Loh and Behold

I have nothing against foreigners. They add a lot of color to our lives and their presence is – according to our government – necessary for this country due to a myriad of reasons.

Our government is far from perfect. I for one am often rather critical of its antics.

But let one fact be known here, now and forever. The fact is this: I do not appreciate foreigners residing here who unfairly criticize anything to do with Singapore and Singaporeans while they are here making good money and enjoying the security and safety and efficiency offered by this place.

Some of you won’t even make it as toilet cleaners in your own country, some of you can’t even speak coherently yet you are regarded as “foreign talent” so while you take advantage of our magnanimity and generosity I’ll appreciate if you keep your bitching and moaning to yourself. If this place is so bad that you can’t seem to stop whining 24×7 about it may I suggest you go back to the shithole you came from.

Ingrates!

Once again I’ve failed to convince a close friend to activate Gmail on his smartphone. Getting him to do that is harder than pulling teeth.

People who ignore my communications is a pet peeve of mine. (To be sure, if I do not require a reply, I always specify “No reply required” but all other emails I send out would require a response. I’m not the type who forward jokes or porn links.)

I understand perfectly your wanting to avoid your office’s emails being pushed into your mobile device and I applaud those who allow their personal emails (such as Gmail) to be pushed into their devices. Work should indeed stop at certain hours although for senior decision makers in this day and age, that can be deemed unrealistic, selfish and worse, harmful to their organization’s productivity.

However if you allow WhatsApp and SMS to function on your phone, adding Gmail is only logical. In fact, whether you use WhatsApp, SMS or Gmail on your phone – the method (ie, whether it’s WhatsApp, SMS or Gmail) is something that shouldn’t even be a question that comes up because in this modern world of ours where there will only be two types of people: the quick or the dead, you ought to receive communications (and respond to them) regardless of what format they take.

I am often exasperated by people in my circles who have no problem with me phoning them or WhatsApping them or SMSing them, but would NOT enable Gmail on their phones. “You can always phone me, you even have my phone number” they say, as if I’m the one with the problem. To me, there is no clearer example of stupidity. Yup, stupid idiots with smartphones. A paradox of our age.

Some of these people claim to be experts on change, some of them even want me to conduct seminars or co-author books with them on change management. To me they are contradicting themselves big time.

I once met a father who told me that he considers his kids not enabling their Gmails on their phones as a blatant disrespect of him and his standing in their lives. A bit extreme, but I can perfectly understand where he’s coming from.

One other thing, those who selfishly disable Gmail on their phones, but would only choose to access Gmail (or any of their personal or private email accounts) at the time of their own choosing may not realize that when they finally get to do their emails, they end up sending a whole shitload of replies in a huge burst to those who have been communicating with them in the past few hours, those few hours when they chose to disable Gmail.

Have these morons thought of how inconsiderate this is? Such behavior is an anathema of our modern day and symptomatic of anachronistic behavior in our times.

On a recent day, I have been emailing a friend a series of emails – and I, like most people in this present century, (this is 2013 for goodness’ sake!) don’t distinguish between email, WhatsApp or SMS – but I didn’t get a reply at all, even the Google Talk on this person’s smartphone was not activated, I only got dumped a whole wad of replies when this person finally got to sit down on his big fat ass at his computer and decided ta da! it’s time to do email, never mind how the rest of the world feels. By the time I’ve gotten all his replies, I have already gone on to make decisions without involving this Neanderthal.

I simply cannot deal with someone who does not respond in time, hey idiot I can’t wait hours for you to reply! That is why I am a strong advocate of the proposition that each of us in this modern times must communicate using all platforms available to us. Sure, turn off your office email if you want and have it work only during office hours if you can afford that luxury, or if your career prospects won’t be affected by that but if you allow WhatsApp and SMS, for goodness’ sake turn on your Gmail too. The problem gets compounded when I phone the person and he’s not answering because he cannot hear his phone which he sets to silent mode, which he keeps inside a purse, which is then kept inside his clutch bag.

I also hear excuses like “I certainly don’t want to be checking my emails when I am in the company of others. So I disable my Gmail, etc.” Well, this is where you need to exercise some discretion and ground rules. For example, when I am with a client or at a meeting, or watching a movie or am at a concert (which is seldom for more than a couple of hours) I set my phone to vibration mode. But other than that, I’m always accessible and all my family members and friends accept that. We accept that because we now live in a connected world, even when we are eating together or having a coffee, we recognize that we may have to accept calls and messages – and respond to them – as they come in. Nobody feels slighted because one of us have to excuse ourselves for a moment to respond to an incoming message. Anyway, I don’t think people who disable their Gmails and set their phone in silence and then bury it somewhere has any excuse for doing so. Personally I think that’s a disgusting, counterproductive behavior.

