Dumbass Of The Week VII

I must have complained about this for like a shitload of times to the extend that even CowboyCaleb knows and feels my grief.

It is my ultimate luck to hire THE MOST CHAMPION KUM LAN CHAUFFEUR IN THE WORLD. Got GPS Navigation unit still can get lost??!!? WTF?

I can let the whole matter slide if this is too new tech for the retired ex-army truck driver but to have the audacity to criticise the device as "inaccurate" and "lousy", Lim Peh totally lost it.

Just last week, I had to goto GuangZhou to pick up some customers from Australia. You can tell who are the noobs and who are the old birds of the furniture customers by the choice of airports coming into my part of Spitland.

Guangzh0u and you are definitely a noob as most, if not all of the old birds would come in via HongKong and ShenZhen, but I digress.

Anyway, the problem with Guangzhou is that it is a bladdy pain in the ass to get there (and back), the journey each way averages between 80 to 100km and let us not forget the pain in the arse traffic in the Guangzhou city itself. To get there, be ready to allocate about 1.5 to 2 hours in addition to an empty bladder. Last friday, my journey up to Guangzhou took me 4 hours to reach my destination but that is another story sans GPS device.

Initially, the journey started off easily as there is only 1 highway to goto Guangzhou and so fine, no argument with the GPS navigation device. It was only when we hit Guangzhou city where the roads became increasing complex that my chauffeur started showing signs of cracking up.

Sure, the GPS device was not perfect as the map was slighted dated in the sense that there are times where the road ahead of us did not match the map as a result of ongoing roadworks etc.

Let me give you an example. Supposed that the map shows a straight road ahead to a junction 3km ahead. Instead, what you see in front of you is a fly-over fork splitting one to turn left and one to turn right i.e. no straight road for you. What do you do?

This was when he started a bitch-fest whining about how lousy this GPS device was and hence blaming it for us being lost. I was like HARLOW!! What is so difficult? There is a Green Line feature in the unit where it points to the ultimate destination and in that particular case, it was pointed 45 degrees to the right i.e. our set destination is ahead to the right. So by simple logic deduction, you take the right fork lor. What is so difficult??!!!

Next he started complaining about the GPS Unit going crazy as it kept announcing that it is recalculating route repeatedly. I was like HARLOW!! The GPS device had to recalculating route repeatedly was because he farking stupid kept missing the turn that the device was trying to tell him to! KNN.... device say turn right, he KNN kept going straight. OF COURSE HAVE TO RECALCULATE LAH, FARKING STOOPID KOTEK!!!

The GPS device also have a distance count down feature i.e. how many more km to destination.  Stoopid kotek, as he shall now be known henceforth, ignored the GPS instructions saying he had been there before and hence was familiar with the route. Thus "gave him the leverage" to criticise the lousy GPS device for recommending us the longer route.

Next thing we know, he was lost as it was obvious he was going in circles but remained silent to disguise his panic. Alas, the GPS device was not as forgiving as I could see how he was driving.

So here's how the distance countdown goes. 3.3km > 3.2km > 3.1km (we were travelling straight) > GPS says turn right > driver ignore and went straight > 3.0km > 5.4km > 5.5km> 5.6km > WTF???!! > We are now driving further and further away??!!!?

I almost lost it that day. I wanted to bash the stoopid kotek up, fire him on the spot, take over the steering while and kick him out of the car leaving him to figure out how to go home from Guangzhou.

But I didn't.

I would have scared my Aussie customers on board to death. Have to 保持形象. M... Must control Fist Of Death....

KNN, chor lim peh sibeh du lan.

Dumbass.

- Voxeros

1. Posh left...

Monday, 31 March 2008 8:37 am :: http://poshbubbles.wordpress.com

somethings never change, perhaps you should consider looking for a replacement in the meantime.

2. OLLie left...

Monday, 31 March 2008 11:12 am :: http://ooohlah.lah.cc

Omgoodness. I laughed like mad while reading. hahahaha.. Pardon me. It was simply too hilarious to not laugh. hahaha..
Actually my experience with GPS is that they sometimes give a much longer route, and being in S1ngapore, I cant stand having to use some machine to navigate through the normal routes that I go, so I normally do without.

3. Faith left...

Monday, 31 March 2008 2:24 pm

Oh my goodness! You didn't murder him??? I would so have killed him...or gotten out of the car! You should be awarded for your patience! Very proud of you.

4. Shelly left...

Monday, 31 March 2008 6:21 pm

My only question is: Why you cannot drive in SpitLand leh?
Saves you a lot of aggravation (and salary) to hire a damnass kotek like him.

5. JayWalk left...

Monday, 31 March 2008 6:24 pm :: 

Posh: We are looking but at least this guy is trustworthy. Safety factor is also very important.

Ollie: We use GPS only if we don't know the route. I mean if you know how to get there, then wouldn't the use of GPS be redundant? Hence there is no way we can know if the route is longer or shorter. All I am concerned is that I can get to my intended destination within a controlled amount of time.

Faith: My boot then was filled with my customer's bags and so I have no space to stuff his body. Hence, I didn't kill him. It was his lucky day.

6. JayWalk left...

Monday, 31 March 2008 6:41 pm :: 

Shelly: Welcome to the blog. Haven't seen you commenting here for a long time liao. Anyway, I have the following reasons:

1. People here do not drive according to the rules. As such, even if you are the most traffic law-abiding you are still going to get into accident.

2. I have a lot of biz entertainment at night to do which means I would be drinking and driving in a place where people drive with disregard to the rules.

3. Some of my trips can be as long as 8 hour car rides. I think I would be more productive if I can let someone do the driving while I work in the car.

4. When there is an accident, the foreigner will always be disadvantaged as they see this as an opportunity to extort money from you.

7. Rachel left...

Tuesday, 1 April 2008 12:57 am :: http://www.xtralicious.com

Wah lau. Driver and secretary also kumlan one... Come lah, I come work for you. LOL.

8. JayWalk left...

Tuesday, 1 April 2008 2:25 pm :: 

Rachel: Cannot cannot!! I can't afford you!! Besides, you'd be too distracting liao. *shy*

Lessons From The Elections - Part 5 of 5

 ...continuing from Part 4 of 5.

So. What can Singapore learn from all these?
 
4. United States Of America
 
I was having a conversation with an American friend who wonder which is sadder.

An idiot for a president or the 60 million Americans who voted for the idiot?

I laughed at the question but didn't answer as it was rhetorical. It is quite sad really.

With the US doing so badly in the last 8 years, a change seems inevitable. the economy had got to be the hottest topic that needed attention. If you think that I am going to talk about the recent mortgage woes, you're wrong. Wait till you see the figures from the wars. It seems like the military effort in Afghanistan and Iraq not only costs the Americans 4,000 lives of their own servicemen (and counting) but also a whopping bill expected to exceed USD 3 Trillion! I wonder where they get the money given that the national debt is already at a staggering USD 9 Trillion (and counting). It's a vicious spiral and I wonder if the Americans are ever going to get out of it? Probably never.

It will come a day where the Americans will have to kowtow to their new Ch1nese masters whom the latter together with the Japanese own a shitload of US Treasury Bonds and US Treasury Notes.
In short, the Americans tio ownzed.

