I have the same thinking as Bloop.
Last time I really admired LKY and whenever he gave a speech or seminar in TV, I always paid attention and listened thru'. But now, if I see him on TV, I will immediately switch it off. The reason: he is very very very arrogant. His face nowadays look like Samy Vellu. Come to think of it, Singapore is just a tiny nation. What the hell is so difficult to govern the country. They talk more than rule. Lee ruled by oppressing others, you can not call this a success!
We have given him lots of Leeway.
My hope for 2008 is that Lee Kuan Yew can shut up.
But he can't.
Old people is like that lah, sign...
I too was naive in the past and followed Lee Kuan Yew's propaganda.
Now I know what sort of fucker he is.
This week no news from him, Is he irrelevent at this age? Brain can't work anymore, how to fix oppositions
He should really retire, an eyesore on my TV.
Give himself a MM title bullshit and pay himself millions.
Even Mahathir is not that shameless.
Sick of that bastard.
MM = BBC
Do you feel helpless? Do you feel ignored?
Feeling worthless and unloved? Well that's probably because you eat
pickled eggs in your underpants while your mates are round your flat -
but putting aside your personal idiosyncrasies - as a football fan, do
you think your views matter?
In today's game, dominated as it is by big money, big media and big
bulls**t, it's easy to think we, the people for whom the game is played
lest it is forgotten, are pretty low down the list of people who have
influence.
However, the good news is that we not only matter, but our collective will and attitudes do enact change.
Think back a couple of seasons. It seemed that every week that
passed there was another incident in which players were said to be
'inciting' the crowd. Whether it was Gary Neville's sex actions or
Diouf spitting at people, the phone-ins and papers would be full of
fans who claimed they were being 'incited' to...well...to do what was
never very clear. But for a time 'incitement' was the buzz word for all
fans with a victim complex.
Full of pompous indignation they would try and get players arrested
by reporting them to the coppers for the great crime of cupping a hand
to an ear.
Naturally enough, the rest of us laughed at this, poured scorn and
mockery onto those people. Get a perspective, grow up and take some
responsibility for your own actions, we all said. And this season, I
don't recall a single 'incitement' outrage or incident. The
vituperative response from the majority towards the minority who wanted
to make this an issue seems to have exercised a kind of unspoken
censorship.
Y'see, things do change for the better.
And it's not just in fans' behaviour. For at least a year we have
been lampooning Jamie Redknapp's attempts at punditry, largely focusing
the criticism around the fact that he prefixed every sentence with the
words top, top, quality, Richard. Yet, I watched him on Sunday and
those words no longer passed his lips. It's hard not to think our
collective jibbing has not had some effect there and in doing so made
him better at his job. Admittedly he does still look like he's sitting
on a disabled toilet. But it's a top, top toilet, Richard.
But you see, things do change for the better.
Remember when Sven was out of favour as England manager and the
media and many fans were so jingoistic. Any English manager could do as
well if not better than Sven they said time and again.
That's changed totally. We don't hear that anymore because all of
us who said that was plainly rubbish - and there were many of us - were
vindicated by McClaren's rule of mediocrity. That view no longer has
any purchase in the football media or even at the FA - who are slavish
in toadying to the loudest voices.
Even little Englanders like Jeff Powell and Ian Wright have given
in and accepted they were wrong and that Capello is a good appointment.
Indeed, after years of delusion about England, a more sensible
attitude is starting to prevail. The white van man's bull-headed
ignorance is diminished and voices of greater sanity are starting to
prevail. England players, as many people always knew, are good but far
from great.
The quiet voices that always said this used to be drowned out by
the Achtung Fritz jingoism of the mass media and the fog-horn beer
monsters in the pubs, but it has won out in the end. Even tabloid
journos like Brian Woolnough now refuse to call England players great
because great players win things and England have won nothing. That's a
victory for us.
Y'see times move on. Our beliefs do exert influence.
