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Cash is better than Kind, geddit?

Mr Miyagi is a little cheesed off that the owner of the Mother of All Singapore Supermarkets (plus a whole lot of other industries), seems to be a little less than generous with the moolah when it comes to the tsunami disaster.

Atypical Singaporean thinks so too.

When you think about it, 1.5 million tonnes of food relief packages ain't exactly the same as S$1.5 million dollars of aid (actually it is S$50,000).

After all, even the The Singapore Red Cross says that Cash is Best:

Added Ms Teo: "Right now, money is the best form of assistance as it can be spent according to the priorities in the affected countries."

She noted that "in-kind" donations, such as clothes, are not based on identified needs and might not be culturally appropriate.

"Transporting these items will also be difficult and time-consuming as roads have been damaged," she added.

Giving $10 cash to the Red Cross versus paying $10 for "Relief Packs" containing goods which disaster victims may not need, or may cost a bomb to ship and distribute, or may expire before the victims get to use them.

Hmmmm, tough choice.

Maybe cash is tight at some large local corporations. Here's an idea, to supplement the packs, maybe we can send the victims some Linkpoints too.

Excerpt:

Some corporations, really big ones, like Pfizer, Amazon.com, Citigroup, Cisco Systems, Bristol-Myers Squibb, have rallied in response to the tsunami disaster by donating generously.

Over here, our very own very big quasi-corporation, NTUC, "expresses her deepest heartfelt condolences to the families of victims affected by last Sunday's tsunami that struck many parts of Asia, following the earthquake off the coast of Aceh, Sumatra.

The Singapore Labour Foundation (SLF), on behalf of the labour movement, has made a S$20,000 donation to those affected in the region through the Red Cross."

Singapore biotech efforts "sub-optimal"?

According to this Businessweek article anyway.

Donch like dat lah. Give chance give chance. We-all Singapore wan to be hub leh. Cannot everything also Ang Moh country champion what.

Excerpt:

The progress the Asians have made is "astonishing,'' says Robert A. Goldstein, chief scientific officer at New York-based Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International, which has teamed up with Singapore in funding ES Cell's efforts to find a cure for the disease. Many governments have been asking themselves: "Since the U.S. doesn't seem to be taking a lead role, why don't we?'' observes Goldstein...

...California may not be the only worry. Britain has a relatively liberal policy toward stem cell research and may soon kick-start funding for it. And at least five other U.S. states are looking to fund stem cell research, too. Even some of Asia's most prominent boosters concede that the region will have a tough time matching what the Americans have to spend. Singapore is building a scientific community, but currently "it's sub-optimal,'' says Colman [Alan "Dolly the Sheep" Colman, an English biochemist and a leader of the British team that created the first cloned mammal in 1997 -ed]. "The people who wrote Prop 71 are trying to recruit people right now. And when those top people go, so will their teams.''

And the most tasteless tsunami headline goes to...

drumroll please... CNN for "Tsunamis shatter celebrity holidays"! Clap clap clap clap.

More appalling headlines here:

"Celebrities Among Victims of Tsunami"
"Oprah's Gay Designer Survives Tsunami"

Excerpt:

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- A German statesman, a Czech super model and a Swedish Olympic ski champion were among the vacationers whose search for peace and sun in tropical southern Asia was shattered by the tsunamis that spared neither rich nor poor.

Petra Nemcova -- who appeared on the cover of 2003 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue -- was carried away with her boyfriend, the fashion photographer Simon Atlee, after a huge wave plowed into southern Thailand on Sunday.

Nemcova's New York spokesman, Rob Shuter, said the model and her boyfriend had been vacationing in the resort of Phuket when waves overwhelmed their beach hut.

via Boing Boing

TODAY: "Leave" means more work

Latest TODAY column: "Leave" means more work

Excerpt:

You discover a lot of things about your children when you go on leave. I found out that my autistic daughter could scale monkey bars twice my height in double-quick time. Now I know why they tell you to have children early, because when you are middle-aged with back problems, you don't want to be chasing your daughter up monkey bars. Or around the park.

