Mama Said Too Much Sun Is Bad For Us

This letter reminds me of the joke about a country that was planning to send astronauts to the Sun. The clueless government bureaucrat sought to reassure his doubtful audience by saying, "Don't worry - our spaceship will fly only at night !"

According to this guy, Want to stop global warming ? Everybody open an umbrella lah !

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http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/101358

We're not heating up the Earth, the Sun is!

Anas Zubedy | Mar 31, 09 4:28pm

I know that global warming is a natural environmental change process repeated since the beginning of time; and the propaganda that CO2 emissions as a result of human activities is the main reason for global warming is one of the biggest nonsense in human history.

It also shows that we humans have a false belief that we are far more significant than the Sun and Mother Nature. Let me explain.

My second sister Aini (kak Dek) brought back a globe for my nephew Erza the last time she balik kampung to Malaysia last Hari Raya. For reasons I cannot recall, that globe now is residing in my house.

The globe is bluer than any other color, obviously, as the earth’s surface is more water than land. If I were to use a marker pen and mark areas where we humans are actively living in, the majority of Earth will still be empty of people.

I boil water on a daily basis, you know for drinks, telur setengah masak, etc. I began to wonder, how long and what kind of heater do we need to heat up all the water on sea and land on Mother Earth? I sometimes cook too.

Now, how big a fire will I need to heat up all the land mass too? Now how about the air around us? Really, could the last 40 – 50 years of human activity like industries, driving our loveable cars and riding our motorbikes done all that? Hmm...kind of tak masuk akal...

The globe my sister bought is a really good one. It has not a flat surface. Instead areas where the land mass is higher like the mountains, you have a somewhat pimple-like swelling. So like some human faces, the earth has loads of pimples. Some are still alive, the volcanoes. One of those ‘pimples’ erupted in 1883, the Krakatao of Indonesia.

The ‘boom’ was heard 4,600km away! The dust from the eruption fell as far as 2,500 km away. The finer fragments flew high into the stratosphere, spreading like a cloud across the entire equatorial area within two weeks.

They remain suspended in the atmosphere for years and the earth’s temperature dropped several degrees. One ‘pimple’ eruption from Mother Earth could cause that. Imagine if she farted! Do we really think we are that significant?

You know what, I am not a scientist. But like all other humans, God gave me common sense. (Thank you, God!). We need to just look up for the answer, no not in prayer, look up at the Sun. I think if there is any heater capable of heating Earth, its water and atmosphere, it would be the Sun!

That does not mean that I condone wasteful behavior. But I definitely, do not condone that we blindly follow the majority. Scientist, politicians, pressure groups, and religious leaders included.

Now, go switch off your lights.

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Sir, you better turn on YOUR LIGHT.

Ain't No Competition

From the Sunday Morning Post letters page, 22 March 2009 :

I refer to the article "Singapore beats HK in survey of Asian expats", March 12. That "Singapore appears to have finally achieved its dream of being better than Hong Kong" was a highly laughable comment. Singapore has achieved the same status at the top for the past 10 years.

I am a European expat who stayed (or, more rightly, suffered) in Hong Kong for close to five years but chose to move to Singapore and obtained permanent resident status there (though I need to adjust my highly lucrative Hong Kong expat package in exchange).

My family and I are now enjoying the comforts, stability, safety and cleaner air of Singapore (plus the many more nice places and resorts that we can travel to in less than two hours, and the much more advanced and lively dining and entertainment options). This contrasts with the dirty and mundane, yet much more expensive Hong Kong.

But most important is the ease and efficiency of getting things done in a language I am more comfortable with, English. In fact, Singapore is so much more attractive than Hong Kong that I have the in-principle approval from our global headquarters to shut our office in Hong Kong and move it to Singapore, while maintaining a stronger presence in Shanghai.

Singapore beats Hong Kong in so many areas. Many friends are now making plans to move to Singapore after realising their misconceptions about the city.

Singaporeans may not be upfront with their thoughts and appear to be reserved, but I have made more local friends than I did in Hong Kong. At least, they are not like most arrogant but ignorant Hongkongers who think they know it all, and criticise and comment on almost everything and anything.

I can't help but find most Hongkongers just a bunch of empty vessels, and definitely NATO (no action, talk only idiots - that's how Singaporeans would describe Hongkongers).

Simon Morliere, Singapore

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It's no secret that the reporters of the South China Morning Post, especially one Nick Gentle, enjoy having a go at Singapore whenever the opportunity presents itself. Coverage by the SCMP on Singapore is usually scant, and when they do, the editors normally devote a wee bit of space to the umpteenth defamation lawsuit filed by the PAP regime against some opposition politician or foreign newspaper. Many would agree that our Gahmen deserves a lot of the bad press that it gets, but not enough credit is given to the things that Singapore does well, like its efforts to be a clean and green city and to achieve self-sufficiency in water.

