose of the question because this is the first time he encountered such thing. He commented that he was simply trying to deposit his money into his own bank account, what was wrong with that? Nevertheless, he told the teller that he withdrew the amount from another account in another bank and decided to place the money in HSBC.

After receiving his response, the teller went to the back office to relay the message to her officer. She was back in around 5 minutes with the seconde question," Could you provide a transcript of your transaction from the other bank?" This seems to be the last straw or the man who replied,"Never mind, I will just put my money into the other bank." and left.

2 Man making deposit
I know, the title is the same because this man is also trying to do the same thing, except a bigger amount.

This Italian was there before me and I only have part of the story while guessing on the rest. He was waiting for a response from the Customer Service officer and was told by the teller that the officer needed more time. Eventually after the officer came out from the back and asked him a few questions on the amount he was trying to deposit. Base on the conversation, there seems to be 2 sets of transactions, a cheque of SGD50,000 and probably a cash deposit of another SGD50,000.

He was asked about the source of the SGD50,000 where he replied that it was a payment to a contract work he has done. In addition, he told the officer that he needed to deposit the money into the bank so that he can make payment to his sub-contractors. The officer continued to grill him on the reason for using his own account.

My father was a sole proprieter and I could understand from my experience that there are times when sole proprieters would use their personal accounts for payments. It make little difference since both accounts belong to them.

It is obvious that the Italian was running out of patience, he just came back from Shanghai the day before and would be flying off soon. He needed to settle all the transaction with his partners before he go.

The officer went to her back office again to consult her higher authority. She came back more than 15 minutes later and asked him to produce the tax invoice of the job. The man grumbled on, kept his documents and left the bank very angrily while the officer did nothing.

Base on these 2 incidents, I can conclude 2 things. Firstly, HSBC is very strict in large cash deposits. They are fear of syndicates trying to launder money through their banks. Secondly, the officer and tellers sucks at quality service, the way they treated their customer like they were crooks. Putting mysel in their shoes, I can empathised with the customers. They are simply trying to deposit their money into their own account and yet they were being suspicious of money laundering?

I can understand that HSBC wants a clean sheet of paper, yet they are offending their customers in doing so. How many people who come into a bank and deposit their money are crooks? How many of them are stupid enough to deposit an obscene sum knowing that the money cannot see day light? I think HSBC is over zealots on this customers activities.

True enough, a teller from another bank confirmed with me that HSBC is VERY STRICT with customer's deposit.

There is one more thing, for the recent 2 times I visited HSBC I noticed that their service standard has dropped. In the latest incident, the officer is simply very cold towards their customers. They are willing to see them walk out of the door without even a blink. As for the manager at the back office, it would probably be good if he or she once in a while walk to the front and take a look at the situation.

An up-date on Hertz saga

2009-07-12T22:02:00.004+08:00

The Hertz saga really put a bad after taste in my mouth for my Australia's trip. While going through the ordeal of the dispute, I have done some check up through the internet. It seems like I am not a lone, neither is Hertz.

I have managed to find an Australian Government web-site for Consumer Protection. In it was a link to Department Of Resources, Energy and Tourism. The website has also information about hiring of vechicle in their country. I am very surprise that there are well documented procedure to car rental. It seems like the issue with car rental is not a recent phenomenon but an on-going problem which was not addressed! What the web-site also contained is a link for online complaint on consumer rights violation (or tourists).

Anyway, after I have started my dispute claim with Hertz representative SurePlan. I have received no response from them at all. Since then I have managed to find out a feedback link on Hertz web-site, which I wrote a night time story ( I wrote the whole story at 11:00PM). I managed to receive a response from the local Hertz Customer Service Officer. In her response, she has sent a note to Sure Plan for more speedy processing and also requested me to be patience for 10 days processing allowance.

To be honest, it was a torturing 10 days wait with no further up-dates from neither Hertz nor its representatives. The amount might not be as grand since it falls in the 100s region, rather it is a violation of my trust to this vendor. The most interesting part is that the reaction to me is very cold and mechanical, like it is just another dispute. They must be very used to this.

At the same time of disputing the damages, I have also called up to my bank regarding this disputed payment. It is interesting to know that they have a department handling fraud transaction. I have lodge in a report since then. My bank has been more customer friendly it seems. Now the only question ?I got for myself is where should I go from here?

月光光，照地堂 ...

2009-07-06T21:09:00.002+08:00

I was attending a seminar on Henan when the lecturer asked me about a song that I learned when I was young. Somehow among all the songs I learned, this song came up.

It reminded me of my younger years, I lived with my maternal Grand mother most of the time. My parents were both working. Together with my Grandmother were 5 uncles and they liked me most of the time. Some were strict while others were caring.

They taught me this song and sang it when ever there is a moon. Somehow I have never mastered the song even until now.

After the lesson, I have decided to search out the complete song. Turned out there are 2 versions. This first version is the one I am used to:

月光光，照地堂，年卅晚，摘槟榔，
槟榔香，摘子姜，子姜辣，买菩达，
菩达苦，买猪腑，猪腑肥，买鱼皮，
鱼皮薄，买菱角，菱角尖，买马鞭，
马鞭长，起屋梁，屋梁高，买张刀，
刀切菜，买箩盖，箩盖圆，买条船，
船沉底，浸死两个番鬼仔，
一个蒲头，一个沉底。月光光

This one is the one that I get to know from movie, the lyrics is more meaningul:

月光光，照地堂，
虾仔你乖乖睡落床听朝阿妈要赶插秧罗，
阿爷看牛佢上山冈啊虾仔你快高长大罗，
帮手阿爷去看牛羊啊
月光光，照地堂，
虾仔你乖乖睡落床听朝阿爸要捕鱼虾罗，
阿嬷织网要织到天光啊虾仔你快高长大罗，
划艇撒网就更在行月光光，照地堂，年卅晚，
摘槟榔五谷丰收堆满仓罗，
老老嫩嫩喜洋洋啊虾仔你快地眯埋眼罗，
一觉睡到大天光啊

Hertz Car Rental Complaint

2009-06-25T22:11:00.015+08:00

During my recent trip to Perth with my family on 1st May 2009, I have learned much more about Car Rentals and their operations, at least in Perth context. The issue started with my family's road trip to Western Australia. We rented a car from Hertz which was a reputed company, their Perth office is at Milligan Street. The car given to us already contained some existing condition. The lady serving me commented that dents are common and did not jot down any damages on the car. She however, noted in words of the scratch on the bumper.

Fig 1 Hertz Documentation

Since no record was made on exact location of damages, I took the liberty to take some pictures of the visible scratches of the car.

Fig 2 The impressive Camry SP

Fig 3 The scratch mark on bumper

We drove the car for 8 days with satisfaction. On the 8th day, the car was returned to their Airpoort branch. During the returning process, the personnel only collected my keys, street atlas and outstanding payment and sent me off. No effort was made to inspect the car at my presence. So I thought that was it.

It was not until more than 6 weeks later, ie 22nd June 2009, I received a letter regarding a repair bill amounting to AUD791.00 on a replacement cost of the front bar spoiler. As my insurance covered about AUD361.00, I was told that a AUD413 was charged to me.

I have made dispute to the Hertz representative over the claim and insisted that the car was returned with the same condition as it was collected. The staff whom I managed to contact eventually continued to claim that the damage was found by the next client on the same day without giving any proofs. I have requested for the pictures to analyse the extend of the claimed damages, of which he obliged. The pictures I received as posted below:

Fig 4 Car front bumper

Fig 5 A hand removing the bumper

Fig 6 The same scratch mark

If Fig 5 intend to portray the dislodge of the front bumper due to accident, this contradict what's shown in Fig 4 which evidently show a fully intact bumper with no evidence of an accident. If there is something shown by these 2 pictures, it is clear that the bumper can easily be dismounted without much effort. Does this indicate potential hazard on the road? I mean the bumper can come off any time and is dangerous to the driver, passengers and other road users. It gives me a suspicion that Hertz australia wants accident to happen so that they can claim for the damages either through insurance agent or their clients.

