::Homework Crapbox::
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Posted by koohansen
lol, mine was something weird which I can't explain. Happened many years ago.
Wake up, cannot move body at all. this experience lasted for about 5mins, i'm awake, I'm aware of my surroundings. But I just cannot move at all. Damn scary.SYY posted :
similar...mine was when i was on the bed trying to sleep...but then i remembered smth and wanted to stand up, suddenly whole body cant move a single shit for abt 2 mins...i still rmb panicking and kept praying for "them" to "leave me alone" before everything returns to normal and i left the room for abt 30mins to walk ard...dam scary sia....and dat happen a couple of times...DragonFire posted :
We call these episodes sleep paralysis. Sometimes accompanied by hallucinations or loud noises which are sensory phantoms. I get these now and then, especially when sleeping face up. Just learn to enjoy the show and know it is not real. You might get some really lucid dreams later on.I (UltimaOnline) posted :
These are not necessarily merely sensory phantoms or hallucinations. Hypnogagic paralytic states result from the partial disengagement of the consciousness from the physical body and biological brain, and as such the consciousness has momentary awareness (particularly auditory awareness, eg. hearing voices of non-physical beings) of other realms or planes of existence beyond the physical, what has been called the astral or extraphysical realms.
The memory of these experiences, may or may not be downloaded into the brain when the consciousness realigns with the physical body and biological brain, which is why some people remember having such experiences only some of the time, while other people do not retain such memories at all.
The observation that lucid dreams may follow from such hypnogagic paralytic experiences, further supports what I'm saying : lucid dreams are functionally a cognitive bridge into full-blown projections of the consciousness into the extraphysical realms, what has been commonly labeled astral projections.
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study so much future also cannot use rahhh... haha
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ekc1Ctdg_nQ
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http://www.sammyboy.com/showthread.php?122813-Wake-the-fuck-up-singapore
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Imagine time travelling such technology back to the Medieval and Dark Ages. http://vimeo.com/45316779
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laksaboy posted :
Everybody should go read this book. It explains a lot about what's going on in churches/Christianity these days.
Short summary: Modern evangelical Christianity consists of an elaborate network of front groups for American imperialism (economic, cultural or military). These front groups come in many forms: charities, think-tanks, mega churches, cell churches, seminaries, business leaderships, corporate trainers etc. Some may not even be overtly religious in nature.
Lawrence Khong's name appeared more than once in this book. Apparently, in the grander scheme of things, he is higher up in the food chain than Kong Hee. Lawrence Khong had also attended a very important meeting with several key proponents of the Dominionist ideology in 1999.
The concept of Christian 'spiritual warfare' is also quite similar to Islam's jihad. The definition is very elastic, and 'Satan' the enemy changes according to the context. For example, after Sep 11 2001 the radical Muslims were demonized. Yet if you turn back the clock 20-40 years, the communists were the devils. Using religion as justification is easy to generate support for war, be it against Iraq or Vietnam.
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There is more to this video posting than the video itself. The video depicts the plight of elderly folk suffering from poverty.
Then, check out the visitor comments, there is the issue of people lambasting the guy filming the elderly folk, saying he'd rather film them than help them. Then, there are those who defend the guy filming, saying it's better to film this and raise more awareness, which would ultimately benefit folks like this elderly couple more. And finally, there are those who accuse the SDP (the political party to which the guy filming this, belongs to) of exploiting the suffering of the poor elderly folk for their own political gain. But the SDP would say, our politics is for the good of the people, coz we're the good guys fighting against the evil government! And so on and so forth.
There really is no easy answers. But hopefully, with raised awareness, more would be willing to help in little ways, for instance, when seeing elderly people clearly struggling just to walk a long distance home (because they've no money for public transport, as is the case with the elderly couple in the video), to offer them some money for a taxi.
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What I don't get is... she won first place, but doesn't qualify for the Olympics? Nuts...
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[Thailand] - Girl gets beaten up under bizzare circumstances
What do I mean by "under bizzare circumstances"? Have a look at the video for yourself.
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Photos of robbers :
http://singaporeseen.stomp.com.sg/stomp/sgseen/this_urban_jungle/1247540/2_jailed_for_robbery_and_stepping_on_victims_faces.htmlOne particular victim, Bangladeshi construction worker Sudip Chandro Bhandro Joy, was quoted by the Straits Times as tearfully sobbing in the report :
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The robbers took his wallet and cellphone, and since he attack, the University graduate and former teacher said he has been struggling to meet ends meet.
Although he has not completely recovered, he said he did not want to go for his follow-up appointments for fear of racking up more medical bills.
Already, his (also construction worker) brother has helped him cover more than $2000 in medical costs.
All he wants now is to go home and find work, Mr Sudip said, tearing up.
"If I don't send money, my wife has no money to buy milk (for my children)", he said.
In addition, he has not been able to make his monthly payments of $350 after taking a bank loan with his house in Bangladesh as collateral, he said.
If he does not make the payments soon, he said his wife and two children, aged two and four, may become homeless.
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You can donate through TWC2, or (if you email the ST reporter [email protected] for contact info) directly to Mr Sudip.
http://twc2.org.sg/2012/08/11/robbers-sentenced-to-jail-and-caning-for-attacking-foreign-workers/ -
http://www.facebook.com/ForgiveAmyCheong/posts/469174416438387Hussain Safie writes :
"I'm a Malay and honestly, I was not offended by her remarks. It might be because I am far more tolerant but it is also because I've seen or heard racist comments far worse than her's, most of which did not receive the same kind of backlash that Amy was given.
What she did was wrong, nonetheless, and the backlash, along with her sacking, may be well-deserved. Still, even her punishment must have its limits, especially when the words thrown at her were equally, if not more, racist than her remarks.
I am honestly ashamed by how my fellow Malays behave after she has been fired, especially since most us are also Muslims. We were taught in our religion to be tolerant, peaceful and forgiving, yet our continued actions against Amy Cheong even after her sacking clearly shows how much we learn from such lessons. How are we any different from her if we throw at her the same kind of words she threw at us? What does revenge solve?