While I was initially gratified that a seemingly independent person had written in defence of Singapore, after reading Morliere's letter in full I found his remarks unfair, generalising and ungracious. They irritated me as much as commentators that praise HK by slagging off SG. No doubt, the SCMP editors are counting on Morliere's letter to trigger a storm of chest-beating responses seeking to restore the good name of HK while smearing SG with the usual criticisms.

Why have people not realised the futility of comparing the two cities ? Some time ago, some Singaporeans put up a video on YouTube in which they sang about how SG was better than HK. This unprovoked shot across the bow was answered by a video counter-offensive uploaded by HKers. After watching both videos, the words "own goal" and "shooting oneself in the foot" come to mind. Every city holds its unique appeal to different people. I know many people that love one and dislike the other.

When I'm in HK, I miss the more laid-back mood, thinner crowds and variety of food in SG (and the more modest speeds of the taxi-drivers). Whenever I'm back in SG, I long for the transport convenience of HK, and wish that my countrymen that make a living in customer service would remember to turn on their brains when they go to work.

Like I mentioned in another blog, I feel privileged to be able to call both cities home.

Overkill

The Wife's 4-year-old niece wouldn't take her Sunday afternoon nap, so the Brother-in-law put her into their car and went on a drive from their home in the Mid-levels to HK Disneyland and back. The little tyke managed to sleep for 20 minutes or so during the hour-and-a-half of fossil fuel combustion.

(Singapore analogy : Woodlands to the City on the CTE, and back)

Heteros Rule, Okay ?

A letter that the ST Forum will never publish :

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Dear Sirs,

I refer to the article "Bad Boy Edison Gone Good?" (Sunday Times, 1 March) and to the video clip showing an interview with him on RazorTV on the Straits Times home page.

A week ago, a part of the Oscar acceptance speech of screenwriter Dustin Lance Black was cut from the repeat telecast on MediaCorp TV because he said things that, according to MediaCorp, went against the Media Development Authority's Programme Code which "explicitly disallows content that sympathises with, promotes or normalises such a [homosexual] lifestyle from being broadcast".

Yet, last weekend, a fast-food chain (Carl's Jr) and sportswear label (Adidas) saw it fit to invite Edison Chen to Singapore to promote their wares. And the Straits Times even devoted a long article to an interview with Chen.

Chen is a minor celebrity with little recognisable talent, but had managed to stay on the Hong Kong media's radar screen in the past due to his fortunate genetic inheritance and numerous relationships - rumoured, imagined or confirmed - with HK starlets. I find it hard to accept that, while the Government-controlled media chose to silence Black, an artist with globally-recognised achievements due to his sexual orientation, it gave an utterly undeserved mouthpiece to this promiscuous Lothario whose track record happened to be a heterosexual, and hence acceptable, one.

And do note that no offspring were conceived during his numerous procreation sessions. In other words, he only had sex for fun, and that's not why Singaporeans should engage in intercourse, according to your proxies.

Lastly, Carl's Jr and Addidas - what were you thinking ???

Let's Count Our Blessings

From today's Straits Times Forum (thankfully, not in print but only on the website) :

Stranger's courtesy at supermarket

I WENT to a FairPrice supermarket last Thursday to buy some eggs. I thought that was all I needed, so I did not grab a shopping basket.

Soon, I realised I needed a few more items and I struggled to carry them all with my two hands, almost breaking the eggs in the process.

A Caucasian man, who must have seen my near-calamity, handed me his basket and said: 'Here, you can have my basket.' I said: 'What about you?'

His reply? 'It's okay, I can take another one.'

I kept thanking him and he rewarded me with a big smile.

I want to say a big thank you to this kind stranger for his simple act of kindness, which warmed the otherwise cold afternoon.

Lyn Loh (Ms)

I get rather worried when I read readers' letters like these (and there is almost one such contribution every day). Are things so bad back home that such small and random acts of kindness actually move people to write in ?

Taxi-drivers returning wallets or mobile phones ? That's fine, and very commendable during such times when the temptation to keep the items is greater. (In this regard, I think Singaporean taxi-drivers are a lot more honest than their HK counterparts - the HK taxi lost items hotline staff has been known to suggest offering rewards to raise the chances of finding the lost items)

But I've seen letters from readers thanking strangers for opening doors, letting them board taxis ahead of them, thanking waiters or cashiers for smiling ... ... simple things like that. I assume that you'd have said "Thank you" there and then (or do it a few times like Ms Loh above), be on your way and it would have been a happy day for all.

Perhaps the question lies not with the readers, but the editors. Hundreds of people write in to the ST every day, on matters big and small. Was there so much chaff that such trivial matters get their nods ?

I suppose if the editorial thresholds at the local HK English papers are lowered (they tend to print letters on serious stuff like English education policies, harbour reclamation, historical conservation etc) I might just write in to thank the cha-chaan-teng waiter for giving me two more minutes yesterday to read the menu, the taxi-driver for acknowledging my presence when he took my money ... ... I gotta be thankful for those little things in my life.