Going Hungry in Singapore

 

Friends are the key to a balanced life

 

5th Aug 2020 dinner with Faisal and Albert 

This year marks 33 years since we came out of formal education, the National University of Singapore (NUS for short).I graduated from that University (now there are 6) in 1987 with a Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical), having studied the first year at the campus, and then the next 3 years at the newly minted Nanyang Technological Institute (NTI) which was then the engineering arm of the NUS, 

Time has surely flown by in a blink of an eye, 33 years have come and gone, we have started out careers, gotten married, have children, bought and sold cars and apartments, started and closed businesses and sadly in the last 10 years, participated and grieved in the passing of our beloved parents, spouses, friends, colleagues and acquaintences.

Throuh it all, friendships with our long time friends are like wine, the relationship is no longer like the sharp fruity aftertaste of the Sauvignon Blancs, Chenin Blancs or Chardonnays. In fact, it is the deep, thoughtful and circumspect Merlots and Shiraz the Reds which seem so much more smooth and satisfying to the tastebuds.

Long may we keep the good ties, bad jokes, horrible one liners and gentle jibes going on for the longest time. 

   

  

Money Supply M0 M1 and M2 - Khan Academy Primer for my understanding

Fascinating, at my age, I do not even know the basics of economics ; I'm playing catchup 

 

Wolves Take on Sevilla for Europa Cup Quarter Finals on Tuesday 12th August 9pm Germany Time

This is the climax of Wolves fantastic season, the win or bust of the Europa League QuarterFinal held behind closed doors, Wolves started this League playing Republic of Ireland's Crusaders in July 2019 - more than 1 year ago !

Sevilla, Seville's football team has won the trophy 4 previous times. Wolves are but debutants to the 'ball'.

With a brilliant manager and support team, Wolves will definately be the underdogs.

However, the 'unknown factor' or unfamiliarity of their opponents and vice versa, is in my opinion, going to be the game changer 

They will win this all important match 2 - 0 ; I am  sticking my neck out, but the team will sense that history is in the making and will produce the game of their lives.

2 - 0 ; Wednesday 12th August 3.00 am kickoff time.

Carpe Diem Wolves !  

Happy 55 Singapore. No more a youthful or young nation ; Maturity, Wisdom and Thoughtful Action is needed from our leaders.

Singapore is 55 years of age today. We have been blessed since our inception in 1965 by a great leader and statesman Mr. Lee Kwan Yew that with each year after his passing, I am more and more awestruck at his contribution to raise this little backwater of an island in the midst of (then) unfriendly neighbours and having to fight numerous battles on the economic, social and political front it is something of a miracle that we have this unlikely metropolis which I proudly call my home.

Let us reflect on this fact on Singapore's birthday. I am grateful for having a giant of a man who led Singapore for the better part of 30 years as Prime Minister then taking the back seat as Senior Minister, and finally Minister Mentor in his final days. He was a brilliant statesman, leader extraordinaire, loving husband and super salesman of the country. True, he had to enact the Internal Security Act during Operation Coldstore, but the greater good of Singapore has been achieved  in barely 30 years. We are now a first world country with one of the highest GDP per capita, freest economy where business is concerned, clean, green and a place where the world expects Singaporeans to stand up and be counted upon. He and his wonderful team achieved this starting in mid 1960s for a poor island struggling after the Second World War with no hinterland, little farmland, no rare earth resources, no water. 

Malaysia had decided to 'kick out' this island at the south by an immediate amendment of the Constitution, fearing the rise of Communist enclaves, and racial disharmony amongst many other issue. In the late 50s and early 60s, Singapore was subject to the Hock Lee Bus Riots, the racial riots, the Konfrantasi between the then Malaya and Indonesia, the Chinese Middle School protests and the worrying rise of the Plen (plenitentiary) who had started the Malayan Communist Party and was eyeing on radicalising Singapore's young urban poor.  

In 1967, the British decided to pull out all of their bases, Naval and whatever land forces they had. Poverty was rife, gangsters and triads were plentiful and people were left after the 2nd World War with no jobs, lack of security, sanitation and a bleak future.

Only through the amazing vision and steely willpower of a great man, a no nonsense taskmaster and his desire to pull this unlikely nation by its bootstraps from the Third World to First World did Singapore 'make it'. 

My salute to you, sir. 

Singapore - The origins of the name ? 

I am also struck that the name Singa Pura is taken from a Sanscrit word and Singa meaning 'lion'. Historically and from wildlife records from hundreds of years ago, there have never been sightings of any Lions in the Lion City. According to folklore, (again it is all heresay and handed down stories which Man is very good at altering to his exaggeration to make the story more 'tall' and awe inspiring), the Majapahit ruler Sang Nila Utama came to this island one day to hunt, and lo and behold, the saw the Lion when he landed, hence the name Singa in the Singa Pore name. The jungles of South East Asia only record Tiger sightings and Lions domain or sanctuary is the Savannah in Africa. Strange isn't it ? 

An unlikely formed country with an even more unlikely origin for a name, with a brilliant leader statesman all at the same time. The odds of that happening is probably less than one in a million years. 

I prefer the more accurate Temasek from the Indonesian  language whereby the meaning is the Land surrounded by the Lakes. This is much more apt. 

Happy 55th Temasek Island 

The first 2 Acts have come and gone - 

Now comes the Hard Part...... 

 

Morse Code ; a 100 year old 'language' ; I just learnt it for fun

 

In the days of the smart phone, people are dumbing down, because everything is within reach of your handphone. Many people take for granted basic methodologies like mathematics, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. I have also noticed a decline in cognitive thinking and rational debates either in the spoken word or in essays. 

Yuval Noah Harari's prediction that the world is gravitating towards a superclass of humans (called Alpha Humans) who control everything in the world using Artificial Intelligence and Biometrics. Robots will be the Working Class,  eventually taking over menial and repetitive jobs such as driving (cars, buses, Grab and Uber), navigating (Google Maps), food delivery (Food Panda, Uber Eats and Grab Food to name 3), cleaning, data entry, big data and so on.

At the bottom, there will be grow a subclass (underclass) of humans with nothing to do. It is scarily prescient but its only still in the distant future.

 

In addition, there are many apps such as Grammerly which help you with phrasing, punctuation and horrors, in the domain of end to end encrypted communication such as Whatsapp, and Snapchat, there are these horrible things called emoticons which - you guessed it - give emotion to our boring phrases, IF we can even be bothered with writing in grammatically correct and syntax free sentences.

So, we are subconciously being dumbed down, to becoming unthinking, lazy beings.

I DO NOT WANT THAT ; Not in my lifetime.

Hence, I have decided to learn languages with my free time (my target is to learn 5 speaking and writing fluently) , and this is my hobby and target.

Starting with Morse Code, a useful code language whereby through a series of dots and dashes you can write out, albeit slowly, sentences when you do not have a handphone and the next person is quite a distance and there are some physical structures such as walls, or metal structures between the both of you.

Its so fun, and I have developed my way of memorising the dots and dashes and now I am looking for a Morse Code group to try out my latest language ! 

2009 December Egypt Memories