Throughout Monday, I witnessed most of my family and friends revel in their dark side, using words they otherwise never used or making threats which they once swore never to make. I could barely recognize them. I tried to console some of them but they prefer their hatred over their sense of forgiveness. Some even said that her death is the only way to calm them down, apparently being fired and universally hated was not enough.
Seriously people, calm down. Did she mass murder a group of Malays? Did she kill your Malay best friend? Only our pride was hurt, not our lives. Why threaten her so severely?
I ask that any fellow Malays and Muslims reading this to stay their anger and remember to forgive over hate. She's got her punishment so leave her be. I would also ask non-Malays and non-Muslims offended by the incident to do the same.
And to Amy, I hope you take this as a valuable lesson. I hope you can move on from this unfortunate incident and see to your actions in the future."
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Posted elsewhere on the internet : Macdonald fires woman for giving fries to her hungry child the staff is the gal's mother. she a single mother and got 2 children. the 10 year gal run to the Mac to find her mother cos she hungry until want to cry liao. So the mother working no choice, take the fries to let her eat. kena caught by the manager. mother want to pay later also cannot. few days later kena sack liao. btw she only earn $600 per mth https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=397485020320897&set=a.132423140160421.25332.125584034177665&type=1&theater
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Having lived in Malaysia and Singapore for at least 7 years each, I thought that I would pen down some glaring differences between the two living environments:
1. Freedom and Lawlessness
Law enforcers are not only lax in Malaysia but also easily swayed with money, so you can avoid them most of the time and pay them off, should you get confronted with them. This situation basically means that the law does not apply to you, as long as you have enough money, which relegates the law to nothing more than a mere cost of living. I value freedom a whole *censored**censored**censored**censored* lot; there is no amount of security and comfort that I would trade for a high level of freedom: the freedom to speed, park illegally, litter, trespass, indulge in anti-social behaviour, etc. Freedom is crucial for happiness, period. Of course, the lack of law enforcement also means that your own rights may be compromised, but complaining about that is just being overly-dependent on the government to secure your own well-being. Crimes and infringement of our rights in general only happen because we lack skills of self-perpetuation, such as negotiation, situational awareness, and street-smartness. The correct way to address the problem is to develop self-preservation skills, not cry to the government for protection. You will be a stronger person as well, and more like an independent, hardened adult, not like little children in a school who go reporting to authority anytime anything small happens. Take the law into your own hands.
2. Cost of Living
Relative to the average wages of both countries, the cost of living in both countries is high. However, given how strong the Singapore Dollar is compared to the Malaysian Ringgit, Malaysia works out to be much cheaper, if you can put yourself in a situation to earn foreign currency regardless of where you live. In other words, if you can earn US Dollars or Euros either in Malaysia or Singapore (e.g. by owning a software company serving international customers), Malaysia will feel like heaven for you. Malaysia has a lot of *censored**censored**censored**censored**censored* *censored**censored**censored* going on, but consider the fact that the cost of living in Singapore is not 20% or 30% higher; it is 200% or 300% higher than that in Malaysia. There are also peculiar costs in Singapore that make no sense: S$500,000 99-year leasehold shoeboxes in the air and S$80,000 license to own a car (not the car itself), just to name a few. A very important fact of life is that you can truly own a house and car (no time limit whatsoever imposed by HDB or COEs) with literally less than RM100,000, or S$40,000. Anyone knows having a car at your disposal grants you an uncanny freedom that most public transport commuters can never understand.
3. Choice of Living Environments
The entire island of Singapore is the same *censored**censored**censored**censored* over and over again: HDB flats, heartland hubs, private condominiums, shopping malls, office buildings, night spots, schools, and the occasional park/nature reserve/beach. If you hate that, tough luck, buddy. In Malaysia, if you are sick of the shitty traffic and rude people of Kuala Lumpur, move north or south to quieter suburban or outskirt areas. If you are sick of city life, move to one of the beach towns. If you are sick of the swelteringly-hot weather, go upwards and live in Fraser’s Hill or Cameron Highlands. Sometimes, the further you move away from your comfort zone, the more it feels like a different country altogether. Using the same logic, USA, Canada, and Australia should offer a greater choice of living environments than both Malaysia and Singapore combined.
4. Diversity
Diversity comes from within, but, if we define diversity as the observable differences among people and things, Malaysia is more diverse than Singapore, and it is the little things that make the most difference. For instance, Chinese, Malay, and Indian dialects actually survive in Malaysia (not just Mandarin, Standard Malay, and Tamil), depending on which part of Malaysia you go to. There are definitely more things to do than shopping, working/studying, and food-hunting in Malaysia. You can even send your children to different types of schools: vernacular schools, independent schools, private schools, home-schooling, real specialised technical schools (none of that “ITE” umbrella nonsense), or, hell, even the School of Hard Knocks, since Malaysia is not exactly a safe playground for kids. Malaysia is more interesting, less monotonous, and interesting environments tend to produce interesting people. People who have lived in Malaysia and then went on to live in Singapore for an extended period of time eventually become more one-dimensional in their personalities over time, and vice-versa.
5. Living vs. Surviving
Both people in Malaysia and Singapore live hectic, fast-paced lives, at least if you compare the urban areas of both countries. In Singapore, almost everything is done for the money: doing well in school, doing well in the workplace, not driving out during certain hours of the day, and even marriage and child birth (since you get to buy HDB flats and get baby bonuses for getting married and having children, respectively). You know something is wrong with a country when the government has to pay its people to have sex and bang each other. People in Singapore are too busy surviving to actually live. It takes a lot of effort to even have a low standard of living in Singapore. In Malaysia, if you are lucky enough to inherit a small home and pay off a motorcycle early on in your life, you can literally grow your own crops, hunt, or fish and survive day by day. A lot of villagers do just that. In Singapore, if you ask people to name two things that they do regularly outside of work/school that they consider hobbies, you would get a lot of blank faces. They are too busy working and studying to have free time to even pamper themselves by doing things they like or even think about their actual dreams (that would be too audacious). The sad irony is that a lot of people in Malaysia work less and play more and still make way more money or do better in their academic pursuits.
