:Monday, January 05, 2009:
I read the article about John Tan. Wearing T-shirts accusing the courts of being a kangaroo court..
I read also articles about the chees and what they did fighting the Lees in court.
I think stupidity knows no bounds in this two incidents. I think SDP doesn't realise one very important thing. They don't realise that while they can choose their actions, they cannot choose the consequences that follow. But the most stupid of all is this.... They rant and rant about how our freedom of speech is limited, but they don't realise that freedom of speech MUST come with responsibility. If the speaker is irresponsible, I believe that the right to freedom of speech must be taken away.
I agree with a controlled democracy. Call it dictatorship. Call it anything you like. But Singapore is Singapore as it is now, and not some slum, some unmarked, unknown location on the world map thanks to this controlled democracy. Thanks to this controlled democracy, was our economy truly able to develop.
I do not deny the fact that I think the PAP has made some wrong, bad, and unwise decisions. But before we start punching, I think we should all acknowledge first of all that it was them who brought us this far in the first place. It IS true that a controlled democracy isn't good all the way, that we would, as a maturing society, eventually have to drop the 'controlled democracy/dictatorship' way of doing things. But there again, we can only do so when our people are mature enough. But right now, if we were to ditch this controlled democracy, all hell will break loose. The status quo still stands.
At the end of the day, the chees have themselves to blame. If they were smart enough to point out in at least a tactful manner what is wrong and what is bad, situations might not have been so bad. A solution might have been reached. but no. they HAD to start smashing, bashing... I think wearing the tee shirts accusing the courst for being kangaroo courts.. that's over the limit. If you want justice served, and it's not served the way you want it to, be a lawyer. change it. But no. Don't wear tee shirts just plainly insulting the courts. it doesn't do more than land you in jail. you deserve to, anyway.
:Monday, December 15, 2008:
out of curiosity, I read about the case of 2LT Li HongYi. Yea everyone knows about it. I'm a bit late in finding out. I guess, unbecoming of a debater huh. I'm so detatched from the news nowadays.
Anyway, i think that the whole emphasis of this issue is wrong. Everything faults 2LT Li for not going through the chain of command. But nobody looked at what's more important. Here we have an officer who is behaving irresponsibly, not being at his post of duty. If say someone attacks us during that window of time (highly unlikely but still possible) can we say that we have one battallion less to defend ourselves with? And despite being reported, that officer was not put in his place with proper punishment. regular or not.
I think what is most unpardonable is the coverup. Nevermind that an officer AWOL'd, but he should be duly punished and put in his right position. Even after a warning, he repeated his mistake. that should not be right! and after this entire fiasco, he was let off with a mere fine. $2500. Can we say that for the numerous men who have committed this same offence.... they could pay this amount and avoid going to DB?
but maybe on the other side of the coin, have some people committed the same offence and been covered up for? should military law be more rigidly enforced? or can there be some slack in cerain cases?
Anyway, now we are talking about a regular. A professional soldier. Someone who is in a high position. commissioned by the president. I guess it's needful to mention that for someone like that, it is imperative that he/she does not neglect his duty. I guess i was most outraged by this. and even more so about the coverup. It's not fair that an officer can commit such a serious crime and only needs to forfeit about a month's or so worth of pay, while other people are punished with DB, having their ORD date shifted later, and so on.
There again, 2LT Li should have covered his own butt by going up the chain of command. He's already been up to an OC who hasn't done much about it, maybe he should go up one by one up the chain of command, just to see how far up the chain of command he has to go before getting an answer. i'm curious to know if we ever did use the chain of command, whether we will receive a satisfactory answer/solution, or is it another case of 'okay i answered. don't like my answer? suck thumb.'
Maybe there's a reason why not a lot of people want to sign on? perhaps things could be done differently in the military......
:Saturday, December 13, 2008:
When my sergeant said OCS was a nice place.. he wasn't bluffing.
it IS a nice place.
But doing a parade for the OCTs who are getting commissioned made me feel a tinge of sadness and regret inside. Sometimes, I wonder if... I was just a bit stronger, a bit more resilient, a bit more......
Somewhere halfway through BMT, something in me swore that the SAF didn't deserve the use of my talents and skills. Now I look back and feel so humbled just looking at the newly commissioned OCTs. For the rest of their lives, people will look at them differently. Maybe you can say it's all hype. Maybe you know some OCTs who are f'd up. but I would say, to close your eyes and point at one of them, you'd more likely find someone strong in character, and highly in favour with his peers, than you would if you were to do that elsewhere in the SAF. For the rest of their lives, people will be saluting them, and yet I, a lowly private, will have to obey people for the rest of my reservist/NS life.
all the officer I will never be. Sometimes I can't help but wonder if i could have made it.... Although I don't know whether to be happy or not. IF i did get into OCS, it would be at the expense of my archery. I would not be able to shoot and train at this level. I'd probably end up getting out of the army, having to start archery afresh. Maybe this is for the better. I guess this is God's answer to me. That this is the path God wants me to tread.
well, as the counter ticks down, I count my days till I ORD. I can't wait till that happens. I regain my freedom from military law. That will begin a new chapter in my life. But for now, I will pay my dues to my country.