Then they are those retards who have WhatsApp on their phones but their status is set permanently to “Unavailable” or “Busy” – if that’s the case, why install WhatsApp in the first place?

That’s another rant for another time.

In recent months we have seen how some retards, clearly guilty of the crimes for which they were charged, wasting precious court time by opting to stand trial and then making a mockery of the judicial process through trials within trials, through all kinds of dramatics, and through all kinds of ridiculous claims and accusations and childish “the-dog-ate-my-homework” type of excuses.

These morons not only waste tax payer money but clog up legitimate cases waiting for the courts.

Above all, they make a bloody fool of themselves.

The skins of these idiots must be thicker than elephant hides. I wonder if they, their family members, their children and relatives know where to hide their faces. My sympathy goes out to those unfortunate enough to be connected to such cretins.

There should be some sort of measures in our country to nip such occurrences in the bud right from the beginning. There should be some sort of preventive measures in Singapore early in the process to prevent such jokers from jerking our courts around and from getting away with such stupid, laughable, ludicrous and mischievous antics to buy time and to divert guilt from themselves including malingering and pretending to be unfit to stand trial.

Some of these douche bags include dumb asses from the civil service, the financial industry and from academia.

They think they are geniuses who can talk their way out of trouble.

They think that this country is like East Germany of the 60′s, they also claimed that their statements to the authorities were coerced out of them. When confronted with their own medicine, they then turned around like petulant kids and screamed “We’re not living in East Germany!”

Sad. Everyone wants to be a comedian nowadays.

Even self-proclaimed geniuses.

Albert Einstein is believed to have once said that the difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.

Required reading for shitheads who suffer breathing difficulties in court.

On April 17^th, a teenage student suffered second-degree burns on his right thigh after sitting on a “transparent liquid” – believed to be acid – at a bus stop along Bukit Batok East Avenue 3.

On May 2^nd, a 24-year old nurse had her left buttock burnt by a corrosive substance – also believed to be acid (sulfuric acid) – on a SMRT train seat. She is currently warded at the Singapore General Hospital for 3 per cent burns.

Apparently there was one other case.

There’s probably a sick bastard out there responsible for this.

Be careful what you sit on.

I shot this pic with my camera phone last Saturday afternoon.

Under the Road Traffic Act, lorries cannot be used for private passenger transport. However, the Road Traffic Act provides exceptions, all of which are crap, as if not enough lives are lost this way already.

Lorries should NOT be allowed to carry passengers.

Period.

I can never forget what I witnessed on June 22^nd 2010. Two workers lying dead as a result of a traffic accident along the Pan-Island Expressway. (A third worker passed away later in hospital.) Six others were hospitalized. The lorry carried 17 people at the back when the accident happened.

I repeat: Lorries should NOT be allowed to carry passengers.

And that’s not the only accident involving lorries in recent times.

In March this year, more than 10 workers were flung off a lorry when it was involved in an accident along the Pan-Island Expressway in the Simei area. One died on the spot.

Construction worker, Rajesh Mahalingam, 29 was just two months away from starting a new life. He had plans to go home to India and get married and open a fish farm. His dreams ended that day on our Pan-Island Expressway

Today, Labor Day, let’s really get serious about the welfare and safety of our laborers, many of whom are from overseas, eking out a living here to support struggling families back home.

The Cenotaph was erected in 1920 to commemorate the 124 soldiers from Singapore who were lost in World War I. In 1950, an extension to commemorate those who died in World War II was added. It was gazetted as a national monument in 2010.

The structure was vandalized late last Tuesday night, according to some witnesses.

Located at Esplanade Park along Connaught Drive, the national monument was spray-painted with the word “democracy” in red with a big “X” under it. The “X” cancelled out the dates 1914 to 1918, which mark the period when World War I raged.

A contributor to citizen journalism website Stomp, by the name “deepsecret”, said in a post that her fiancé had chased after a man whom they spotted vandalizing The Cenotaph at 11.15 that night.

Other countries may consider graffiti as art but not here.

The vandal was caught yesterday morning.

A 32-year-old Singaporean was caught Saturday morning.

Great job, Singapore police. Well done!

Now what to do with the motherfucker?

I say waterboard the bastard!

Then jail him for the maximum term mandated by the law and yes, cane him!

Yes, whip his sorry ass! (That’s actually mandated by the law too.)

And see if that retarded scumbag will try vandalizing another national monument again.