I also learned that you can buy the nicest fire truck toy or the cutest doll for them as Christmas presents, but they will pull the toy out, and play with the box and wrappers. Next Christmas, I'm going to save some money and just buy boxes.

And don't believe a word when they say Leave is when you get away from work. Leave is just the time you do the work around the house you had no time to do when you are working.

Like cleaning out the storeroom that you don't dare to open the door to anymore, clearing the study desk of a year's worth of paperwork, and fulfilling your solemn wedding vow to throw away all your boxes of old computer cables.

Picking up Isaac's passport

Spent Wednesday morning picking up Isaac's passport. It was like a family affair, with Grandpa, Grandma, Papa, Mommy, Faith, and of course, Isaac. We dressed him appropriately for the occasion, and we even picked out a collared polo shirt for him. I thought it would be sloppy to be photographed in a round-neck tee for your passport.

I had applied for his passport online earlier, but the photo of Isaac I submitted was not good enough, so we had to go down to Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) at Lavender Street to take Isaac's photo again, and do the collection of the passport on the spot.

I have to say that next to the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS), I think the ICA is one of the most efficient Government departments in Singapore. You can apply online, at kiosks, by post, and in person. And almost all processes, from application to collection of a passport, are super-fast and smooth. I once settled an urgent passport application within 30 minutes, complete with the interview with the officer to tell him why I needed it so urgently.

The photo booths were on the 2nd to the 5th floor, and we found a relatively shorter queue on the 4th level. The wife lined up with Isaac in her arms, and when it came to their turn, the Photo Auntie who manned the booth and the PC which took the photo, told her that his hair was covering his eyes and needed to be tidied up.

They tried to brush his hair to one side, but it kept coming back down. So Photo Auntie whipped out her Secret Weapon to deal with his disobedient hair — The Water Spray. A few squirts of water on my squirt's head later (who also closed his eyes and winced when the water hit his head), his hair could be styled and made tidy.

They waited for the photos to be printed out, and in this post-photo-session shot you can see Photo Auntie's hairstyling spray to the left. In the drawer beneath that, there are also a few brushes and combs, in case you did not bring your own. This woman was prepared, man. She was also a multi-talented hairstlylist, photographer and photocopying expert all rolled into one.

I hope the wife used her own comb though. I couldn't tell because I was standing outside the crowded room (they did photocopying here too). Who knows how many people have been styled by Photo Auntie and her set of combs.

We finally got a good enough shot for the passport, so off to the counter we went, to get it scanned. If you look closely enough, you can see my wife's fingers where she held him up to be photographed. Half and hour later, and after a hearty lunch, we went to pick up the finished passport. We had to hand over his Birth Cert and show him in person to the collection counter lady to verify that it was indeed him in the photo (though I took his fingers out of his mouth before I showed him to the lady, just to be safe).

And thankfully, the final shot in the passport had Mommy's hands cropped off (in the photo, I mean). Isaac could now travel as an International Infant of Mystery.

Earthquake and Tsunami Relief information

I am starting this post to collect all information on Singaporean relief efforts in one place. This is so that readers can decide where they can help in money, in kind, or in personal involvement. Post in the comments section or email me and I will add it there. I will moderate this post and its contents. I will also need help from readers to separate the real ones from the bogus ones as well.

Include details like:

Name of Organisation
Name and Contact of Contact Person
Details of Relief Effort (URL if available)

Here are some relief efforts that I know of (I will update this as much as I can):

1. Singapore Sinhala Association’s Sri Lanka Tsunami Disaster Relief

2. Singapore Red Cross Society (You can also deposit directly into RED CROSS TIDAL WAVES ASIA from your DBS Internet Banking service)

3. Ananda Travel & Sri Lankan Airlines are appealing for donations to be airlifted to Sri Lanka (until 2 Jan 2005). Those interested can send the donations to:
133 Cecil Street
#13-02 Keck Seng Tower
Singapore 069535

OR

36 Robinson Road
#01-01 City House
Singapore 068877

4. Reliefweb has a page that with updates on relief efforts in South Asia.

5. SEA-EAT blog (The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami) has a page with information on resources, aid, donations and volunteer efforts around the world.

