Friday, February 25, 2011

The Electoral Division for Singapore's 2011 General Election is ready! Full throttle ahead for all political parties!

The Elections is coming! Most Singaporeans participate by voting on polling day. Do you want to go behind the scene to the frontline of where the action is? Do you wish to see 1st hand how the votes are casted or tellied? Would anybody like to participate in this once-every-5-years event(click on the link)?? Come do your part for Singapore!

Source: Channelnewsasia.com
 The Electoral Division of Singapore voters in the upcoming General Election can be checked from Friday.
The Elections Department says the Registers of Electors for the 27 electoral divisions are now open for inspections.
The Register which has been compiled and certified, can be checked at the Elections Department along Prinsep Street and any designated Inspection Centres which are among 105 Community Centres/Clubs.
Singaporeans may also check their names in the Registers via the Elections Department website www.elections.gov.sg through the e-Services option.
The Registers and electoral maps are also available for sale through the Elections Department to political parties and aspiring candidates for the next General E

lection. 

Monday, February 14, 2011

♡ Happy Valentines' Day! ♡

I do not really celebrate Valentines' Day as I feel that it is just another over-commercialised, over-hyped event,especially in Singapore.
I will not be surprised to observe that the price of flowers may jump to 3-5 times their normal pricing today in Singapore(hey..why this level of inflation sounds so much like that of the public housing situation too? ).
Anyway,this is the date on the calendar and I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my readers,friends & family a very 'Happy Valentines' Day'! Don't forget/be afraid to tell whoever you love this: ♡ I Love you!!! 

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Goodbye to my dear friend, a brother in arms,long time comrade.. a great loss to the Commando Family..

One of the 1st thing I came across this morning when I browsed through my Facebook pages..Somebody posted in our closed group account that a fellow commando have left us. As I was still not fully awake and could not understand the impact of the word "left us"..I just replied by asking him who is Andrew Tan & what happened?
He replied with a FB link and I clicked on it and realised he was referring to my comrade from 81mm, better known to me as Lip Chee! I could not believe it and tried calling Lip Chee on his mobile..His family answered, confirmed that he had passed away. Before I could ask any further,the family member have to attend to something else.
My world came crashing down..I was in shock,disbelieve and only wish to wipe the tears off my eyes. I am not exactly a soft guy, but I really cannot help feeling emotional when someone close to have to "leave" just like that..

We just had our 14th 81mm High Trajectory Platoon Reunion Dinner a few days back(photo above)..I cannot accept that, that was our last good bye..I thought that we still will have reunion dinner year after year after year just like before..
I sent out smses to my 'band of brothers' and a few of them called me back immediately. Our reactions were all similar.

As of this point in time,none of us know exactly what happened to our healthy, young, energetic buddy who expressed happiness at being ready to be a father soon..How could he 'leave' suddenly like this? We are suppossed to meet up again this coming Saturday! So many questions,no answer yet. As a new father myself, I feel very depressed about this. The least I can do now is to spread the word and make sure that the whole group is informed.
I posted 2 photos of the old days below for memory's sake..All brothers who can make it to say the last goodbye(the wake), it is at a pavilion between Blk 27A & 27B Jalan Membina till this Friday.

Above: In an ice cream bar in our camp in Kanchanaburi, Thailand.
Above: After our last mission as NSF in Kanchanaburi, Thailand.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Wishing all my friends,agents, co-broke agents, clients, family and contacts a very Happy Year of the Rabbit!

 The year of the Tiger was a pretty good one for me, especially when I have a little 'tigeress' addition to my family. I hope your year had been a good one too. Now let us look forward for a better year ahead..and welcome the year of the Rabbit together! Huat ah!!!

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Is the newspaper that I am reading skewed in a certain way??

This habit of mine began since my secondary school days when I was encouraged by my teacher to read The Straits Times everyday. I used to believe that if it is on the prints, then it must be real!
Over the years, I have grown up and begin to really learn to understand how the world could possibly work..I began to ask myself questions on what I had read instead of taking it in wholesale. One of the more memorable read(from ST) I could remember off hand was a certain Minister saying "Public Housing is affordable to those who are eligible ". When we talk about public housing, who should the eligible ones be? What is the point going round and round trying to explain his own version of affordability when people on the ground finds it hard to service their monthly installments?
I have also read recently(also from ST) that the arrears cases in HDB loans had dropped.I know elections must be coming! I wonder how this statistic was manipulated arrived at. Did all the arrear cases suddenly strike 4D or Toto or were they forced to sell their HDB flats?

Today,as I picked up the ST, the 1st half of the page tells me that election is getting nearer and possibly in the 2nd quarter already have 3 articles that immediately caught my attention. Let me highlight the largest piece(in terms  of the space it took up on the page): "SINGAPORE created 112,500 jobs last year, with less than half nearly half of them going to Singaporeans....". My guess is that the reporter for this article must be very happy with his year-end bonus.
Next. Annual public transport fare increase revision postponed. PTC chairman Gerard Ee said the deferment was done because election is around that time "with the interest of voters commuters in mind"...Commuters.."will experience at most one time jiatlat jiatlat round of fare increase adjustments for this year ". This whole issue seems very concerted and carefully stage:"Asked what they thought of the deferment, both operators said they have no quarrel with it".
The last piece I am commenting on is the most humble ST report I had read so far.."Most S'poreans satisfied".."more than 90 per cent of Singaporeans are confident in the Govt's..." 90% sia..They should list instead S'poreans overwhelmingly happy! I am very confident that if their survey result is accurate, if they were to call for an election right now or in the next quarter, maybe about 90% S'poreans will vote for the incumbent Govt..what should I call it? 60-something percent is a resounding mandate..can somebody suggest to me how to label the mandate for 90-something percent please? :)
My apologies for so many cancellations in my post ah..my English probably not as positive as trained reporters'. Pai seh pai seh..