Archive for Vote PAP Somemore
4 plain clothes policemen attacked by 200 men in geylang back lane !!!
March 6th, 2010 • Fun!, Vote PAP Somemore
Originally posted in Hardwarezone
???????????“?????”?????????????????“?????????”????????????4??????????????
??????????????????????????????????
??????????????????????????15????????????????????
????????,?????????14?16??????????????25??????????????????
???????????4???????????14?16???????????????????????????????????????????????
?????????????200?????4?????????????????????????????????????
???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????15?????????
babelfish translation
Four plain-clothes detectives late-night raids Geylang lanes gambling establishment, the public was hit by 200 surrounded by, and was even throwing bottles and stones at police detective forced to shoot a warning!
A man disarray booing, shouting “Do not be afraid of police” instigated feelings of the masses, but also with the Hokkien provocative detective, “You told me a kind of singled out!” Some people also followed shouting, the police only 4 people, we have so many people, do not be afraid!
Confusion, two police detective was shot and another was kicked in the mouth bleeding, after the two were sent to hospital for treatment.
After the man was on duty for Jiuzhong trouble and threatened civil servants were charged, the judge sentenced him to 15 months in jail, the defendant aggrieved by the sentence while the appeal is currently on bail.
This is harassment from assaulting police officers, recently took place at 14 and 16 Geylang Lane. The defendant Feng light (transliterated), time of the incident 25 years old, was with a male friend at a nearby dinner.
According to the judges ruling, time of the incident, four plainclothes detectives late-night raid Lane Geylang 14 and 16, arrested a man and a Chinese ethnic Malay man. Ethnic Chinese man was unwilling to captured, strongly refused and struggled with detectives Luanhan barking has burst on the foul language.
At this time, spectators were increased rapidly to nearly 200 people who take advantage of four detectives 1:00 overwhelmed a moment, lifting his glass, stone, glass, chairs and so on, threw detectives who rallied.
Chaos, ethnic Chinese man kicked one of the detective’s mouth, the two detectives in the back and head, respectively, have been hit by hard objects, while the defendant to incite feelings of the masses, uttering provocative detective, on-site conditions at daggers drawn, detectives to control the scene, had no choice but drew a warning! Soon, a large number of police officers and police dogs to the scene to maintain order, which lasted only 15 minutes of uproar subsided.
Reform Party responses to Singapore Budget 2010
February 26th, 2010 • Vote PAP Somemore
The following are just key points taken from their press release. There is plenty more information on their website:
Whilst we are not in favour of redistributive taxation, these are some of the measures the Reform Party would introduce if elected to power to ensure a more inclusive society:
1) Reduce taxes and fees on the less well-off
2) Introduce a minimum wage
3) Invest in creating a system of basic universal health insurance to replace the inadequate Medisave and Medishield schemes. This government needs to recognize that public health is an investment good rather than a welfare drain. This can be funded by earmarking part of CPF contributions
4) Create a system of limited unemployment insurance to be funded from CPF
5) Introduce a basic old age pension again to be funded from CPF contributions
6) Allow individuals to decide how much they wanted to put into CPF once the above three objectives had been met.
7) Introduce universal, free and compulsory education from pre-school to secondary level
8) Expand tertiary enrollment substantially and provide assistance for people at all stages of working life to complete degrees or further education as part of an expansion of the Continuing Education and Training Initiative announced in the Budget
9) Privatize Temasek and GIC and distribute equity to Singaporean citizens
10) Dismantle the GLC structure and adopt a more pro-active competition policy
11) Release more land for low-cost housing and inject more competition into the low-cost house building process by allowing private sector to compete with HDB
12) Ensure that NS burden was fairly shared by new citizens and PRs
13) Adopt a more rational immigration policy where the growth in the labour force is driven by genuine skill shortages rather than by a desire simply to expand the size of the economy
A story of a girl manipulated by her grandfather
February 26th, 2010 • Vote PAP Somemore
http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/showthread.php?t=2685795
Once, there lived a south-east asian girl. She was beautiful and petite, much more attractive than many of her neighbours, who were ugly, lazy or even violent.