Anyway, I feel, imho, that the Republican days are numbered for, I see the people losing faith in them and would want to give the next available chance (this coming November) to the Democrats, hoping that they would be able to run the country better.

In fact, signs of change have already surfaced with the House of Representative elections back in 2006 where the Democrats pull off a stunning victories, grabbing 30 seats from the Republican. The 52% simple majority means that the Democrats are now in control of the House of Representatives.
In the same year, the Senate elections saw the Democrats grabbing 5 seats from the Republicans to tie at 49 seats each (out of a total of 100 with the remaining 2 seats going to independents) but the numbers from the popular vote pointed in favour of  the Democrats with 54%).

For the uninitiated, the US government has two houses. The House of Representative (Lower House) and the Senate (Upper House). Both houses work together towards passing of legislation.

However, it seems that Gallup seemed to disagree with me on this.

In fact, they had a recent survey that if the elections were called today, their poll showed that McCain would defeat both Clinton and Obama.

Yes, people wanted a change but a change to a female president or an african-american president, for the first time in American history, is perhaps a bit too big a chunk for them to take in one swallow?

Whatever it is, it is still to early as we have a good 9 or 10 months to go.

We shall see.

So what can we learn from all this?

 

1. Always Save For A Rainy Day

A healthy reserve is good for the country. We grew up on a staple of Hollywood movies where the US is the bestest and most powerfullest country in the world and the de facto leader of the modern civilisation.

Today, returning to reality from the silver screen, the US we see before us, is now a mere bankrupt shell of a nation surviving on borrowed money.

It's a real pity. Really.

So anyway, I am happy to report that our Official Reserves Assets now stand around USD 169 billion according to IMF but given the secrecy surrounding the way the Temasek H0ldings and G1C do things, I wonder if this number is accurate?

In any case, it will still be a healthy number despite several duds like the Merrill Lynch and Shin Corp, among many others that some we know and some we don't. I can understand that with every venture, there are certain risks involved and I can also accept that sometimes these ventures don't work out.
But what I can't stand is the nonchalant attitude towards these losses. Yes, I applaud the excellent work put in to amass our reserves to such a staggering level but that does not give them the right to just burn the losses with such blatant indiscretion. They don't even sound apologetic, dammit!

2. Never Vote A Village Idiot

I say it then, I say it now and I say it again. Never ever vote the village idiot. Period.

Image Credit: http://www.sfgate.com; http://www.discursivemonologue.com

- Voxeros

Lessons From The Elections - Part 4 of 5

...continuing from Part 3 of 5.

So. What can Singapore learn from all these?
 
3. Ta1wan

A bit of history first.

Ta1wan's separation to be a "renegade state" occurred in 1949 when the KuoM1ngTang (KMT) retreated from the mainland to the island of Ta1wan after being defeated by the communist in the civil war. Since then, the island has been under Martial Law which was eventually lifted in 1987 and the Dem0crat1c Pr0gress1ve Party (DPP) was formed a year later. The democratic presidential election was held in 1996 where incumbent president, Lee Teng Hui, won to retain his presidency.

In short. The KMT ruled Ta1wan for over 50 years.

The next election was a tragic comedy where there was internal bickering within the KMT resulting in the more popular James Soong being expelled from the KMT and subsequently stood for presidency as an independent candidate against Lien Chan and of course Chen Shui Bian from the DPP.

As a result of splitting the votes, Lien gathered 23.1% of the votes and Soong got 36.8%. Had they combined forces to run as President-Vice President, their total of 59.9% would have easily defeated Chen Shui Bien's 39.3%, thus keeping power within the KMT camp for yet another 4 years.

Alas, it was not to be as Chen won by default as Lien and Soong to cancel out each other.
A tragic comedy indeed.
 
Next was the 2004 election where Chen was to stand for a second term. Lien and Soong, having learnt their lesson from the previous defeat, had decided to reconcile and run together under the KMT ticket. It looked destined for KMT to retake the presidency as Chen did a lousy job in his 4 years as president and corruption allegations were slowly floating to the surface. Then came the infamous mystery gunshot incident which cause quite a number of neutral votes to swing in DPP's favour as a result of sympathy.

I was already in Spitland during that election and quite a number of my Ta1wanese friends did not go back to vote as they thought KMT was a confirmed winner and as such their votes would not have helped.

They thought wrong as Chen retained his presidency by a mere 0.22% (22,994 votes out of a total of 12+ million).

This year, almost all my Ta1wanese friends flew back to vote for KMT, so as to prevent a repeat of the last election's folly. It was a very quiet and lonely weekend for the rest of us in Spitland. Flights back to Ta1wan was full as early as a week before the elections. Some even contemplated flying to a 3rd country to try to get a connection to fly into Ta1wan. There were news reports that 13 people on the police wanted list came back, only to be arrested at the airport, simply because they wanted to vote.

Anyway, KMT returned to power by a landslide of 2+ million votes more than DPP.

So. What can we learn from here?

 

Two things actually.

1. Unity Within The Camp
   
   I believe the reason why Singapore's opposition is so weak is that they are very disunited. The various parties although on the front, stand together in the face of the common enemy, are second guessing each other in the back.
   
   A few years ago when Mr Ch1am See T0ng was still leader of the Singapore Dem0crat1c Party, the SDP was actually quite a strong party to which, some may even say that they were doing better than the incumbent opposition W0rker's Party. Unfortunately, they had a couple of back stabbings (and front) within their own ranks ala Julius Caesar (Speak! Hands for me! *L1ng How D0ong first, then the other Conspirators and Chee So0n Juan stab Ch1am See T0ng*), and Chiam saw himself booted out of his own party that he founded.
   
   Granted that he restarted his political career with a newly formed Singapore Pe0ple's Party, his strength was greatly reduced.
   
   Now, the PAP is not without problems as there were rumours within the coffeeshop talk that the party was showing signs of splitting into 2 factions. One against and one for a certain prominent person in the party. However, this has never seen the light of day as long as MM Lee is alive to see to it that the lid remained sealed. Nevertheless, the simmering lies within. Truth or hearsay?
   
2. Voting The Village Idiot
   
   There were a lot of similarities between the PAP and the KMT. Both have been in power since day 1 (except for the KMT blip between 2000 and 2008). I supposed once a ruling party has been in power for way too long, arrogance and aloofness would quietly seep in within the ranks resulting a detachment drift away from the people who had supported them.
   
   Thus it was not surprising for Chen to win 39.3% on his first try in 2000. It was a shock win even for those who voted for Chen as nobody would have dreamed that the KMT would be split apart just before nomination day.
   
   As a result, the people of Ta1wan who wanted a change as a result of getting tired with the KMT's stagnation got what they wanted. Well, I can't say for sure if they have gotten a change for the better. As far as I can see, the economy went to shits during these 8 years where people were struggling to keep up with the costs of living.
   
   I am skeptical about politicians being clean and corrupt-free. It is all relative as in if one is very corrupt or if one is mildly corrupt. Then again, there may be the odd one or two who is truly clean but there is no absolute in absolutely everything. I suppose when the country is doing well and you skim the cream a little bit, people tend to close one eye and look the other way cause no harm was done to anyone's livelihood in the process. Who knows? It may even be approved. (Give Bill his blowjob, dammit!!) However, this would become unforgivable if people are going hungry and the politicians are still putting their hands into the people's pocket to steal the last penny.
   
