Tea tree oil….

I am in the city. Since I forgot my wood scent. I climbed over the wall to my next door neighbor’s to pluck a few sprigs of tea oil. When bruised the leafs release a minty and refreshing aroma that I rub on my skin.

This is to innoculate me from the death rays of the city…a disease I call, Citysystis.

When I jumped over the wall. Hardly had I landed. A large Rotweiller growled at me. I have never seen this dog before. He must be new. I commanded the dog…come, it hesistate and eventually came and kissed my hand.

Dogs instinctively know that I mean neither them or their owners any harm. They have ESP.

They are much easier to communicate with than humans by far.

Autistic folk & Coffee

Coffee pods will be grown by autistic people. They will also be processed by autistic people and even the cafe’s will be staffed by autistic people.

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‘I am a damm good planter! You talk about coffee its about a strong six out of ten in my inventory of skills. I wouldnt say it is an easy street crop to grow. As its proned to diseases, but I want you to know that’s manageable….unfortunately growing skill even if its in the uppereaches of the best is simply not enough to ensure success.

As the power and politics of the coffee business favors those at the top end of the value chain and not the primary producers.

To transform coffee into a sustainable business, its vital to cut off the middle man….he and all his accoutrements must first be destroyed and the space which he and his counterparts occupy in the value chain must be destroyed.

Without this a priori condition it would be futile to project from growing to market….it is not possible for the enterprise to be profitable let alone sustainable. That is because autistic people cannot be managed by efficiency metrics of normal people. One needs to be gentle and patient with them. So the cost of running an enteprise with autistic people will always be higher than a profit motive enterprise.

But it can be done….as for oil palm. I am done with it!

At the current rate the US and China internecine geo economic war is unfurling. It is my belief that this will engineered state of geo political chaos is likely to stretch on for at least a full decade. During this period there will be many industries and sectors that will be decimated by the pheltora of trade barriers and levies….oil palm will be one of these casualties.

I do not believe policy makers or politicians can alter this sad outcome between China and the US. It is fair to say the only thing to expect from this erudite lot is empty feel good platitudes…truth is the trade war between the US and China is one that is driven by very powerful economic motivations that are unlikely to be wished away soon…whatever it is from this point onwards, its a race to the bottom. I am out!’

Coffee….I might have to grow it next year!

Why governments can always be counted to be critical of Facebook

Allow me to first be clear…I am not particularly fond of Mr Zuckerburg or for that matter his business philosophy. I detest facebook. As I believe as a social media platform, it is nothing more than a panoptical snooping apparatus that will ultimately dessiminate the post modernist disease of narcissimg by giving posters the illusion that they are smarter or better than they actually are because they have X or Y people who they will probably never meet in their life liking their post.

But to ask of government to appraise Facebook is like asking Count Dracula whether he would like to be the CEO of the national bloodbank….of course the count will run down the current CEO…as he has a vested interest. Just like governments all over these days who are slowly and surely losing the power to influence the masses due to the balkanization of how news is produced and distributed.

Between Facebook missing the occasional ‘fake’ news or the iron fist of officialdom…..I would have to say I for one much prefer Facebook.

The internet belongs to all of us….as for governments they are also stakeholders. But certainly no more or less.

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‘Was facebook wrong in not taking down a post to incite racial violence in Sri Lanka. Yes! But that doesnt alter the fact it will always be disingenuous to hyper inflate one incident beyond all scale and statistical sensibilities and assume that just because of one isolated incident the net requires regulation by way of legislation.

If that is the pariah dog logic of how to inject sense and sensibility into this fake news debate. Then it may be a good idea to transform both the ECP and PIE into canals to augment Singapores water independence from Malaysia. After all we have seen cars driving at full speed in the opposite direction and causing loss of life and limb. We have even seen so many cases where cars and roads are as dangerous as a full clip of semi auto in the hands of crazed and angry gun man who mow the innocent down indiscriminately….so why do we the human race continue to the nurture the technology of cars, planes and trains despite them being so dangerous…the reason is because we all inject a sense of scale into these trajedies and by that calculations the trade off of being able to take a commercial jet is far superior to the good olde days of sail boats!

But what do we have here…suddenly in the internet you have a bunch of bureaucrats who are so atrociously bad in math that they cant seem to conduct simple cost and benefits analysis on why it makes far more sense to leave the internet alone than trying to put a policeman in the head of everyone produces content in the internet.

Truth of the matter is the crux of the issue – the ratio so to speak is why didnt Edwin Tong ask of Facebook in London – why they categorically refused to take down a post alleging that the PM of Singapore was complicit in the 1MDB scandal. In this particular case I see no one inciting violence of any kind, yet the custodians of power wanted Facebook to take down the post.