6. Empirical Happiness
Both people in Malaysia and Singapore have to put with an awful amount of *censored**censored**censored**censored**censored* *censored**censored**censored*. In Singapore, you have semi-competent yet greedy politicians in charge, making life a living hell for everyone with price hikes, non-sensible immigration policies, and even more new laws to curb personal freedoms or scare people into voluntarily surrendering their freedoms (CPF withdrawal age, anyone?). In Malaysia, we have lazy, blood-sucking, idiotic, racist politicians with no sense of good governance whatsoever, hopelessly-inefficient everything (bureaucracy, legal system, public transportation, education), and a lot of social crime. Empirically, however, people are complaining less and smiling/laughing/joking more in Malaysia. People in Malaysia also commit suicide not as often as people in Singapore. People walk slower in Malaysia, and you can even see people sitting down in coffee shops for literally the whole day just chatting happily away in Malaysia. My personal experience also revealed that it is much easier building rapport with a stranger in Malaysia than in Singapore (in Malaysia, just call the other person “boss” or “bro” or “leng lui” for starters; you cannot do that to strangers in Singapore – they are too *censored**censored**censored**censored* stuck-up). In short, people in Malaysia have not forgotten how to relax and take things easy. Try going out one day in Orchard Road and in 1 Utama Shopping Centre, look at the first 100 faces that you come across, and then compare the proportion of smiling faces, and you will feel what I feel.
7. Social Discrimination
Malaysia is known for its xenophobia and racism, no doubt, but so is Singapore – to a larger extent. In Singapore, you get discriminated for virtually anything: for being Malay/Indian (jobs with Mandarin literacy as a prerequisite), for being a neighbourhood school student (scholarship applications), for being an academically-weak student (Special/Express/Normal streams), for being a fat student (TAF Club), for being an able-bodied Singaporean male (National Service), for being a local tourist (Singaporean casinos), for being an MOE foreign scholar (the Sun Xu incident), etc. “Meritocracy” my *censored**censored**censored*.
8. The Focus on Numbers
Singapore is all about the numbers and only the numbers: GPA, CAP, L1R5, PSLE T-Score, GDP growth rate, GDP per capita, median income, net worth, crime rates, and even IPPT timings. People in Singapore are not bothered by anything that cannot be measured by a number: creativity, music/art, quality of life, and happiness (*censored**censored**censored**censored* the happiness index *censored**censored**censored**censored*). It is a sick, toxic culture; people who do not perform well in these numbers are treated like dirt. I have personally received the better end of Singapore’s brand of favouritism in secondary school, and I felt sick to the core. If kindness from others to me is driven by admiration of my CAP/L1R5/whatever useless number, you can stick that kindness straight up your *censored**censored**censored*.
The only reason that Malaysians would choose to work and live in Singapore is the higher wages across the causeway. Their modus operandi has always been to work long enough there to save enough Singapore Dollars, and then come back to spend the money like a king. We already have our own clean, green, efficient, and economically-successful (and, hell, even Chinese-dominated) island-state; it is called Penang. What do you think about living in Malaysia as compared to living in Singapore?
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[Singapore] - Millionaire Medical Doctor dying of Cancer at 40
Below is the transcript of the talk of Dr. Richard Teo, who is a 40-year-old millionaire and cosmetic surgeon with a stage-4 terminal lung cancer and came to share with the D1 class his life experience on 19-Jan-2012.
Hi good morning to all of you. My voice is a bit hoarse, so please bear with me. I thought I'll just introduce myself. My name is Richard, I'm a medical doctor. And I thought I'll
just share some thoughts of my life. It's my pleasure to be invited by prof. Hopefully, it can get you thinking about how... as you pursue this.. embarking on your training to become dental surgeons, to think about other things as well.Since young, I am a typical product of today's society. Relatively successful product that society requires.. From young, I came from a below average family. I was told by the media... and people around me that happiness is about success. And that success is about being wealthy. With this mind-set, I've always be extremely competitive, since I was young.
Not only do I need to go to the top school, I need to have success in all fields. Uniform groups, track, everything. I needed to get trophies, needed to be successful, I needed to have colours award, national colours award, everything. So I was highly competitive since young. I went on to medical school, graduated as a doctor. Some of you may know that within the medical faculty, ophthalmology is one of the most highly sought after specialities. So I went after that as well. I was given a traineeship in ophthalmology, I was also given a research scholarship by NUS to develop lasers to treat the eye.
So in the process, I was given 2 patents, one for the medical devices, and another for the lasers. And you know what, all this academic achievements did not bring me any wealth. So once I completed my bond with MOH, I decided that this is taking too long, the training in eye surgery is just taking too long. And there's lots of money to be made in the private sector. If you're aware, in the last few years, there is this rise in aesthetic medicine. Tons of money to be made there. So I decided, well, enough of staying in institution, it's time to leave. So I quit my training halfway and I went on to set up my aesthetic clinic... in town, together with a day surgery centre.
You know the irony is that people do not make heroes out average GP (general practitioner), family physicians. They don't. They make heroes out of people who are rich and famous. People who are not happy to pay $20 to see a GP, the same person have no qualms paying ten thousand dollars for a liposuction, 15 thousand dollars for a breast augmentation, and so on and so forth. So it's a no brainer isn't? Why do you want to be a gp? Become an aesthetic physician. So instead of healing the sick and ill, I decided that I'll become a glorified beautician. So, business was good, very good. It started off with waiting of one week, then became 3weeks, then one month, then 2 months, then 3 months. I was overwhelmed; there were just too many patients. Vanities are fantastic business. I employed one doctor, the second doctor, the 3rd doctor, the 4th doctor. And within the 1st year, we're already raking in millions. Just the 1st year. But never is enough because I was so obsessed with it. I started to expand into Indonesia to get all the rich Indonesian tai-tais who wouldn't blink an eye to have a procedure done. So life was really good.