Fig 6 are straight forward, it is the same damage in the picture taken by me during collection. It comes down to one thing, a lack of communication. Have the Hertz people from the Airport verified with those from Milligan Street? This fiasco won't happen if they have done so. No, they want to jump in quickly to fix the bumper and collect the claim.

I have also checked on the the time when these pictures are taken. The file displayed date on 12th May 2009. This is 4 days after I have returned the car. If I want to play nasty, this simple fact is enough for me to refute their claims!

The worst thing is my discovery today that they have already charged to my Credit Card on 5th of June 2009, rightfully the bill won't even arrive at my door step until next month! No attempt was made to contact me prior to the repair work and I was only informed of the charge to me from a letter dated 16th June 2009. The letter simply stated that the location I have returned the car noted damages made during the time of my use and base on a claus 5(a) of Accident Damage Excess, I was charged with AUD413. I noted the Rental agreement contact an amount AUD413 deposit. Seems like they calculated to pin point accuracy to ensure that all my deposit is collected!

Seriously the whole event has shown Hertz Australia to be sloppy in documentation, lacks the sense of customer service and give me a feeling that they are out to cheat their customers!

After this whole event, there are a few things that I think is a must do for car rental:

1) The car you booked might not be the car that you get. The car rental companies will simply shove to you whatever equivalent available. I have booked a Camry Sedan, but Camry Sedan was not available to me. They gave me a Ford instead. But because Ford cannot hold 2 baby seats, they have no choice but to up-grade me to a Camry SP;

2) No matter what the staff tell you, insist that they jot down every damn damages visible on the vechicle, no matter big or small;

3) On returning the car, the staffs from the company will likely not inspect the car. Insist that the receiving personnel inspect the car at your presence and confirm no external damages.

4) Do not think (2) and (3) is a hassle. These forced inspections will prevent the car rental companies in claiming damages to the car in future times.

5) Ensure pictures are taken on the car during collection and return. Especially on the damaged location, these pictures will be proofs in case of disputes with the car companies.

6) Keep all documentations on the rental for more than 2 months. You are likely to only receive notification after a month of return.

7) Note down local consumer protection groups, in Singapore it would be CASE. In case the dispute cannot be settled, lodge a report to these organization.

One last thing, after I have finished this post, I check on Hertz complaints on the web. Seems like there are tonnes of them. You can find it here.

http://www.complaintsboard.com/bycompany/hertz-car-rental-a1777.html

Annuity = old men's club

2007-08-31T10:29:00.000+08:00

I have a great uncle from my maternal side of the family when I was young, he was paralysed from neck down. He was quite a friendly person whenever we went to visit him in Ipoh.

There were some occasions when I was curious as he was special. The family lived in a big bungalow with his sons and daughters being sent oversea for studies while he laid in his bed for close to 20 years, without work and no family business. It was a wonder that the family can finance all these without any income, and that was in the 70s and 80s.

I discussed with my father about his origin, although he was not close to the family, my father knew quite a bit about what they did. He was paralysed because of an accident, but before that he was in a business venture with another great uncle of mine ( maternal side ) some where during the 20s. My father mentioned to me that they were engaged in an "Old Men's Club" business, he did not elaborate what the club do.

It was also strange to me whenever he mentioned about the "Old Men's Club", he felt disgusted and he even despised the characters of these 2 uncles of mine. He added," they were conning old people of their money. The accident is a retribution to him." I did not follow up to gain more understanding at that point of time as it was not in my interest.

With the recent proposal of Annuity by the Government, this great uncle just flashed back into my mind. As the concept of Annuity is getting clearer, it became clear to me about what this great uncle was doing during the 20s. The Anuity concept is the "Old Men's Club" where you get a bunch of old men to join in a pool of fund to buy insurance for their future, and they will get financial support from the pool should they cross a certain age level.

Anuity is regard by our predecessors as con job to get old folks money. Those who involved in such scam were spit at for their foul morality. As I gain more understanding about the compulsory annuity, I can't help but to wonder what is really behind the government's intention on this proposal.

It seems to me that they are in the first step of joining the con artists in the past to use the same scheme to get money from poor old men. It is even more despicable that they are doing it in a grand scale, they do not even need to do much on marketing their scheme because they can use their authority and abuses the people's ( at least 66.6% ) trust.

I for one disagree on this scheme because it is a con job to get my money. For a government with ministers asking for astrological salary, it is detestful for anyone within to churn up this scheme "to help their people". I start to wonder, " do they really deserve it?" If these people are in the private sector, I am sure their bosses will be eager to have them sack.

Singapore Event - Ministers' justifying pay rise

2007-04-02T22:14:00.000+08:00

I have been out of touch with my blog for a while. Since the birth of my son, both my wife and I are too busy taking turn to build parental-child relationship. For a while,I thought that I could only touch on my blog again only after another six months. However, I am still quite active in the forum and it gives me a lot of news on current affairs.

I was reading the Sin Ming Re Bao ( a Chinese Newspaper ) in the evening while waiting for my wife when I stumble across this article, I nearly trip.

The same article was also reported on The Straits Times which I cut and paste from the Sammyboy Forum ( yes I am a regular there ):

April 2, 2007
Pay for ministers, civil servants: PSD responds
It addresses public's misperceptions of civil service salaries, perks and pensions

THE $1.2 million annual salary for ministers and top civil servants is an all-inclusive package covering bonuses.

About one-third of the annual pay package they receive currently is variable. This component is linked to their performance on the job and how the Singapore economy is doing, the Public Service Division (PSD) told The Straits Times.

It was responding to readers' letters to ST and online comments on the pay, perks and pensions of ministers and top civil servants.

The PSD said ministers receive no further payments beyond the $1.2 million annual salary package - which comprises monthly pay, public sector bonus payments in the middle and end of the year, allowances, and bonuses based on their performance and that of the economy.

On retirement pensions, it said those who have served at least eight years as an office holder - as a minister or minister of state, for example - qualify for a pension.

It added that the pensionable salary component at each grade has been frozen since 1994.

What this meant is that all subsequent salary increases - whether monthly adjustments or increases in the annual components - are non-pensionable.

Pensions are not calculated based on total annual salary packages, and the PSD said that currently, only about half the monthly salary of a minister is pensionable.

The views and comments by the public came after Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong revealed, at the annual Administrative Service dinner on March 22, that public service salaries had fallen behind the private sector.

Salaries of ministers and top civil servants are pegged at two-thirds of the median income of the top eight earners in each of six professions.

Based on this formula, they should earn $2.2 million a year. But their actual salaries have fallen to 55 per cent of the benchmark, that is $1.2 million.

The gap needs to be closed to ensure the Government can attract and retain good talent to run the country, said Mr Lee.

Details of salary changes across the civil service will be announced in Parliament on April 9.

While some Singaporeans agree with and acknowledge the need to pay ministers and civil servants competitive salaries, others have questioned the benchmarks set, and wondered aloud about extra perks and other hidden benefits they receive.

In comments on the Stomp website, reader Chew Kum Fai, for instance, said that while salaries of administrative officers - the elite corps of the civil service - are pegged to the private sector, they also receive pension and medical benefits after retirement that private sector employees do not.

Mr Jacob Tan, in a letter to the ST Forum page last Thursday, said there is unhappiness with ministers and senior civil servants getting top pay because of the private-sector benchmarks used.

'Top lawyers and accountants are well paid because they are often major equity partners. They have risked their own capital and taken on personal liabilities to build up their businesses. Ministers and civil servants bear no such risks,' he wrote.

In its responses to comments like these, the PSD sought to clear the air on what it regarded as misperceptions the public have about the pay and perks of ministers and civil servants.

