Singapore island state controlled newspaper The Straits Times of yesterday carries the story "PM calls on young to give back to society".
He claims that "they (Singapore youth) are much better off than their counterparts in Europe". I wonder in what way? European youth live in democracies where they can speak their mind without worrying about Lee Kuan Yew or his son, they have human rights which includes the right to free speech, expression and the right to protest and change their governments through the ballot box. Also they are governed by rule of law and not through prosecutions in Kangaroo courts in his Singapore island.
He then says "there are millions of European youth who are done with their studies but cannot find work, a situation that will scar the rest of their lives". Really? When did Lee Kuan Yew's son become a psychologist other than his principle qualification of being the son of his father? He should know that Europeans live in Europe. And in Europe, there is democracy. And in democracy there are good times and bad, and at bad times they work to correct it.
Europe is not a fascist state like Singapore where we look to Lee Kuan Yew and his son to find us jobs and sit around like stupid children incapable of anything. For the son's information let me tell him that if I needed a job as an attorney in California, I find it myself. I don't have to look to President Obama to arrange a job for me. And if I can't find one, I try until I can. But in any case, I am not in a hurry to return to Singapore so that Lee Kuan Yew or his son can find a job for me.
The same goes for European youth. They are resilient and not your little children like Singaporeans are. If some are unemployed, they are not in a hurry to condemn their democracies, and neither are they making a bee line to Singapore so you can find them jobs, nor into the merciful arms of Lee Kuan Yew nor his son.
For the information of Lee Kuan Yew's son, I think he should know this. Despite your paradise island, the fact is that in a recent survey among Singapore youth, the vast majority surveyed had indicated that they would leave your paradise for a life abroad if given the chance. In fact I have no doubt that if Singapore youth were given a chance to move to the very same Europen countries which you despise, I am sure every single one would jump to it. And you might also want to know that while you are spewing this nonsense, under your very nose, your youth are emigrating in increasing numbers to the very countries that you mention, refusing to do national service by absconding and bad mouthing you, your father and your country at ever opportunity available.
No, it does not appear that you are appraised of reality. You must be smoking something, I am not sure what.
For the readers' convenience I am attaching below the article in the Singapore state controlled press, Straits Times.
Gopalan Nair
Attorney at Law
Fremont, California, USA
PM calls on young to give back to society
Published on Jul 07, 2013
2:46 PM
2:46 PM
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has urged Singaporean youth to give back to society as he noted how much better off they are than their counterparts in Europe. -- ST FILE PHOTO: LIM SIN THAI
Speaking at Teck Ghee Community Club on Sunday, Mr Lee said that there are millions of European youth who are done with their studies but cannot find work, a situation that will scar the rest of their lives.
Singapore is fortunately not in that predicament, he said, expressing his hope that the future will be even better through the collective effort of the Government and the community, especially those who have succeeded in life.
PM Lee was speaking at the launch of the "PAYM Loves Red" campaign, a two-month-long movement by the People's Association's youth wing to express patriotic pride in the lead up to National Day. Over 100 activities have been conceptualised and organised by 6,000 young people.
4 comments:
What Malcolm Gladwell said in his book, Outliers, on Korean air crashes.
"You are obliged to be deferential toward your elders and superiors in a way that would be unimaginable in the U.S." he added. That's dangerous when it comes to modern airplanes, said Gladwell, because such sophisticated machines are designed to be piloted by a crew that works together as a team of equals, remaining unafraid to point out mistakes or disagree with a captain.
Is the airplane called Singapore, Inc. going to suffer the same fate.
Because no one dares to question LKY - e.g stop at 2, speak Mandarin, graduate mothers, 6.9 million, ...
No one questions him when he appoints his son Prime Minister - look at LHL's list of bad decisions.
driven by respect to authority and fear of upsetting their superior, the co-pilots ultimately contributed to the plane crash as they allowed the pilot to start a visual landing without an alternative.
Any lessons for S'pore?
A Korean Air plane flying from Korea to Guam was going through bad weather and stormy clouds. The captain had committed the plane to visual landing, which meant that he had to be able to see the airport runway. Here is some of the conversation among the pilots. Pay close attention to a couple of comments from the supporting crew to the captain and to how the captain responds to them, or doesn’t:
First officer: Do you think it rains more in this area?
Captain: (silence)
Flight engineer: Captain, the weather radar has helped us a lot.
Captain: Yes. They are very useful.
What the first officer is trying to do is warn the pilot that it may not be safe to do a visual approach without a backup plan for landing, in case the runway is not visible. Such communication of hinting from first officer to pilot is not uncommon in Korean culture. However, driven by respect to authority and fear of upsetting their superior, the co-pilots ultimately contributed to the plane crash as they allowed the pilot to start a visual landing without an alternative.
To Anonymous,
Your analogy to Korean culture in commercial flying and Singapore is indeed correct. I recall another instance in the case of Korean jumbo cargo 747 where immediately after take off, the Captain side of the horizon indicator was faulty showing the aircraft banking to the left while the instrument on the co-pilot side showed straight and level flight. While the captain continued to bank the aircraft to the right hoping to level the aircraft, the co-pilot just sat there doing or saying nothing, in deference to the captain. Of course the aircraft banked too far to the right and simply crashed killing both pilots and anyone else on board. I suppose this is Asian Confucianism or more correctly, stupidity. Singapore is no different.
Words from the mouth of a PAP shill.
Jerome Lee, Washington spokesman for Singapore’s embassy to the United States.
"Since its independence, Singapore has had regular, free and fair general elections with high turnout rates." Yes we have regular elections. Yes we have high turnout. All of us were trying our best to get rid of a dictatorship the legal way. However, it is stretching the definition of "free and fair" to claim Singapore's elections fall into this category.
And a wonderful reply:
"The press is controlled. And recently the government decided to control the Internet as well. Election time is shortened to as little as one or two weeks at most for campaigning. And there are all sorts of rules and regulations to ensure any campaigning is restricted one way or another. Gerrymandering is almost a national sport for the ruling party. If there is a competition they will win the world championship at it."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/singapore-is-no-autocracy/2013/07/08/30aa2bd4-e5b5-11e2-bffd-37a36ddab820_story.html
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