Even diving seems to have been reduced this season, largely due to
the opprobrium heaped upon players who do it. Even a dedicated and
very, very rubbish diver like Joe Cole seems to have eventually begun
to realise he's making an arse out of himself every time he does one of
those belly flops which not even the most blind England or Chelsea fan
can excuse.
In the court of the people, he has been found guilty. It still
happens, not least because referees get conned but players are
realising that they will look foolish in slow motion and from four
different camera angles if they do a swan dive in the box. If we didn't
laugh at them, mock them or call them cheats, it would only happen
more. The public court of justice takes effect.
Sky are about to broadcast another Grand Slam Sunday this weekend.
The whole Grand Slam concept has been so vilified, so mocked, so
despised, that it may be the last ever Grand Slam Sunday. It's
noticeable that they're not pumping it up in advance quite as much as
in previous years. Not least because fans have sussed that the fixture
list is fixed to create a TV media event and as such it automatically
loses any credibility. The matches still matter, but the 'event' as it
is sold to us, is laughable and bears no scrutiny. The only grand slam
is the sound of the door shutting on an inappropriate piece of puffery.
Again, the court of public scrutiny is taking effect.
The much-vaunted notion that the Premier League is the best league
in the world - a notion put about by those with most to gain from it
becoming established i.e. those who profit from the high wages paid to
all concerned in the game and the media - is the next sacred cow to be
challenged and slaughtered. Not because Serie A or La Liga or wherever
is better or worse but because fans know that this 'best league'
moniker masks the fact that many games, the majority of games in fact,
are pretty boring and that a league which can only be won by three out
of 20 is at the very least dysfunctional as a competition.
And it's happening. Even the guests on Sky are beginning to go
against the party line and tell the truth. Graeme Souness speaking on
the midweek European show said below the top four most of the games you
see are not that good. That surely chimes with most of our own
experiences.
Over coming seasons, if this continues to be true, it will be said
more and more and the idea that it's the bestest ever ever league
anywhere will be recognised as a by-word for the worst kind of hype.
This is how attitudes change and how marketing can be nullified, and sense and truth established.
But not everywhere.
At the BBC, things simply don't change. Despite the torrent of
criticism their coverage of football has received for years - it's not
just us on F365 that dislike it - some in the mainstream media have
also mocked their blandness and sloppy, thoughtless work - it continues
unchanged and unreformed. Without going into another critique of MOTD
(I've done that often enough), it is not a controversial view to say it
is a dull, smug and over-staffed output with as many of four pundits
present for sometimes as little as 15 minutes of live work.
When so many other aspects of football on and off the pitch can
eventually be changed and modified to be better by public scrutiny and
judgement, why is the BBC so immune to that process of change?
Simple.
They don't have to be. As long as the public is mandated by law to
pay them over £3billion a year - yes £3billion, they have no incentive
or reason to respond.
The market (us football fans in this case) cannot exert an
influence on the BBC because the BBC is immune from market forces while
simultaneously grossly distorting the market for those who are not.
So keep voicing your opinions. Keep saying what needs to be said,
here and elsewhere, because change can happen and we don't have to put
up with the rubbish we're fed by those in the game or its slavish media
forever.
But if it's the BBC who is the subject of your ire, forget it. You
don't matter to them and if you withhold their income, they will insist
on putting you in jail. Being put in jail for not paying the state
broadcaster for owning a TV sounds like the stuff of banana republics
doesn't it?
I only raise it just so the point gets heard again. So it doesn't
get taken for granted. So that change can happen at some point in the
future, just has it's happened elsewhere.
But this time, the revolution will be televised.
http://www.football365.com/john_nicholson/0,17033,8746_3316191,00.html
How he gets his pay, by GIRO ? 3 over million how to spend, food how much per month, medical bill is it free, travelling expenses paid by who ? Balance how much he saves per month.
How he gets his pay, by GIRO ? 3 over million how to spend, food how much per month, medical bill is it free, travelling expenses paid by who ? Balance how much he saves per month.
i believe the 3 million dollar serves merely to distract you from his main sources of income. and that of his affilates.
