Syonan - Syo WHAT?

http://forums.asiaone.com/showthread.php?t=91838#1

And so another moment where we have screamers on one side saying WE NEED TO BE SENSITIVE and the rest who say TELL IT AS IT WAS.

SO what's up with this being 'sensitive'?  Doesn't telling HISTORY, in all it's correctness, matter anymore?
I have had enough of people who are nothing more than a bag full of tears.

My grandparents lived through the Japanese War.  I was told stories about life After the Fall, how every male in the 'kampong' said their goodbyes to their families because 'males were being rounded up'.  That remained a firm reminder in my head that Singapore and the World needs to focus on making the world a better place for all and not about blowing one's trumpet, which we see too often, going on, in this present world.

With the change in the name of the Museum/Exhibition - we have regressed into a re-invented state.

Take the example of a Recovering Alcoholic - they are generally able to even sit through dinner, watch others enjoy a glass of wine and NOT need to have one.

What just happened here about SYONAN is the Pseudo-hurt, people have created for themselves.
If a child falls and smashes his knee-cap - I would say, learn from how careless you were so it never happens again.  When the child forgets I will remind him - Remember the time when you smashed your knee-cap?
That's how learning takes place.
Not by shoving the facts under the door-mat, but by looking at it squarely and making sure it never happens again.

So I guess, after all those movies from the West, a lot of us Asians, prefer to follow the model which promotes growing up sheltered because our FEELINGS will be hurt.

The Pioneer Generation here, survived and started to build the city-state we are now - they shed tears, they worked to the bone.  And what have we got to show for that? A heart too easily broken.

Tsk Tsk Tsk!

Heartwarming & Heartbroken

http://mashable.com/2017/02/06/cat-strawberry-milk-vet/?utm_cid=hp-h-5#N65J95NgVaqc

HEARTWARMING !

I first found this story here: http://news.asiaone.com/news/lifestyle/concerned-child-writes-vet-cute-email-after-her-cat-drank-strawberry-milk

HEARTBREAKING = DISGUST

After reading about the masking tape cat, and in today's print edition of the local main paper, a cat killer who was sentenced, my day went awful.

http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/courts-crime/cat-killer-admits-hurling-feline-from-sixth-storey

What's disgusting is, after throwing the cat down 6 floors, he went to the ground floor to continue slamming the half-dead cat on the ground twice - I guess he just wanted to make sure the cat is dead, perhaps so that the cat CANNOT file a police report against him. Ridiculous!

On the right is the FACE of this CAT ABUSER.

This is an excerpt of the report.

"A food and beverage captain hurled a cat from a sixth-storey staircase landing after first luring it with cat food, a court heard.

In the early hours of May 26 last year,

Fajar Ashraf Fajar Ali, 25,  lured the female shorthair cat into a lift at Block 884, Tampines Street 83 to play with it.

He took the lift to the sixth storey and led the cat to the staircase landing. At first he played with the cat but when it tried to escape, he lured it back with more food."

All that INTELLIGENCE of killing off the victim (he must have watched too many CRIME drama), didn't protect him.  Perhaps the crime series he watched didn't have a story-line in a built up city with CCTVs and neighbours in close proximity.

To put it bluntly, a young girl, young in age, young in maturity demonstrated more COURAGE and MORAL CODING than this 25 year old wannabe.

Questions to ask:

Where did he school?

What did he do in school, in terms of activities?

It's time someone take stock of how apples go bad, because ONE BAD APPLE SPOILS THE BUSHEL.

In a society so tight in terms of people per square km, it's better to be discerning, even with the people we see everyday.  Had a witness thought it was just a man playing with a stray cat, he would have walked away a free man.  Never mind that, he would have walked away thinking he did very well for himself i.e. murdered a cat and escaped.

Is it paranoid to take a second look? NO.

There are many wolves in sheeps clothing.

So, I salute that little girl for giving me faith again, that the world might have gone to putts, but there is still salvation.

More Cat Abuses here

http://news.asiaone.com/news/crime/ubi-cat-found-wrapped-masking-tape-unusual-animal-abuse-case

The latest - some coward low-life, taped up a cat's entire body with masking tape.

This is what happens when society generally DO NOT SPEAK UP & STAND UP on animal abuse but instead just pay lip-service.

What ever happened to their upbringing?  Did they miss some lessons in moral and ethical coding?  It doesn't matter how old the perpetrators are.  They missed this entire part of learning.  At least a bully would pick on another of the same species.  Animal abusers are cowards, preferring to prey upon a 'no rights' life form.

I am proud to be where I am from.  But I am so ashamed that our society is lagging far behind in this area.  As a Psychology major, I have read many research papers which have found animal abusers to be from the same sack as individuals with conduct disorders.

It should not surprise me actually, since just standing by the side-lines and watching the general behaviour of people has told me a lot about what's lacking.

But I am no President scholar or any scholar for that matter having paid for all my fees with my hard earned money so I guess that's why what's obvious to me, or has been for decades, isn't remotely alarming for those who are in the curriculum planning department.  Hell, I am not even a 'qualified' teacher here, not having chosen teaching as a profession so I'm not trained to be a teacher to comment on where the teaching went wrong.  I'm not blaming the education system, but I also say, it has to take partial blame.

Children are coddled these days.  Any harsher a punishment will be deemed abuse, yet mocking a stray is nothing but kids fun.  Look at people from generations before.  They were punished hard, but seem to have a better moral coding built in.

I have always kept away from greater society, because alarm bells have been ringing in my head for too many years.
I did not want to loose faith in the good so I stayed away from people in general.  I have friends, but very select ones.  It's difficult to find thinkers these days.  Fortunately for me, the few discerning pals fill in the gaps for me to not be in want for more.  Quality > Quantity.

I have also been reading terrible crimes being reported these days.  It's not because the internet has made reporting easier so we read more of it.  This is news - which is reported in our conservative newspaper.  There was an idea that we think there are more spousal abuses because people are more aware of what it is and will report it.  True and not true.  The abused never think they are being abused.  Same for this cat. He probably thought it was a game.  Lucky for him, some kind soul brought him to the vet to be treated.

As we grapple with reports of murders, cat abuses - the entire world is focused on racism.

Perhaps if the world tried to look in the right places, the second-tier issues will never surface.  Fix the fundamentals and the rest will fix itself.
How's that from a non-scholar?

Mid CNY

Already we are halfway through the CNY.  Friends tell me that they felt even Malaysia was quieter this time around.  I thought so too until.....

I was picking up groceries from Cold Storage and wah lah! Tons of people were sieving through the flower rack as if all were free.  Seriously.  It wasn't unusual since Cold Storage does carry fresh flower stocks.  I have never seen a withered stalk there BUT it was also strange since this wasn't the only supermarket there and Cold Storage prices are not always at bargain rates.  Across the road was a more affordable supermarket, selling the more common stalks of flowers.  But it was a good feeling for the CNY, to see people of all ages, walks of life, grabbing whatever that was there.  That little section was almost like Chinatown!

Today should be EVERYONE's BIRTHDAY, day.  So that explains the rush.  That's also why I ended up there to pick up fish for dinner and to top up on Hokkaido Milk.

Perhaps everyone just reverted to spending quality time with family at home.  Of course eating joints will be filled up as well this evening, but there are still a lot of families, like mine, who prefer a more quiet observance.

I would have forgotten if not for good friends who sent their best wishes for the day.  Never could really understand the Chinese calendar.

It's good to know that CNY is still alive, quiet but alive.
Happy Birthday Everyone!