6. Mercy Relief. In response to this humanitarian crisis, Mercy Relief and its institutional partners – Singapore Soka Association (SSA) & Young Sikh Association (YSA) – together with the Singapore Red Cross Society (SRCS) are conducting a nationwide fundraising campaign for the victims of the calamity. (They take donations via Cheque, a 1-900 number, Credit Cards and Internet Banking).

Reader response to "Massive earthquake: our holiday can get refund or not"

Here's a reader's view on my previous post on the holiday refund response from some Singaporeans.


From Kate:

Subject: in response to :" Massive earthquake: our holiday can get refund or not"

Dear Mr Lee,

Kindly also refer also to
Sri Lanka struggles to distribute aid (ST)

and also
Indonesia struggles to bury dead (CNN)

The intelligent and responsible way to help is not to throw money at the problem at hand, but to work with authorities to coordinate efforts. It has been reported that S'pore is also sending military personnel, who will lend their planning expertise to the operation. I'm sure that is important as well. There are reports of helpers who have fled from scenes of destruction, and someone needs to make sure the right people are sent to the appropriate places. Right now there are many areas which need the money and food, etc. Surely sometime is needed for this kind of logistics planning?

I think it is the quality of the help that is important, not just the dollar amount. S'poreans have also been very generous as citizens, and we are all trying to help as much as we can. Afterall, these are our neighbours, and our country has close links that go way back with all these countries. Rest assured that more money will be contributed to the sites that need them, after the needs have been ascertained. It's not just S'pore that is ascertaining the situation, the US is as well.

I hope that you can provide balanced reporting of S'poreans' reactions, and not just the handful of people who complained about refunds. You might as well base your perception of ALL westerners on the couple which is planning to conduct their wedding on Phuket, alongside the funerals which will take place. Sounds unfair? Then please do not judge Singapore based on a few examples of callousness.

Sincerely,

Kate

Massive earthquake: our holiday can get refund or not

What do the International Red Cross, Russia, Japan, Australia, China, the US, Italy, Sweden, Germany, France, Britain, Austria, Dutch Red Cross, Greece, and Israel, have in common?

They are all rushing aid and money to areas in South Asia hit by the earthquake and the tsunamis.

In Singapore? Some are busy whining about the refunds to their holidays.

Meanwhile, Singapore has also committed to contributing relief assistance to countries hit by the disaster.

We have a Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) medical team on standby to reach Indonesia with relief supplies by Thusday to provide relief to earthquake and tidal wave victims. Yes, you heard me, Thursday.

Sure, I am aware of the need to discuss with the Indonesian authorities on how best to deploy these guys, but I don't know... seems like a long time. I mean, the disaster hit on Sunday morning, and we will get there by Thursday? That's doesn't sound like the super-efficient Singapore I know.

With relief workers from the other side of the world mobilising and rushing to the troubled spots, seems a little tardy for us, who live just next door to Indonesia.

On another note, sometimes, I marvel at how blessed our little island is, and how much we take for granted.

Excerpt from Canada's National Post:

World aid pours in for quake victims

Frances D'Emilio
Canadian Press
December 27, 2004

ROME (AP) -- Aid teams from around the world rushed to southern Asian countries devastated by tidal waves, warning that anything less than an urgent response would add many more deaths to the already catastrophic toll.

Excerpt from The Straits Times (not available after three days, and requires registration):

SAF on standby to send medical team to Indonesia

S'pore's assistance counts as part of big global effort to help victims
By David Boey

A SINGAPORE Armed Forces (SAF) medical team is on standby to fly to Indonesia with relief supplies by Thursday to provide relief to earthquake and tidal wave victims.

The team is part of a $2 million Singapore Government contribution in relief assistance to countries hit by the disaster.

The Government is discussing with the Indonesian authorities how best to deploy the team, said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday.

The impending departure of SAF personnel is part of a global effort by more than a dozen countries to help victims of the world's most powerful earthquake in 40 years.