So what do I do with the spare cash. How do I spend my weekends? Typically, I'll have car club gatherings. I take out my track car, with spare cash I got myself a track car. We have car club gatherings. We'll go up to Sepang in Malaysia. We'll go for car racing. And it was my life. With other spare cash, what do i do? I get myself a Ferrari. At that time, the 458 wasn't out, it's just a spider convertible, 430. This is a friend of mine, a schoolmate who is a forex trader, a banker. So he got a red one, he was wanting all along a red one, I was getting the silver one.
So what do I do after getting a car? It's time to buy a house, to build our own bungalows. So we go around looking for a land to build our own bungalows, we went around hunting. So how do i live my life? Well, we all think we have to mix around with the rich and famous. This is one of the Miss Universe. So we hang around with the beautiful, rich and famous. This by the way is an internet founder. So this is how we spend our lives, with dining and all the restaurants and Michelin Chefs you know.
So I reach a point in life that I got everything for my life. I was at the pinnacle of my career and all. That's me one year ago in the gym and I thought I was like, having everything under control and reaching the pinnacle.
Well, I was wrong. I didn't have everything under control. About last year March, I started to develop backache in the middle of nowhere. I thought maybe it was all the heavy squats I was doing. So I went to SGH, saw my classmate to do an MRI, to make sure it's not a slipped disc or anything. And that evening, he called me up and said that we found bone marrow replacement in your spine. I said, sorry what does that mean? I mean I know what it means, but I couldn't accept that. I was like “Are you serious?” I was still running around going to the gym you know. But we had more scans the next day, PET scans - positrons emission scans, they found that actually I have stage 4 terminal lung cancer. I was like "Whoa where did that come from?” It has already spread to the brain, the spine, the liver and the adrenals. And you know one moment I was there, totally thinking that I have everything under control, thinking that I've reached the pinnacle of my life. But the next moment, I have just lost it.
This is a CT scan of the lungs itself. If you look at it, every single dot there is a tumour. We call this miliaries tumour. And in fact, I have tens of thousands of them in the lungs. So, I was told that even with chemotherapy, that I'll have about 3-4months at most. Did my life come crushing on, of course it did, who wouldn't? I went into depression, of course, severe depression and I thought I had everything.
See the irony is that all these things that I have, the success, the trophies, my cars, my house and all. I thought that brought me happiness. But i was feeling really down, having severe depression. Having all these thoughts of my possessions, they brought me no joy. The thought of... You know, I can hug my Ferrari to sleep, no... No, it is not going to happen. It brought not a single comfort during my last ten months. And I thought they were, but they were not true happiness. But it wasn't. What really brought me joy in the last ten months was interaction with people, my loved ones, friends, people who genuinely care about me, they laugh and cry with me, and they are able to identify the pain and suffering I was going through. That brought joy to me, happiness. None of the things I have, all the possessions, and I thought those were supposed to bring me happiness. But it didn't, because if it did, I would have felt happy think about it, when I was feeling most down..
You know the classical Chinese New Year that is coming up. In the past, what do I do? Well, I will usually drive my flashy car to do my rounds, visit my relatives, to show it off to my friends. And I thought that was joy, you know. I thought that was really joy. But do you really think that my relatives and friends, whom some of them have difficulty trying to make ends meet, that will truly share the joy with me? Seeing me driving my flashy car and showing off to them? No, no way. They won’t be sharing joy with me. They were having problems trying to make ends meet, taking public transport. In fact i think, what I have done is more like you know, making them envious, jealous of all I have. In fact, sometimes even hatred.
Those are what we call objects of envy. I have them, I show them off to them and I feel it can fill my own pride and ego. That didn't bring any joy to these people, to my friends and relatives, and I thought they were real joy.
Well, let me just share another story with you. You know when I was about your age, I stayed in king Edward VII hall. I had this friend whom I thought was strange. Her name is Jennifer, we're still good friends. And as I walk along the path, she would, if she sees a snail, she would actually pick up the snail and put it along the grass patch. I was like why do you need to do that? Why dirty your hands? It’s just a snail. The truth is she could feel for the snail. The thought of being crushed to death is real to her, but to me it's just a snail. If you can't get out of the pathway of humans then you deserve to be crushed, it’s part of evolution isn't it? What an irony isn't it?
There I was being trained as a doctor, to be compassionate, to be able to empathise; but I couldn't. As a house officer, I graduated from medical school, posted to the oncology department at NUH. And, every day, every other day I witness death in the cancer department. When I see how they suffered, I see all the pain they went through. I see all the morphine they have to press every few minutes just to relieve their pain. I see them struggling with their oxygen breathing their last breath and all. But it was just a job. When I went to clinic every day, to the wards every day, take blood, give the medication but was the patient real to me? They weren't real to me. It was just a job, I do it, I get out of the ward, I can't wait to get home, I do my own stuff.
Was the pain, was the suffering the patients went through real? No. Of course I know all the medical terms to describe how they feel, all the suffering they went through. But in truth, I did not know how they feel, not until I became a patient. It is until now; I truly understand how they feel. And, if you ask me, would I have been a very different doctor if I were to re-live my life now, I can tell you yes I will. Because I truly understand how the patients feel now. And sometimes, you have to learn it the hard way.
Even as you start just your first year, and you embark this journey to become dental surgeons, let me just challenge you on two fronts.
Inevitably, all of you here will start to go into private practice. You will start to accumulate wealth. I can guarantee you. Just doing an implant can bring you thousands of dollars, it's fantastic money. And actually there is nothing wrong with being successful, with being rich or wealthy, absolutely nothing wrong. The only trouble is that a lot of us like myself couldn't handle it.
Why do I say that? Because when I start to accumulate, the more I have, the more I want. The more I wanted, the more obsessed I became. Like what I showed you earlier on, all I can was basically to get more possessions, to reach the pinnacle of what society did to us, of what society wants us to be. I became so obsessed that nothing else really mattered to me. Patients were just a source of income, and I tried to squeeze every single cent out of these patients.