This should prompt every sane and reasonable person to ask – what would happen if one day governments no longer need to ask online enterprises like Facebook to take down or remove content….then what actually happens to the quality of the content. That question would remain quite sterile, if the daily rag is a reliable purveyor of quality reportage. The problem is they are fake news content producers on an industrial scale as their ring masters are governments themselves.

I think at some point in this entire conflagaration of fake news and what to do about it. We would do well to ask whether governments can truly be trusted with the job of winnowing truth from lies in such a manner where it serves the interest of the people….that is a question that I shall leave entirely to the preceptive reader.

Meanwhile I remain yours.

Darkness third stage Guild Navigator of the brotherhood!

Did Edwin Tong make a bloody fool of Singapore and himself in London?

Edwin Tong taking a plane all the way to the UK and attending the fake news conference on behalf of Singapore and asking facebook – why it failed to take down a post in SRI LANKA blogoland…..is like landing on the moon and asking whether Mao Sang Wong premium durians can grow there!

YOU MISSED THE POINT BY A GOOD TEN OR MORE MILES!

What he should have done instead is frame the issues of fake news to the relevancy of Singapore and Singaporeans…maybe a better question to ask of facebook is why they did not take down allegations of complicity of the PM in the 1MDB scandal?

What was facebooks reasons for refusing to take down the post? Was it justified?

What does Sri Lanka or whether durians can grow on the moon have to do with fake news in the context of Singapore.

Why didnt you ask the question that everyone wants you to ask Edwin?

Sri Lanka?

What about the question? You mean he spoke about Sri Lanka instead? Want to see the ball disappear? Did the question disappear like the orange ball? Did it?

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What can Singapore learn from the london fake news meet?

How to professionally organize and conduct a world class public enquiry in a respectful atmosphere that fosters cooperation and competence trust. Instead of doing it as so many say (remember I didnt say it!) in a pariah dog way.

Cable puller

I hope the online citizen returns soon….

As I agree with Shanmugum on the ill effects of consuming fake news. As a result I would rather give the nation destroying press, mediacorpse, Singaporedaily, mothership a happy miss.

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‘If you are a regular consumer of fake news. Your brain will certainly get smaller and smaller till at some point you will not have enough brain cells to tie your shoelaces. That is why you should always make it a point to stay away from fake news and brain dumbing propaganda sites!’

Why you should not buy a Suzuki Jimny!

I am very shocked that the new Suzuki Jimny only has a 3 out of 5 NCAP rating!

I would have expected a pedigree off roader to have at least a perfect 5!

I am so sorry if I ever gave any of my readers the opinion that I am interested in this car….as it is, its a coffin on four wheels.

No good!

Might as well drive a Toyota landcruiser!

Cable puller

Often misconstrued as mind bogglingly cumbersome and very dangerous to fingers…..but to those who have extensive field experience…A vital, jugular and at times the one and only way to pull off a safe recovery.

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‘I am old school thats to say if I take ten men out into the field. I take out the same. That means safety is the alpha and omega….regretablly not many see it this way these days. But this will never alter my personal kpi on what is effective leadership!’

The Man who is the Cocoa Planter of Gabundi Estate

I know that I’ve always depicted as cruel and heartless. But he was not like that. Perhaps I needed to see him as some dark and malevolent force as I needed a justification…..to get rid of him. Writing this now. It sounds preposterous. The very idea that one can be envious of a being that resides within me and to all intends and purpose…is me. As I am him.

But we were always different. He always looked at me understandingly – much more understandingly than I could be counted to look his way. It wasn’t just simple understanding. Rather there was depth his capacity to understanding. A quality of sympatico that if you were really lucky. Even you would get to experience at least a couple of times in your lifetime. You know the type of understanding where you find yourself with car trouble on a desolate stretch of dark lonely road and all you want to do is get back home, run a hot shower and hit the sack…and suddenly he shows us and gives you that clean cut boyish look of absolute assurance that’s good to last a whole year without batteries….looks under the hood and next thing you know its running. The sort of understanding where as you drive away reluctantly only because you wished you had stretched your neck a bit further to ask him for his number as he seems nice enough to bring back home to meet your mom and dad, he’s right there waving at you and you know that every cell in his body believes without shadow of doubt that you will do the same. When you know darn well…you will just drive right on with hardly a care in the world.