David Weinberger drops by

Wow, David Weinberger, co-author of book, The Cluetrain Manifesto, visits this site and mentions the CashCard post. Welcome, and please put on the aluminium foil hat on your head to prevent our Government from reading your thoughts during your visit, thank you.

He also spoke in Singapore recently, leading a workshop on "conversational marketing", and met local tech blogger James Seng for dinner. Small world.

When he was here with his 165 Powerpoint slides, he ate Indian food, made the mistake of ordering local foodcourt-style "western food" (the baked-beans-deep-fried-meat kind), and also rediscovered Green Spot, that orange soda. Gosh, that brings back memories. Green Spot was like, the ultimate treat when I was a kid, thirty years ago, and a staple drink during Chinese New Year and funerals. I am so glad it is sold again after such a long hiatus. My other fave childhood drinks are Sinalco and Kickapoo Joy Juice (I know, it sounds totally wrong).

Excerpt:

When I was a boy, during the summers in Great Barrington, Mass., my mother used to take us to the Green Spot bottling plant in town where maybe 40 years ago, they shut down the plant and that was the end of Green Spot for us.

This afternoon in Singapore, at a food stall in Little India, I drank a can of Green Spot. It's the same oddly-named, non-carbonated orange drink. The can says it was made in Thailand under the authority of Green Spot International. It seems that, somehow, Green Spot left Great Barrington and landed in Asia.

Singapore Red Cross needs your help

The Singapore Red Cross is calling for help to raise 1 million dollars for victims of the Bay of Bengal Earthquake and tsunamis. Click on the link to find out how to send your money.

Excerpt:

Humanitarian Assistance To The Victims of the Bay of Bengal Earthquake and Tidal Waves

The Singapore Red Cross Society in response to the call for international assistance by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, is launching a public appeal to help the victims of the Bay of Bengal earthquake and tidal waves.

As an immediate response to the disaster, the Singapore Red Cross will be sending a sum of Singapore dollars, One hundred and fifty thousand (S$150,000) to Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and India (through the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies). The Singapore Red Cross is also in touch with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the national societies of all affected countries to determine what assistance is required to assist the victims.

The Singapore Red Cross hopes to raise Singapore dollars, One Million (S$1,000,000) for this appeal...

...The public can send their donations

By cheque to the 'Singapore Red Cross Society'
(Please indicate behind the cheque 'Tidal Waves Asia'. Included your name, address and tel number as a receipt will be sent to you.
Post the cheque to
The Singapore Red Cross
15 Penang Lane
Singapore 238486

OR

In person to the Red Cross House @
15 Penang Lane
between 9.30 am - 5.45 pm on weekdays and
9.30 am - noon on Saturdays

OR

By online donation at DBS website @ https://internet-banking.dbs.com.sg

Somewhere out there, there's a CashCard with your name on it

Here is a scary thought of the day:

My friend recently lost his Cashcard with about $30 in it, when some thief stole it from his car parked at Parkway Parade. He decided to let it slide, since it was not a big deal of money.

A few weeks later, he got a call from the police, telling him they caught the CashCard thief, and telling him that he could come and get his card back after the court case.

He was shocked, because he made no police report after it was stolen and bought the Cashcard from a 7-11 anonymously.

"You lost a Cashcard recently, right?" said the officer on the phone.
"Yes, I did, but..."
"Can you tell me where you lost it?" the officer asked, like he knew the answer.
"At Parkway, in the carpark," replied my flabbergasted friend.
"Yes, then we would like to inform you that we caught the thief, and you can collect your card after the court case in about three weeks."

So, if you think you are driving around anonymously in Singapore, think again.

An Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) gantry and/or the carpark Cashcard system must have collected data from both his Cashcard and his ERP In-Vehicle Unit (IU) serial number (which is unique to every car), and either stored it on the CashCard itself, or in some ERP database.

Heck, I bet they even read the ERP IU serial number from your car passively, every time you drive under one of those ERP gantries, even when the gantry is not "on".