   So the moral of the story is that one, regardless of how unhappy one is with the incumbent, should not vote for the opposition out of spite. Vote for the alternative candidate only if you think that he/she is better for the job.
   
   Message for the opposition. If you want to win the ticket, you better field a credible candidate for as unhappy as we are with the current ruling party, don't even think for a second that we will vote for a lesser candidate. Imagine if we have Dr Chee "Glucose Cheating Hunger Strike" Soon Juan as our next prime minister. Oh the horror! S1yvia Lim or Ch1am See T0ng? Yes and yes. Dr Chee S0on Juan or L1m How Do0ng? Over my dead body!

Stay tuned for Part 5 of 5 - United States of America.
Image Credit: http://www.bnp.org.uk

- Voxeros

1. uglyken left...

Thursday, 27 March 2008 3:10 pm :: http://uglyken.blogspot.com

wah...never know that u could be so politic de leh

2. JayWalk left...

Thursday, 27 March 2008 4:37 pm ::

uglyken: I do dabble in it from time to time whenever I have something to say. Just do a keyword search of "election" on my blog search engine (right column) and you should get some of my political archives.

3. kn2bc2b left...

Wednesday, 10 February 2010 8:49 am

MIW will rule forever if the majority have the same mentality like yours. Good luck and GOD bless SG.

4. JayWalk left...

Thursday, 11 February 2010 9:39 am :: 

'kn2bc2b: Welcome to the blog. I have not political affliation. I go for competence and so far the present gahmen is not doing a fantastic job albeit still not a fail grade. I welcome the candidate who can do better, even if it is another MIW.

Lessons From The Elections - Part 3 of 5

...continuing from Part 2 of 5.
 
So. What can Singapore learn from all these?

1. Malaysia

There is one similarity between Malaysia's Barisan National and Singapore's People's Act1on Party is that they were the ruling partying at their respective countries' independence and have been in power for the longest time.
However, just two weeks ago, BN lost it's 2/3 majority. A first in the nation's 50 years of history. If the PAP were to continue their arrogance and detachment from the people and toss us out of their elite and uncaring face, I'd say there would be some serious electoral consequences before the end of 2011.

People have been complaining about the corruption of the gahmen since day 1 but nothing serious ever arise from there to cause even a ripple in the calm waters of denial and deceit. It seems that people are numbed by it all as it didn't create too much of a problem for the people's livelihood.
However, that is just sweeping the problem under the carpet and we all know that it is only a matter of time before the proverbial time bomb goes off.

So when Dr Mahathir stepped down and Badawi took over, people's hopes were raised that perhaps for the first time, things are going to change for the better as Badawi promises the people a lot of things when he was sworn in.

Well, years later, nothing seemed to have changed. Corruption problems are still floating in the toilet bowl like pieces of defiant turds. The people were promised a secular state but time and again there were controversial verdicts in the courts that seemed to point in the opposite direction.

Even the relatively less politically vocal Indians took to the streets in protest recently, only to be met with salvos of tear gas and water cannons.

Where was the supposedly endearing PM, when Johor was severely flooded back in January 2007. Can you spell Perth?

Let's just say that even if Badawi perform as well (or as poorly, depending on how you look at it), people are still going to be disappointed as a result of raised false hope.

Anyway, this entry is not intended to point out the right-and-wrongs but what I said earlier serves to provide a little of background information for the uninitiated.

So the BN has lost control over the gahmen but it wasn't a total loss in the sense that they still retained the simple majority (50%) albeit losing the 2/3 majority which the latter could facilitate pass of any legislation easily.

There are pros and cons to that. The pro is that when the opposition has enough power, it can prevent the haphazard passing of any legislation which may be prove to be detrimental to the country overall. However, it is all good had the said issues are black and white, clear cut case. Sometimes a bulldozer approach is required for legislation addressing gray areas which means that the cons is that for some of these gray-area national issues is that the parliament may end up spending the whole day debating and nothing gets done at the end of it.

How can we apply this lesson to the Singaporean context?

Right now, the Singapore parliament consist of a miserable grand total of 2 opposition candidates out of a total of 84 parliamentary seats. Hardly any resistance or check-and-balance to speak of. Perhap, our country is the only gahmen where the PAP have to assign a few of our own party MPs to play devil's advocate which at best, is only a symbolic gesture.

Fortunately, our gahmen is a relatively clean one and I have 3 million reasons to say the PM Lee is not corrupt. Corrupt is only when it is illegal and if the Gahmen passed a bill (I am guessing by a score of 82 Ayes to 2 Nays) to give our PM Lee a salary of SGD 3 million per year from the people's money. It is thus legal and hence no corruption to speak off.

We seriously need a greater voice in the opposition to balance the parliament properly. I am not saying that PAP should be beaten but rather, a more effective measure to maintain the integrity of the gahmen by keeping everybody, PAP or otherwise, in line.

Then again, that doesn't mean we should go all out and vote in any Tom, Dick and Harry (the other one) opposition candidate, just for the sake of chalking up the numbers. One word to Worker's Party, Singapore's People Party and the rest of the opposition parties, please screen you candidates properly before fielding them let you want public ridicule and your credibility shot to bits. No flip flop slippers and no paper-misplaced-until-don't-know-go-where blur f*cks, please. Thank you.

As a consolation to Malaysia, it was not a total turn of the table like that of Ta1wan 8 years ago and last Saturday. Nothing too drastic.

I say this in the light that the Malaysian opposition as far as governing the country are still pretty green horned and untested. Trouble is already brewing in Penang and Perak where the opposition are slightly at odds with each other internally. Imagine if this bickering was not at Penang nor Perak level but at national level? Scary to even think about it. No?

A transition of power in my opinion is always better to be progressive then abrupt as in the case of Ta1wan.

Click here for Part 4 of 5 - Ta1wan.
Image Credit: http://images.ctv.ca; http://img.tfd.com

- Voxeros

1. Ruok left...

Wednesday, 26 March 2008 8:54 am

We need more ppl like Mr Siew.

Lessons From The Elections - Part 2 of 5

...continuing from Part 1 of 5.
 
So. What can Singapore learn from all these?

1. Australia
This was big news. A prime minister losing his job? Who would have thought of that? Well, we actually did hit pretty close to that in the last general elections where Ang Mo Kio GRC led by prime minister Lee Hs1en Loong won his seat with a paltry 66% of the valid votes. Granted that it was a victory, it was also a slap in the face (no pun intended) for that meant that PM Lee actually lost 34% (49,479) of the votes to a bunch of unknowns.

In fact, this is the worst showing for a prime minister in Singapore's history. MM Lee Kuan Yew never dipped below 80% (82% was his lowest in the 1988 elections) during his tenure as prime minister. Even SM Goh Chok Tong worst showing was a "still-pretty-good" showing of 77.25% in the 1991 elections.

And what do we have here? 66.14% for a prime minister's ward? Can you say humiliating, malu, 丢脸 and were-kkem in our four official languages?