A lot of times we forget, whom we are supposed to be serving. We become so lost that we serve nobody else but just ourselves. That was what happened to me. Whether it is in the medical, the dental fraternity, I can tell you, right now in the private practice, sometimes we just advise patients on treatment that is not indicated. Grey areas. And even though it is not necessary, we kind of advocate it. Even at this point, I know who are my friends and who genuinely cared for me and who are the ones who try to make money out of me by selling me "hope". We kind of lose our moral compass along the way. Because we just want to make money.
Worse, I can tell you, over the last few years, we bad mouth our fellow colleagues, our fellow competitors in the industry. We have no qualms about it. So if we can put them down to give ourselves an advantage, we do it. And that's what happening right now, medical, dental everywhere. My challenge to you is not to lose that moral compass. I learnt it the hard way, I hope you don't ever have to do it.
Secondly, a lot of us will start to get numb to our patients as we start to practise. Whether is it government hospitals, private practice, I can tell you when I was in the hospital, with stacks of patient folders, I can't wait to get rid of those folders as soon as possible; I can't wait to get patients out of my consultation room as soon as possible because there is just so many, and that's a reality. Because it becomes a job, a very routine job. And this is just part of it. Do I truly know how the patient feels back then? No, I don't. The fears and anxiety and all, do I truly understand what they are going through? I don't, not until when this happens to me and I think that is one of the biggest flaws in our system.
We’re being trained to be healthcare providers, professional, and all and yet we don't know how exactly they feel. I'm not asking you to get involved emotionally, I don't think that is professional but do we actually make a real effort to understand their pain and all? Most of us won’t, alright, I can assure you. So don't lose it, my challenge to you is to always be able to put yourself in your patient's shoes.
Because the pain, the anxiety, the fear are very real even though it's not real to you, it's real to them. So don't lose it and you know, right now I'm in the midst of my 5th cycle of my chemotherapy. I can tell you it’s a terrible feeling. Chemotherapy is one of those things that you don't wish even your enemies to go through because it's just suffering, lousy feeling, throwing out, you don't even know if you can retain your meals or not. Terrible feeling! And even with whatever little energy now I have, I try to reach out to other cancer patients because I truly understand what pain and suffering is like. But it's kind of little too late and too little.
You guys have a bright future ahead of you with all the resource and energy, so I’m going to challenge you to go beyond your immediate patients. To understand that there are people out there who are truly in pain, truly in hardship. Don’t get the idea that only poor people suffer. It is not true. A lot of these poor people do not have much in the first place, they are easily contented. for all you know they are happier than you and me but there are out there, people who are suffering mentally, physically, hardship, emotionally, financially and so on and so forth, and they are real. We choose to ignore them or we just don't want to know that they exist.
So do think about it alright, even as you go on to become professionals and dental surgeons and all. That you can reach out to these people who are in need. Whatever you do can make a large difference to them. I'm now at the receiving end so I know how it feels, someone who genuinely care for you, encourage and all. It makes a lot of difference to me. That’s what happens after treatment. I had a treatment recently, but I’ll leave this for another day. A lot of things happened along the way, that's why I am still able to talk to you today.
I'll just end of with this quote here, it's from this book called Tuesdays with Morris, and some of you may have read it. Everyone knows that they are going to die; every one of us knows that. The truth is, none of us believe it because if we did, we will do things differently. When I faced death, when I had to, I stripped myself off all stuff totally and I focused only on what is essential. The irony is that a lot of times, only when we learn how to die then we learn how to live. I know it sounds very morbid for this morning but it's the truth, this is what I’m going through.
Don’t let society tell you how to live. Don’t let the media tell you what you're supposed to do. Those things happened to me. And I led this life thinking that these are going to bring me happiness. I hope that you will think about it and decide for yourself how you want to live your own life. Not according to what other people tell you to do, and you have to decide whether you want to serve yourself, whether you are going to make a difference in somebody else's life. Because true happiness doesn't come from serving yourself. I thought it was but it didn't turn out that way. With that I thank you, if you have any questions you have for me, please feel free. Thank you.
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Hi people haven been posting here for a long time....
Thanks Ultimateonline for feeding this thread with loads of information! when i am free i do read here so yeah!
*thumbsup!* -
Good morning, my name is Aldora Chong, I am born on 30th October 2012.I am sorry that I lied about my birthdate on the forum registeration. I can't go any date further than my birthdate because the "matter will collasped" if I ever to have two self at the same timeline.
I here to warn of the things to to come. In 2026, North Korea and South will start a war, with China on North Korea side, and USA on south korea side. Other countries tried not to participate in the war until China and North Korea tried to take over Asia, invading Japan first. They suceed, and they managed to take over Singapore as well. However, millions died in the war and a virus plauged the military and civilian population. Meanwhile, USA gets attacked by internal terrorism and is unable to help it's allies in Asia.
I was 18 years old then, I was a life sciences student and was forced by the army to help out in their lab which involves developing biological weapons and mind control techiques.My family members was taken away from me and I do not know what happened to them. My father, my mother, and my 6-year old brother.
It was horrible. I personally killed several people with lethal injection. I don't want to kill anyone. I feel so guilty when I tied them down and forced chemicals into their bodies. From what I know, they were trying to find a cure for that virus and was trying to infect the opposing military.
But I had no choice. I will be their lab rat if I ever resist or even say "no" to their commands. There was very little food there and I have 2 meals per day. Simple vegetables and rice. No meat. I was lucky. Well, that's only because they need me. I have see women like me being raped and being experimented on by student surgeons but they need them desperately to treat their injurded soilders at India-Pakinstan border.
I do not know so much, I only know that a war did happen on 2026. Since then, I don't know anything about time as I spent my years in a lab full of virus and biological weapons and my watches and clocks were taken away from me.
Of course, during those time I spent there, I was interrograted to test my loyalty to the new "country" called Asia. Then, they began developing time travel. I studied along with them. They build a massive building, designed to create a wormhole on Earth itself. It was a success. They managed to learn so much military secrets that they managed to take over the world. (this is what I heard from my supervisor.)