Beep. "There goes Mrs Lim to Shenton Way again. Must be on her way to work"
Beep. "What is Mr Tan doing going through the Kallang gantry at this hour? He works in Jurong."
Beep. "Hmmm, that's strange. mr brown is driving past Sim Lim Square at 4pm on a Saturday. Doesn't he have to take care of the kids usually at this time?"

I don't know whether to be happy we have an efficient police force that can return your stolen goods to you even if you did not make a police report, or be terrified at the thought that nothing escapes the Eye of Sauron.

Asia Blog Awards final week of voting

Asia Blog Awards is in its final week of voting. It will close this Friday Tuesday the 4th of Jan, so remember to cast your votes once a day till then.

If anything, do check out the fine selection of blogs there. I'm in the Best Singapore Blog and Funniest Blog categories.

I would like to thank Xiaxue for the spike in traffic from her rabid fans in the last week or so. It must have been a casual mention in her blog. Incidentally, her blog is duking it out with Sarong Party Girl's (who is leading) in the Best Journal/Diary category.

Close fights include the Best Asian Newcomer category, where Parallel Universes is fighting with Spirit Fingers for top dog (Spirit Fingers is also kicking my ass in the Funniest Blog category).

In the Best Non-Asian (Foreign) Blog category, two of my favourite non-Asian blogs are also in a close fight: Peking Duck vs Friskodude.

Sure, there are no lucky draw prizes to win, nobody doing "stunts" to win your votes/money, and the bloggers don't get to earn Singapore-politician salaries if they win, but what the hey, vote anyway.

Massive earthquake in Indonesia

My mother-in-law's maid just told me her newly-built house in her kampung (village) in Surabaya, Indonesia has been destroyed by the earthquake and floods (as high as chin level).

Her mother and family fled to her mother's sister's place for safety, but the house, paid for with her earnings for the past few years, has been wiped out.

I feel so sad for her, but we are all relieved that her family is safe.

Excerpt:

BBC: Sea surges kill thousands in Asia

Thousands of people have been killed across south and east Asia in massive sea surges triggered by the strongest earthquake in the world for 40 years.

The 8.9 magnitude quake struck Aceh in northern Indonesia, sending huge waves across thousands of kilometres of sea.

At least 1,500 died in Sri Lanka and more than 1,000 were killed in India.

Casualty figures are rising throughout the region including in the tourist resorts of Thailand, which were packed at the peak of the holiday season.

At least 400 people died in Indonesia, but exact numbers for people killed, injured or missing in the countries hit, are hard to confirm.

My loud FUBU Fat Albert shirt

I thought for Dad's birthday dinner, I would wear the FUBU Fat Albert shirt Mom bought from Malacca for me. No banana.

The minute Faith saw me wearing it, she ran away from me like she saw some kind of monster, and dashed into the bedroom for cover.

I didn't know why she was reacting to me like this at first, but I guessed it when I moved closer to her and her eyes looked with horror at my shirt, pushing me away.

She then broke free and ran into the kitchen, and when I stood at the doorway, she backed up against the far end of the kitchen, shouting her disapproval.

So I ran to the bedroom and took the shirt off, to see if it was causing her distress. And sure enough, without the shirt, she allowed me to approach her and carry her.

I laughed and said, "Are you afraid of Papa's shirt?", and held up the monstrosity for her to see. She recoiled and pushed it away.

The colours and the design must have been too much for her senses. I remember telling Mom what a loud shirt she had bought. I just didn't know how loud it was to my autistic daughter.

First they came for Napster

From akepa of Slashdot:

First they came for Napster
and I did not speak out
because I switched to Kazaa.
Then they came for Kazaa
and I did not speak out
because I switched to bit torrents.
Then they came for bit torrents
and I did not speak out
because I switched to ED2K.
Then they came for ED2K
and there was no one left
for the entertainment industry
to blame for their troubles.
So they went out of business,
and now there is only me.

Blessed Christmas wishes from the browns

To all the lovely friends and readers we have come to know through this site and the column, have yourselves a Blessed Christmas and may His love overflow in your lives. We are privileged to have shared a little part of our lives with all of you, and we have learned much from you too. Here's to many Blessed Christmases to come.