Many men loved her deeply, most even offering years of their lives to work as her bodyguard, protecting her from her neighbours.
One day, her grandfather called her into his room. “Ah girl, for the sake of our familee, you have to do this. There is no other choice.”
From then on, she became a changed person. She opened the gates to her house wide, allowing all kinds of people to cum inside her. These people come from the north/south, white, yellow, black, all nationality, large numbers (thousands) of them.
She worked hard to serve these customers, doing everything to appease them, to make them feel good, so they can tip her better. All this time ignoring the pleadings of the men who loyally protected her.
It was useless. In the house the grandfather makes all decisions. Who else can be more qualified? Not even the father can do anything, much less the lowly, lesser bodyguards.
Soon, her house became overcrowded with customers. There was no choice but to chase some of her bodyguards out. The remaining ones suffered a pay cut, with the hope that they will leave by themselves.
Overnight, her familee became very rich. Easily the richest familee in the whole region. Some people despise this method of making money, but it doesnt matter to the grandfather. Money is money.
It slowly dawned on the girl that all the people who cum inside her dun actually love her. For them, once they benefited from the short-term encounter, they leave. No obligations, no responsibilities need be answered.
After several months, the bodyguards who used to love her, who protected her, became really turned off by her love of money and promiscuity. She was no longer pure, no more beautiful, just a cheap tool of her grandfather.
Right now, they are reading this thread and wondering, should they continue to protect the girl and her grandfather, or should they give up?
This story is really not simple …
On the difference between PAP before and now
February 26th, 2010 • Vote PAP Somemore
HWZ (sacrificium)
I realised that their only selling point was that between 1965 to 1995, they turned Singapore from a backwards country to a first world country.
For all the elections after 1995, they are still selling the same point. They can’t think of what they have actually achieved or from 1995 onwards we are going the other way already?
Examples of moving backwards that were achieved by PAP after 1995:
Example 1
In the 1990s, we discounted the building of 2 rooms flats and minimise the sales of 3 room flats so that citizens can have a better quality of life. But after LHL took over, we started bulding more 2 rooms and 3 room flats and discontinued executive flats. We are heading towards a lower quality of life.
Example 2
In the 1990s, we have successfully move towards cleaner energy using natural gas fired power plants. In 2010, LHL’s administration approved the construction of lower cost but less clean coal fired power plant. our quality of life is taking another step back.
Example 3
Before 1995, Singapore has achieve GDP growth without significant increase in foreigner. After 2003 when Mr LHL took over, Singapore also recorded GDP growth, however, it is not dueto productivity increase. Mr LHL is simply doing empire building to boast that he has done a good job of improving the GDP. However, we understand that he has achieved that by simply increasing the population size and not the productivity of the population. Average salary of the population has in fact decreased over the same period. With increasing cost of living and decrease salary, average Singapore is having a lower quality of life. (Tell Mr LHL to show us GDP per capital over the past 5 years to justify that he has done a good job.
How could this happen in Singapore?
February 21st, 2010 • Fun!, Vote PAP Somemore
Another humorous take on our country’s highly paid ministers.
Multi-National Churches (City Harvest)
February 21st, 2010 • Fun!, Vote PAP Somemore
Interesting, looks like Singapore’s very own one-man led church, City Harvest Church, has gone multi-national.
Countdown till they go IPO on the Spiritual Exchange.
Kong Hee “Anointed” - City Harvest
February 18th, 2010 • Vote PAP Somemore
I think the video speaks for itself. I have nothing more to say.
85 police reports lodged against Pastor Rony Tan
February 18th, 2010 • Fun!, Vote PAP Somemore
Fridae
Fridae has been told that a total of 85 people including filmmakers Sun Koh and Royston Tan have lodged police reports over the long Chinese New Year weekend about pastor Rony Tan’s offensive comments concerning gay men and lesbians in an online video.Singapore filmmakers Sun Koh and Royston Tan have lodged police reports about a local pastor’s offensive comments about gay men and lesbians in an online video in which he interviewed an ex-lesbian. (Read more here.)
