BEIJING — A veteran dissident was sentenced to three years in prison after casting a spotlight on poorly built schools that collapsed and killed thousands of children during China’s massive earthquake last year — an apparent government attempt to squelch such information. Huang Qi, founder of a human rights Web site, had been charged with illegally possessing state secrets, his wife Zeng Li said Monday by telephone. His detention in June 2008 came after several posts on his blog that criticized the government’s response to the massive earthquake that struck Sichuan province a month earlier and killed about 90,000 people. Huang, 46, had alleged that state-controlled media provided skewed reports on relief efforts and accused the government of obstructing the work of non-governmental organizations responding to the disaster, according to reports at the time by Paris-based monitoring group Reporters Without Borders.

Source: AP

In a statement, Amnesty International called for Huang’s immediate release, saying he was being punished merely for helping illuminate the tribulations of families whose children died in the earthquake. Amnesty said several supporters who asked to attend the sentencing were turned away and beaten by police who ringed the courthouse. It gave no details, and their identities were not immediately known.

The sentence could give grist to critics of President Barack Obama, who faulted him for not being more outspoken on human rights during his visit to China last week. While Obama raised the topics of universal rights and Internet freedom, he largely avoided the appearance of lecturing his hosts over such issues, something Beijing has responded to in past with indignation.

If the world’s greatest superpower could do nothing, can Singapore do anything? Well, maybe not for China but we could at least take care of our own backyard by speaking out against any injustice, negligence, incompetence or abuse of basic human rights.

A GIANT poster at the Singapore Zoo’s entrance announces the imminent arrival of two panda cubs from China.  Its gift shop is also stocked with plush toys of the endangered animal. The as-yet-unnamed pair – a male and a female – will be on loan to Singapore for 10 years. They will arrive in 2011 and will make their public debut after acclimatising. That will be in 2012, at about the same time as the opening of the $140 million river-themed animal attraction River Safari, where the VIP bears will be housed.

Source: ST

Taipei Zoo:  The giant panda is endemic only to mountain ranges in central China in Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Gansu provinces at elevations between 1,400 and 3,500 ft. The mean annual temperature at the giant panda’s natural habitat is 6-17 degrees C, annual rainfall over 1,000 mm, humid monsoon in summer, and chilly wetness in winter with snow season lasting as long as 4-5 months.

Can the Singapore Zoo provide such a habitat so that stress to the animals is minimal? It’s for 10 years, mind you. Even if the animals do not show any signs of distress, creeping stress could set in. I hope the chaps at ACRES will keep a close eye on the pair.

A FULL-TIME national serviceman died in hospital on Saturday, three days after he was warded in the intensive care unit.  He was found unconscious early on Wednesday morning, trapped between a hydraulic sliding door and the door frame on the Republic of Singapore Navy’s RSS Persistence.  Lance Corporal Mar Teng Fong, 20, an engineering systems specialist, had been on engineering watch duty on Tuesday on the ship, according to a statement from the Ministry of Defence (Mindef).

Source: ST

Can the parents sue?  This is no act of God.  Rather, it is more likely due to a technical fault or a lack of proper training cum supervision.  This is certainly no ‘freak event‘ that our talented politicians can just say: What to do? It has happened.

No parent should ever bury his/her child.

“You can’t design for rainfall of this level, it is just too huge. The thing we can accept is that we can only design our canal of a certain size, and at the end of the day, we have to live with some of these occurrences which occur once in 50 years or so”.
-Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, Environment and Water Resources Minister, 2006

Source: Lucky Tan

We really take our hats off to Lucky Tan. He really knows how to dig.

Our multi million dollar PAP ministers know that some of us are either lazy, or too trusting, so they can continue to happily throwing smoke at us. Either that, or they know that by giving us some rubbish just prior to election (er, look at those great new flats in far flung ponggol for citizens. You’ll get a great sea view!), we will lap those things up because we no longer have the guts nor the will to stand up for better principles in our life.

Arthur

SINGAPORE has moved up a notch to become the world’s third least corrupt nation, after New Zealand and Denmark, according to the annual ranking released by graft watchdog Transparency International (TI) on Tuesday. Singapore was ranked the fourth least corrupt last year. This year it shares the third spot with Sweden, which tied in first place with New Zealand and Denmark in 2008. The other country in the top five spots is Switzerland.

Source: ST

To the layman:  Definition of corruption - dishonesty for personal gain: dishonest exploitation of power for personal gain

In this light, this accolate may appear ironic to some.  One such person is likely to be the very vocal Singapore dissident Gopalan Nair:

• 20 years ago, when Lee spoke of his achievements in his 3 hour speeches to the people, they were all ears, because they were not aware of the truth. Now, even if Lee pays you to listen, you might still refuse since we are no longer as gullible. Perhaps you might tell him to go tell the sailors. In the minds of the discerning, we now know that he is nothing more than a ruthless corrupt money grabbing dictator, no more no less.