It pointed out, for instance, that their salaries also vary with the economic situation, like the rest of the civil service and private sector. Ministers, for instance, had wage cuts during the economic downturns in 1999, 2002 and 2003.

And contrary to the perceptions some people have, the PSD said ministers do not receive perks like free certificates of entitlement (COEs), or a waiver on maid levies or taxes.

Below are edited excerpts of the PSD's responses to questions on various issues.

sueann@sph.com.sg

The debate on the ministers' pay has been around for some time since SM Goh mentioned it after the election. It has been the talk of the town, in the kopi shop, on line and off line. Many people simply cannot comprehend ( a new word that I learned to use ) the true reason for the pay rise. The ministers' pay as compared to their counterpart in the world have been exceptionally high, even the President of the United State of America looks pale compare to Singapore.

The President of Singapore alone commands SGD2.6Mil per anum, and people really question what does he do? His duty other than hand shakes, attend ceremonies is to safe guard the monetary reserves of Singapore, I just wonder how he is going to do it, judging from his age of 85 and reports that it needs 52 man years to calculate the exact amount of reserves that Singapore has. So who know exactly how much he is guarding?

Now back to the ministers' pay. The early justification ( somewhere in the 80s and 90s ) is that high pay to ministers will help reduce ( cannot eliminate ) corruption. Therefore it is justified for the high salaries. I am not sure why but people at that point of time are more obedient and agreed to the term, therefore there was no need to give any explanation from the Government.

Time 2007, the Government again raised the issue of pay rise, this time the rise is justified by its benchmark of the ministers and senior civil servants pay to the pay of the top professions in numerous fields. It is a shocking fact that the pay falls below the 55% mark!!!!!!! If the pay is not increased there will be outflow of talents to the private sector, leading to power vacuum in the public sector!!!!!!!!!!!!So pay rise is a must! The pay of the ministers is to be increased from SGD1.2Mil to SGD2.2Mil. to meet 75% mark.

This round of pay increment however, is questioned by the general people. Is comparison with the private sector a right mean to measure the pay of the ministers and the top civil servants? There are people (from Young PAP) who defended the move while many rised to the ocasion to object to this benchmark of measurement. Most including me have concluded that reference used is wrong and the comparison is flawed. The chart compares the pay of ministers to the pay of the CEOs, top lawyers, etc. This is a cross comparison which yield high inaccuracy. It is like comparing an engineer with an accountant. Different industries simply cannot compare with one another, especially in salaries.

Yet the event only caused me to be a little more active in the forums. What tick me off is the latest justification from PSD ( who knows what they do? ). Based on the article above. they claimed the followings:

Total pay of the ministers per year inclusive of all renumerations are 1.2Mil regardless how many department they manage;
They have no special hospitalization benefits and medical benefits tops at SGD350 per year;
1% of their pay will have to be contributed to Medisave to purchase medishield;
If they are hospitalizaed, they need to pay 15% of the fee, 40% if their spouse is hospitalized;
There is a pension but frozen at a certain levels since 1994, a minister can only get the pension benefit if and only if a minister manage to hold office for 8 years. 15 years for Civil servant;
They need to pay for their own COE if they buy a car;
They have to pay levy if they hire a maid;

The article draw a pitiful situation of the minsiters and civil servant, there are simply so many things that their pay will have to do. But wait, don't we need to contribute to Medisave and pay for Medishield, don't we too have to pay for hospitalization ( Medisave only covers a small amount )? Don't we all have to pay the COE if we buy a car? Don't we all have to pay the levy if we hire a maid (except of case where there are children between age 0-12 or parents of old age, criteria applies to all )? Don't we all have a cap on medical expenses by our company? Don't we all have the variable components in our pay?.........Worst of all we have to depend on our CPF to survive, even the CEO and top lawyers need to save for retirement. But for ministers and top civil servants, you only need to be there for 8 years and 15 years for a stable retirement, with monthly income, this is what I call passive income, ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!...

Come to think of it, the ministers and top civil servants are not worse of than us in paying for expenses. So can this be a justification for salaries increase for the top civil servants? The answer is "no!" regardless how you put it.

So if eventually the pay is not adjusted, what will happen? I find this question particularly interesting. So who will hire George Yeo whose special skill is foreign affairs ( which he has failed badly judging from recent events )? Or Wong Kan Seng who controls the police force? Vivien Balakhrisnan who specialied in education systems in Singapore? It is difficult to fit these people into the private sector. There is also no real case for us to study if a Minister joins the private sector, how would he flourish? Of course you can't use the case study from those jumping into the GICs, the environment afterall is the same.

I have also read about an article from Young PAP web-site ( introduced by Molly Meek ) regarding the Green Eyed Monster which the writer pointed to those opposing the pay rise. Yet, the only green eyed monster I can find are those asking for the pay rise, they have not justified it base on their performance, but the pay structure of others. If any minsters can come forth with their achievements and said that they deserve it, I don't think Singaporeans will object to that.

At the end, I just quote what my wife told me, " wow! it only takes one news article to make you write your blog again."

I learnt paper cutting

2006-11-21T00:06:00.000+08:00

While on my "meeting" trip to Guang Zhou, a team building activity was organized. The task? Paper cutting!

Although I really doubt how relevant is paper cutting is to team building since it is only individual effort, I got to learn a new skill.

Paper cutting technique uses only sissors and paper. The paper needs to be thin and soft, so the standard A4 size is not really suitable ( as I have learnt while cutting this rooster out ).

Many may think that it is a difficult task, in fact it is fairly simple, as long as you get hold of the trick. It took me around an hour to finish cutting this rooster. Only problem is that it looks like a pigeon disguise as a rooster.

Cantonese is awful at Mandarin

2006-11-20T16:47:00.000+08:00

I was visiting Guang Zhou China for my company's annual off-site meeting two weeks ago. It was not my first trip to Guang Dong as I has been to Dong Guan and Shen Zhen for work during 1997. Interestingly, Guang Zhou is actually inside Guang Dong and not the other way round. In fact the city I went to is called the Guang Zhou City.

The off-site meeting is much different from standard work trip. It is a mix of both work and play. For golfers, there will be a golf session. As for those non golfers, there is a tour round the city for whole afternoon after the first day meeting. I chose the second option since I have "retired" from golfing.

Our trip was accompanied by a tour guide. He was born and grown up in Guang Zhou and he is a Cantonese. I also learned from him that there are 3 main dialects in Guang Dong, Cantonese which is the dorminant group, followed by Kek and Fu Lao. There are also numerous groups of indegineous people staying in the Northen Western part of Guang Dong.

One thing that I noticed about Guang Dong is that its people has a hard time learning proper Mandarin. I am a Cantonese myself but I have found no such problem when it comes to Manadarin. The locals are not the same.

The first thing that I noticed was that the tour guide has a strong Cantonese accent when he spoke Mandarin. He also has an issue in prolong mandarin conversation. Only after a short while, may be three to four sentences, he had to revert back to Cantonese. He was not the only one.

Apparently all the locals are the same. This is probably due to the fact that the dialect that they used on daily basis is cantonese. As a Cantonese, I am proud of my own mother tongue, I guess the same goes with them. I also noted that the Southern side of China is separated from the Northern part by an array of mountains, making it difficult for the North to migrate down, as compare to other states in China. Probably this is the main reason why the use of Mandarin is not that crucial in this part of the world and people continue with their lives using their mother tongue.

However, it post an issue when it comes to communicating with oversea Chinese especially Singaporeans who are pre-dorminarily Hokkiens. Singaporeans as I see it have also lost their mother tongue due to its "Speak Mandarin" campaign. So it ended up with Mandarin as the only language that they speaks when it comes to Chinese.

So I was entertained with the communication problem between the tour guide and my colleagues. I enjoyed myself during the trip and to some extend felt the closeness with the place. Afterall, my ancesters were from Guang Dong.

Who is your idol?

