So what’s new? The weather is wreaking havoc everywhere in the world. The two Koreas edge even closer to war and terrorism eats its way into many parts of Pakistan.
They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Closer to home in Thailand, the Democrats there had decided to flatter/imitate the North Koreans by provoking their most “convenient” enemies – the Cambodians. Crazy Thai crowds gather at the border to demand that Cambodians released their politicians (meant to be returned home as heroes).
But the truth is out. These dimwits have made a video of themselves asking to speak to the PM while they deliberately and arrogantly trespassed on Cambodian soil. Elections are looming there and the powers that be are probably hoping that some Kim Jong Un will be voted into power. There release of video evidence of the deliberate incursion may have caused some thinking Thais to withdraw from the demonstrations, but there are enough Thais who see Cambodians as lesser beings who can be trampled on and regardless of any proof to the contrary, they are still right.
Whether it’s with guns, bare fists or words, there are so many people out there itching for a fight. I feel sorry for those who wished for world peace.
Back home, COE prices have gone through the roof and we hear more reports on low car loan rates. Some TCM practitioners in Singapore are taken to task for calling themselves specialists and “misleading” the innocent public. They can’t call themselves specialists? Because there’s no specialist register for TCM? But their Western counterparts have already been calling themselves specialists without getting into trouble long before a specialist register was in place. In those days, we more or less knew who a specialist was just by looking at his/her qualifications or by being referred by another doctor, usually a GP. We didn’t need any register to guide us. There could have been a few cases of misrepresentation, but as far as I’m aware, no GP or other inadequately trained doctor was doing open heart surgery without patients being aware of it.
It’s only in recent years after the specialist register has been set up that it became illegal for those not on the register to call themselves specialists. Why is the same “logic” applied to TCM practitioners? We just need to get used to the fact that regulations don’t have to make sense – as long as they regulate.
Meanwhile, general elections are “looming” and property prices are rocketing skywards. Some folks are celebrating. Some folks are shaking their heads, some folks are worried and some folks don’t even realise that they should be worried. How on earth did we get our weary and underpaid selves onto this unstoppable price escalator? I guess it doesn’t really matter as long as the majority of Singaporeans think that life has gotten better.
But then, on a lighter note, Singapore’s Edison Chen has just been nabbed by the police. Chen Guilin, nicknamed Gary Ng (remember Grace Quek aka Annabel Chong?), this casanova has not only bedded dozens of women, he even made videos of his sex romps. But the law finally caught up with him, not so much for the videos but for housebreaking. Alamak! This guy is an ERA property agent and he duplicated keys so he could get into his clients’ house and steal their credit cards and cheque books. He even tried to cash cheques with forged signatures. I think he must have been many people’s hero for quite a while. But housebreaking and forgery are definitely uncool.
