Long Life a Curse?

 

 Is long life a curse?  With life expectancy going up, we are all sold to the idea that most of us will live long and happy lives.  However, I am wondering whether long life expectancy is a gift or whether it is a curse.

Too often, we have the image of ourselves ageing gracefully and in complete bliss, surrounded by people we love.  But most people (who have elderly at home), will know that this is probably not the case.

As one ages, one's mental faculty also deteriorates.  Not only that, one's physical state also starts to decline. So apart from dealing with health issues, there are also a whole lot of emotional or even psychological issues that can become a source of friction within the entire extended family.

And this has really got me starting to think whether I really want to live until a ripe old age.  I have seen firsthand the difficulties that caregivers face when looking after the elderly.  When the elderly are good in health, it is okay.  

But there are also many other factors that can strain family ties.  An example is:  Who looks after the aged parent?  Will the eldest son or eldest daughter rise up to the occasion?  What if all the children are located in different countries?  How does the care arrangements work out?  And what happens if the elderly is not in good health, or worse still , not in good emotional/psychological state?

Caregivers face a difficult, tiring, and mentally exhausting task.  Those who have gone through it will probably know the difficulties.

I now know it when I hear the common phrase used by older people about how they do not want to "burden their children".  

Is long life a blessing or a curse?  What do you think?

What Happened to Goal 2010?

So world cup fever is here.

What happened to our Goal 2010 anyway? Why isn't Singapore in the World Cup yet?

Slovenia just beat Algeria like 1-0. Slovenia only has a population of 2 million and they have managed to enter the world cup twice already!

Singapore already has a population of close to 5 million but we are still nowhere closer to our dream.

I mean fine...we can be contented with being the Champions in women's ping pong and stuff but I still believe that the holy grail in sports for Singapore is the World Cup. Singaporeans are quite passionate about soccer. I can tell that from my facebook alone. I have never seen a facebook status that comments about any other sport OTHER than SOCCER. So soccer is really something that most Singaporeans are passionate about. Ping pong.....sorry....didn't cause much of a buzz on my facebook account as far as I can tell.

Why Isn't Singapore in the World Cup Yet?

I was actually lying in bed preparing to sleep when I started pondering over this question. It got me so agitated that I just had to get up and write about it (as well as catch the match between Serbia and Ghana).

Why aren't we in the world cup yet ? A small population is not an excuse...

Slovenia has been in the world cup TWICE. They only have 2 million people and since only males can play in the World Cup, I figured that they only have like 1 million males? So if Slovenia can make it to the World Cup, there is no reason why we can't do it too.

I guess the main reason is that we LACK FOCUS. We have diversified our attention to sports that have managed to reap rewards. This include table tennis and swimming. But are these sports really able to galvanise the entire nation? South Korea just reported having a few hundred thousand people gathering on the streets to cheer their nation on. If Singapore ever got into the World Cup, I am sure that will happen too. But somehow, somewhere, somebody decided that Singapore soccer was not going to make it and dropped the Goal 2010....

Let's be realistic here...counting on foreigners to help us get into the World Cup is not going to work out well. It might work for table tennis and swimming but it certainly will not work well for the World Cup. Football is a game about 11 people playing as a team. The best players in the world will never come to Singapore to play football. FULLSTOP. We need to stop relying on foreign talent and count on our local talent instead. The foreign talent strategy does not seem to be working well in football.

How to Get into the World Cup

What you are about to read from here onwards is going to sound ludicrous. It might even sound crazy. But this is coming at the height of football fever, so no suggestion should ever be treated as crazy.

We need to SEND OUR PLAYERS ABROAD for exposure and experience. That is what the South Koreans have been doing. And I think their strategy will pay off as many of their players are playing in European clubs now giving them the necessary exposure. They no longer "fear" their European counterparts as they have experience playing with them And we all know that this kind of exposure is very important especially on the big stage.

Here comes the tricky part. Big European clubs will not be willing to accept our Nor Alam Shahs and what nots...

Well, the answer is actually quite simple. We get GIC and Temasek to buy these clubs. (See, now you know that I am crazy. But just humour me for a while =) Since these clubs are treated like businesses, it will not be difficult to liquidate these holdings in the future. Who knows? We might even make a profit from selling these clubs in the future.

Based on my "pluck from the air" estimates, I figured that our reserves should be able to buy us a couple of good clubs in England, Italy, Spain, Germany, France and whatever league there may be in Europe. We can also buy a few lower league clubs if they are cheaper.

