Monthly Archives: December 2010

General

National Identity

Recently, whilst on national duties, we were asked a question that a student asked a senior government official…

As a reservist soldier, what am I defending?

Hearing some of the opinions shared and, along with my own, I disagree with the student that most people have no idea what they are defending…

My home, my friends, my family…
These are the things that I am defending…

But let’s look at the bigger picture…
Are we really looking to defend our national identity? Our national pride?
If so, what is it?

So many have lost their jobs to foreigners who are younger and work cheaper…
I was working at a firm which hired more foreign talent than they should have…

It has almost become public policy to woo these foreign talents into coming into the country…
And the citizen army is expected to protect them; these foreigners who come here to work today and leave the next…
Is the government serving the people by placing greater importance on wooing foreign talents in rather than protecting their own?

I believe the question isn’t really “what are we defending?” so much as it is “what does my country represent that I would fight to uphold?”

Again, I say these not to cause dissent but to raise the question about what is the national pride that is being fought for?

General

Leaks

I don’t really follow the news much for some reason, but I do kept myself updated of what’s going on generally…

There’s much hullabaloo about this wikileaks site which is releasing highly confidential government documents to the public…

Now, I can understand it’s original intent for journalist anonymity whilst exposing a story, but in recent years, the site’s original purpose has seemingly gone missing…

Whilst originally a site where anyone can submit an exposing story, vetted by a group of conscientious fact finders, now it seems to be run by a team of troublemakers out to start world war 3…

The very same public that lauded the site for exposing unethical treatments in Africa are now criticizing them for spreading anarchy…

The person allegedly running this site has been arrested and I wonder how he would feel if things he told his lawyer; things told in confidence; things bound by laws concerning privileged information, are made public…

A lot of information that is out there, is placed out of context…
And most people would just take such information at face-value, without discernment…

Sometimes uncovering scandals and coverups are good…
It helps to keep the government accountable to the people they serve…

Knowledge is power…
But true wisdom comes from knowing when to exercise that power…

General

Government

Governments serve the people and are not served by the people…

It seems that I live in the country with some of the most highly paid politicians…
Even more so than those once considered superpowers…

It makes me wonder if people who go into the public service are in it for the money or because they truly have a vision for the country they serve…

This in turn brings about the question about elected officials in the country…
But that’s another question for another time…

PS: I hope that by saying these remarks, I encourage people to think patriotically about the country rather than slam it…

General

Updates

So it’s been ages since I’ve touched the blog…

A lot has happened since then…

In no particular order (I’m just typing this as the list goes on)…
1) I finally got an iPhone 3GS…
2) Which was updated a year later to the iPhone 4…
3) Just before I got an iPhone 4, I was given an iPad…
4) I went through another reservist cycle…
5) I was retrenched…
6) I became a full time student again studying mass comms…
7) I finished the course with quite a few As…

8) My hamster, Zoey, along with her sisters, Sporty & Baby passed away… :'(
9) A number of friends left for no discernible reason…
10) This includes some I’ve known for over a decade…
12) This now makes me one of the oldest in my group…
13) Before that, I was one of the youngest…
14) I worked part time in Toys R Us…
15) I’ve picked up Nerf guns as a hobby…
16) I’ve managed to get a number of guys interested in it as a bonding sport…
17) Albeit, the sport is typically played in an air-conditioned room…
18) I’ve become a connect group leader…
19) I’ve finally met up with a friend after many, many years since she moved back to Singapore
20) I’ve become quite a major user of social media…
21) Many of the assignments I wrote for my mass comms classes dealt with social media…
22) I was offered by my lecturer a recommendation for a job at a PR firm…
23) I’m going to try out t the firm by the year end…
24) If all goes well, I start there in the new year…

There’s much more that I’ll be sharing (I hope) as long as I don’t leave this place unattended…