Singapore is so unlucky to have that self-proclaimed martyr in our midst! After being sacked from the university for improper misconduct (e.g. falsely claiming as legitimate expense his personal spendings ..... imagine what larger financial misappropriation he will do if he ever got into power as one of Singapore's leader) he then made it his personal vendetta to discredit our government. Do not be suckered by him. He is trying to get others to fight his 'battles' for him on the pretext that he is our country's champion for democratic rights.... so far he is not fooling a lot of people but there are 'blind' idiots 'fighting' for him nevertheless.
Such dishonourable behavior sh not be condoned and rightfully he has been many times put in his place by our people everytime he tried to succeed at the polls.
but then, you are too direct. your cover is blown wide open. be tactful.
Chee Soon Juan had better come up with something better than these tired old antics. We are getting bored with the same routine.
For those who just can't shut up about ministers getting pay raises when the poor are suffering, I urge you to refuse your next pay raise and redirect your bonuses to charity.
What, you can complain the ministers don't distribute their raise to the poor, but refuse to do the same with your own raises?
And for crying out loud. Stop complaining about lack of income and take up politics if you think it's so easy. I hear from some of you here that it's easy money....
Perhaps the government is wrong in arresting such small group of protesters. Perhaps it is an infringement of the people's civil rights.
But can Chee provide us with any bright ideas on how we are suppose to stop or slow down the rising cost of consumer products? Other than organising protest against the rising cost of living in Singapore, what else can he do? Any solutions? Any ideas?
I agree. The PAP isn't the best government after all. But the SDP certainly isn't the best opposition party in Singapore either.
And I don't understand the deep hatred for LKY with all the callings for him to die. Sure, he repressed his citizens. He refused to step down from politics. He continued to draw large amount of salary when many citizens are living in poverty.
But are you saying that in the last 40 years or so, he had done not a single good thing for Singapore?
After all, most of us (though not all) here are having three square meals a day when just 40 years ago, a family of 10 may have to share one small fish for dinner. We managed to live harmoniously with each other despite our muti-racial and muti-cultural society when just a few kilometres north from us, people of different skin colors are still fighting one another. Not forgetting that almost all of us here owns a computer with internet access...you think that's possible in many countries?
Who made it all possible?
I'm not saying that LKY is my god or the best leader in the world. Sure, he is not all that good, he has his flaws. But surely he don't deserve all these callings for him to die, calling him a fucker and even bringing in his parents by calling him a bastard...did he kill your parents or what?
Some even compare our government with the ones in Burma, North Korea, China, etc. My goodness...do you know that even internet access is restricted in N.Korea (to the richer one, of course)? At least we are still able to complain on this forum.
In Burma, the military government openly suppressed the legitimate government and use forceful means to suppress the people, beating up and even killing the religious monks. At least in Singapore, opposition parties is still allowed to be form and exist.
Sure. Singapore has much to improve on. This, I don't need to elaborate. But please, do not be blinded to logic and take on such ridiculously extreme stance. By calling for LKY to die and laughing at the prospect of him dying...does that makes you any better than our government?
Originally posted by deathbait:For those who just can't shut up about ministers getting pay raises when the poor are suffering, I urge you to refuse your next pay raise and redirect your bonuses to charity.
What, you can complain the ministers don't distribute their raise to the poor, but refuse to do the same with your own raises?
And for crying out loud. Stop complaining about lack of income and take up politics if you think it's so easy. I hear from some of you here that it's easy money....
Just compare the ministers' salary to the salary of the middle-income citizens here. Okay...perhaps not middle-income citizens. Then how about comparing it against the salaries of all other governments in the world? Compare the amount of their pay raises to the average pay raises of our citizens, if at all.
Then you'll understand how we feel.
"Not forgetting that almost all of us here owns a computer with internet access...you think that's possible in many countries?"
Cities without the rural areas I think every citizen has roughly the same thing.