The election in the AngMoKio GRC was also remembered as one with an extraordinary large number of spoilt votes. If it were the odd spoil vote or two or three, one would easily dust it off as a voting boo boo. But when the actual number comes up to 13,813 i.e. 8.64% of the casted votes, you know these 13,000+ people are trying to say something to PM Lee. So if there spoilt votes were included in the calculation, PM Lee's effective percentage was a mere 60.42%, a number which is even more pathetic.

What we learn here is that if you do a lousy job, the people can and will do something about it, regardless of whether you are the PM, SM, MM or WhateverM. LKY's and GCT's numbers were always high not simply because they were the prime ministers then but because we recognise and approve their contribution to the people of Singapore.

Click here for Part 3 of 5 - Malaysia.
Image Credit: http://www.painetworks.com

- Voxeros

Lessons From The Elections - Part 1 of 5

Well, the presidential elections in Ta1wan was concluded yesterday and we congratulate the KuoM1ngTang for a thumping victory.
While I was watching the election results, something dawned on me as I spotted a trend.

• The Liberal Party of Australia not only lost the simple majority vote in Australia back in November 2007 but then-Prime Minister John Howard lost his own constituency as well meaning not only did he lose his Prime Minister job, he couldn't keep his MP job either.
  
  
  
• Barisan National party of Malaysian suffered their biggest defeat, on 08 Mar 2008, since Malaysia's independence, losing their 2/3 majority which that they have held for almost 50 years.
  
  
  
• DPP's 8 years of power came to an end on 22 Mar 2008. KMT, who had been in power since Ta1wan's separation (not independence) from mainland Ch1na until 8 years ago by a comedy of split-votes error, return to power by a margin of over 2 million votes.
  
  
  
• The next election in line is the presidential elections of the United States of America. At the present moment, they are undergoing the primaries which will determine the presidential candidates of each party for the big showdown in November later this year.
  
  The atmosphere in the air seems to to point towards a Democrat president after the incumbent Republican George "Stoopid" Bush really muck the country up in the past 8 years. The mentality now is perhaps "if Bush is the best the Republicans can come up with, I am so voting for the Democrat candidate".
  
  In recent months, it appears that all the focus is on the Democrats as if whoever wins the democratic primaries is sure to be the next president of the United States and that McCain, the confirmed presidential candidate of the Republican Party is just a sideshow to fill up the opposing seat. *
  
  * This is my personal view only but a recent poll on Gallup seemed to think otherwise. I will touch on that later in this series.

So. What can Singapore learn from all these? Click Here to goto Part 2 of 5 - Australia.


Image Credit: http://www.chelmsford.gov.uk

- Voxeros

1. Ruok left...

Monday, 24 March 2008 9:38 am

More good years!

2. JayWalk left...

Monday, 24 March 2008 11:09 am :: 

ruok: More good years no more liao. GCT is now SM liao.

Now is Mee Siam More HUM!!!

Blog Milestone - 1000th Entry

It was the 15th day of February 2006 when I blogged about my 500th post.
Well, today is the day I have finally reached my 1000th post. While I am not surprised to have made it so far, there had been days, that I didn't feel like returning to the drafting pad. On a normal day, it is easy to blog as it is in a way a routine, a past time for me while stuck in Spitland. It is only when I travel that interrupts the momentum that I felt very sluggish to get back my tempo.

Anyway, as usual, this is a blog of saying thank you.

Two years ago, I averaged about 9,000 visitors a month. January was a record breaking month with 22,000 visitors. To me, it's not really about the numbers as I am sure they pale in comparison to some of the really popular blogs. To me, it's the joy of watching the numbers grow. I even set my rss feed to publish in full so as not to give false numbers in the sense that readers have to click on my blog a second time to view the article in full, should I publish only the summary in the rss feed.

I can understand why some folks need to do it due to requirements by advertisers who need direct hits to be counted as a valid visitor in order to calculate the payout but I am glad that I have so far managed to keep this commercial-free (except for the beer, chilli crab and sambah kangkong from Xtralicious Shop).

Yes, in case you have noticed, I have two advertisement banners links below right but they are there because I support them as a friend (though beer, chilli crab and sambah kangkong are always welcomed.).

In short, a blog is like a chia pet or sea monkey project. It grows because of what you put in. It is a very rewarding experience.

Just as rewarding are the number of new friends that I gotten to know from all over the world. From Finland to USA to the Caribbeans and of course the main bulk of it is still in Singapore and especially the bumper crop of fabulous friends from the CowBoyBar.

I think I must have a Martell Death Match whenever I come back!
Also thanks to those who had taken the time to travel and meet up. It's fun to meet friends in a faraway land.

Thanks for supporting RunForFunds as well as Chrissy's "A Gift Of Life" during this couple of years.

Like my previous 500th Blog Post...

... Thanks for the company.

- Voxeros

1. nadnut left...

Tuesday, 18 March 2008 4:38 pm :: http://nadnut.com

happy 1000th entry!!! :)

2. JayWalk left...

Tuesday, 18 March 2008 6:24 pm :: 

nadnut: Thanks. I will do another thanksgiving blog when I hit 2000.

3. Posh left...

Wednesday, 19 March 2008 9:59 am :: http://poshbubbles.wordpress.com/

iLike the doodle! so cute.... :)
pssst.... my maths no fail!

4. Ruok left...

Wednesday, 19 March 2008 10:38 am

U and ur deathmatches... u no like whisky liow ah?

5. Old Beng left...

Wednesday, 19 March 2008 11:22 am

Congrats!!!! More, more, more......

6. JayWalk left...

Wednesday, 19 March 2008 2:16 pm :: 

Posh: Thanks. Stay tuned. More doodles to come.

ruok: Whisky still like but that time is ang mo pai sip sip type. Martell is tng lang pai cheong cheong type.

Old Beng: Ok! Ok! Ok!

7. merryfeet left...

Wednesday, 19 March 2008 2:16 pm

happy 1000th entry! Glad to have known you through your blog! (:

8. sunflower left...

Wednesday, 19 March 2008 3:39 pm

Gratz.... so u buying us beer, chilli crab and sambah kangkong to celebrate :P

9. JayWalk left...

Wednesday, 19 March 2008 5:27 pm :: 

Merryfeet: The pleasure's all mine. Very happy to know you too.

sunflower: For you we go eat Ter Kar Chor better lah....

10. AKK left...

Wednesday, 19 March 2008 10:44 pm

Yo! shou be nan shan, wan shi ru yi.....

11. JayWalk left...

Thursday, 20 March 2008 7:01 pm :: 

Akk: Thanks! Thanks! Gong Xi Fa Cai to you too!

12. Rachel left...

Tuesday, 1 April 2008 1:01 am :: http://www.xtralicious.com

Gong xi gong xi!!! waiting for you to come back to makan and lim jiu!

13. JayWalk left...

Tuesday, 1 April 2008 2:41 pm :: 

Rachel: Thanks. Thanks. The makan and lim jiu is so ONZE!!
 

This Blog Maths Fail One

You guys know that whenever you need to comment on my blog (hosted by Blog-City), you need to answer a simple arithmetic question as a way to counter comments generated by spam bots.

That goes for myself when I reply to your comments by adding a comment myself.