Singapore filmmakers Royston Tan and Sun Koh (right)The 80-minute video is hosted by Rony Tan of Lighthouse Evangelism, an independent church with 12,000 members. He had recently come under scrutiny by the Internal Security Department last Monday for comments he made during a church service about Buddhism and Taoism, which many people felt were offensive.
Koh told Fridae in an email that she had made a police report by telephone on Saturday night to flag instances of “gay-bashing that often goes unnoticed.”
“I want to send a message that gays and lesbians in Singapore will no longer stay silent when provoked by religious groups that actively promote disinformation.”
The 32-year-old, who won the Best Director and Best Fiction awards for her short film Dirty Bitch at the inaugural Singapore Short Film Awards last month, says she is hoping for a public apology from pastor Rony Tan and an assurance that he will refrain from spreading falsehoods about gays and lesbians in future. Last week, the pastor apologised to Buddhists and Taoists for denigrating their beliefs.
The video, which is believed to have been uploaded to the church’s website in May last year but was removed from the homepage just one day after the apology was issued, had a new lease of life after it appeared on a blog maintained by Kenneth Tan (no relation to the pastor), a Singaporean working in Shanghai. In the video, the pastor attributed childhood abuse as a cause of homosexuality and linked gay people with paedophiles.
He further linked homosexuality with bestiality saying: ”If you allow [homosexuality], next time people will want to get married to monkeys. And they will want rights. They’ll want to apply for HDB [a colloquial term to mean a government subsidised flat]. With a donkey or a monkey or a dog and so on. It’s very pathetic.”
Royston Tan, a well known filmmaker (of 881 and 15: The Movie fame), told Fridae that as of Wednesday a total of 85 people, including Koh and himself, had lodged police reports.
He told Fridae he felt offended by some of the remarks in the video. On Saturday, he posted a comment on his Facebook profile saying that he had made a police report about the pastor’s comments. Some friends followed suit and told him that they too had made similar police reports.
“This is not about revenge or gay rights but basic human respect,” Royston said, adding that he was thoroughly disgusted by the pastor’s reference to gay people wanting to marry animals. “As a religious leader, he has a greater responsibility than lay persons to create understanding and not mock or spread untruths about any groups of people.”
Royston hopes for an apology and assurance from the pastor that he will not denigrate and spread further untruths about gay men and lesbians. Rony, who founded the Lighthouse Evangelism church in 1978, has since apologised for disparaging other religions on his church’s website, and in a private meeting with the leaders of the Buddhist and Taoist communities.
According to Koh, she said she was informed by an officer from Tanglin Police Station that the police has received similar complaints about this incident and are investigating. The police has not responded to Fridae’s email request about the status of the case at the time of this article’s publication.
Lighthouse Evangelism on Thursday acknowledged receipt of Fridae’s request for comment but was unable to reply in time.
Members of the community Fridae spoke to over the long Chinese New Year weekend had mixed reactions about having to use the heavy hand of the law between religious groups and other groups including the LGBT community.
Russell Heng, a co-founder of Singapore’s pioneer gay group People Like Us, prefers that the pastor’s offensive views, which are not uncommon among certain churches in Singapore, be “debated and not regarded as a security threat that requires the intervention of a country’s security apparatus.”
Kenneth Tan, whose recent blog entry called out the pastor’s mocking and misinformed remarks during the interview with an ex-lesbian and spurred Royston’s decision to make a police report, says this would be a “good opportunity to kick-start a debate in the public square.”
“Rony Tan and Lighthouse Evangelism (and many Christians) do not consider the ex-lesbian video offensive. This is something we should challenge – before the public thinks this case is ‘resolved’ and many already think so, or are sick and tired of hearing of the story,” the Shanghai-based Singaporean told Fridae.
