Author: CMR.sg

Caught up with 2 separate group of friends yesterday and the day before.

Interesting. They wanted more opposition members in Parliament from a certain party. They have certain specific individuals from the other opposition party they definitely wanted to win. There was a certain member of the ruling party they dislike so much they wish he lost. They felt a bit down by the results. One said he went to sleep early because he didn’t want to go to bed depressed. There was no euphoria with the PAP win. A few said they were depressed by the results.

What an interesting state of affairs. The PAP government has been in power since 1959, that’s 66 years. Continuously. A friend from India mentioned that even in India, the Congress Party, which was at the forefront of the fight for independence for decades, and was so entrenched into the fabric of India when India became independent in 1947, lost power after 46 years.

In the UK, governments change regularly every 10 years or so. US has a change of Presidents from the different parties all the time and even in Malaysia, the BN, which was so dominant since independence, lost power.

Would anything move the needle here? Is the reluctance to change because of our people, our system of government, our education system, or is it because the party is so good and it has delivered on its promises to the people and ensured economic prosperity and good basic services and therefore no one wants to change it?

Politics worldwide is heading in a different direction. Perhaps best illustrated by recent elections in Canada and Australia. The incumbent parties, from the opinion polls in January this year, were certain to lose power. They were given a less than a 3 % chance they will be re elected to power. So people clearly didn’t want them and didn’t like their policies. Trump comes in with his rhetoric and tariffs and suddenly there is a backlash against the right leaning parties in both these places. The left leaning incumbents won handsomely. So within 3 months a complete change in outcome. People’s views there changed because of a change in circumstances. Within a quick period of time. And they are prepared to act on it with their vote.

Are we a very different people or is the party so good that no one wants a change? But are there consequences to a lack of change…..?

The elections are finally over and the results are in.

Against the expectations of most people, the PAP obtained an improved 65% share of the votes. The number had been expected to drop to the high 50s.

A number of close fights that were expected did not materialize. BP turned out to be a non event. West Coast was the same. Overall PSP did badly and they lost their 2 NCMPs. This is going to be a big problem for them as the 2 NCMPs gave them profile and voice in Parliament. That is gone.

WP did alright. It maintained its total number of seats and was very close in 2 other seats. But everyone was expecting them to do much better. In addition to their 10 seats, they also get the 2 NCMP seats, which will give 2 younger WP members a chance to do well and profile themselves.

So what happens now…This was a strange election. People had so many issues they were complaining about. Even the PAP was afraid that this was not the best of times to go into an election. Despite all this, they improved their vote share.

Are there any lessons to be drawn from this or are we just sui generis? Is such a state of affairs good in the long term for a country? Does it matter anyway?

Today is voting day. I left home at 730 am to pick up my mother. It started raining very heavily on the way there. I couldn’t even see the roads as I was driving there.

On the way, I went to Casurina Curry to buy roti prata for her. I got totally soaked. Picked her up and we voted at St Nicholas Girls School.

Very efficient. At that time no one was there because it was still raining. Done in 5 minutes. Unlike the bottleneck in 2020.

Now to wait for the results.

Today is cooling off day.

When I was growing up, there was no such thing as a cooling off day. You voted immediately after the campaigning was over.

Then someone decided that it would be a good thing to have a cooling off day, when there would be no campaigning, before the election took place. The idea was to take the day off to reflect on everything you read, heard and saw during the campaign before you voted.

As I sit here today, I don’t understand the rationale for this. And I don’t think it makes any sense. I cannot see anyone sitting down today, quietly reflecting on what happened over the last 9 days, and the deciding how to vote tomorrow.

Anyway its in the rules and therefore no campaigning. Everyone is instead speculating what the results will be like tomorrow.

Are we in for a surprise?

Yesteday was a pre election day catch up breakfast for our group.

We met at 8am at La Levain at Hamilton Road. We talked about nothing else but the upcoming elections, the candidates and the likely scenarios. All of us have been or are still involved in community work. We all exchanged our individual predictions for the PAP vote share. All of us were within a 5% margin.

We shall catch up after the election to celebrate the one who was the closest to the final outcome!

Today I learnt the meaning of this phrase.

In 2003, as part of a project to highlight the effect of corrosion on the coastline, a well known photographer put out an aerial photo of Barbara Streisand’s Malibu beach home in a website. It was one of 12,000 other pictures on the web page. When it was initially put up, only a handful of people viewed the the picture. Apparently only 4 did. Barbara Streisand then went to court to seek the removal of the photo and claimed $50m in damages. Her case failed.

But her bringing the case generated publicity. When people found out about her attempt to take down the picture, they became curious and all went in to see what the picture and the fuss was all about. In the end, as a result of the publicity, a few hundred thousand people went onto the site to view the photo.

So the phrase was coined in 2005 to refer to the unintended publicity which can be generated by an original intention to either suppress, hide or censor information.