So imagine my surprise when I keyed in "12" as the answer to the question of "4 + 8" and I got an error message saying that my sums were wrong. Zhun bor?

It took me a while before I figured out what went wrong. The comments page was left there for too long (I loaded the page and before I could comment, I was called away to do something else) that the time-out clock behind the comments page expired and has since changed the arithmetic question. However, due to the fact that I did not refresh the page, the new arithmetic question was not updated lor.

Solution: Just click refresh and the page will show you the current arithmetic anti-spam question. However, do copy out all your text in the comments box before refreshing for there is the odd chance that whatever you typed may be wiped out when you refresh the page. So after copying, refresh, then paste if required.

Afternote (18 Aug 2010): Blog-city is going to close shop at the end of 2011 and so I am migrating everything back here.  As such, the arithmetic anti-spam challenge is not longer relevant.

- Voxeros

1. Gary left...

Tuesday, 18 March 2008 4:47 pm

wah lao, of all comments, my comments kana..

2. JayWalk left...

Tuesday, 18 March 2008 6:23 pm :: 

Gary: Fret not. I get that a lot myself.

3. Chocolate gal left...

Friday, 21 March 2008 7:45 pm

Hahaha.. ur blog too smart liao.. play trick on u.. :p

Cosmic Retribution Will Bite You In The Ass

In one word, karma. A word originated from Buddhist and Hinduism but I say the concept of what-goes-around-comes-around is omnipresent everywhere, regardless of faith and religion.

Even Confucius' "己所不欲, 勿施于人" is very much the same idea behind it.

Well, this entry came out after CowBoyCaleb's entry of our beer and burger night last week when he touched on the topic of retribution, something that I hold very close to my heart.

Over here in Spitland, I see less fortunate people everywhere, everyday and I often think to myself that I could easily be one of them tomorrow, if fate would script my life to be like that. Hope not.

What made me intervened the Habanero Sauce incident remained a mystery to me. I just stuck out my hand to stop the friend without a second thought. Instinct?

To be frank, I am no saint as I have turned away countless number of beggars on the streets every other day. It's not that I don't want to help but there are so many scammers out there to a point that you no longer know who are the people who really needed help? How do you give money to a well dressed beggar? Even handicapped beggars without a leg or two are highly suspect in spite of their obvious condition. However, given that the news regularly report of cases where crime syndicates were buying these handicapped children from poor farmers to work for them as sob-story beggars, how do I know if the money I give actually goes to the beggar?

As heartless as I may sound, I don't give money to the beggars. Had it been me, I wouldn't even offer that last piece of pizza that night to that "syndicated beggar". However, that would be as far as I would go. Pulling a prank on them would have crossed the line for me.

You simply cannot kick people when they are down. That is just wrong.

Well, it's not that I do not donate to charity either. I do and I support Adrian's RunForFunds project. Granted this year, due to personal reasons, I am unable to make a monetary donation, I would make it up next year when situation improves. In the interim, I will continue to support the RunForFunds project in every other way that I am able to.

Some of you may know that a few friends and I are also helping a number of students financially and/or non-financially with their studies. It is my most heartfelt wish that they would be able to complete their studies and make themselves useful people of society and to pay us back by forwarding the assistance and care to the next student-in-need.

And I was thinking. Who knows if one fine day, if I were to be out of a job (touch wood), these would be the folks who would step forward to lend me a hand?

I ponder.

Image Credit: http://themiddleway.net; http://www.eleceng.adelaide.edu.au

- Voxeros

1. sunflower left...

Saturday, 15 March 2008 12:57 am

Jay, u not the only one... in sg alot of beggar liao... i oso din donate sometimes.... =.=

2. JayWalk left...

Saturday, 15 March 2008 12:25 pm :: 

sunflower: I guess my point in this entry is that if there is someone in need of help and you chose not to assist. That's fine since you don't owe it to anybody to have to help. It is your call. However, I draw the line against kicking people when they are down.

3. Faith Sim left...

Monday, 17 March 2008 10:50 am :: http://faithstransientlife.blogspot.com

I don't believe in giving money to beggers. Why should I? Especially children. Giving money to children, just reinforces in them that they don't have to work and they'll be able to get money just by stretching their hands out. I give to charity. But in my point of view, giving to charity, it should be be in the situation that when we give, we don't give with loud bells and cymbals sounding. I believe that when we give, the right hand should not let the left hand know. I can't stand those people who give just for the sake for getting recognition and getting fame.

4. JayWalk left...

Tuesday, 18 March 2008 4:43 pm :: 

Faith Sim: It is hard to do this on an absolute basis since every case is different. I do help the needy but only after I have established that my assistance could and would be put to effective use. Otherwise, I will walk away.

Boobs Not Guilty!

I first read in on The Dilbert Blog and then a few days later, it showed up again on The Sunday Morning Post.

Apparently this lady, who is a bikini model, was accused of breaking a hole in some guy's front door and crawling inside (Sadako!!!). I am guessing that this "guy" is probably the lady's boyfriend or lover or something as it appeared that she was entering to check on the guy, whom she suspected, was having another woman inside at that time.
The various news articles didn't mention much and so I will try, via speculative deduction, to play out the alleged scene.

---

Here's What The Prosecution Claimed (I think)

The lady broke a hole in the door and crawled in, freaking out the guy and possible the other woman in the room. Lady left and guy called police. Lady was arrested away from the site of the incident.

Here's What I Think Actually Happened (I think)

However, here's what I think actually happened. Lady and guy had a heated quarrel presumably over the guy's infidelity with another girl. Quarrel continue to escalate or even a tussle or two ensued. Lady left in a huff. As the door slammed, a kick of frustration at the door but the damage at worse was a dent or a crack. Guy decided to leverage on that and decided to further damage the door. Being the guy and presumably stronger than the lady, he was able to create a significantly more extensive damage to the door before calling the police to lodge a false report.

---

Anyone got any other theory to share?

So anyway, when the defense lawyer held up a plate showing the size of the hole, it was established that there was no way the busty frame (110cm or 43.3") of hers could fit through and she was acquitted.

Here's one of the funny comments from The Dilbert Blog's entry on this. 

"that's just goddamn hilarious. who says she couldn't have reached the door knob and opened it? lol"

- Aaron

When I read that I was going "Oh yah hor!?" Can easily kick the hole and then use the hand to reach over through the hole to unlock hor? To have to crawl through one boob at a time is so stupid!!

Related News:

• AFP (03 Mar 2008) - Big Breasts Win Verdict For Japanese Pin-up
• Mainichi Daily News (12 Mar 2008) - Big Breasts Help Actress To Get Conviction Overturned
• FoxNews.com (04 Mar 2008) - Report: Big Breasts Win Verdict For Model

Image Credits: http://mdn.mainichi.jp; http://ameblo.jp

- Voxeros

1. aloe left...

Thursday, 13 March 2008 9:19 am :: http://www.xanga.com/aloeve

Yah! I saw this and tot it was hilarious. Din tink abt the reaching up to open the door too though. =P
*trying to imagine*
But can she reach the doorknob in the first place? Is the angle and is the position of the hole, in the right place to enable her to reach the doorknob?
Aiyah, these people really boliao... =P

2. JayWalk left...

Thursday, 13 March 2008 9:34 am :: 

aloe: This is the legal process. When some one formally lodge a complain, it will have to go through the entire legal process as in investigation, trial and all that. However, the stupid lies with the judge who could have easily just dismiss the case right away.