“The Sedition Act prohibits speech that promotes ‘feelings of ill-will and hostility between different races or classes of the population of Singapore’. This will be a good opportunity to test the government just what it means by ‘different classes’. Are sexual minorities considered a ‘class’?”
Under Singapore’s Sedition Act and Section 298 of the Penal Code, it is an offence to promote or attempt to promote hatred or ill-will between different religious or racial groups. Sexual orientation and gender identity however are not recognised as protected classes under the law.
A forty-something gay community leader, who wishes to only be identified as Kai En, says this might be an opportunity to establish gays and lesbians to be a class of persons to be protected under the law.
“It also informs the police that we as a community take this seriously.”
This is a view echoed by Royston who says that the time has come for the gay community to stand up for itself and especially with support from straight allies. “To have over 80 people including straight allies make a stand by registering their objection to certain ideas being spread to the authorities is very symbolic. We are no longer passive; we will listen, digest and react,” the 34-year-old told Fridae in a phone interview.
Miak Siew of Free Community Church, a gay-affirmative non-denominational church in Singapore, however warns of a backlash as publicity about the police reports will likely “create a siege mentality in certain quarters of the Christian community.”
“Their reaction is not likely to be ‘let’s accept them’, but ‘we are being persecuted!’ This has been observable in Thio Li Ann’s and Yvonne Lee’s reaction - even though they are actually the oppressors and persecutors, they are very quick to claim that they are the oppressed and the persecuted.” He told Fridae in an email, referring to Thio, a former Nominated Member of Parliament who argued against the repeal of Singapore’s gay sex laws in 2007 and Lee, a law professor who wrote in the media that the law should not be repealed as “homosexuality is offensive to the majority of citizens.”
Siew, who is currently pursuing a master’s degree in divinity at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley California, says LGBT people need to come out to disprove the myths.
“True harmony comes about from mutual understanding and dialogue, not from shutting people up. If people are silenced, it will only drive the talk underground, where it is harder for us to reason with, and to counter. It is only when the talk is public that we can show the falsehoods and misconceptions in what people say.”
Kenneth added: “If the gay community doesn’t choose to make its voice heard now, then we should forever hold our peace the next time another pastor comes along and says the same thing.”
85 police reports. What have the police have to say now. I applaud the LGBT community for their activism. Your hetrosexual brothers and sisters are behind you. Everyone deserves equal rights, and Rony Tan needs to be held accountable for such hate.
38 points rebuttal to Pastor Rony Tan’s points about Buddhism
February 18th, 2010 • Fun!, Vote PAP Somemore
Though Pastor Rony Tan had already apologised for his gross misrepresentations of Buddhism in his video interviews, many of these misrepresentations remain unclarified in a point by point manner, which is what this article hopes to do. As the videos are publicly viewable, clarifications on them should be publicly viewable too ? here. As the videos are full of misconceptions, please do not view them without also reading the clarifications. Please do not circulate them without the clarifications either.
May this article serve to create more right understanding of Buddhism. May all co-exist in peace and happiness. (This mail was sent via a Buddhist mailing list for those who subscribed to it for Buddhist news. If you received this via another channel, it might not be meant for you. Thank you for understanding.)
Interview with an ?Ex-Nun?: http://youtube.com/watch?v=EIrtk5V_t-Q
Clarifications
1. If the account by the interviewee is true, she was offering probable proof on the validity of the phenomenon of rebirth that is worth further investigation. Rebirth remains to be the only viable explanation of how children with fresh memories (and adults in deep meditation) can tell of detailed past experiences in past lives, many of which are verifiable upon proper research. For more about time-tested scientific research on rebirth, please refer to the detailed works of Dr. Ian Stevenson.
2. ?Pu Men Pin? is the ?Chapter on the Universal Door?, from the Lotus Sutra; not as mentioned, the ?Goddess of Mercy Sutra?, though the chapter does centre around the enlightened Guanyin (Avalokiteshvara) Bodhisattva, who personifies perfect compassion, and is commonly mistaken as a mere goddess.