2006-11-10T23:33:00.000+08:00

I learned about Leonardo Da Vinci during my History class when I was in Secondary two. In a way, I fell in love with this person as I found him to be an impressive person. He was talented in many areas. Other than just an artist, many also regard him as a great inventor; he was the first to draft the parachute and helicopter design, invented war machines for those who hired him. He was also known as the first person who documented the human anatomy. Although the drawing was not a very accurate account of the human organ structure, it was still a great contribution.

I am an admirer of Leonardo and I consider him my idol. I admire his great talent in many areas and he is not afraid of experimenting. In the case of human anatomy, he acquired dead bodies and dissected them to examine the internal organs because he wanted to make the recording as accurate as possible. His records are not solely done on adults, but also on fetus as well.

From his notes there is also evidence that he made detail studies on individual characters before and during his painting process. Paintings like the Last Supper took 3 years to complete as he wanted to make sure that he created a masterpiece.

It was not until much later that I realized my knowledge of Leonardo was even earlier than secondary two. In fact I first read about him during my primary six. The story I have read was about the time when he first started learning painting. His training involved only the drawing of an egg. It sound mundane but eventually he realized that each egg is different from others. Not only that, the surface of the egg is also different at different location. I believe that this is the time when he learned about paying attention to details.

In order for better understanding of my subordinates, I asked them to discuss about their idols and have it documented while I was on a trip to GuangDong. Yet while I was in the process of detailing my instruction, I was interrupted by a colleague who continued to marginalize Leonardo’s ability. The comments made me furious and I was on the verge to explode. I gave him a warning about my seriousness on his comment before he was forced to stop.

While I continued to feel bad after that, it let me think about the very reason for my rage over the issue. The colleague of mine loves to joke and twist other people’s word. It is not something that I do not know. Yet what he has said seemed to offend me.

I also recall similar incident during a training program conducted on one of my ex-schools ( I have a lot of ex-schools ). I was one of the coaches for the program. To be honest, the teachers are one of the worst people to handle when come to training. They are simply resistance to accepting anything new, having low self esteem and continued to believe that they are the top of the world. The worst mistake that I made was having dual role ( ex-student of the school versus coach for the school ). I eventually broke down and went into rage over one of the activities, venting my anger on a teacher who continued to dodge the lessons and yet disturbing other teachers, causing a stir in the session.

I realize from both incidents that there is one common factor leading to my lost of temper, identity. It is straight forward for the training program, I identified myself as a student from the school and the teachers behaviour were causing injury to my identity. During the whole program my panic continued to rise when I worried about how these teachers going to destroy my school.

It is more complex when it comes to Leonardo. He is only my idol after all. However, under careful examination, I noted that he possesses the qualities that I consider important. Iit is also the very fabric that build up my beliefs, values and identities. An offending comment on him would therefore hurt me as well. It is little wonder that what my colleague did hurt my psychological self.

Everyone has different level of importance to different thing. I am particularly sensitive on my identity. May be it is due to the overwhelming number of negative identity that caused me to guard whatever little amount of positive identity left in me. The negative identity may be strong in me and continue to erode my positive ones. I guess it is time that I do some sole searching to eliminate such identities. To end it up, may be you may also want to think about who your idol is and why?

An apology that was not

2006-10-27T09:47:00.000+08:00

It is a long time since I last up-dated my blog, I just wonder for those who have visited it in the past is still coming in occasionally to see if I add on any new up-dates. In fact I have been very busy right after my baby Wallace popped out to this world. I have to in fact sacrifice more time to take care of both children as well as my wife, who apparently staying at home on mertanity leave ( how come men don’t get the same treatment).

Speaking of treatment , there has been a huge up-roar during the week of Hari Raya and depavali. It all started with the posting of a blogger named Derek Wee on job security issue of aging work force. Another blogger Wee Shu Min responded to him with some strong criticism. For those who have already known about this saga might find it a little long winded of me to paste all the articles. But hey! It was really difficult to find all these in one single location. Since I find it very interesting, I have decided to collect all the articles of this saga.

The first to come in was Derek’s saga. I do not think that there is any thing new. Even though there is a lack in solid evidence that job insecurity is reaching the age of 40, I share his view that people in Singapore are in fact being laid off at an earlier age. I would expect that in 10 years time, the useful working age would reach a peak of 45 years old. That is to say that you will be out of job by 45 by then. I am not sure. Looking at the situation, it may be shorter than 10 years, if Derek is correct. So below is his article.

Derek Wee's original blog

Monday, October 02, 2006

When I read the Straits Times article (dated 24 Sep) on PM Lee calling the young to be committed and make a difference to Singapore, I have so much thought about the issue.

I am 35 years old, graduated from University and gainfully employed in a multinational company. But I cannot help but feel insecure over the future of Singapore. Lets face it, it not uncommon to hear, hen you are above 40, you are over the hill? The government has been stressing on re-training, skills upgrading and re-adapt. The fact is, no matter how well qualified or adaptable one is, once you hit the magical 40, employers will say, ou are simply too old?

We have been focusing our resources and problem solving on low unskilled labour. But in reality, our managerial positions and skilled labour force are actually fast losing its competitiveness. I travel around the region frequently for the past 10 years. It didn take me long to realise how far our neighbours have come over the past decade. They have quality skilled workers, and are less expensive. When I work with them, their analytical skills are equally good, if not better than us.

It is not new anymore. Taxi drivers are fast becoming oo early to retire, too old to work?segment of the society. I like to talk to taxi drivers whenever I am heading for the airport. There was this driver. Eloquent and well read. He was an export manager for 12 years with an MNC. Retrenched at 40 years old. He had been searching for a job since his retrenchment. Although he was willing to lower his pay expectations, employers were not willing to lower their prejudice. He was deem too old. I wouldn be surprised if we have another No. 1; having the most highly educated taxi drivers in the world.

On PM Lee calling the young to be committed and make a difference. Look around us. How dedicated can we be to Singapore when we can visualise what in store for us after we turned 40? Then again, how committed are employers to us? But we can blame them. They have bottom lines & shareholders?gain to answer to. Onus is really on the government to revamp the society. A society that is not a pressure cooker. A society that does not mirror so perfectly, what survival of the fittest is. But a society, where it people can be committed, do their best and not having to fear whether they will still wake up employed tomorrow. Sadly, Singapore does not offer such luxuries and security anymore.

On the issue of babies. The government encourage us to pro-create. The next generation is essential in sustaining our competitive edge. Then again, the current market condition is such that our future has become uncertain. There is no more joy in having babies anymore; they have become more of a liability. It isreally a chicken and egg issue.

Many of my peers, bright and well educated have packed up and left. It is what MM Goh called Quitters? It is sad but true, Singapore no longer is a place where one can hope to work hard their lives and retire graciously. It is really the push factor. A future is something we sweat it out, build and call our own. Unfortunately, people like me, mid 30 going on 40, staying put by choice or otherwise, we can help but feel what lies ahead is really a gamble.