But, I am feeling so guilty. I killed so many people, I have seen their tears streaming down their faces and begged me not to kill their children, and to killed them instead. My team of 6 even onced locked a family of 5 in a gas control room, we were trying to find out how much oxy-carbate gas it takes to kill a person. When one of the children collasped, the mother and father was trying to do CPR on them to keep them alive. Non of the family members survived.
I have decided to break away from the so called "Wonderful saviors medical team" and embarked on the time machine. I turn the clock to this day, knowing the facts of the time travel well enough that i cannot exist as a two entirely at a timeline. I am going to died on 30th October, 3 days later. I know that I am never gonna survived and even if the futuristic soilders did find me, I will be send to the death camps anyway.
I am here to stop the scary future. Please understand and read the text above. Thank you
- Aldora Chong
---------------------------------------------------This story is damn nice! http://forums.sgclub.com/singapore/i_am_future_423997.html
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[Music] - MeatLoaf's "I'll do Anything for Love"
Original Music Video version :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X_ViIPA-Gc
Literal Video Humour version :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTPko-aXvJM -
this thing is so cool!
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http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/jasmine.asp
Through her clearly demonstrated efforts and willingness to care and to love (all the other animals she touched, whom themselves grew through receiving her love), this beautiful being has certainly accelerated herself towards the status of a human soul, perhaps even experiencing human incarnation in her next upcoming lifetime. Respects and love to her.
P.S.
As her physical form passed on in October 2011, she is likely right now busy preparing herself in the intermissive period. An exciting accelerated evolutionary journey awaits her. -
Israel's last big military venture into Gaza began soon after Barack Obama's 2008 election and before his 2009 inauguration. It's more than ironic that this is happening again between Obama's re-election and his coming re-installation.
But here I won't get into conspiracy theories or into "who started it" in 1936, 1948, 1967, 1973, 2006, 2009, or now. Been there, done that, and, tragically, not enough has changed since the last time.
What I do have now that I didn't in 2009 is a small part of the story of Israel's militarization that sheds light on Israel's inclinations and strategic judgments. Before telling it, let me emphasize that ever since I assessed the first Gaza war, online and on NPR, I've considered Hamas' end game and how it does business inexcusable. But equally so -- and arguably more stupid, because unsustainable -- has been Israel's long "holding pen" strategy against Gaza and, arguably, the West Bank.
Now that each side has again provoked the other's darkest impulses, I can offer only a bit of background to the tactically and technologically clever but strategically and politically bone-headed conduct of Israeli politicians. It concerns a country whose similarities to Israel are a lot more striking than its obvious differences.
In 1965, when Singapore declared its independence, its first prime-minister (and, for many years, its virtual dictator) Lee Kuan Yew asked Israel to design, set up, and supervise its military machine. Israel did precisely that. How successfully? Just this month, the Bonn International Center for Conversion published a world-wide survey ranking Israel the world's most militarized nation -- and Singapore the second-most.
You can read about the Bonn Center's ranking here. To find out how Israel and Singapore actually got together on this, you'd have to have been reading accounts like this one on "Israel's Deep Dark Secret Love Affair" in Haaretz, one of several Israeli newspapers that, even when partisan, are far more open about Israel itself than major U.S. news organizations are.
I knew nothing about this love affair in 2009, when, while watching office parks and eight-lane expressways gliding by my window on a Tel Aviv-to-Haifa train, I mentioned to my wife that Israel has become the Singapore of the Middle East. I had no idea then that Singapore had long been the Israel of Southeast Asia not only economically and geo-politically -- as a glance at a couple of maps and statistical tables will suggest -- but militarily, with all the intimacy of that "Deep, Dark, Secret Love Affair" that's now nearly 50 years old.
The similarities of these two little engines that could (and did) become models of state capitalism with high per capita incomes and growth rates haven't often been noted. Both have been governed and stamped by the British. Both have populations of 5 or 6 million, including 2 or 3 million second-class citizens and non-citizens, some of them migrants, some of them openly despised.
Both Israel and Singapore are non-Muslim, and both face much larger, less-than-friendly Muslim neighbors -- in Singapore's case, Indonesia and Malaysia, the latter of which expelled Singapore in 1965 (or lost it, depending on who's telling), amid high racial tensions.
Yet another striking analogy involves the fact that the politically dominant majority of Singapore's population consists not of indigenous natives but of "overseas" Han Chinese," whose literary and commercial strengths long ago earned them the sobriquet "the Jews of Southeast Asia" and the envy and resentment due a wealthy, elitist, and supple minority.
Like Jews who live outside Israel, the Han Chinese are minorities in most countries outside China, but here a real difference dogs the similarity. The similarity is that in Singapore, the Chinese are 75% of the population, and Malays are 15%, Indians 8%' in Israel, Jews are 76%, with the rest mostly Palestinian Arabs, most of them Muslim some of them Christian. In Singapore the Chinese have a status, power, and reputation that will sound familiar to Palestinians and others who regard Israel's Jews as arrogant interlopers.
The difference is that Israel's Jews, unlike Singapore's Chinese, have never been the rooted, dominant majority in any other country besides ancient Israel itself, where Hebrew was spoken 700 years before Arabic. And there are other differences of consequence: Singapore is an island, a micro-state smaller in area and population than New York City's five boroughs. Israel is 30 times larger, geographically, and in some ways more dangerous and endangered.
That said, Singapore's and Israel's situations at international crossroads of trade and power at opposite ends of the Asian continent incline them both to serve as investment and cultural entrepots and as political mediators. Without oil, water, or minerals to speak of, both live mainly by their wits, which is to say by trade. But both are compelled to militarize, and both have formidable armed forces, with defense budgets that consume 5 or 6% of GDP, a proportion much higher than that of all but a few other nations, including even China.
The International Political Review calls Singapore's armed forces "the most technologically advanced military in Southeast Asia" and notes that while everyone in the region fears China and no one could prevail against a Chinese onslaught, China fears that any such onslaught would bring a very painful Singapore Sting.
