Quick, someone report Juan Cole. His attempt to explain and make us understand what makes an Islamic fundamentalist suicide bomber do what they do is clearly an attempt to excuse their behaviour and he should be exposed.
Sure, there will be those who say targets of terrorism deserved it, be they innocent or not. Most people, I reckon, just want to understand why some people would do something so inhuman, so we can figure out how to treat the problem (violent fundamentalist extremism), not the symptoms (already indoctrinated violent fundamentalist extremists who want to blow people up).
Is that so fucking hard to comprehend?
Just found out my mum’s been temporarily transferred to help the new Board over at the NKF. I expect to hear about:
- secret sex tapes featuring TT Durai rolling around, naked, in coin
- TT Durai’s habituation of dialysis patients to champagne so they’ll never tell
- TT Durai swearing to do ‘whatever it takes’ to destroy the SPH for talking about their plumbing
- not-quite-generous-enough donors getting a visit from TT Durai in his Mercedes for a little ‘chat’
- what ‘perks’ really means in TT Durai’s office diary
- TT Durai’s gold-plated peanuts
(Joking, ah.)
Update: just to make things clear, in case anyone wants to sue me for defaming anyone else, this is a joke about how much people have overreacted with respect to TT Durai’s compensation and perks.
I apparently really know my tech terms. I’d be in trouble if they start asking about packet sniffing, though.
… he’s sitting right next to you and sends a Skype chat message to ask if you farted.
(No.)
A little debate has sprung up between Neil and I, its roots in the accidental execution shooting death of the Brazilian electrician in London. I read about the shoot to kill policy, and Neil says the number of armed policemen is so low that it makes little difference anyway. The UK is not like the US in that respect, people do not walk around carrying guns, even the police. The UK police wouldn’t shoot first and ask questions later. Even the revelation that 2,100 police officers in London are now licenced to use submachine guns and pistols, with training direct from Israel, and that the shoot to kill policy, in place since the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US, but curiously never used until after London was directly attacked, will budge his opinion.
I agree that Jean Charles de Menezes was under suspicion, maybe for good reason (perhaps he was kind of shifty in other ways), but we’ll never know the truth because of all the emotion that is now associated with him. The police have conceded that he ‘had nothing to do with terrorism’.
I reckon London is different now. The IRA bombings back then were different to what has been experienced in the past weeks, and people will be on edge, alert to any activity deemed outside their realms of normal behaviour. The Brazilian bloke was shot seven times because he was deemed suspicious enough, the Muslim man in Nottingham was beaten to death because he was brown, and therefore representative (to the assailants) of the bombers.
If I was one of the police officers chasing de Menezes, I know I would be thinking, He might not be a suicide bomber, but what if he is, and I fail to protect the people around him?
If I was being stared at because I was South Asian or Arabic, I know I would get nervous, and maybe start shifting in my seat, maybe start sweating (I won’t because I’m ethnic Chinese and I’m tattooed so I’m used to being stared at anyway). Maybe try to keep my mind from noticing the stares, by rooting through the bag I always carry.
I reckon London is very different now.
… he uses Skype’s instant messaging to talk to you while he’s in the living room and you’re in the study.
I presume the analysts have more experience than me on this:
More than one-third of the casino revenue is projected to come from Singaporean high rollers who now gamble abroad. But why would they stay home when Singapore bans credit for local players? Second, the privacy of players is not protected as it is in the United States. Furthermore, the government wants the resorts marketed only as destinations, not casinos, with less than half of their revenue coming from gambling. So Wall Street wants to know where the players will come from when “there’s no there there?”
Marketed as a ‘destination’. Heh. A destination for fun, $fun$, $$fun$$?
Yes, Terry, it is kinda creepy, a strangely-limbed woman falling and sliding off bubbles. (Yeah dude, it’s taken me a while to get around to looking at the link.)
Oh boy.
We have a chicken running around freely in our apartment complex.
I say we chase it into the pool. Or near one of the stray tomcats.
