Dad's Great Escape ST June 24, 2008 Dad flies off using son's passport He checks in at Changi, clears immigration and gets on Tiger Airways jet to Vietnam By Carolyn Quek IN HIS hurry to catch a flight at Changi Airport's Budget Terminal yesterday morning, retiree Ang Heng Soon, 61, grabbed the wrong passport and left home. He took his 39-year-old son's passport. They had left their passports on the dining Oopsy daisy does this still work? Testing testing 1 2 3 .... The quick brown fox is jumping. +++++++++ Technorati: ; ; . Backgrounders: ; ; . Gosh! Why Are You Still Here? Mr Wang moved to his new blog five months ago. Come and visit! A sampling of his writings in the year 2007: The Dead Don't Need Memorials. The Living Need Insurance. The tragic casualties of National Service. Managing Your Own Money. Why using a financial adviser often doesn't work. The Price of One Lee Hsien Loong. Literally. To Join or Not to Join. The realities of working in the Singapore Mr Wang Has Decided to Stop Blogging ... ... here. Do update your links! From January 2007 onwards, come to Mr Wang's new blog to read his new posts. See you around and Merry Christmas! For APSN Katong School The Free Community Church has asked me to help publicise this. They are holding an event on Christmas and collecting donations for the APSN Katong School. APSN is the Association of Persons with Special Needs. The FCC event involves a comedy play, a musical performance and a dance performance. Award-winning author Suchen Christine Lim also gets involved somewhere with a short story. For more Cultural Heritage Tour So Mr and Mrs Wang decided to take the little kids to Chinatown. You know, so that they will appreciate our cultural history, Asian values and all that. Along the way, we stopped by an McDonalds outlet for breakfast. Then just a few doors away, I noticed this shop: Click to enlarge. The picture, I mean. Isn't that funny? This being a country where the government tells us that people are The Singapore Government Plays The Religion Card Again And basically it is a false, deceptive play. Yesterday's Straits Times carried the following article about the sex laws of Singapore. Note the part highlighted by me in orange: ST Dec 13, 2006 Feedback focuses on sex laws Marital rape law reforms inadequate, say some; continued outlawing of gay sex also questioned By Ben Nadarajan THE private lives of Singaporeans appear to be the main concern Mr Wang's Answer to the 2% Increase in GST Apply for the POSB Everyday credit card: ... buy all your groceries at Carrefour, and get a 5% rebate. And it will be as if the new GST increase never happened at all. Also, apply for the Citibank SMRT Visa Platinum Card: ....... which works like an ez-link card. Earn up to 2% rebate as you tap and go at MRT stations. For your other credit card expenditure, you earn rebates redeemable for A Question of Size ST Dec 8, 2006 Oversized condoms a headache for many Indian men NEW DELHI - Condoms designed to meet international size specifications are too big for many Indian men as their penises fall short of what manufacturers had anticipated, an Indian study has found. The Indian Council of Medical Research, a leading state-run centre, said its initial findings from a two-year study showed 60 per cent Singaporeans Always Come ....... First? The article below suggests a significant change in policy thinking. I could feel pleased, or I could feel skeptical. On balance, I am more inclined to adopt a "wait-&-see" attitude. I still remember distinctly the last time PM Lee made such grand pronouncements. He had told us that he would make Singapore an "open society". Heheh. ST Dec 4, 2006 Singaporeans 'always come first' By Zakir Hussain About Deafness A volunteer from the Singapore Association for the Deaf has asked me to help publicise this. It's a two-day carnival to educate the public about deafness. You can learn how to deal with loss of hearing; find out more about public services to help the deaf; get advice on looking after a deaf child; and find out about the use of hearing aids. So if you or someone you know has a hearing problem, Elections Are Over. Time to Raise Ministers' Salaries! ST Nov 29, 2006 Ministerial pay 'lags behind benchmark' But decision on whether to relook salaries rests with PM, says SM Goh By Sue-Ann Chia BRATISLAVA (SLOVAKIA) - MINISTERS' salaries are pegged to that of the private sector, but they still lag behind the benchmark. It is therefore likely that when civil service pay is reviewed, ministers' salaries will also be looked at, said Senior Mildly Sexist Letter ST Nov 27, 2006 It's not the money that counts but the parenting I REFER to YouthInk's discussion on family ties (ST, Nov 13). I applaud Ng Chuin Song's philosophy that leaving kids in the hands of care-givers is unfair. This shows that she would be a responsible parent. Hui Min wants to 'provide the best' for her children - she wants the assurance of a good balance between time and money Something About Drugs There's a fairly long article in the ST today about drugs, but I just want to focus on one specific part of it. It's highlighted in orange below. Nov 27, 2006 Not heroin, so not harmful? That's warped logic By Yusuf Abdol Hamid DRUG abuse has traditionally been associated with the riff-raff of society. Their poison of choice was primarily heroin, whose predecessor opium almost destroyed entire Hmmm, Time To Check Out Their Stock Market Again Nov 27, 2006 Thai junta proposes lifting martial law across half of country BANGKOK - Thailand's junta leader said he has asked the government to lift martial law across more than half the country in what would be the first easing of military rule since the September coup. General Sonthi Boonyaratglin told reporters on Monday that only Bangkok and parts of the far south and the north and Singapore is World No. 3! Another Achievement. From Aftenposten, a Norwegian newspaper:40 percent feel discrimination A new survey found that 40 