The punchline to all this, not very funny but very, very true, is that no sooner had Singapore gained its independence in August 1965 than its British-educated founder and first prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew (whose eldest son is now prime minister), invited Israel to organize his armed forces, because he saw all the parallels between the two young nations that I've just noted.
On Christmas Eve, 1965, six Israel Defense Force officers and their families moved to Singapore, followed by waves of consulting teams that established the country's "Total Defense" combat doctrines, its recruitment and training regimens, its intelligence services, and its state-of-art arms procurement.
"We are not going to turn Singapore into an Israeli colony," chief of staff and future prime minister Yitzhak Rabin admonished these teams. He needn't have worried. Singapore's highly intelligent, eloquent, ruthlessly energetic dictator knew how to collaborate without being colonized, something one couldn't say about some of the Americans he's been collaborating with most recently. He was as deft and determined as the Han Chinese in other countries who, even as minorities, dominate major industries, banks, and even English-language media in the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.
The Israelis militarized Singaporean society, even with Israeli military songs, to which Lee's soldiers marched in one of Singapore's first real Independence Day parades. Less symbolically, they showed Singapore how to establish military conscription in a hitherto un-militaristic populace that, according to at least one survey, ranked the profession of soldier far below that of thief, while placing artists, teachers and merchants on top.
So determined was Lee to adjust this that when Israel won the Six-Day War in 1967, vindicating his decision to work with it and boosting Singaporeans' confidence in their Jewish military mentors, Singapore's UN delegation surprised other Third World nations by abstaining on a resolution condemning Israel.
Israelis persuaded Lee to make conscription universal to tap well-educated, prosperous Han Chinese as well as the Malay, Indian, and other minorities. That produced an intelligent, dynamic army and a disciplined male student population: Singaporean university students receive substantial tuition subsidies after military service but must accept what the National University of Singapore calls "a service bond under the terms of the tuition grant to work for a Singapore-registered company for three years upon completion of their degrees so as to discharge some of their obligations to the Singapore public." In some professions, the mandatory service is to government agencies, for up to six years. The whole regimen, as most Israelis would recognize, produces more than a little griping, but little softness or self-indulgence.
All this has posed an exquisitely discomfiting dilemma for Yale's neoconservatives, who never hesitate to ridicule leftists who've collaborated with authoritarian "Third World" regimes. Now they find themselves looking into a mirror and falling spookily silent about Yale's collaboration with Singapore in setting up an undergraduate liberal arts college.
When Shaunziming Tan published a damning essay about Yale's and other Western universities' collaborations with such regimes, Michael Rubin of the neoconservative flagship Commentary Magazine commented that
"Foreigners flock to American universities because of their freedom and opportunity. How sad it is then, as Tan describes, that so many American university presidents are willing to compromise basic values in order to make a quick buck, often padding endowments which already reach billions of dollars. That will not bring progress; it is simply intellectual prostitution."
On the other hand, Yale is only following in the footsteps of Israel, which has so few friends and whose fate so preoccupies neoconservatives that a few years ago they established a Yale Institute for the Interdisciplinary Study of Anti-Semitism, some of whose offerings prompted me to dub it "The Yale Institute for Jewish Nationalism and War With Iran."
The Yale administration wisely abolished the institute and replaced it with a legitimately scholarly entity, but neoconservatives' difficulty in reconciling their American patriotism with their protectiveness toward Israel in this case has kept them silent about the Singapore deal.
One big difference between Yale's gamble in Singapore and Israel's investment there is that Israel, unlike its neo-con cheerleaders, was smart enough to keep its name out of the public eye at the time, eager though it was to advance its national interests and prestige.
So it's noteworthy that last month the influential neoconservative Commentary blogger Michael Rubin, who has propagandized for war with Iran, condemned Yale and other universities for accommodating to an authoritarian regime that has worked so closely with Israelis.
At least this should teach other neoconservatives what Yitzhak Rabin and Lee Kuan Yew always understood and what I learned after my epiphany on the road to Haifa: matters like these cannot be viewed clearly through binary, left-vs.-right lenses: Leftists who supported "people's liberation struggles" by helping to harvest sugar cane in Cuba or crops in early Israeli socialist kibbutzim believed that nation-building requires disciplined struggle and sacrifice to lay the groundwork for prosperity and, with it, national pride, often at cost to individual freedom.
But even in the 1960's, when Singapore was getting underway, it was already more authoritarian in its nation-building than Israel had been, at least among its own Jewish citizens, but even to some extent among Arabs who became citizens of Israel. Perhaps that was because Jews, fleeing recent destruction and facing new/ancient enemies with Western Enlightenment traditions, some of them as socialists, bonded in relatively more democratic, egalitarian ways.
Although Singaporean society hasn't had to be on military alert as much as Israel, neither has it become the Switzerland of Southeast Asia, a region bristling with huge armies. Singapore does have enough economic and military power to take another bit of advice that the Israelis of Rabin's time gave it and should take more seriously themselves than they have under Netanyahu: Keep your vast military under the radar, if possible while strengthening and showcasing your diplomatic, cultural, and educational offerings.
Singapore is trying to become the education center of Southeast Asia by setting up a liberal arts college that bears Yale's imprimatur, while controlling the showcase as tightly as it does the military. "Increasingly we are noted for taking up the knowledge industries and doing cutting edge stuff," says Ambassador Chan.
Note, though, that, in this official view, education is an "industry," perhaps even a "cutting edge" weapon of sorts. Can any liberal democracy ever hope to flourish while pacing a gilded but iron cage?