To PM Lee and the Ministers, we are on a different platform. Until you truly understand our insecurity, the future of Singapore to me remains a question mark.

http://derekwee.blogspot.com/

His article was read by a Ms Wee Shu Min, still a JC student from Raffles Junior College (RJC) with scholarship studying Humanity course and is a product of the Singapore Gifted Education Programme (GEP). Her father Mr Wee Siew Kim holds a high post at ST Engineering and is also a member of parliament (MP). She responded to his article through her own blog which is written as follows:

mom's friend sent her some blog post by some bleeding stupid 40-year old singaporean called derek wee (WHY do all the idiots have my surname why?!) whining about how singapore is such an insecure place, how old ppl (ie, 40 and above) fear for their jobs, how the pool of foreign "talent" (dismissively chucked between inverted commas) is really a tsunami that will consume us all (no actually he didn't say that, he probably said Fouren Talern Bery Bad.), how the reason why no one wants kids is that they're a liability in this world of fragile ricebowls, how the government really needs to save us from inevitable doom but they aren't because they are stick-shoved-up-ass elites who have no idea how the world works, yadayadayadayada.

i am inclined - too much, perhaps - to dismiss such people as crackpots. stupid crackpots. the sadder class. too often singaporeans - both the neighborhood poor and the red-taloned socialites - kid themselves into believing that our society, like most others, is compartmentalized by breeding. ridiculous. we are a tyranny of the capable and the clever, and the only other class is the complement.

sad derek attracted more than 50 comments praising him for his poignant views, joining him in a chorus of complaints that climax at the accusation of lack of press freedom because his all-too-true views had been rejected by the straits times forum. while i tend to gripe about how we only have one functioning newspaper too, i think the main reason for its lack of publication was that his incensed diatribe was written in pathetic little scraps that passed off as sentences, with poor spelling and no grammar.

derek, derek, derek darling, how can you expect to have an iron ricebowl or a solid future if you cannot spell?

if you're not good enough, life will kick you in the balls. that's just how things go. there's no point in lambasting the government for making our society one that is, i quote, "far too survival of fittest". it's the same everywhere. yes discrimination exists, and it is sad, but most of the time if people would prefer hiring other people over you, it's because they're better. it's so sad when people like old derek lament the kind of world that singapore will be if we make it so uncertain. go be friggin communist, if uncertainty of success offends you so much - you will certainly be poor and miserable. unless you are an arm-twisting commie bully, which, given your whiny middle-class undereducated penchant, i doubt.

then again, it's easy for me to say. my future isn't certain but i guess right now it's a lot brighter than most people's. derek will read this and brand me as an 18-year old elite, one of the sinners who will inherit the country and run his stock to the gutter. go ahead. the world is about winners and losers. it's only sad when people who could be winners are marginalised and oppressed. is dear derek starving? has dear derek been denied an education? has dear derek been forced into child prostitution? has dear derek had his clan massacred by the government?

i should think not. dear derek is one of many wretched, undermotivated, overassuming leeches in our country, and in this world. one of those who would prefer to be unemployed and wax lyrical about how his myriad talents are being abandoned for the foreigner's, instead of earning a decent, stable living as a sales assistant. it's not even about being a road sweeper. these shitbags don't want anything without "manager" and a name card.

please, get out of my elite uncaring face.

Wee Shu Min

The article which was posted on the 19th of October 2006 caused an up-roar on the internet with up to 250 comments on the posting alone ( I got this information from another source ) before she was forced to shut down her blog. The complaints on her continued and some of the photos that she posted on her own blog ( in bikinis ) were circulated in order to get her humiliated. As a father and and MP, her father came out to try and cool down the situation, which is shown in the next quote.

Oct 24, 2006

A lesson learnt, says MP and dad Wee Siew Kim

Teen blogger counselled for her 'elitist' remarks

'WHAT she said did come across as insensitive. The language was stronger than what most people could take.

But she wrote in a private blog and I feel that her privacy has been violated. After all, they were the rantings of an 18-year-old among friends.

I think if you cut through the insensitivity of the language, her basic point is reasonable, that is, that a well-educated university graduate who works for a multinational company should not be bemoaning about the Government and get on with the challenges in life.

Nonetheless, I have counselled her to learn from it. Some people cannot take the brutal truth and that sort of language, so she ought to learn from it.

In our current desire to encourage more debate, especially through the Internet, our comments must be tempered with sensitivity.

I will not gag her, since she's 18 and should be able to stand by what she says.

The new media of the Internet is such that if you don't like what she has said, you have the right of rebuttal.

Hopefully, after the discussion, everyone will be the richer for it. As a parent, I may not have inculcated the appropriate level of sensitivity, but she has learnt a lesson, and it's good that she has learnt it at such an early stage in life.'
ANG MO KIO GRC MP WEE SIEW KIM on his daughter's comments

Unfortunately, he has made things worse and got himself pulled into the mess, and now he is fighting for his own redemption, most importantly because he defended his daughter’s view. The Netizen demanded him to apologize and some go to the extend of asking for his resignation. He subsequently made an open apology on the Straits Time the second time two days after the his first release.

His complete "apology":

He subsequently issued a second apology.

'I AM sorry that my statements carried in The Straits Times of Oct 24 offended some readers.

I should not have said what I did about people's inability to take the brutal truth and strong language.

I have also counselled my daughter Shu Min. She is fully aware and remorseful over her tone, insensitivity and lack of empathy.

I have advised her to learn from this.

We both apologise to the people whom we have offended, and especially Mr Derek Wee.'

However, his apology did not go anywhere. Even until today, he and his daughter are being bombarded on the internet, with a stronger call for his resignation.

While following this saga, I am to some extend out rage over what was written. At the same time I find it very interesting, mainly because I can do a lot of analysis on this. I think for the sake of writing, I will do one at a time.

Firstly what exactly is an apology? To me a apology must comprise of a few ingredients. Firstly, the apology has to be remorseful. Secondly the one who apologize has to be remorseful about the right thing. Thirdly, there has to be action taken to rectify what is wrong.

Did Mr Wee apologize? Yes he did. However, I feel that the apology lack the remorse ingredient. It is more like a thief being caught red handed and is forced to make a confession. So will the thief feel remorse? I am betting that he is telling himself to be more careful the next time round. Same with his counsel of his daughter. What exactly did he counsel her on? Would it be “ what ever you think about others, keep it to yourself” or “ You need to learn more about humanity practically, so I am going to cut off your allowance and you will have to work at Mc Donalds” kind of things.

The apology did not address the real issue, which is in fact not what both of them said but the mindset that they have harvested. What Mr Wee has said is simply “ sorry that what I have said has offended you, I feel very bad that you are very hurt by the words that I have used. I have told my daughter that she should be more considerate in using her words in the future”. However, he did not go further than that. So does it mean that he and his daughter are still having the same thinking, on others being leeches and trashes?

I am really amused by the apology. It gives the illusion of regrets over a person’s action when in fact he is standing firm on his own opinion. At the end of the day, there is no change in principle and no course of action is need to rectify any thing. In this case, his audience is happy thinking that he apologize, while he at that same time is happy that he has no need to change his own sets of thinking.

It seems like more politicians are saying sorry since the election. At the same time, the “sorry” rarely reflect on the person’s regret on his own action, but only a sorry feeling about the state that the other party is in. So it is an apology that is not. While writing this blog, I listened to one of Mr Brown’s latest podcast. It seems like I am not the only one catching this trick. May be it is high time that the art of apology to hit anoter level.

Present 42 forms Yang Style Taichi

2006-09-21T00:40:00.000+08:00

I have bought a Taiji quan demonstration VCD while I was in China in 1997. I was outstation for 6 months and was dying to learn something. Tai Chi came into my mind after Tai Chi sword. The demonstration was done by a renounced Tai Chi champion from China, Chen Xi Tan. The narrator was the coriographer of the 42 forms modified from the original forms, Li De Yin, who came with a long list of title as Taiji Quan and sword judge for numerous ocassion.

I have not managed to view the VCD until last week. Probably it is luck that I did not do so. As I watched the demonstration, I found Chen's movement to be very smooth and steps very stable. His kick is very high where he uses his hands to touch the tip of the toe ( I always wonder why they have to do that ).

If I watched this many years ago, I might be impressed by their demonstration, not now after my completion of the 108 forms of original Taiji long fist from Wu Tunan. There are around 38 rules governing Taichi. Although the strokes shown were elegant, there are many rules that this demonstration have flunt. Here are a few of them:

(1) The strokes were basic and lack the focus on its internal requirement, such as stretching before the start, the entering of environment, the transfer of force from shoulder to palm, etc;

(2) The laogong does not match with the yongquan, which so far have been a requirement for stability, he can easily be drag off balance;

(3) The steps are huge, giving little tolerance for further moves forward, but probably this is Yang Deng Pu style;

(4) The strokes are strokes and lacks the support of the internal strength, therefore is weak if used for fighting;

There may be more and these are just some that I feel are flaws in the demonstration. Strictly speaking, I fail to see the practical side of this 42 forms. I strongly feel that it cannot at all be used in a duel as it failed many of the 38 clauses required for a strong offence. I seriously question the qualification of the so call judge for Tai Chi ( Li De Yin )to make alteration on Yang Style Taichi.