3. The Horny Bitch left...

Friday, 14 March 2008 8:19 pm :: http://the-hb-diaries.blogspot.com

Big boobs helps.

4. JayWalk left...

Saturday, 15 March 2008 12:23 pm :: 

The Horny Bitch: Welcome to the blog! I think she would have died of embarrassment if she had been stuck in the door. Boobs on one side and butt on the other.

Of Table, Posture And Keyboard Of Blogging

Of recent weeks, I have had several blog entries, which to me were serious and important pieces of a more sombre nature. From Chrissy to Private vs Public Funds to Mr Chiam See Tong's stroke. I supposed as long as it requires a little bit of thinking and drafting, blogging it take a bit more effort than normal.

Heck, even this entry is considered one of them sit-down-and-think blogs.

The table. I must have a table to place my laptop and a chair for me to sit in order to pound out the entries quickly. I realised I also need to sit up in order to blog fast. Right now, I have my laptop on a Laptop Caddy (see left) where the leg tucks nicely under the bed so as to allow the desk to overhang above my lap. I am sitting on my bed leaning against the headboard. Well, let's just say that I am struggling to type even as we speak.

Ironically, that this is a sit-down-and-think entry, I needed to sit up straight to churn out the words. Come to think of it, this is my only and most comfortable position to use a laptop. I can't imagine how some of my friends are able to lie flat on their stomachs on the bed and propping their upper bodies with just their elbows for hours on end. Sorry. Not me, can't do it.

Also, speaking of laptops, I have been using laptops for more than 10 years already, the first being the Toshiba Tecra handed down by my ex-boss to my present IBM Thinkpad X41 Tablet. Ever since then, it's the relatively smaller keyboards for me till this very day. I still do from time to time use a regular PC keyboard when I do stuff off my servers but I realised I can't type as fast nor as accurate as the keys due to the larger keyboard, are further spaced apart. Oh, and I don't use the keypad on the right.

What about you guys?

Image Credit: http://ecx.images-amazon.com

- Voxeros

1. msvindicta left...

Wednesday, 12 March 2008 12:01 am :: http://msvindicta.blogsome.com

i use a laptop all the time too. and you have a laptop caddy! so cool, it's like the one they put meals on at the hospital, right?

2. JayWalk left...

Wednesday, 12 March 2008 12:11 am :: 

msvindicta: Yup, the laptop caddy works like those hospital tables. One of the good thing about being in the furniture business in Spitland. You have access to all these for free (samples).

3. sunflower left...

Wednesday, 12 March 2008 8:54 am

I find blogging need a lot of time and effort.
Even you can type fast and accurate, you need time to structure and arrange (if got any pics) before you can bring in your dish.
Thus, making yourself comfortable is very impt.

4. Mistress Grace left...

Wednesday, 12 March 2008 9:21 am

Feels like in the hospital... hahahahah where is the bed pan??

5. Eddy left...

Wednesday, 12 March 2008 9:49 am

I want one! Then can have breakfast in bed.
I also must sit up and type while blogging one. Only thing, I can't use the laptop keyboard. Too small for me.

6. aloe left...

Wednesday, 12 March 2008 10:13 am :: http://www.xanga.com/aloeve

I want the laptop caddy!! sickening.... :( mine's jus a laptop table (small one with wheels and height adjustable, not pc table) and it was the only one I can find in the furniture shops I went to. sigh... I can type lying front down on the bed lah. But it's not a comfortable position to be maintained for long. It's a position only for watching Teevee... heheh!! And so, yes, I need a proper chair to do any work. =)

7. JayWalk left...

Wednesday, 12 March 2008 2:35 pm :: 

sunflower: For me, I draft my blog in my head and so I don't need to sit down to blog from scratch. Usually, I have an inkling what I wanted to type the moment I sit down. But I agree to the part where you do spend a bit of time trying to find the perfect picture to go with your entry.

Mistress Grace: Say "ahhhhhhhhhhhhh".

Eddy & Aloe:' One place I can suggest is Ikea's foldable breakfast-in-bed tray table where you put it across your lap. The table top has a hinge for you to prop the table up at a more ergonomic angle. The foldable legs allow you to easily stow it flat under the bed when not in use.

8. sunflower left...

Wednesday, 12 March 2008 9:28 pm

Alamak, Jay... they hinted u to get one for them and u suggested another alternative... u siam very fast leh :S

9. JayWalk left...

Wednesday, 12 March 2008 11:50 pm :: 

sunflower: You dun pichar my lobang can? Besides, these things weigh quite a bit. How to bring back?

10. merryfeet left...

Thursday, 13 March 2008 12:39 am

I've been looking for one all over Singapore for over a year! And you get to get this for free.
@#I&%$#%_)@#&#!
Lol.

11. Gary left...

Thursday, 13 March 2008 12:40 am

sell it to them lah.. charge them for the postal charges.. hur hur hur..

12. JayWalk left...

Thursday, 13 March 2008 9:32 am :: 

merryfeet: I don't think this feature is available in Singapore due to the size of the Singapore market, or rather the lack of. Which is why I recommend the Ikea breakfast in bed tray which I do know for a fact is available since I have 2 of them myself. The first was made of wood and is much better than the current plastic one that they currently have.

Gary: The thing may looked small but it weighs quite a bit. The freight charges would be exorbitant and even more than the product itself.

13. merryfeet left...

Thursday, 13 March 2008 4:38 pm

yeah, I was contemplating that for some time. But. the tray legs will make the bed dirty, and being a klutz, i foresee myself toppling the tray if i put it over my lap. lol.
Hence, i have been thinking of gathering materials and building a caddy for myself. Art project number one for the upcoming summer holidays!

14. JayWalk left...

Thursday, 13 March 2008 8:00 pm :: 

merryfeet: If you build it. I would like to see it!

15. sunflower left...

Saturday, 15 March 2008 1:02 am

hehe.... ship back lor... the most they bear the shipping cost :P

16. JayWalk left...

Saturday, 15 March 2008 12:21 pm :: 

Sunflower: Even ship back also bor hua. You need to get them in bulk like at least 1 container.

17. Karan left...

Friday, 18 July 2008 4:43 pm

Hi Jay, Great to see that you have found a cool laptop caddy. We were closed to buying one from www.frontgate.com but it cost over US$200 to ship it over to Singapore. :( Guess what, the product is made in Indonesia!! In the meantime, I'm searching high and low for this Indonesia company that exports these laptop caddies. What the cost of shipping the laptop caddy that you bought back to Singapore? Would you know what's the terms like for a container load? I think there is a market for these caddies. ;)

18. JayWalk left...

Saturday, 19 July 2008 3:44 pm :: 

Karan: Hi Karan, welcome to the blog. The laptop caddy typical sells at about USD 149. However, there are cheaper models available at Amazon.com but I dunno how they square up against each other in terms of quality. I supposed since this isn't something that is very high tech, I doubt the difference would be any significant.

My laptop caddy is in Spitland with me and it was a free sample from many many years ago.