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XiaoRiShu's language videos :
Episode 1 (Tagalog, Vietnamese, German & French)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjTvOkwXJC8Episode 2 (Korean, Dutch, Japanese & Spanish)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNLjcZlRJY4Episode 3 (Polish, Turkish, Danish & Norwegian)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4LWmvjOSFgEpisode 4 (Final)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mc44I3CrILc -
[Art] - This painting here, sold for US$75,000,000.00, yes that's US$75million.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324556304578117980311354680.html -
THE LAST OF NATIVE SINGAPOREANS
Singapore with its highly publicized world rankings in having the best education, best healthcare, best welfare, best law and order, best country for business, the third richest country in the world, etc. etc., is the latest magnet for the rich and famous - the good, the bad and the ugly, - looking for low tax havens to park their money.
The two casinos in Singapore combined rank second in revenue after Macau and outperforming Las Vegas. Yet, few people wonder why two casinos in Singapore could out perform the combined revenues of 42 casinos in Las Vegas Strip especially when most of these casinos have the same or more gambling tables than Singapore’s two casinos. In other words, it means that two char kuey teow stalls do more business than 42 char kuey teow stalls combined. It is a remarkable feat that with less than 10% of Las Vegas Strip casinos workforce, Singapore’s two casinos have managed to do better. Macau needed 33 casinos to outperform Las Vegas. There is something questionable in the poll or fishy in the business.
Singapore was listed in Feb 2012 by Forbes magazine as the third richest country in the world with GDP (PPP) per capita of nearly US$56,700 (SG$71,200). Again, this ranking is questionable when the majority of the workforce in Singapore are getting less than S$2,000 a month. Perhaps the reason is that the billions of dollars brought in by the super rich to park in Singapore has raised the per capital income to a ridiculous and deceiving figure. The middle class is a dying breed in Singapore, you are either the super rich like the ministers who are paid obscenely by the millions or the poor working class who are paid peanuts.
When I visited Singapore last month, I was shocked by the large number of PRC FTs in the City. They seem to be everywhere, pushing, shouting plus exhibiting all the bad habits from China. I have lived and worked in China for more than ten years and have known lots of intelligent, well mannered and polite Chinese. Somehow, these Chinese FTs in Singapore are taken from the very bottom of the barrel. It looks as if China has deliberately released their undesirable people to Singapore to relieve it of its social burden. Very, very few FTs can speak English, Singlish or the basic Chinese dialects of Singapore. They speak their own Mandarin with heavy countryside accents. From my experience, these are the rough and tough Chinese I have seen in China who cannot be easily intimidated by police as they have nothing to lose. It would be a nightmare for Singapore police if these FTs decide to go on riots because of lack of jobs. The police cannot assume that it would be as easy as dealing with kiasi native Singaporeans. For example, I was physically attacked by a Chinese FT in Chinatown just for telling him not to ride his bicycle in the pedestrian path. These people have no qualm beating up an old man or anybody.
Native Singaporeans are losing out in every sector of the economy - jobs, housing, education, etc. to this huge influx of new immigrants. They take over most of the jobs in the service industries, i.e. hotels, food courts, retail centres, hawker centres, etc. and now native Singaporeans have to speak their language in order to get any service or anything done. Most local food are no longer authentic but blended with Mainland Chinese cooking flavor. Native Singaporeans are losing their identities, culture, local cuisine and very soon their Singlish and future.
Are these Chinese FTs, LKY said are smarter and more hardworking than Singaporeans?
In Chinatown, there were PRC women in their forties flirting with local old retirees. The Singapore consulate in China must be blind and daft to grant PR status to these women. What economic values can these middle age women bring to Singapore except to con those dirty old men of their retirement fund and hopefully cast a vote in favor of PAP? The government should check it out in Chinatown. If they bring in another million FTs as planned, the City is going to explode with overloaded infrastructures.
Instead of assimilating into the Singapore culture, the new immigrants from China are demanding that curry and sambal cannot be cooked in HDB estates because they stinks and they cannot stand the smell. They insult native Singaporeans by calling them "dogs", "pigs" and lately "chimpanzees". Just imagine if these Chinese FTs start to call Australians dogs, pigs and kangaroos in Australia. They would be packed and sent home. In Singapore, native Singaporeans were told by their leaders to reflect on themselves???
Former foreign minister, George Yeo once bragged that membership fee to be a Singapore citizen was $500,000. Now they are giving away citizenship free and in some cases even gave money and begged them to come. Singapore will go down in history as the only country in the world that surrender their country to foreigners without a fight. All the sacrifices and hard work by native Singaporeans over decades are going to be handed over to unappreciative foreigners.
What are the chances of the native Singaporeans having a decent and respectable living for future generations. From the looks of things, it is not good.
First, you have the vision extraordinaire senior Statesman, LKY, calling his own citizens daft and needed to repent despite bragging about having the best education in the world. He further insult his own citizens by saying that PRC immigrants are smarter and more hardworking than native Singapore despite bragging that Singapore has the best workforce in the world? Few ministers or new immigrants have any respect, sympathy or concern about the plight and welfare of native Singaporeans. Social problems like transportation, floods, housing, are dismissed as “unavoidable” or “once in fifty years”. or housing are “affordable”.
The plight of native Singaporeans would be left unheard as no one in power would plead their case. Former foreign minister, George Yeo once warned, “know your place in society before you engage in political debate”. If you think, it is bad now, it would be worse in the future.
The descendants of ministers with obscene multi-million salaries and those kiasi citizens who were in the 60% that voted for PAP would not be spared as new Chinese, Pinoys and Indian immigrants do not depend on their votes to win elections. It is a damn disgrace to give away the sovereignty of your country and become second class citizens in your own country. If this irreversible immigration policy was done by the opposition, the entire opposition would likely be put in jail for treason. With the present 1.5 million FTs and more coming, you do not need to be a genius to calculate that within two generations, Chinese FTs, Pinoys and Indians will outnumber native Singaporeans and they will govern Singapore. Sadly that will be the extinction of the once happy, hardworking and peaceful race - the last of native Singaporeans and like the Indian tribe, the Mohigans, they will be lost in history. Paradise gone for the native Singaporeans, betrayed and abandoned by their own MIW leaders who promised them Swiss standard of living.
Ironically, it would be left to the once despised diaspora ex-Singaporeans called the Quitters to tell this sad story.