Are his views merely brought upon by a personal vendetta against the Lees?  After all, he does making very sweeping generalisations about how you and I feel about the government:

• Locally in Singapore, every single Singaporean has lost respect for the very foundations of society, namely the Judiciary being corrupt, Lee and his Ministers being corrupt in paying themselves millions of dollars, the Civil Service being corrupt for refusing political critics their normal rights, and the list of infamy goes on. Lee Kuan Yew and his government has, to put it bluntly, been discredited.

But now thanks to the internet and the democratisation of information, we laypeople have access to a whole host of information on how corrupt our Government is (or not).  Don’t rely on ‘international’ indices (who ensures Transparency International is transparent in its assessment?) or the vocal minority (which appears to be growing in size, I believe).  We are now empowered to read, understand and make our own assessments.  We owe it to ourselves and our children to vote wisely.

MOGADISHU: Somali pirates on Tuesday released a Spanish tuna trawler and its 36 crew seized more than a month ago in the Indian Ocean, saying they had been paid a US$4 million (2.6 million euro) ransom. Speaking in Madrid, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero confirmed the boat, the Alakrana, was free and its crew safe. He would not confirm a ransom was paid, but said the “government did what it had to do… I can confirm that the Alakrana fishing trawler is sailing freely toward safer waters and that all of its crew members are safe and sound.”

Source: CNA

 I wonder what happened to the Singapore-registered tanker that was reportedly hijacked last month.  According to the MPA, there were 21 crew members and two permanent Singapore residents on board.  The last update appears to be dated 7 November.

If the Singapore government paid any ransom, we have a right to know.

 

Clinton took a break from her meetings of the Asia-Pacific-Economic Cooperation forum and descended down an escalator from Level 2 with a few aides and bodyguards.  Without fanfare, America’s top diplomat, dressed in a dark blue business suit and sunglasses, settled at one of the tables outside the coffee shop and was joined minutes later by U.S. Congressman Sander Levin, a Democrat from Michigan.  While they chatted, four Diplomatic Security agents took up positions on four sides some distance away. Clinton did not order anything but three of the agents got lattes and cappuccinos for themselves. 

Source: The Canadian Press

If only Dr Chee Soon Juan happened to be in Suntec too. I am sure 10 mins at Starbucks with one of the world’s most powerful women would have been more impactful than travelling around the U.S speaking with talk show hosts.  And cheaper too! 

Of course he’d have get past the agents and their lattes first. 

MR ALI Ahmad embraced Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew like an old friend at his home in Henderson Heights on Sunday.  Mr Ali, 90, first met Mr Lee in the 1950s when he was a bus driver with the now-defunct Singapore Traction Company.  Mr Lee was then a lawyer who helped to mediate a dispute between employees and the company.  Sunday was the first time Mr Ali had met Mr Lee since then. ‘I am grateful for what he did. I am very happy to see him again,’ he said.

Source: The Straits Times

We help ourselves. Don’t expect others to help

Tom Wright painted a bleak picture of Singapore’s property sector going forward at The Wall Street Journal. His article ended with the following:
“I’m yet to see the light at the end of the tunnel [for Singapore],” says Mr. Tan, the high-end broker.
We would expect people to continue to dig the dirt and tell it to [...]



Our skin isn’t as thick as it should be

The Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) organised a seminar on March 4 to discuss Singapore’s political blogosphere.  Tan Tarn How, Senior Research Fellow and Research Assistant Tan Simin presented their paper on trends observed in the blogosphere.  As reported in the TOC, the researchers identified the following limitations:

The online-offline firewall, while somewhat alleviated by offline [...]



Singapore and Lee Kuan Yew – The answer to the African problem?

Recently, I followed a thread “Democracy and Economic Growth” which started in PoliticsForum.org.   Apparently, members there often question the role of democracy in a developing nation. “During the wave of democratization in Africa during the 90s, many people had renewed hope for the continent, immediately equating newly established democracies to economic growth. Are these democracies [...]



Tell Singapore government: Ask them a question or give a suggestion

We informed people about the “Tell Singapore Government” subsite and have received some interesting reaction at some forums.
See: 3in1 Kopitiam, Sam’s Alfresco Coffee, Singapore Kopitiam, SgForums
Our responses to some of the comments are listed below. If we are not answering some other specific questions, that is because we do not know how.
 

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