percent of Norwegians feel that they have experienced discrimination when seeking work, one of the best results in the 28 nation study. The survey by manpower company Kelly Services rated Sweden as the worst in terms of job discrimination, with nearly 100 percent of respondents saying they felt Seditious Letter in the Straits Times Goodness. Everyone knows that gambling is good for the soul. Why else would the PAP government want to build all those casinos on Sentosa? Ms Angela Lee ought to be arrested for writing such a seditious letter to the Straits Times. We should encourage young Singaporeans to be more entrepreneurial, to take more risks and to explore alternative careers in mahjong and jackpot. ST Forum Nov 24, 2006 The Myth of Religious Harmony in Singapore Yawning Bread is a brave man. Braver than Mr Wang. Yawning Bread has just written an essay entitled "The Niqab and the Freedom of Religion - is there any logical reason why people speak of the freedom of religion?". It is written in typical Yawning Bread style - articulate, intelligent and very well-reasoned. Nevertheless it takes a certain degree of courage to write it (even though most of his Who Are We Helping? The GST hike is a hot topic. However, so far I have said little. The reason is that I am ambivalent about it. According to PM Lee, the GST hike will enable the the government to do more to help poor Singaporeans. This implies that without the GST hike, the government is unable to help poor Singaporeans. I don't believe this. But anyway, if the government does really fulfil its promise to help NS and Employment Singapore's most famous reservist. Recognise him? See article below - here is a recurring problem that will grow worse and worse over the years, as the number of PRs, foreigners and adults-turned-new-citizens steadily grows in Singapore. The writer is wrong to think that only small companies may tend to avoid hiring Singaporean men. The same problem would exist for any job where the individual On Emigration In the Straits Times today, some writers discuss a July survey which showed that 53% of young Singaporeans would consider emigration. Can Singapore depend on its youth to stay here and take ownership of the country, our ever-complaining MPs lament in Parliament. Actually I wonder why young Singaporeans are being singled out in particular. After all, Singaporeans in just about every age group are Another Politician Joins The Blogosphere Yaw Shin Leong was one of those WP youngsters who ran against PM Lee Hsien Loong in Ang Mo Kio GRC. Check out his blog. See his blogroll too - he refers to "Mr Wong Bakes Good Karma". Heheh. A Couple of Changes So I've decided to change a couple of things about this blog. Firstly, the range of topics will be wider. Basically I'll just blog about anything I feel like. I won't be sticking just to social, economic, political and legal issues in Singapore. Secondly, irrelevant comments will simply be deleted. Also, please don't cut & paste entire articles from elsewhere into my comment section. Just leave Kids Stuff PAP MP Michael Palmer spoke in Parliament about the importance of a quality pre-school education. The text is available somewhere on the P65 blog. Palmer refers to scientific discoveries about human brain development. The quality and quantity of stimulation that a child receives in the first six years of his life will play a huge factor in determining his mental capabilities ... for the rest of More on Life and Money ST Forum Nov 17, 2006 50% less returns from investment IN NOVEMBER 2002 I invested $10,000 in an AIA investment scheme for five years, using funds from my CPF Special Account. Recently, AIA informed me that, as of this month, the amount earned on the investment after four years is $800-plus. I wonder how much the company will pay me on maturity next November - maybe another $200 more. More About the Complaining MPs ST Online Forum, Nov 17, 2006 MP's remarks about 'complaining' S'poreans are unfair I agree fully with the views expressed by Mr Benny Tan Seng Hee and Mr Wang Tiancheng, who reacted to Dr Mohd Maliki Osman's statement that Singapore is becoming a nation of problem-identifiers, not problem-solvers. As an ordinary Singapore citizen, I would like to state that words cannot describe my The Aging Population ST Nov 14, 2006 Ageing profile is coming 'tidal wave', but Govt is prepared By Sue-Ann Chia LIKENING the issue of an ageing population to a tidal wave poised to hit, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said the Government was preparing for its effects. It will, for instance, look into helping older Singaporeans unlock the value of their assets, such as homes, so that they will have income in their Mr Wang Is Skeptical Business Times - 11 Nov 2006 YESTERDAY IN PARLIAMENT 'Many helping hands' the way to go: Vivian He says the reason for this model is to get the right people to do the job By WEE LI-EN THE 'many helping hands' approach to taking care of people in need is a good model despite its flaws, Holland-Bukit Timah GRC MP Vivian Balakrishnan said in Parliament yesterday. Although there are problems with Kopi Tiam Talk Parliamentary Debate Ask not what your country can do for you ... MPs decry whinging Singaporeans, call for soul searching TODAY Friday • November 10, 2006 Leong Wee Keat weekeat@mediacorp.com.sg INSTEAD of harping on what the Government can do to bridge the social divide, the spotlight in Parliament yesterday fell on Singaporeans. And there were some home truths told, too. "A nation of complainers" and "a Your Money or Your Life Financial awareness remains rather low among Singaporeans. In money matters, many of them still make quite basic errors. This article illustrates. ST Nov 11, 2006 Many S'poreans don't have the right insurance cover A third of those surveyed can't tell what is sufficient level of protection By Finance Correspondent, Lorna Tan ALMOST nine out of 10 Singaporeans have an insurance policy but many