3. The voice the interviewee heard could be that of a guiding unseen being with good intentions, instead of a demon. To know if such voices are evil or illusory, we should be use our wisdom to mindfully discern if that heard makes sense objectively. Even those of other faiths do hear supernormal voices at times.
4. Though the interviewer could not look ?behind the scene? to objectively expose what he believed to be a magic trick, he jumped to the conclusion that it was simply so.
5. It is not true that all males are better than females as it is obvious that there are many females who are more virtuous, wise and successful than many males.
6. As many animals take initiatives to protect and rescue humans and their kind in need, some animals can be more proactively moral than some humans.
7. It is indeed impossible to become a high-ranking monk in one?s first lifetime because there is no discernible first lifetime in the innumerable rounds of rebirth. And there must be something done to deserve whatever one experiences due to karmic cause and effect.
8. The Buddha?s last words were ?Subject to change are all conditioned things. Strive on with diligence.? He was urging us to strive on the way (the Noble Eightfold Path) to liberation that he already discovered, walked and shared.
Interview with an ?Ex-Monk? (Part 1): http://youtube.com/watch?v=pKBzyatd880
Clarifications
1. Details of the temple that asked the so-called ex-nun to leave should be given ? for further investigation as to whether such an incident did happen. Genuine healing happens very often in many religions, including Buddhism.
2. The interviewee wasn?t a real Buddhist monk, as he was only a novice for two weeks. A real monk would not have such poor and erroneous knowledge of Buddhism, as demonstrated in these videos.
3. No true Buddhist monk would only aspire to go to an impermanent heaven after death; but aspire for Nirvana instead.
4. There are no Buddhist mantras in Pali as mantras are either in Sanskrit or Tibetan.
5. Mantra-chanting is not merely for protection, but for nurturing certain virtues too.
6. Buddhists have no need to protect themselves from gods, who are mostly good, unless it is Mara (the chief heavenly demon) and his minions. However, when one protects one?s mind with high moral integrity, there already is protection with the natural force of truth and goodness. The term ?devils? is not used in Buddhism.
7. The interviewee should had learnt more about the so-called ?mantra? before practising it. Not doing so was to follow blindly ? which the Buddha would disapprove.
8. Mantras are not arbitrary strings of words with arbitrary meanings like ‘oo oo ee ah ah tik tank wala bing bang’. They are specific sacred syllables with profound meanings.
9. As Buddhism sees the existence of a creator God as illusory, it is not a Buddhist goal to be greater than God. Buddhism teaches that nature (re)creates nature naturally. However, the Buddha did teach that there is a god who mistaken himself to have created the world, who acknowledged the spiritual superiority of the Buddha. In Buddhist cosmology, even wise gods, who were previously very virtuous humans, seek to learn the path to liberation from the Buddha before they eventually fall from their heavens due to the depletion of their limited positive karma. The Buddha is thus greater than all gods, who has broken free of the cycle of rebirth, and is also known as the ?Teacher of Humans and Gods?. The Buddha taught that we can all become Buddhas like him ? an enlightened one with perfect compassion and wisdom.
10. Reincarnation refers to the idea of an unchanging soul taking upon a new form from one life to the next, while rebirth refers to the truth of an ever-changing consciousness that goes from one life to the next. It is due to this constant change that spiritual betterment and perfection is possible.
11. With the precise and intricate workings of the law of karma, one?s rebirth is guaranteed to never be by chance, but by virtue of the quality of one?s intentional thoughts, words and deeds before dying.
12. There are many animals in this world because it is relatively not easy to have the precious human rebirth, which requires more positive karma, virtue and wisdom.