There may be a market in Singapore for these items but I am afraid that 1 x 20-footer is as far as you can go which is a volume that I don't any factory here in Ch1na would be interested. Terms these day is probably 30 to 50% deposit and balance due on arrival at port.

Mr Chiam See Tong Tio Stroke

Got this news from my fellow Barflies that our dear MP of Potong Pasir, Mr Chiam See Tong, has suffered a stroke.

Fortunately, it was mild and that other then a slight difficulty in movement, everything else, including speech is alright.

The strange thing was that there was very little coverage on the English papers and there was none on TV either. Anyone smell a rat?

Some may argue that this is a personal matter and that as such it is deem as not news worthy and a way to respect Mr Chiam's privacy. I beg to differ as I felt that this is news of national interest. Mr Chiam is a leader of the Opposition and the role of an opposition is to be part of the system of checks and balances on the Gahmen. You may say that it is a matter of only one person but let me remind you, lest we forget, how many opposition members we have in Parliament?

His absence is a disruption to the proper functioning of the Gahmen and as such warrants a report to the people of Singapore as are we the taxpayers their employers?

Also did we not plaster news all over the place when Mr Lee Hsien Loong and Mr Ong Teng Cheong were strickened with cancer? Would that not be double standards at play if we cover Mr Lee and Mr Ong's illness and treat Mr Chiam's stroke with nonchalant contempt? Or is there a qualify criteria that you have to be a cabinet minister and above before the papers would give a rat's ass about you?

Oh come on. Strip away the position and political affliation, we are fellow Singaporeans underneath. Where is the love, people?

So anyway, there was a conspiracy theory going on in the Cowboybar saying that given the papers and TV are state-owned, Opposition are given less coverage unless it is of a negative light like that of the moronic antics of Dr Chee "Glucose Cheat" Soon Juan.

And I quote Jump from the Cowboybar (pardon the typos as I left it as is):

. This si a low blow to the opposition lo... Gary, i've had half a mind to call u a fool... btu i decided not to.. i rather blame it on ur youth and ignorance... English paper(only got ST) in singapore is state-controlled. TNP is tabloid.  Why would they report on stuff like Chiam havign a strroke to invoke sympathy amongst singaporeans. Another plus point for the rulin party is by broadcasting it in chinese papers, - it would delve out the 35% of the population of younger singaporeans who do not read chinese papers and the other 38% of non-chinese singaporeans. lastly Chinese newspapers have always had the street-rep and credentials of gossipy and tabloid like news.. hence news of the opposition MP in there would seem to good news for them - Jump, 06 Mar 2008 .

There is only one thing that I make have to highlight is that the report at OMY.sg mentioned that Mr Chiam's stroke was mentioned in the $traits Times even though none of my friends have seen it. Must have been tucked away in some obscure corner of the broadsheet. (Afternote: Found the article.)

Question: Why do we harbour these ill feelings that whenever we smell something fishy, the Men-In-White are always the first one that we all point our fingers at? Ok, don't answer that. It's rhetorical. Have our Gahmen not already woken up and realised this simmering dissent?

If the bladdy Men-In-White continues to wear their eyes and nose on the top of the heads, I guarantee you a massive battle at the next elections. You can count on me to fly back to cast my vote (assuming no walk-overs).

Does that mean that I will be voting for the Opposition? Not necessarily. It is too early to say. I support quite a number of the PAP policies in general but it is their attitude, aloofness, arrogance, detachment from the ground that really annoys me.

If they can resolve all these short comings, I will support PAP (assuming no walkovers) or I may be forced to vote for the Opposition, or spoil my vote if the Opposition candidate is just as much as an idiot case.
OK, to put everything aside, let's get back to what's really important here.

Speedy recovery, Mr Chiam.

Relevant News Articles:

• The Straits Times (05 Mar 2008) - Chiam Misses Most Of The Debate; On Leave Of Absence
  
• OMY.sg (05 Mar 2008) -资深反对党议员詹时中 农历新年前夕轻微中风
  
• 联合早报 ZaoBao (06 Mar 2008) - 詹时中轻微中风 已出院在家疗养
  
• 中國報 China Press (05 Mar 2008) - 新加坡反對黨強人 詹時中輕微中風
  
• 中國時報 China Times (06 Mar 2008) - 傳星反對黨領袖輕微風 但妻子不願證實 

---

On a separate note, while I was googling for articles related to Mr Chiam's stroke, I chanced upon this old article dated back to that fateful night of 07 May 2006 where Mr Chiam retained his parliamentary seat for another term.

It was quite amusing as I laughed out loud reading about a young lady supporter of Mr Chiam who got up to the table to wave her homemade poster only to realised that the TV was announcing some other constituency's election results.

It was also very heart warming to read about how the cheers erupted when Mr Chiam was finally declared the winner as if we had won the World Cup.

Read here -> 詹时中是我唯一的偶像!

- Voxeros

1. sunflower left...

Monday, 10 March 2008 12:49 am

OMG, i din know... sad...

2. JayWalk left...

Monday, 10 March 2008 7:44 am :: 

Sunflower: Don't be sad lah. It's not like he's dead. On the contrary, reports say that he is recovering fine.

Are The Poor Left For Dead?

Following her path to recovery was this nagging question at the back of my head and in recent weeks and I was debating internally if I should blog about it for the longest time and hence the time lag between her "birthday" celebration and this entry. I met up with Chrissy over a game of golf during the Ch1nese New Year and had an in-depth talk with her over this question that has been flashing in my head over and over again.

The question?

Did she survive because she is financially comfortable? Would she have lived if she were poorer? 

Chrissy's background is what I would say above average and I was wondering if she got through this relatively (I stress the word "relatively") smoothly as a result of her financial standing? After all, aren't chemotherapy, marrow transplants and all related medication very expensive?

How would someone of lower income level be able to handle medical bills of this magnitude? Would they be left for dead simply because they can't afford the treatment?

Chrissy and I think the answer is YES and NO based on the following points, which we say upfront here that we may not be totally accurate.

• Her medical bills were adequately covered by her insurance policies (hospitalisation and critical illnesses) and that she only had to pay for a small portion of the total bill which to her family and her was manageable.
  
  
  
• Chrissy was lucky to have her insurance policies in place just a few months prior to being diagnosed with Leukemia. As a result, her insurance policies took care of a big chunk of the expenses. Problem is, how many of the poorer folks can actually afford an insurance policy? With getting food onto the table already a daily challenge, you can be sure that an insurance policy is definitely not on their list of priorities at that point in time.
  
  Ok, so that was an extreme example. Chrissy's total bill came up to the lower part of 6-figures and granted the insurance payout took care of the a big chunk of the bill, the balance amount may still be too big for some folks.
  
  
• Pertaining to folks of the lower income level, she said that the Gahmen and various charitable agencies have adequate funds in place to help those patients who have difficulty with the treatment costs. However, she and I both agreed that there are quite a few of these people who have fallen through the cracks and did not receive the help that they could/would/should get.
  
  
  
• Yes, there is money for treatment for the less financially fortunate. However, every cent of this money needs to be accounted for and so these aid givers have a responsibility* to stretch every dollar in order to make the money go to the maximum number of people possible. That means maximise the dollar to accommodate maximum number of qualified applicants.
  