I have read somewhere on the internet about a comment on the sorry state of Tai Chi, which is reduced to merely for display and simple exercise for old folks. To think that it was once used by the formidable Yang Lu Chan who was invinsible with Tai Chi, he would have turned in his grave seeing what had happened to his creation.

Many Taichi thaught nowaday only remains with its skeleton, there is no flesh or organs attached to it. Many claim that you do not need to know about Qi because once you play Tai Chi, you will find the accumulation of qi. I beg to differ on such views. Prior to officially enrolled into a reputed school and witness what it can achieve, I tried to learn the just the strokes, it got me no where in strengthening my internal structures. Only through proper training that I manage to increase my qi and Tai chi become more enjoyable.

To me, it is now a waste of time in joining anyone in the park in the morning and follow their strokes, it would onlu be a stretching exercise, it would not improves on qi, neither would it be a practical martial arts for self defense. For those who are only teaching the strokes, their action would only lead to further deterioration in Tai Chi.

Baji Quan

2006-09-14T00:32:00.000+08:00

This clip is on BaJi Quan. It is different from Tai Chi as it uses powerful strokes. In fact it is the opposite of Tai Chi.

I first chance across this form from a comics book " Gang Quan Er". It glorified the form and made me curious about Baji form. I have not heard about this prior to the comic book.

It turns out that the form did exist. It is not common in the Chinese community but seems to catch the interest of Japanese. From the way the comic book describes it, Japanese seems to hold this form with high regard, of reason I have not yet known.

The Gathering (1964 clip)

2006-09-13T23:38:00.000+08:00

Clip 1 Taiwan (1964) 1 of 3

Clip 2 Taiwan (1964) 2 of 3

Clip 3 Taiwan (1964) 3 of 3

I stumble across these three clips on http://www.tube.com. I find it fascinating and worth sharing. The setting was 1964 and there was a gathering of martial arts expert in the scene. Each of them were displaying their skills in martial arts to 2 or 3 gentleman behind the table.

What interest me is what were the purpose of the gathering. The kung fu masters seems to have a lot of respect for the people behind the table. Questions popped into my mind," am I seeing a triad gathering?" "are they having some sort of election in the martial art world?" " are they there for publicity?"

There are too many forms of martial arts displyed and definitely not from the same klan. It is for me an eye opener and I feel that may be, just may be some of these forms has already gone extinct.

Wudang

2006-09-13T23:27:00.000+08:00

Wudang has always been known in the Kung Fu novels and movies as one of the main origin of martial arts. Its fame is already at legendary level. However, little is really known about how good they are.

I found it quite facinating when watching this clip. The main body itself was all right, but there are a lot of interesting shots at the start. I kept wondering,"can this be true? It does seems impossible but the shots are evidence of the feat."

I feel that this clip is worth collecting and it is good to share. At least we all know that there is always a higher mountain somewhere.

Blue Mountain - Tranquility

2006-09-12T23:01:00.000+08:00

Video 1. An edited clip on Blue Mountain

I did a business trip to Australia for their Gaming Expo 2006 during September this year. My usual practise for business trip was not to mix leisure with business. Most of the time, I would not entertain myself when I go on such trips and would stick to my tight schedule. This has something to do with my integrity.

This time, I kind of broken this rule since I managed to find a little time for myself. I went to visit Blue Mountain. It was quite a long journey, a two hours drive from sydney. The road to Blue Mountain was not very good for driving, not because of its quality, but I get a feeling of narrowness. Probably this is also because the car was quite big.

As I travelled towards my destination during in a spring afternoon, the air outside continued to feel cold. It is not to the level of freezing cold and is quite refreshing. In fact I have not enjoy this since my stay in England.

You would have no idea that you have reached Blue Mountain. When I reach Katoomba, the town situated in Blue Mountain, it looks just like any other town, quiet, few cars, and it is just next to the highway. As I continued to travel inwards, it turned into a residential area. It was only towards the end of the road that the scenary changed. No longer were there buildings, instead I was at the adge of a mountain over seeing a valley.

How should I describe the scene? I have seen the Grand Canyon on TV. What in front of me is exactly like the Grand Canyon, except that it was covered by vegetation. Trees filled the valley floor between the mountains. It is a beautiful sight for nature. It creates a strong strong urge in me to walk down to the valley, if not for the lack of time. The time afterall was 4:30PM, close to sunset, which was the purpose of my trip.

I love the place, and I envy those who choose to stay there. It may be a little inconvenient to get daily supplies, but the environment itself worth the cost. So shall I plan to move to such a tranquil place? May be it is time to do so. It may even extend my life span.

My Tai Chi Qigong demonstration

2006-09-03T22:13:00.000+08:00

I was asked by my Tai Chi teacher to demonstrate my Tai Chi Qigong on stage for the Annual Dinner and Dance for Nam Wah Pai. The demonstration includes hitting my Dan Tien with a 2 ich pole, then my back, ribs, throat and forehead with 2 brooms sticks.

I was at first worried with the throat area as I found that it was a little weak. But I managed to go though the process. The video is a clip of my performance ( the third person ).

Faith

2006-09-01T00:14:00.000+08:00

I have quite a good life so far. By that I mean that I have never encounter much hardship or face any life threatening situation. There may be some hiccup here and there but so far life have been quite good to me. I have never thought much about future and have been possitive with whatever happen around me.

Fig. 1 My darling Wallace

Yet things change with what happened recently, I am not the one directly affected but it still influence me a great deal. During my wife's labour on my second child Wallace, I saw death in the face. It suddenly strikes me that I cannot take things for granted and there is always a possibility that I might lose something dear to me.

I believe in Buddha and I am a Buddhist. All these while I have thought that it would be easy for me to "let go" since I have learnt much about Buddhism. Yet this event told me that I have not yet met the criteria as a true Buddhist. I am still much attached to this world. What if I lost both my wife and child in the process? Am I strong enough to face reality.

For the moment in the delivery room, I was at a total loss. It was as if my spirit left my body and not knowing what to do. I have accepted Buddhism as my faith when I was 20, yet I did little practising my faith, I depended on my " intelligent" to understand and did little to truly move towards wisdom.This incident seems to be a wakeup call for me. As a human, I am still weak spiritually and I am easily influence by my environment. It is high time for me to re-enter my faith and improve myself.

I just wonder if Wallace ( name of my baby ) is a sign given to me by the Buddhisavas, to tell me that it is time for me to continue my journey into Buddhism. At least I know very well at it is indeed a miracle that both my wide and kid turned out fine from the incident. What happened in the labour room has very high chance of meeting death and even if the persons survived, there would be permanant damages, yet this did not happen on my wife and so far my child has not shown any symptom of defect. My prayer is answered and it is time I fulfill my part of the bargain.

My Taichi class

2006-08-30T00:29:00.001+08:00

This is where I learn my Tai Chi. There are many people separated into different groups and quite often the place is very crowded. But I find it very condusive for learning. It goes to show that the sessions really worth the money.

Amniotic Fluid Embolism

2006-08-29T01:08:00.000+08:00

12th August 2006, this is a very special day for me and my wife as we are ready to receive the latest member of our family. By 10:09AM, my wife has already been on Epudural for 3 hours. I was eager to meet my little new born that I bought a new camera purposely for this. My wife was equally excited but due to the effect of the epidural, she was a little drowsy. I was not sure if it was the effect of the Epidural that my wife has this twitch on her arm.