:Wednesday, November 19, 2008:
I just began my stay-in. But I realise that this.. being posted to parade band A, is probably what i've been asking of God all this time. God has granted me the perfect opportunity to upkeep a training regime.
Seeing the flow of sociopolitics in the archery arena, Soon, there will be just about nobody to keep me in check anymore. The national team.. just about all of them will be going to the army. It's going to be hard for them to keep up with me from there on.
Now I just need to focus on getting my performance level to where I want it............
Anyway, in camp, I find myself so much more focused. I find that i'm mroe disciplined when it comes to waking up, exercising, etc etc. And there are times we just have nothing to do. I will make use of this to train up.
Citius, Altius, Fortius..
sounds just like cougar company huh.... before doing chin-ups they'll always go AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH STRONGER BETTER FASTER COUGAR!!
:Friday, November 14, 2008:
Why must companies like Odex come into the picture? So far, this is the anime scene as far as i know. Some people in japan write storylines in manga format. These manga (comic) formats are usually adapted by a company to make an anime. Usually, most manga are followed closely by their respective anime. These anime are usually broadcasted on Tokyo TV, and usually in the japanese language.
Now what happens from here on is, subber groups or fansub groups LEGALLY (With permission of the original producers) take the anime, and put subtitles to it before redistributing it free for download. The original producers don't mind that because they are still making money for it, from the merchandise. it actually benefits them that the rest of the world gets to see the anime.
Here's where the ugly part comes in. Companies like Odex come into the picture and buy the sole rights to distribute the anime in singapore. I'm not sure if they bought the rights from the original producers themselves, or from the law in singapore(media development authority?)
Anyway, i'm fine paying for my anime, but NOT WHEN they do a HORRENDOUS JOB in subtitling it, sometimes double-translating them from the chinese-subtitled versions. The Subtitled translations could be so horrendous that sometimes the entire sentance just doesn't make sense!
here's an example. I happened to watch one of odex's products... Gundam seed. The dubbing that was shown on kids central was bad enough. Anyway, I watched the VCDs my friend loaned me (I still have them with me).
yes. In Gundam seed, there's this independant country called the united emirates of ORB. They're usually referred to as 'ORB' in gundam seed. The Jappo-nised pronounciation would sound something like OR-Buu.
To my disgust, Odex conveniently translated them in the subtitles to 'AUBE'. Half the time I had NO idea what AUBE was, until somewhere later, a picture of ORB's crest was shown and the subtitle appeared on the screen.
The quality of the videos were horrible too. And just for that 50-odd episodes, the regular buyer is charged a horrible sum of $115 (back some years ago) just to buy the whole bunch of CD/DVDs... all in horrible quality.
Now the question is this. First things first. Why should such companies be allowed to come in and buy rights to solely distribute the product in singapore, when first of all, the original producers already allowed it to be free?
Second of all. Why should that said company be allowed to come in and buy rights, and yet produce the anime in stores LATE by months (we don't get to watch it till months later, after it hits the stores) AND why should they be allowed to sell it in such horrendous quality when FREE FANSUB GROUPS DO IT SO MUCH BETTER THAN THEM?!
if they'd charge me for dattebayo-subbed anime i'd be fine with that, but not with the horribly singapore-subbed versions.
But we still look back to the first point. If the original producers allow fansubbers to sub and upload (for us to download) for free, why should companies like odex be allowed to come in as the middleman? Odex is losing money, yes. But that's money that didn't belong to them in the first place! Even so, every other country in the world receives it for free from the internet. It's not like it's wrong. The original creators of the anime don't lose money. They in fact, earn even more money through all the anime merchandise and cosplay items that are sold worldwide. win-win situation. Odex, sadly in this case, would simply be a thief.
Now, if companies like Odex were to simply buy the anime and then sub it nicely and properly and sell them in stores, I'm sure although people have downloaded and watched it, they'd still buy the CDs. If the company were to put the anime out at first possible opportunity, i'm sure half of the anime watchers would be willing to hit the stores to buy it rather than downloading. In the status quo, i'm quite sure just about everyone else would be willing to take their chances downloading anyway.
Well, i guess i'm one of the few smart ones around. I stream. No issue there. But I still hate companies like Odex with a passion. The law really does have a few loopholes. I write this blog entry in the hope that in due time, the law covers its loopholes, to serve justice as it should.
:Tuesday, November 11, 2008:
Everyone is trying so hard to be different. Everyone just wants to be original, recognised.. but eventually you find them intuitively doing the same things. Sometimes, it's so painfully cliche.
I think at the end of the day, the best thing to be is yourself. I'd rather make friends with someone who is himself/herself rather than someone who's a fake. Fake expressions, fake emotions, fake image, trying to be all complicated.. i get so sick of that.
Now playing:Radical Dreamers~Nusumenai Houseki
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