So what’s new? The newsPAPers are seldom interesting, but there have been a number of interesting reports this week as praises for the local mainstream media are sung on a daily basis.
Myanmar generals won the elections and we will soon have ours. It’s the time to show off one’s talent. Mr Liew Kai Khiun wrote to Today commenting on the alarming rate of obesity in our country in spite of the “commendable” efforts on the part of our Health Promotion Board and our government’s ingenious recommendation that we don’t drink laksa gravy when we have our laksa. Perhaps no “hum” (cockles) as well but an important advice like that ought to be reserved for our Prime Minister.
I’d normally skip this kind of stuff, but Mr Liew went step further. Since it’s not the HPB’s fault that people are obesed, it must be their own fault. What better way to curb this weighty problem than to impose a “health tax” on unhealthy food? Another ingenious suggestion coming from Mr Liew. But how are we going to implement it? Mr Liew did not mention in his letter. Let me do my bit to help the country. We begin with the supermarkets. Only food marked with “healthier choice” would be exempt from “health tax”. Food without that label can only be sold if the buyer pays a 5% HT on top of GST. This is going to make the neighbourhood char kway teow seller very proud. For decades, he’s not qualified to charge GST. Now, he can charge HT.
And if that doesn’t solve the problem, just increase HT to 7%. If that still doesn’t work, how about raising the bar and setting such high standards that only mineral water can pass the healthier choice inspections?That will certainly produce a nation of healthy people who want to kill themselves.
Not too far away in China, Zhang Lianhai has been sentenced to 2.5 years in prison for “inciting social unrest”. How did a harmless man like Mr Zhao do it? When he was employed by China’s Food Quality and Safety Authority, he blew the whistle on conniving officials who chose to ignore the deliberate adulteration of milk with melamine by unscrupulous manufacturers. Mr Zhao tried to garner public support to rally against poor governance. The public outcry which followed took quite a bit of effort from the authorities to contain. For the inconvenience that he had caused the enforcers, Mr Zhao was convicted of causing public unrest.
This is China where yin and the yang are never enemies. What’s important is the harmony between them.
Meanwhile in Sri Lanka, the authorities are trying to track down porn actors by publishing their pictures in the papers. According to sources, these pictures were taken from the videos. 83 pictures on a full page advertisment in the newspapers. I guess they only have enough space to show the faces of the 3 actors and 80 actresses. I’m sure the public would be most keen to get the 3 bastards arrested and whip them to extract secrets on how they maintain their virility. With the Tamil Tigers vanquished, I guess this is the sort of thing they “worry” about when they’re unoccupied after dinner.
Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan police are still trying to capture more faces on the videos. They have a special squad viewing these videos “round the clock”. With such tough jobs going around in Sri Lanka, it won’t be long before foreign talent start making their way to our shores.