-From the browns, whose home is blessed with examples of His love, as evidenced in Exhibit A and Exhibit B.

Why MPAA shutting down Suprnova.org was a Very Bad Idea

Susan Mernit's blog has an excellent Mark Pesce piece on how BitTorrent works and what all these MPAA shutdowns of sites like Suprnova.org mean.

I always say, you can't put a good torrent down. Killing a site like Suprnova.org only results in better and more robust technologies taking its place. The future for P2P has never been brighter, and we need to thank the MPAA and RIAA for this. Just like when Napster was shut down, and Gnutella took its place.

As Douglas Rushkoff put it:

"This will come back to the bite them. With BitTorrent and its identifiable trackers, they had the means to leverage the power of the biggest filesharing network in history - and save what was left of their industry. Now, it's back to the hackers - who only need to find a way to share 'trackers' in a way that requires no single, centralized host. And the content will be free, forever."

Excerpt:

If Napster hadn’t been run out of business by the RIAA, it’s unlikely that any need for Gnutella would have arisen; if the RIAA hadn’t attacked that single point of failure, there’d have been no need to develop a solution which, by design, has no single point to failure. It’s as though both sides in the war over piracy and file sharing are engaged in an evolutionary struggle: every time one side comes up with a new strategy, the other side evolves a response to it. This isn’t just a cat-and-mouse game; each attack by the RIAA, generates a response of increasing sophistication. And, today, the MPAA has blundered into this arms race. This was, as will soon be seen, a Very Bad Idea.

TODAY: The wildlife of Singapore

Latest TODAY column: The wildlife of Singapore

Excerpt:

I just set up my 3-foot fish tank (yes, the one that we were told could be carried by one aquarium-store auntie) and already I fear for the lives of my Black Ghost and two discus fish, domestic animals not on any AVA Endangered Species list.

My toddler daughter, a big fan of swimming and splashing about in water, is already looking at my new bigger tank with a gleam in her eye. I see Van Kleef Aquarium, she sees River Valley swimming pool.

Ang Mohs drink Chin Chow and gag

Stupid Silly Ang Mohs (better change it, or people might use my autistic daughter as an example to make a point), dunno how to drink Asian drinks, only know their Cokes and sodas. That's why got this site: Crazy Asian Drinks, where they do taste tests on Asian Drinks, like Chrysanthemum Tea, Pearl Milk Tea, and even Yeo's Soya Bean Drink. And generally gag.

I have to admit though, I never did like Lychee drinks. But Chin Chow drink, man, how can Chin Chow be crazy? Wait till they discover Bird's Nest drink, proudly made from the spit of the swiftlet, a small swallow native to East Asia. That will really gross them out.

Excerpt on Grass Jelly Drink (Chin Chow):

Drinks ought not have flesh in them in them. Seems rather obvious, except to Taiwan. Wrong permeates this thing like stink on colon beef. I hate to repeat my Cohort in the Defense of the World Against Crazy Asian Drinks, but it tastes like flat, lukewarm cola with chunks of gelatin. Chuns of gelatin. As you swallow, the chuncks invade your mouth, march upon the gullet and occupy your stomach where they celebrate until you upchuck.

via Boing Boing

Christmas eve morning at Funan

Now at Funan after picking my youngest brother from the airport (he is on home leave from his airbase France) and after an essential visit to a hawker centre to eat some real food, we are shopping for his pda with mom, dad and Faith.

As it is a small world, reader Pei Fen (hope I got your name right) recognised Faith (fresh from messing with the water fountain display at another shop, sigh) when we were at Challenger and said hi. Wah, my little girl so notorious, ah. Heheh.

Of course, I had to be in my totally unglamourous and grubby berms and sandals, and wearing my glasses, because I had to wake up early to go to the airport, after a night of Xbox tilll 5am. Aaarrgh.

Have a Merry Christmas, and hope you have a good holiday despite having to work through the holidays. It was nice meeting you.

Oh, and Merry Christmas in advance to all you readers too, and a Blessed New Year!