  
  
  • In order words, every applicant must be stringently checked to prevent abuse by those who can afford the treatment but pretend they can't and thereby deny aid to the next genuine case. As a result of the various necessary procedures, the entire process will be relatively longer as compared to those who have the money to handle everything on their own. Procedures means forms and paperwork since accountability requires that of a transparent paper trail in the event an audit is in order. Can you feel the time ticking away here? I am not saying that we should abolish the red tapes. These are unavoidable as we need these checks and balances to keep the funds honest. The downside is that many a times we heard of stories that by the time the aid arrives after all the "administrative processing" is completed, the patient has already died.
    
    
  • Option of treatment shall be that of the most economical alternative i.e. saving 2 lives with cheaper medicine but taking twice as long will always trump saving 1 life in half the time with more expensive medicine. While cheaper medicine may not necessarily mean inferior in quality, Chrissy told me that the more expensive medication alternative are more effective i.e. cheaper medicine may still get you to the point of recovery but just not as fast as that of the more expensive ones.
    
    
    
  • Would aid be denied to those patients whom the aid giver think is a lost cause i.e. beyond point of recovery? Would the aid giver be forced to play to role of God to decide who is to be saved and who is not? With money being a finite amount, I won't be surprised if the aid giver have to decide to give the dollar to the first person in line but is already too sick and going to die with or without treatment or skip over to the next person behind him/her who has an actual shot at full recovery?

* assuming no peanuts, golden taps and other RenCirregularities.

Here's my take on the situation.

• Yes, it is not possible to achieve parity between the haves and have-nots under the circumstances. What we have for the less financially-abled may not be perfect nor as good as those who have the money, it is in my opinion good enough. Not perfect but certainly not shabby.
  
  
  
• Granted that using public money would mean a less straight-forward and a more tedious road to recovery (resulting in some of them not able to complete the journey), what the aid-givers must do is to ensure the fastest journey possible within their means i.e. no stupid ding dongs as a result of incompetent administration.
  
  
  
• So the bottom-line here is to aim to be as self-reliant as possible. Chrissy is in her 30s when this happened and so do not think that there is no hurry to get all the various relevant insurance policies in place. Critical illness is not an "old-people" thing. It can happen to anyone at any time.
  
  
  
• Still, it also doesn't mean that you should just run out to the first insurance agent you meet and put money down on the first policy that comes to you. You still need to do a bit of research to find that policy that would fit and best serve your interest and not the agent's pocket.
  
  Gerry also accurately pointed out the need to be covered adequately as one would still run into trouble if the chalked up bill exceeds your coverage.
  
  I suggest checking out http://tankinlian.blogspot.com. An excellent resource on the topic of local insurance.
  
  
  
• If you need assistance, please put your hand up. The various charitable agencies do not have a radar that would sniff out those in need. As many as there are folks who received help and made it through the day, we speculate that they may be as many who didn't as a result of not asking for help. It could be ignorance i.e. don't know where to look for help or worse, don't know that help even existed in the first place or it could just be a matter of too much pride.
  
  Help starts with oneself and external help cannot be effective if internally you are not doing anything about it.

- Voxeros

1. CoWg0eSm0o left...

Tuesday, 4 March 2008 10:57 am

Well here's my simple take on this:
It's been quite well-known that the red-tapes in place for application of public funds for healthcare's pretty mad. While this is really bad for the patients (since as u mentioned, by the time aid arrives it may be too late), but well you may have to think from the perspective of the aid-givers and the govt. That they are not trying to encourage a socialist setting like overseas.
And yes...Leukemia's a really horrible disease. Chrissy's recovery will really serves as an motivator for my aunt who just got diagnosed with it, 5 years after her recovery from stomach cancer.

2. JayWalk left...

Tuesday, 4 March 2008 11:01 pm :: 

CowGoesMoo: Ahh.. spoken like a true Republican. Socialist similar to the Democrat, while noble is their idea not to leave anyone behind is more often than not, subjected to abuse by people who sit around doing nothing and expecting handouts. As the PAP has described, the so called "crutch mentality".

However, in legitimate cases, these administrators have a duty of urgency and not process these cases on a nonchalant mentality. Perhaps it is this part of the process that really rile people up, if any at all.

My regards to your aunt but from past experience, Leukemia if detected early have a high chance of recovery. I have another friend M1ke Norr1s who got diagnosed with Leukemia around the same time as Chrissy also fully recovered.

3. grasshopper left...

Saturday, 8 March 2008 7:38 am

i bery bery bery agree with your blog title. Unfortunately my family had to go thru a cancer horror-story recently. And to have personally went thru this drama, I would say that your chances of surviving increases with the amount of immediate cash you can spare. I can't say much as I know it's not the health care workers' fault. But after moving to a private cancer treatment center (=$$$$$), my papa's situation improved tremendously. sigh~

4. JayWalk left...

Sunday, 9 March 2008 9:55 pm :: 

Grasshopper: Glad to hear that your dad's ok. The problem with public money is that every applicant is has a fair shot at it. Problem is that is very difficult to decide who gets the first dollar, who gets the next and who gets the last?

Everybody wants to get the first dollar since cancer is one that is time sensitive but having to form a queue beckons the question why one patient is ahead of the other? Who makes this decision and how does he/she justify?

A Gift Of Life (Part 8) - A Year Later

I wondered if anyone remembered Chrissy whom slightly over a year ago back in end-2006, I blogged about her battle with Leukemia?

If no, may I suggest you read the following archives before proceeding.

• A Gift Of Life (Part 1) - The Thing About Mortality
  
• A Gift Of Life (Part 2) - The Thing About The Email
  
• A Gift Of Life (Part 3) - Letter To Chrissy
  
• A Gift Of Life (Part 4) - Reply From Chrissy
  
• A Gift Of Life (Part 5) - Thank You
  
• A Gift Of Life (Part 6) - Chrissy Says Thanks!
  
• A Gift Of Life (Part 7) - Doing Fine

We knew she went through the painful treatment of Chemotherapy and even then, she put others ahead of her by organising a Bone Marrow Donor drive of which my thanks to my fellow friends, blogger friends, fellow Barflies from CowBoyBar as well as Tomorrow.sg who helping to spread the word of the event which was a success.

So how is Chrissy now?
 
Well, I am happy to report that shortly after that Bone Marrow drive, she went for a marrow transplant herself (she has a marrow match from her brother) and it was a success.

Last month, she celebrated her "first birthday" on 16 January 2008 and here's wishing her many many more birthdays to come.

- Voxeros

1. sunflower left...

Monday, 3 March 2008 1:00 pm

Oo She is having the same birthday as me...
Anyway... happy to hear she is well now....

2. JayWalk left...

Monday, 3 March 2008 1:35 pm :: 

sunflower: Indeed she is. Doubly happy on that day from now on!

3. starm|st left...

Sunday, 9 March 2008 12:06 am :: http://starmist.liquidblade.com

great to know she's doing better now..

4. JayWalk left...

Sunday, 9 March 2008 9:57 pm :: 

Starmist: Welcome to the blog! Chrissy is not only doing better, she is doing great. She is actively seeking volunteer assignments as a way to give back what the kindness of the people around her has given her. Kudos!