The next thing will then be to sponsor teenage boys (12 years old onwards) to go on attachments to these clubs for exposure. Food, lodging, pay, etc will be sponsored by these clubs so it is a win-win situation for us. My estimate is 2-3 Singaporeans per club due to the foreigner limit that is usually in place. My guess is that we will need a good 30 to 40 players to be exposed (at any one time) to European kind level of competition to ever make it for the World Cup. Based on that figures, we might need to buy 13 to 15 clubs (with perhaps 5 clubs in the championship level kind of leagues).

There will also have to be a major revamp in the Singapore sports scene. Focus will have to be given to soccer.

This might involve eliminating sports from CCAs in schools. Let boys concentrate only on soccer. This will have to be nation wide sacrifice. These boys can join 2nd or 3rd CCAs that are not soccer if they want to. But all boys in all schools will have compulsory soccer lessons and CCA. Only if they are really bad will they be kicked out of the sport.

To incentivise it, a program can be developed such that boys who make it to the very top will be exempted from National Service, given the chance to be attached to the major clubs (that are now owned by Temasek and GIC), etc, etc. In other words, we must make it really attractive monetarily for them to want to represent Singapore at the highest level.

The S-League will also need to be revamped to ensure that the "local soccer scholars" do not lose out because of the lack of international exposure. More foreign teams should be invited to join the S-League. A super league should be created with tempting prize money. Perhaps only 2 All-Singaporean teams will be allowed while the rest will be foreign teams. This will help to ensure that the S-League is also able to churn out good players who might be late bloomers compared to the "overseas soccer scholars" who have already secured their places in the Singapore owned European clubs.

Once we do this, I am sure we are set for World Cup glory in maybe 10 years time. Goal 2020 perhaps?

Am I crazy? Perhaps.. But this idea doesn't stop me from dreaming....

Notes:

1. Our small size in population does not mean we need to rely on foreign talent in the strategy outlined above. We could have 1 or 2 foreign talent if we need to but this could be best reserved for the coaching staff.

2. We might be small in physical size. But if the Koreans and Japanese can make it, I am sure Singaporean males can do it too. Football is not really ALL about size. The Spanish footballers are also quite small in size too (1.7m tall).

My View on the Jack Neo Scandal

I give my view on the Jack Neo scandal firstly as a Christian, secondly as a man, thirdly as a married person and lastly as a father.


Firstly, I must say that as a Christian, I do not condone adultery. Adultery is wrong. However, I do not know the reason why a person's religion should be brought into light when he has committed an offence. Is a Christian supposed to be more holy than a normal person? I doubt so. As a Christian, I believe that I am the worst sinner on earth. That is the reason why I am a Christian. I need a savior because I cannot become good by my own will or works. After becoming a Christian, there should be a change in the person's life. Yet, the bible tells we will still struggle with our flesh. And at the end of every defeat, every succumbing to sin, I become more aware of my need for a savior.


Secondly, as a man, I must say that we are open to all sorts of temptation. Think about Tiger woods, John Terry, etc, etc. Every man can fall into the danger of adultery especially when he has risen in terms of stature, power and wealth. It is easy to stand at the sidelines and say we will never do the thing that Jack Neo has done. It is quite another to actually go through it and say NO. As a man, I can understand the temptations tthat exists. Every day is a battle and I would rather not cast stones at those who have fallen. Instead, I can relate to why they have fallen. We men, are only human. Is Jack Neo a worse human being than me? Definitely not.


Thirdly, as a married person, I would like to think that marriage vows are important. We swear to be faithful to our partners and I intend to honor those vows. Yet, we all know that marriage does not automatically transform a man (whatever his religion may be) into a person who cannot face temptation.


Lastly, as a father, I would say that Jack Neo was wrong in the sense that his actions have caused much grief to his children. Again....I think that a father at the end of the day is still a human being. Is a man less likely to do wrong because he is a father? I don't think so.


The truth of the matter is this: As humans, we all make mistakes. Some mistakes are big, some are small. Some go unnoticed, some become published for the whole world to see. The most important thing after making a mistake is to realise our mistake and confess it. That is what Jack Neo has done and I admire his courage. If it were me, I would have flown away to hide in some foreign country instead of having a press conference.


The way the media has lashed out at Jack Neo makes me feel sad for him and his family. A mistake is a mistake.


Jesus when confronted by some religous leaders who had brought an adulteress to him to be judged said this:


"If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her."

Wireless@SG Login Problems

It was another morning at Macdonalds.

I had a hard time connecting to Wireless@SG because QMax (the internet service provider that I signed up with) was apparently taken over by M1. But how was I to know this?