Interview with an ?Ex-Monk? (Part 2): http://youtube.com/watch?v=dEfQwBu5ZWE
Clarifications
13. A novice who does not understand the Buddha?s teachings well cannot bless any devotee effectively.
14. The rationale of some monastics? refrain from entertainment (e.g. television and radio) is to keep sensual indulgence of sight and sound to a minimum, so as to better cultivate their minds for greater calmness and clarity.
15. The rationale of refraining from handling money in some Buddhist traditions is to minimise attachment to material wealth, which could distract them from seeking spiritual wealth.
16. The temple should be named for verifying any truth in the interviewee?s account.
17. The interviewee confessed that he didn?t practise his meditation well due to having many stray thoughts. He is thus not a good candidate to testify for the efficacy of Buddhist meditation, much more of the path to Nirvana.
18. The interviewee described the path to Nirvana haphazardly and incompletely. A brief yet comprehensive way to describe it is that it requires walking at least the Noble Eightfold Path.
19. The interviewer says Buddhists go ?ang chang yang yang? in temples, and that it?s music to him. Suttas (and Sutras) chanted are not arbitrary strings of words with arbitrary meanings. They are specific sacred teachings with profound meanings. The tunes used are to facilitate rhythmic pronunciation, pacing and memorisation.
20. Nirvana is not easy to define in words just as the personal experience of happiness is hard to be put in words. Nirvana is the perfectly blissful state of liberation from all causes of suffering, that the historical Buddha realised in person and taught about. The speed at which it is attained depends on how diligently one practises the Noble Eightfold Path to realise the necessary wisdom. Nirvana is eventual with practice and many have attained it in history. The goal of Nirvana is thus not a blind idea promoted by the blind; but a state of awakening led to by the awakened.
21. When something bad, such as being sick happens, it is due to past karma ripening and/or one?s present karma created in this moment. For example, if one has an inexplicable illness that cannot be traced in origin within this life, it is probably due to negative karma ripening from a past life. If one eats too many cookies and becomes sick, it is clearly present negative karma of unchecked greed bearing fruit.
22. There are countless cases of active healing in Buddhism both in the past and in the present. However, Buddhism seldom uses cases of healing to attract devotees, while focusing on its core teachings of practising compassion and realising wisdom.
23. As the workings of karma are dynamic, Buddhists do not believe in fatalism or predestination. The effects of our past negative karma can be diluted by our present positive karma which we actively choose to create now, while our present karma can shape our future at will too.
24. We can learn from our past lives by recollecting them through practising proper and deep meditation ? just as the Buddha did. If we find this challenging, we can look at the physical and spiritual state of our present lives and our habitual tendencies to know what we could have done or were like in the past.
25. Many young children with no preconceived ideas can recall their past lives vividly. All babies also exhibit specific untaught character traits which are probably forces of habit carried over from their past lives.
26. The Buddha taught that both men and women have the ability to attain Nirvana. He was also the first founder of a world religion who permitted women to enter monasticism full-time. While one is born as a man or woman is a result of karma for various reasons, it is not true that all men are greater than all women, as there are many women who are spiritually greater than men ? even in the Buddha?s time.
27. In Buddhism, it is ultimately us who realise timeless liberation ourselves. However, there is the great assistance of many enlightened ones (Buddhas and Bodhisattvas) available to guide us to realise it too.
Interview with an ?Ex-Monk? (Part 3): http://youtube.com/watch?v=S4wKGg4mJ1g
Clarifications
28. The point of becoming a celibate monastic is to focus fully on the spiritual path, which is why monks-to-be voluntarily choose not to marry ? without feeling any loss.
29. Like the interviewer did eventually, the interviewee should consider apologising for his very unsettling misunderstanding of Buddhism. According to the Buddhist teachings, unrepented intentional slander of the Buddha?s teachings, which endangers the spiritual lives of others can lead to rebirth for a long time in the hells. However, just as there is no eternal heaven in Buddhist cosmology, there is no eternal hell due to the limitations of one?s negative karma.
30. We hope the interviewee will no longer testify his highly misleading ?Buddhist? experiences, especially in the Sunday School that he teaches.