It was around 10:30AM in the morning when our doctor entered the room. He recommended an induce pregnancy. Our first born came early and we were not well prepared. With induce labour this time round, we should have all the time we needed. The doctor burst the water bag, which I understand was routine. My wife would then wait for the cervix to dilate before going into labour.

It was then when my wife first experienced the urge to volmit. It seemed normal at first, but the the situation soon got more dramatic. It was no longer the feeling of volmit, but she was blowing air out from her mouth, her lips were soft and from the way she blew the air out, it looked more like she was choking and was trying to clear her wind pipe. The nurse quickly pulled her side way for her to ease her throat while the doctor tried to confirm with my whether she has this behaviour before, which I quickly denied.

The situation quickly got more serious as she went into spasm. The nurse quickly pressed the code blue button while the doctor instructed other nurses to call for help from other doctors. More nurses rushed into the delivery room with all equipments available. I could sense that the situation was getting out of hand, by now the first doctor rushed into the scene, while my wife collapsed and passed out.

It was then that I receive a feeling of death, I suddenly has a realization that I am in the process of losing my wife and my unborn child. A sudden fear just came onto me as I have flashes of the future, I would be alone with my first born. What would I do without her? Do I have the courage to live on after witnessing the death of my wife and child? Many questions just popped into my mind during this while. "I don't want my wife to die!"

The doctor told me that they are doing all they can to resusitate my wife, they would have to give up on my child since his heart beat was dropping very fast. It was then that I was asked to leave the room. While standing outside, more doctors rushed into the room, I have lost count but I figured that there should be 7 to 8 of them. All I could do was to wait for them to do their work. What could I do. It was then that I seeked spiritual help. I started chanting " Namo Kuan si yin pu sa" the Buddhisava of Compasion, and I focussed like I have never done before. I have no idea how long I have chanted (5-10 minutes?), but at the end of my chant I requested for safety for both my wife and child.

I did not know if it was my prayer being answered or my unborn child have a strong will to live. It was then I saw the doctor started wearing the operation robe and prepared for delivery, in a short while my baby was delivered and the peadiatrician rushed him to the Neonatal ICU. It was only later that I realised that the baby has no heartbeack when he was born and he did not react to any thing. The doctor resusitated him to life.

After the birth of my child, code blue was still on and doctors were working hard to save my wife. At this time, my mother in law called me on the ceel phone, I briefed her of the situation and requested her to help burn a joss stick at the Kuan Yin's altar. It was then that I have decided to use another chant, " Namo Sa Dao Nan, Sama sambudo chu chi nan, ce li chu li jun ti hoha", the chant for wish come true. I lost track of time during this chant, but at the end of my chant I seeked for my wife and child to be safe, in exchange, I will recite the sutra every morning. It was then that the code blue was shut off.

My wife was in ICU for 2 days after that, have 14 packs of blood and plasma transfered and continued to bleed for another 1/2 a day after the end of code blue. My wife's face still looked very pale after that, I could compare it with the colour of wax paper. My son stayed in the Neonatal ICU for 3 days. It took both adult and child a week to partially recover.

Meanwhile, I took some reading on the problem, which the doctor told me was Amniotic Fluid Embolism. It happens when the Amniotic fluid or featus scraps enters the blood stream. It contaminates the blood which then causes cardiarepitory arrest, stops the heart beat and flood the lung. The lack of oxygen in the blood would then cause damage to the brain and kidney. the fatality of this issue is 61% and likely to happen when the baby is a boy. In most cases, non stop bleeding is witnessed after delivery and the mother is likely to have neurological deficit. Same goes to the baby as delivery of oxygen is greatly reduced during the event. As far as I know, there is no known cause to such event, and can happen during natural birth or even abortion.

For now I am grateful that both my wife and child is still alive. Through this event, I would cherish them even more. Amniotic Fluid Embolism is not common so far. However, the latest up date from my Gyneacologist, there has been a sudden rise recently with 3 cases in Singapore within this month ( August 2006 ), and my wife is the only one who survived the ordeal. I am grateful for the team of doctors at Gleneagle Hospital for saving my wife and child, giving me the opportunity experience a full family life.

108 Yang style Tai Chi

2006-07-28T00:26:00.000+08:00

After a whole year of learning, I have finally finished my Yang style Taichi 108 strokes. My feel ing is very mixed at the moment. I felt the joy when officially I have achieved some thing. At the same time, I am to venture into the next phase, the Xuen Xuen Dao, which seems to me is less impressive.

After a whole year of work, I feel that I have progressed much, yet the fact that the Yang style that I have practised is still not applicable. This is because the 108 strokes is meant for practise and not for application, I still have to wait for another 2 years to reach the application level, after broad sword and sword.

When I set out to learn TaiChi, I wanted only the sword skill. I have never thought of doing the bare hand movement. But all in all, I have no regrets. While learning the fist, I have great improvement on my internal strength. I can now withstand other people's punches, resisting hits by broom sticks and chopping 2 bricks at one go.

Is this TaiChi you may ask? It is, as my master told me. The Tai Chi people learn nowadays has only retained the forms but lack the internal strength. It is only by combining the internal strength with the strokes that it would become a bigger whole. Do I believe in what he said? Deep in my heart, I do. Because I experience it myself. The way I play the strokes are different from that of others.

I am thinking of recording down my WaiChi 108, and for that reason, I have bought for myself a sort of a camcorder. I will give myself 3 weeks to paste my first clip on this blog.

Tai Chi Application Demonstration

2006-07-23T22:41:00.000+08:00

This is the clip that I was talking about in my last message. It is quite impressive.

Wu TuNan Yang style Taichi

2006-07-23T22:35:00.000+08:00

I got this clip from YouTube.com on Wu TuNan Yang Style. The person who placed out this style is the brother of my teacher. I believe he is also the one who started Nam Wah Pai. Ther is another clip that I saw with him demonstrating the applicationusing TaiChi.

Zhao Bao TaiChi

2006-07-21T11:34:00.000+08:00

This is a clip demonstration on Zhao Bao Taichi from a champion of 2003. Personally I find the move a little strange probably due to the long shirt that he is wearing. As a whole I find that this style has more focus on lower body action. It would be a very interesting experience if I would play out this style.

2006-07-21T11:16:00.000+08:00

This is an interesting clip on Fu ZhongWen playing the Yang Taichi stroke. It is slightly different from the one that I have learnt but it is good for reference. The Yang Taichi actually focus on the waist.

Brick Chopping using Taichi energy

2006-07-20T11:43:00.000+08:00

This is a video clip that I have taken on 2 female students practicing the brick chopping using the Taichi technique. They have been learning Taichi for around 4-5 months from Nam Wah Pai.

2006-07-20T11:34:00.000+08:00

Got this video clip on Wu TuNan, one of the pioneer for Tai Chi ( the Wu Style ). Interesting stroke.

Conservation Awareness for Chinese people

2006-05-30T11:47:00.000+08:00

Eating is a part of human life. Due to dispersion of the human population, different races are evolved into eating different thing to survive. Because of the human's capability in adaptation to his environment, he is deemed as a great surviver on mother Earth.

I am not sure if Chinese is a lucky or unlucky race. For one the region that it evolved in is abundon in source of nutrient. On the other hand, there are so many disasters in the area, famine is a common event in the history of China. So the Chinese by nature has evolved into a race that have a taste for almost everything. Pig for instance is edible from head to toe, not a single part of it is wasted. This is something that I feel the Chinese is good at, making full use of what is available and adventurous in trying something new.

While I am proud to be a Chinese holding these values, I also feel that this is also a potential desaster when there is no catastrophy. The Chinese urge to satisfy their taste buds is in fact causing destruction to nature. Chinese love for the rare and expensive food give rise to the unnecessary slaughtering of animals that originally not within the food menu of man. People of China for instance is starting to test out new source of proteins such as Donkeys and Peacocks. Although animals such as Peacock may not go into extinction as a result due to the farming of such creatures, same may not be said to some other organism.