So I searched high and low for the Qmax signup option but could not find it. I tried to register a new account but could not do it. And because I had no connection to internet, I could not find out who had taken over Qmax.

So I just used my old username and password and tried signing up with M1 and I FINALLY managed to connect to the internet. That was when an announcment popped up to show that M1 was now taking over the services of Qmax!! So stupid... shouldn't they put the announcement at the first page of Wireless@SG to tell people in the first place?

I also don't really like blogging with Wireless@SG because it seems to have problems getting a decent connection with Blogger and my work can sometimes get lost because the bad connection results in a failure to allow Blogger to save my work.

One Hour Later..

I gave up. My hotmail could not load, my blogger could not save, I basically could not get any work done. I gulped down my remaining coffee and made a dash for home. The wireless connection at home was way better than this free wireless here!

It was good that I managed to copy and paste out what I had written earlier onto a text file as I discovered that all my information was gone from Blogger.

That was a bad experience. I thought I could sit down and write something really useful as my creative juices were flowing. But the poor internet connectivity only made me realise that I had wasted time and money getting out of the house to find a nice and quiet place to write some postings.

Suggestions for IDA and all partners dealing with the free wireless service

1. If any service provider gets taken over (in this case, Qmax by M1), the information should be placed at the sign up page so that previous subscribers will know WHO has taken over their accounts.

2. I thought the need to log in for Wireless@SG was being done away with. This really needs to be implemented as soon as possible.

3. Hire me to trial their internet connectivity at various locations. =)

Lessons from My Experience

After this experience, I think I will most probably not go to any "nice and quiet" place to blog anymore. Blogging at home perhaps saves me time and money.

Should I consider being able to blog while on the go, I think I will subscribe to StarHub's mobile broadband. Since I am already using their cable TV services and mobile phone plans, adding a mobile broadband should come cheap. (You have forced me into this, M1 and SingTel)

I hope people have learnt from my experience. Don't assume that the free wireless service is completely good and useful. Sometimes, it just ends up with frustration especially when you cannot get any work done.

Singapore - Russia Ties

Okay. This is a picture of a McDonalds in Russia.

Remember the saying than no 2 countries with McDonalds have ever fought a war with each other? It looks like the saying is true indeed as Singapore is going to work even more closely with Russia in the future.

Singapore and Russia are apparently going to partner together to tap opportunities in the world. This was outlined in the 4th Russia-Singapore Business Forum.

Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong said: "Russia is strong in innovation and technology, while Singapore has good networks and experience in Asia. Russian technology companies can partner Singapore companies to penetrate markets in Southeast Asia, China and India," he said, adding that these partnerships will enable both parties to take on business opportunities and better manage commercial risks in international markets

Seems like my wish has come true. As Singapore's population is rapidly growing, we should expect more Russians to come and make their homes in Singapore. With that should come more Russian cuisine.


Read Related Articles:
1. 5 Million in 2010
2. Eating and Drinking to Financial Freedom

5 Million by 2010

Nope. I do not mean that I hope to have 5 million by 2010. Instead, I just read the news that Singapore could have up to 5 million people pretty soon. The official figure currently stands at 4.99 million people in June 2009.

I remember the days when Singapore's population was just around 3 million. Those were the days.

Today, it seems that everywhere I go, there is a huge crowd. And the fact is this: I hate crowds. Go to Orchard road and it is crowded. Go to Vivocity and it is also crowded. Even the foodcourt downstairs is crowded. Ha.. Guess that will be the way of life in Singapore in the future.

I once read that if the whole world had the same population density as Singapore, we could squeeze the entire world's population into South Africa.

So let me try to do an analysis of what 5 Million People living in Singapore might mean to me:

1. More cars on the road? Definitely. With more people, there will be a need to increase the number of taxis, buses and cars on the road. The roads will be more congested I guess and perhaps.

2. More people on the streets. There will be alot more people on the streets. So there better be large shopping malls and complexes in every corner of Singapore. If you haven't figured it out yet, people in Singapore LOVE to hang out at shopping malls and complexes. So the best way to deal with this problem is to built like mini Orchard roads in all the four corners of Singapore so that people stop congregrating at Orchard Road.

3. More food to Eat? With a bigger population, hopefully there will be a greater variety of people from different countries. Perhaps then we will have more exotic food like Russian cuisine and stuff. Let the European people in I say!

Oh well. That is all I can think of at the moment. I sure look forward to seeing Singapore become more cosmopolitan. We need these foreigners to push our country to greater heights!

Majulah Singapore!