Walked Over

Reddit post about someone’s stupid (as in mentally not very strong) girlfriend, which resulted in a discussion about the Dunning Kruger effect (ie. that incompetent people are too incompetent to know judge how incompetent they are), upon which someone quoted this beautiful gem from Yeats:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

- William Butler Yeats, The Second Coming

Just putting it here because I’d like to be able to memorize and quote it someday. Sadly, not being too smart I have to hide behind the greatness of others.

Like any good joke, the punchline is right at the end.

Unsurprisingly, a lot of the Chinese words derived from Sanskrit have to do with Buddhism. Some are more common, such as 魔, 塔 and 刹那.

Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the over compensations for misery. And, of course, stability isn’t nearly as spectacular as instability. And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune, none of the picturesqueness of a struggle against temptation, or a fatal overthrow by passion or doubt. Happiness is never grand.

shudder

Oh yeah, Mr Huxley? I’m in a Starbucks with a “vintage edition” of your book that cost $18.99 even though the original content has long since passed into the public domain.

Saw this article on Temasek Review about some guy who lost $350,000 investing his CPF funds.

What struck me most about this article was this:

He had invested in some shares under the CPIS, but did not elaborate more on how he lost his monies and the shares he bought.

…

Under CPF regulations, members can invest up to 35 percent of their CPF savings in their Ordinary Account in shares.

Wait, what? So this guy lost $350,000, which was 35% of his CPF savings? A CPF millionaire is complaining because he made some bad investments and now he thinks the government shouldn’t have allowed him to make those investments in the first place?

Well, cry me a river.

For some reason, TR decided to take this story and run with it, turning it into a hack piece about Singaporeans’ lack of control over their CPF funds.

Though Singaporeans have a choice to invest their CPF monies under CPFIS, they have NO CHOICE but to contribute a certain percentage of their monthly pay to CPF.

Furthermore, they have NO CHOICE on when to withdraw their own CPF savings.

Yes, a story about a millionaire complaining about being given inappropriate choices is an excellent example of how having no choice hurts us. And a CPF millionaire is a prime example of how the little man is losing out in Singapore’s evil social security plan. The logic hurts my brain.

I suppose from TR’s viewpoint the entirety of the CPF is bad (I don’t agree with this), therefore any criticism against it contributes towards its crusade, but sometimes it just looks like the random rantings of an angry child.

In the face of the recent slew of complaints about immigration and foreign workers in Singapore, I was surprised to find this article from Al Jazeera about Malaysia’s foreign-worker-woes.

Malaysian firms depend heavily on foreign labourers, with migrants making up more than a fifth of the country’s work force.

…

Many are employed in construction sites, factories, restaurants, households and palm oil plantations, doing work that Malaysians will not do.

Well now, that’s a surprise, isn’t it? Almost like something straight out of TR or OC.

From Channel NewsAsia:

DSO National Laboratories examining letter to PM

SINGAPORE: The DSO National Laboratories is examining a letter addressed to the Prime Minister.

A police spokesperson confirmed that the letter was received at the Istana at around 8pm on Monday.

SCDF conducted tests using detectors and did not find any traces of hazardous materials.

The letter, which was typewritten and consisted of a few pages, has been sent to the DSO National Laboratories for further checks.

I have quoted the entirety of this pointless report.

So a possibly poisonous letter has been delivered to the Istana addressed to the PM, which is now being checked. The contents are not revealed. The manner in which it was delivered is not revealed. Whether or not the PM has touched the letter is not revealed (I doubt it). I am none the wiser for this report, other than that this kind of thing must not happen very often, for the Istana to kick up a fuss.

The news report might as well have been twittered.

To be fair, it did come out at 2228hrs on a cold Tuesday night. I imagine the reporter, one poor Lin Jiamei, is wishing she could be at home doing something other than waiting for a call from DSO labs to see if it’s going to be a poisonous zinger or a nonlethal dope.

From ChennelNewsAsia:

Speaking in Parliament on Friday, Acting Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, Lui Tuck Yew, said the aim is to get four in five Singaporeans to attend at least one arts and cultural event each year by 2025.

You’re kidding me. We’re going to have a measurable KPI now for artistic development in Singapore?

In a truly impressive (one might almost say… artistic?) explosion of ridiculous corporate-buzzwords, Acting Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, Lui Tuck Yewtells us how he’s going to do this:

… the focus will not be on infrastructural development … proposals outlined by the Economic Strategies Committee, to make Singapore a leading global city

… it will recommend the place-making efforts necessary to develop socially- and economically-vibrant cultural precincts…

… It will also identify concrete strategies to mould distinctive peaks of excellence that would differentiate and distinguish Singapore as a global city…

The last point gave me the terrible mental image that the government is going to sponsor breast-implants. I suppose that would “differentiate and distinguish” us…

Or maybe given the casinos and IRs, “erotic dancing” is going to be considered an art?

From Elderly HDB households have sufficient income for daily expenses: survey:

SINGAPORE: The Housing and Development Board (HDB) said more than eight in 10 elderly households – in which the head of household is aged 65 and over – have sufficient sources of income to cover their daily expenses.

20% of elderly households in Singapore are destitute? That’s a MASSIVE figure, given that we have no social security in Singapore. Is this a survey based on the personal opinion of the members (who may have weird ideas of what constitutes “sufficient sources of income”)? Or has some form of analysis been done as to their financial means? What does sufficient mean? Are 2 out of every 10 old people dying slowly of starvation in their homes, or does it mean they can only go for KTV once a month rather than every week?

From HDB’s press release:

More than 80% of elderly have sufficient sources of income to cover their daily expenses

12. Almost all the elderly (99.6%) identified at least one financial source from a list of possible financial sources to meet their old age needs. The major sources cited were financial support from children, and self-reliance through personal and CPF savings (Chart 3).

Chart 3 (JPG 39KB)

13. About 81% of the elderly mentioned that their sources of income were sufficient to cover their daily expenses. The main reason stated among those who felt otherwise was the high cost of living/healthcare cost. Some also felt that their incomes were too low.

Right, so in actual fact only 0.4% of old people are completely without income. Only a couple thousand starving in their homes. The rest of them have some kind of money, though 17+% of them think it isn’t enough, the greedy old grubbers!

Ok, it’s not perfect, but at least it’s not 20% poor old people.

Thanks for the scare, Straits Times / HDB.