So I guess the lesson here is to know when to not push the button to shut down or censor information. Sometimes it is best to let sleeping dogs lie.

Last night I watched a documentary about Robert Fortune and Chinese tea.

Robert Fortune was a Scottish naturalist. He had a great interest in plants, flowers and horticulture in general.

In the 1700s and 1800s, China had a monopoly on tea. The best tea came from China. Tea plants, tea cultivation and methods of harvesting and roasting were well kept secrets.

The British loved tea. A lot. And they were prepared to pay a lot of silver for it. But it could only be obtained from China then. And so they decided that it will make most sense if they could cultivate it themselves without having to pay China for it. It could not be cultivated in UK. But it could in India, which they controlled.

So the East India Company, which had obtained a charter from the UK Government to have a sole monopoly on trade with the Far East, approached Robert Fortune to see how it can be obtained from China and then grown in India.

Robert Fortune travelled to China. At that time it was forbidden for foreigners to go to inland China. He arrived at Hangzhou and then disguised himself in Chinese clothes, shaved his hair and wore false braids. He travelled on a boat through the waterways to inland China to the best tea growing regions of Wuxi and the Yellow Mountains.

Between 1843 and 1848, he travelled many times to China and identified the best green tea and black tea growing areas. He obtained the seeds and plants. He observed the method of growing, harvesting and roasting of the tea leaves. He spoke to those who were doing these to understand the way to get the best out of these tea plants.

He then smuggled the seeds and plants out of China, together with the know how and cultivated them in India and later Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). The rest is history.

This is how the British broke the Chinese monopoly on tea. By theft and industrial espionage.

Of course Robert Fortune did not just steal tea seeds and plants from China. He is singlehandedly credited for introducing more than 200 variety of plants and flowers to the UK, of which more than 100 were from China.

The things the British have done to China. Steal their tea and their know how, force China to take in opium exports at gunpoint, which the East India Company grew in India, to fuel the raging addiction in China. Force China, again at gunpoint, to open up their ports and markets to them and cede HK to them.

Of course they were no angels in India as well.

What the British had and have in wealth was what they took by force from the rest of the world.

I can understand the antagonism and anger the Chinese and Indians have towards the British even today.

Today I completed my 1000th Wordle. This game was developed by a Welsh web developer and bought over by NYT in Jan 2022.

I was introduced to this by a good friend sometime during Covid. We were having lunch and she was playing Wordle. So I learnt the details of this game from her that day.

Initialy I wasn’t too excited about this game and I wasn’t consistent in doing the puzzle daily. Later it grew on me and it became something I would do first thing every morning.

Trying to guess the five letter word with 6 guesses can be challenging especially with some really difficult words like OZONE or MOTTO. Double letters and words having letters using Z,X,Q can make guessing the word challenging. I have a 98% success and am hoping to play till I hit a 99% rate.

Actually I sometimes wonder because there must be a limit to the number of 5 letter words there are. I know it’s not infinite. What will happen when they run out of 5 letter words? Will they recycle the words?

Today is Wordle no. 1491. I have done 1000 so it had been on for about slightly more than a year before I got on board. I will see where this ends…

Last night Liverpool won the Premier League Championship by beating Tottenham 5-1 at Anfield. Finally. It was the new Manager’s debut season and they won it. Good for them.

I have supported this team since forever. I remember even when I was in Primary school, supporting them. I was crazy about football then and would play it at every opportunity, whether at the badminton court at our flat in Margaret Close or at the semi grassy field at my grandparents” kampong in Sembawang.

Of course then there were no live matches on tv and you only saw prerecorded games on tv on the weekends or read the scores in the newspapers. The other source of football information was the UK football magazines. There were 2 in particular, Shoot and Goal. Shoot had more pictures.

Also I cannot recall why I picked Liverpool to support. Well I did and I have over the years.

I must confess I am not a fervent supporter like some others I know. I don’t get depressed or upset when they lose games and I don’t get euphoric when they win either.

I have been to Anfield once in 2016 but have not seen any games there.

Anyway they won this year. Good!

Yesterday I did a demo of this product. Its been out for a year but this was the first time I handled this product and tried it out.

It was a 30 minutes demo. I have to say I was impressed with what I saw. It can be used for work, gaming and watching videos and viewing photos in 3D format.

The immersive experience is good. All the movies, videos, NBA and football games in this format which I saw were mind boggling. The games in 3D are also impressive.

The current downside is the weight of the product. Because of its weight, it is currently recommended that you use it for about 30 minutes at a time. Probably the battery life has something to do with this recommendation as well. That therefore makes it impractical to watch a movie or play games which will need a longer run time. Also if you are using it for work purposes, 30 minutes is too short.

It is also expensive. It costs $5300 now. That would be beyond the reach of most people.

Also I think there is limited available content out there. Cannot imagine there being so much 3d and immersive videos and movies to justify buying one. There needs to be more widespread use of the product before developers create more content, videos and games.

All in all, the product is a good starting point. Potential is certainly there!