- finished Yes Prime Minister (legendary)
- had prawn noodles at the Singapore restaurant
- had a few drinks at The Londoner
- went for a boogie at Park Latin (that was not wise)
- went for duck porridge at 4am
- went to a 4th birthday party at the Holiday Inn
- left the 4th birthday party at 2.30am (the 4-year old went to bed at 8pm, she’s not hardcore)
- went to a new bar, Glasshouse
- went to The Londoner for shepherd’s pie at 4am
- got home after 6am
- slept in (funny that)
- started and finished Past Mortem
- had dinner at Havana
- watched six episodes of Lost
Ah, English language blogs in China pollute the great country by bashing it over their filthy toilets (true), public defecation (true), unhygienic eating habits (true), tendency to rip people off whenever there is an opportunity (true), and unrestrained spitting in public places (true), and “that sums up what these blogs are really all about: they provide forums for arrogant ethnocentric Westerners to boast about how great they think their own countries are when compared to China.”
Erm. I’m ethnic Chinese, born and raised in Southeast Asia. I have a very healthy disgust for the greed and lack of hygiene I experience at the hands of Mainland Chinese, as well as foreigners (who can only be Westerners, according to Mark Anthony Jones) who’ve been here too bloody long. What does that make me?
(Richard, MAJ obviously takes you awfully seriously. If it really is him.)
Help Ange out, answer her online questionnaire, or set up an interview with her for her PhD research on foreigners living in second-tier Chinese cities.
My mum wants me to delete the Save Michael See site, because she thinks it will jeopardise my future in Singapore if I go back and look for a job. She brought up the example of TT Durai, recently-resigned CEO of the National Kidney Foundation, and said it could happen to me.
I’ve been rather busy and have not been keeping up with Singapore news, so I had to look this character up. From what I gather, TT Durai had launched a defamation suit (how Singaporean) against Singapore Press Holdings and a journalist, who had allegedly misrepresented the NKF in a story about (wait for it, this is stirring stuff) bathroom fittings at the NKF headquarters. It was then revealed during questioning, that TT Durai earns a really good bonus. The NKF and its boss gets some serious public criticism (their patients don’t seem to be so upset, although the money being spent is not going to their treatment — which says a lot). In order to calm the rage, TT Durai, the entire board of the NKF, and even the patron (Mrs Senior Minister) step down.
That’s what I get from the news.
Maybe I’m being dense, but publishing a web parody on a publicly-available site I’ve promoted off and on (that takes no donations and certainly serves no ads, and the only benefit I get is some personal satisfaction) is in what way similar to expensive perks and bonuses to a non-profit organisation’s senior officials, only now discovered? I understand that my mother has concerns about how my candour may make some organisations uncomfortable (Mum, Inc. mostly) — why would I want to work for anyone who stresses opacity over everything, hasn’t experience taught my nuclear family that cover-ups make things worse — but comparing me with TT Durai is completely apples and durians (I’m apples).
In any case, the site hasn’t really changed since I first published, and it needs a refresh of some sort. It’s now unavailable to the public (without a password) while I think about what changes it needs.
There are a couple of pieces in the IHT about how wonderful an investment China is to banks and VC funds.
Having just read Mr China, I’m wondering how short their memories are. The investors in the book did due diligence on the factories and industries they poured almost half a billion US dollars into, as did the book’s protagonists. Despite the preparatory work they did, circumstances and China’s own way of doing business bled almost all of it away.
It is not a good idea to pour money into China like this. China may claim they are a country of laws, and in a sense, they are, but those laws are difficult to enforce. As are terms of contracts. And that last statement comes from experience, not books.
Dear Skype,
I was so pleased with the quality of the call I made to my sister the other day that I went and purchased more SkypeOut credit. But then my Skype client has not updated the balance in my account. I tried the solution suggested in the knowledgebase, several times in fact, and the balance has not budged above zero in my Skype client (but the correct value is displayed when I log in to my account on the Skype website).
Please tell me what’s going on, Skype. I submitted a support request and have not heard anything back in two days, except for the automated response. I understand that not all technical requests are answered if the answer is in the knowledgebase or user guides or troubleshooting pages, but my question has not been answered.
I really want to use SkypeOut on my computer, my darling Skype. I am at a loss and continue to wait for your reply.
Love,
Not So Many Days Away From Asking For A Refund
Update: Free Skype Day seemed to fix the problem. Odd. Still no answer from the actual company, though.
Currently lashing Taiwan, Typhoon Haitang has been making itself felt in Xiamen with winds strong enough to blow a kitten or small Asian blogger away. To add insult to injury, the Central Weather Bureau has also reported an earthquake, magnitude 4.3, in Hualien (one of the cities worst affected by the typhoon).