Calming the mind against the power to disturb of the White Paper

This is not about whether the White Paper makes sense or not. It is much more basic and fundamental – we all need to simply calm down. If we are not calm. Then at some point the divisions will simply be greater than the sum of what once united us and we will be weakened. 

Brother will turn against Brother. Already I have seen this transpire in the virtual world. Yesterday I logged in to our game. I disguised myself as a beggar and watched two groups of border guards in Sigma 10 trade insults over their loud speakers.

‘Is it 6.9? What about 5.9? What is the optimum TRF? Is it 1.7 or 2.1? What will happen to the family man? Will he still be able to afford to own a MPV? What about his job? Will he face increased competition from foreigners? Will his salary go up or will it stay the same or even regress?’

Understand this. There is very little you can do to change these policies to put the population on steroids just to chase growth. The custodians of power have already made up their minds.

However there is something that you can do to improve the lot of your family. Especially if you happen to be middle class, professional and a family man. 

You can plan for the future in a way that gainfully makes sense and not simply diffuse your energy like some meteorite giving all of itself to the atmosphere in one fiery burst – only to explode and disappear forever.

If you’re angry and your mind is smoking. Its very unlikely that you can plan your next move effectively. You just need to calm yourself down BEFORE you can plan what next to do. 

You need to work on your Plan B. You don’t have much time.

I realize in life when we set expectations for others to fulfill our dreams and aspirations. Even if we believe these are rightful expectations. Then all we are really doing is setting ourselves up for the fall.

Its best not to expect anything at all and to just dedicate ourselves to bettering our lot with our own brains and hands. Better still if one is able to make that mental leap to regard the whole idea of government as optional. Or something that just needs to work around. Rather than to change a system that I believe cannot be changed – it makes for more sense to me to use that time, energy and focus to fashioning a Noah’s Ark for his loved ones and circle of close friends to ride out the tsunami of humans that will land in our shore.

Maybe we all need to develop the same spirit of bettering our lives. We need to learn from the FT’s who decide to vote with their slippers against their lousy governments by going elsewhere. We need to cultivate that same attitude of adventurism and rugged individualism to seek out greener pastures and a better tomorrow for our children.

We after all live in a globalized world. If others can come to Singapore. Why can we not go work in New Zealand, Australia, Germany, Shanghai, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo etc etc.

I know this may come across as defeatist. But that is how it really is – if life deals you a crummy hand. Then deal with it. Work it through. Get a good plan B.

Its best not to fuck around any longer as if you have all the time in the world and start getting dead serious about working on your Plan B to better the lot of your family.

Do ONLY that and everything else will take care of itself. Mark my words. You do not have much time.

Darkness 2013

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“When you know a thing for what it is. Then you will not diffuse your energy wantonly. Do you see a man talking to a wall? No. Why because it will always be a monologue no matter how you choose to splice it.

So tell me. If you are a lawyer, accountant, engineer. Or a professional man in any field of vocation. What do you think will happen when wave after wave of lawyers, accountants, engineers and professional land on our shores?

You don’t know do you. Now if you just rely on the propagandist ST to beacon out the murk. Then you are a bloody fool. As to them it is just an ’emotional hump.’ Now let me tell you what I think about this metaphor – it is not so different from describing the Grand Canyon as a big sinkhole. Or lake Toba as a giant puddle.

To the thinking family who knows a thing for what it is. He will realize all this talk about whether we will have enough space to accommodate 6.9 million people is maybe only 5% of the problem. That is not a big deal. As supply can be computed to fulfill demand.

The 95% of the problem is what will happen to your job?

Do you understand now why all of you in this forum, including that fucked up penguin needs to wake up from your Rip Van Winkle slumber. You need to start connecting the dots – you need to discard the side dishes and just zoom in for the drum stick – you and only you alone need to start planning right now! Because if you don’t who the fuck is going to plan for you.

Let me call a spade a spade. Your dimension of your personal space in the year 2030. Will not be based on some calculations by some cross eyed scholar planner. It will be based on your earning capacity i.e money. The probability of you being able to afford to own a car in 2030 will not be based even on whether the government of the day is equitable. Again it is predicate on your earning capacity.

Do you all understand.

Conversely if your earning capacity goes down. Or your profession gets hollowed out by happy-go-luck immigration policies, then I can almost guarantee you space, mobility and idea of freedom will be stressed. As never forget Singapore is the land of the fee. And only the rich can be trully free.

So the solution is to earn more money. You know I am sure you all know Raymond right? He used to be a middle management banker. One day his employer handed him a Dear John letter. He was no longer considered competitive. But Raymond was not stupid. He reads the internet. He questions everything right down to its core. So when the shit hit the fan – he used his retrenchment and savings to venture into an enterprise abroad.

It wasnt easy for Raymond in the beginning. He plied to the North right up to the rice belts in Kedah and down south to Muar to sell his software and consultancy services to prawn and fishery farmers.

Today the standard of living for his family back home in Singapore is not affected – they kept the status quo.

Raymond needs to do this because his second son is autistic. They need to send him for special classes to treat him.

Do you all now see. Failure is not an option. Not for Raymond.

So soothed the way for Raymond. At the time he started turning the wheel of life – I had already established myself in the community as a man of consequence.

When he faced problems I was there. All types of problems, both of this world and the world that is the underworld that is never mentioned in polite circles. I was there.

Recently I met up with Raymond. And he asked me why did I go all the way to oil the wheel of life for him.

I told him that when I first came to these parts to turn the wheel of life. Although I could already speak Malay. I was still very green. And probably very wet around the ears. My first year was not so different from a man who walks and bangs over furniture in a dark room – and in that confusion and darkness. I met a plantation owner to the South one day. He stands in tanah merah like me. His son is in my cycling team. So there was a connection and he lubricated my wheel of life and the rest is history.

I guess gentlemen what I am trying to say here is – we really need to understand this is what it means to have a Singaporean core. I believe one day deep in my heart – one day if the Singaporean oore survives. It will not be so different from the Internationale Jewish idea where we may even find enclaves of Singaporeans in every possible continent. I believe that this core will be a repository of everything that is still good about Singapore. Being on the level, fair and square, keeping to your word, respecting the law etc.

Do you all understand Gentlemen? Do you all understand why this is so important that it is not strategic.”

to sell his which incidentally I consider to be a right of passage for any self respecting man – as man is a hunter and so the car is th

Excerpt of a conversation somewhere in the border region in Ortazan with a group of border guards in the planet Sigma Jasta 10 / relayed by the deep space scientific star cruiser KDD Warsaw – The Brotherhood Press 2013.