Black moss for example has been a house hold food product for a long time. Unfortunately due to the booming of the Chinese population around the world as well as the financial stability, the demand shoot up until the Black Moss is now close to extinction. If not for the intervention of the Chinese government, we may have seen the last of it.

With the improvement of more Chinese population, sea life is the next affected area. This is especially so for the Shark population. Shark fins has not well known during the 70s as a delicacy as it is a very expensive dish. I could remember that only during wedding dinners that people get to taste the soup. It is an acquired taste, I dislike it when I was young. However, with the financial stability, Shark fin soup is no longer a prestige but a common dish. People are ordering Shark fin soup more frequently as they can afford it. They are more willing to try the soup as it was a soup for the rich in the past.

With the awareness of increasing demand for Shark fins, fishermen around the world started to hunt down the fish that used to have little value in their region. When they caught a shark, the first thiing that they do is to cut down the fins. As there is no sales value for the rest of the fish, they throw it back into the sea. Shark cannot breathe if it cannot swim, so imagine that a fish actually drown in the water that it lives in. The death of shark in such way is tragic and it is all because of human greed and his urge to satisfy his taste bud.

I loved Shark fin soup, but I have since have it cut out of my diet list. I still remember during the time when I was planning my wedding, I have requested the restaurant to change the soup of the package. I still can clearly recall the time when I revealed my decision to my family and relative, one of my uncle actually commented," doesn't that make the event not grand enough, where got face?" So is it because of face that we put Shark Fin soup on the wedding menu? Just because it will look good for our reputation? How about the reputation of being the race who is responsible in wiping out the shark population? It would make us no difference from the Japanese who insist that it is in their culture to eat whale even if it means causing whale extinction.

I still recall a story that is told to me. The wolf is a ferocious animal. The pack is cruel to their prey. When they catch up with the prey each wolf will bite on to the prey causing extreme pain and sufering to the animal. This eventually kill the prey. But what is its difference with man? Wolves only kill for necessity and not luxury. They will ensure that the food that they harvest will be fully utilized. It is one value that we human lacks, we are extremely wasteful, shark fin soup is in fact one good example. WE should be ashame of our behaviour because we are even worse than a pack of wolfs when come to awareness of our fragile environment. We reflect upon ourselves on what our action has caused.

Shark is an important figure in the sea. Because of its predatory nature, it ensure the health of the ocean by cleaning up weak and sick fishes. Without it we will see deterioration of health from the oceans. Although a predator, it is however a fragile organism. Being at the top of the food chain, its lifespan is longer and it reproduces at a slower rate. With the increasing number of people with financial capability to drink the soup, we do not need a good mathematician to know that sharks are being depleted at an alarming rate. We need to do something, we need to stop the killing of sharks, and stopping the demand is the only way to do it.

Yet many of my own race still trying to justify themselves to eating shark fin soup. I normally find excuse that shark is a man eater so there is no harm eating it. So how many of us have family members or relatives being killed by sharks? I can say close to none, Chinese on the other hand have a wide majority tasted shark fin soup. Another excuse that people give isthat there are so many sharks in the world that we can never finishing killing them. Unfortunately it is true that sharks are getting rare nowadays until many restaurants have fake shark fin soups. Not only that, the World Conservation Union has already listed sharks into their red list, indicating that shark is now officially an endangered species.

I am proud to say that since 2000 I have not eaten any more shark fin soup. My family still do and they try to persuade me to take a little, which I have so far refused. So far when I am around, they do their best not to order the soup as I am not eating. I am also hearing more young people refusing to serve shark fin soups at their wedding. One of the most enlightening event was Disney Land in Hong Kong proceeded not to serve Shark fin soup unless the source can sustain the shark population. It is not the result of the adult's protests, but a much younger generation. I am glade that at least in Hong Kong the mindset of the young is now different from the old. I only hope that the change of mindset can be done in a larger scale.

As human,we are the one who has the power to do what is right for mother earth, we need to put in our effort to protect the only fragile habitat that we have. Other wise, there will be no more earth for our off springs to live on.

Photos from http://www.seashepherd.org/longline/longline_shark_finning.html

Tai Chi for health and defense

2006-05-27T09:39:00.000+08:00

I have a facination with Tai Chi Quan. I have seen people practising this martial act since I was young. Altough I have interest in this martial arts, I have never thought of learning or even mastering this style. One question always popped up in my mind,"is this a practical defense system?" Honestly speaking, the person who is practising the strokes does this very slowly as compared to Shaolin kung fu. If one is attacked, can he really afford to fight back with such slow pace?

I am now in my late thirty. I have more than 10 years of working experience in my life in the office. The lifestyle in Singapore allows me little time to think about my health, not to mention going for exercise. It is until the time when my daughter was born that I started thinking about walking a longer journey.

I was also a volunteer coach for an organiztion to help them on a certain training programme, my aim was to master what I have learned from them. However It instead rang the alarm bell in me telling me that I am not that healthy any more and I need to change. I need to exercise!

Although I have never officially learnt any martial arts, I bought a book on Tai Chi sword play during my secondment in China and learned a few strokes from it. I intended to "officially" master the art.

It took me some time to look around for a credible Tai Chi master. I thought of the teachers from the community center, but I was wary bout the authencity of their mastery and I want to learn the real thing. As an engineer by training and practice, I must be able to apply what I have learnt. I continued to scout around on both the internet and the red light district in Geylang ( happened to also house many martial arts schools ) for a genuine master.

I came upon Nam Wah Pai on the internet by chance, I actually called up to enquire about Tai Chi sword play. The only response I have got was " come to see our demo this weekend". I responded to the call, attended the demonstration. By the end of the day I was convinced and signed up for the class.

The class from Nam Wah Pai was different from others. Normal practice of Tai Chi go straight ahead with the strokes, claiming that Qi and health will come along. Nam Wah Pai instead started off with Tai Chi Qigong, the master insisting that this is the bullet and the stroke is the gun. If you want to master Tai Chi, you must first learn to harnest the Qi. I was sceptical as I have never heard of this style of Qigong, neither was there documentation on the subject. I went ahead anyway since I have already paid for the course.

So is it really true? I still have not found any documentation on the subject now. The master insisted that the qigong was passed down through word of mouth. No matter which is true, my experience of the Qigong tells it all.

After just 2 months of practicing the qigong, my master tested us by hitting our abdomens with 2 broomsticks. The broom sticks broke into 2 while we were not injured at all. It is amazing considering just 2 months prior to that we would not sustain such a hit. At the same time I am also feeling more healthy as I have more energy to go through my everyday life. My blood pressure actually reduced, to the surprise of the doctors. One negative effect is that I have less chance of being sick, therefore I would be wasting a lot of my medical leaves.

The most amazing thing is that now I can even chop the bricks into 2, something that I can only dream of in the past. My level now is chopping of 2 bricks, this is just after less than 1 year of practice. It is not just using the palm, but every sides of the hand, such as the karete chop, the reverve chop the back of the hand and direct fist.

It also make a difference while I practice the Tai Chi Quan, I could feel the Chi moving in me almost immediately after I started learning the strokes, unlike my past experience.

In conclusion, does Tai Chi improves health? It really depends on its genuinity, at least the choice that I have made with Nam Wah Pai is a a good one. Does it really work in self defense? First thing first, don't let me have a chance to hit you back, or you will end up like the bricks that I have chopped up.

Beginning my holistic journey.....

2006-05-26T15:14:00.000+08:00

This is the second blog that I am starting. After my first Blog that address the stock market, I find that publishing my views on the web helps me to move out of my own box. With every words typed, my confidence grew.

I feel strongly in sharing my world views with others. I have started off with stock market analysis, whcih happens to be one of my passion, now I am moving forward to the next item that I want to grow, my holistic side.

I will very much like to share my experience with whoever reading my messages, at the same time appreciate feedbacks, regardless positive or negative.