Like I said, he had this uncanny ability to convey perfect understanding – he understood you just exactly the way you have always longed for another to understand you….considerately without once registering the bad or ugly. Only the good in you really mattered in his puppy world view of understanding. He even believed in you so much so that you found yourself having second thoughts about who you really were only to suddenly rediscover yourself thru his eyes…as someone incomparable, noble and exceptionally special.

Now you understand why I hated him…

Why you absolutely need to embrace your ‘darkness’

I have shared many things thru the years…..but most it have been trinkets.

However….What about to share with you is and will always be very powerful.

It is so powerful that it is likely to be the most profound and life changing post that you will ever read.

If you do not want your current life to change….you should stop reading and not visit this today and go and play Pokemon.

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‘What I am about to share with you will likely alter everything you believe in how to make yourself a better person. It is likely to ‘alter’ as I am convinced convention theories and formulations concerning personal development philosophies are fatally flawed. As no matter what the pedigree of these schools of thoughts. They are all unanimous that the dark side of ones character should be totally avoided. I use the term ‘darkness’ as it is an apt abbreviation to deploy only because no one, not even the subject matter experts it seems is particular interested to supply an indepth disquisition on what elements constitute these ‘dark’ matter. Frequently broad strokes are use to described these traits ranging from bag terms such anti social behaviour to anger which raises more questions than answers.

Many years during the failed Suriman Expedition on the 48th day deep in the jungle this log entry was penned…..I want you read without any assumptions or even expectations to the best of your abilities the reason be clear to you after reading the transcript…remember theres no beginning, middle or end…only the horror.

‘It came to me again. No. Correction. He. He came to me. I could hear him sitting on the protesting rattan chair in my tent. He was pulling on a cigarette, it was Turkish. He has his cigarettes handrolled in Cairo. It was the preamble period just before dawn and though the light was eireely Parker ink aquamarine blue, I could even make out his diabolically handsome features in darkness, his angular jawline, broad shoulders and swagger….it was him alright attired in his razor pressed open collar khaki field linen shirt, jodhpurs and mirror polished dresage boots. He wore his shouldered holstered revolver Ma’ai horseback style with the barrel all the way to the back. That way when he leaned across my field desk it didnt hang nervously.

The smell of the finest Turkish tobacco perfumed the tent. I knew it was him…it was beginning to lighten by then. I could make out his Hong Kong movie star swagger as if he was primed and ready to give another motivational speech. He was good at that, ladies would squeeze their legs tight when he narrowed his eyes and spoke. Men would sit at the edge of their chairs and electricity would form high above somewhere between the fan and ceiling, but it was not really him..the Cocoa planter from Gabundi estate.

You see none of us have seen a real cigarette for a very long time…a dry cigarette that can burn, let alone a Turkish blend was like moon rock. The bloody thing doesnt exist here! He could not have been real. I had conjured him up in my head. But I felt deep relief as if an immense weight had been lifted from the depths of my heart. I knew then and there. We would get out of this terrible mess.

(To be cont)

Kerosene ‘P’ Lamp – back up discipline

This is something that I have to learn to use. Currently I have three back ups if my mains fail for any known or unknown reasons. The first is batteries, but they need to be recharged in solar mode and there are issues. The second back up is gas lanterns, namely butane. But the kit is expensive and the gas canisters are not that user friendly. The third back up is candles, but since they dont have much juice, thats strictly not sustainable.

I need to look into kerosene pressurized lanterns. As firstly they are very reliable. Secondly, they do pump out decent lumens, about two or three 100 watt incandescent light bulbs and finally liter for liter they are more efficient than even butane or propane.

Noted they’re complicated and one of these lanterns come with maybe one hundred moving parts and probably eight hours of run in hands on training – but nonetheless they’re a very sustainable back up.

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‘It is only a matter of time before my business rivals will cut off my electricity and water supply. They think I dont know, but since I am autistic. I am naturally inclined towards paranoia and that means I use spies to keep me informed of what is going on….they will strike during dry season as that if the period where they can inflict the maximum physical and psychological damage.

But they dont realize that I have a network of emergency water tanks to even last me and my dogs two years.

But my weak point is electricity. So lately I have to train myself to live on batteries. My fan is powered by batteries, so is this ipad and everything else. I cook on a camp butane stove.

I am doing this to prepare myself psychologically. So when they flip the switch…..absolutely nothing is going to happen….I am never going to the negotiating table with a shot gun pointed at my head…even without electricity and piped water providing I train religiously from now till then, my life will just go right on albeit with some minor inconveniences.

Man after all has lived without electricity and piped water for 4,000 years!

The village barber who doubles as the Abwher has informed me they are very confident this strategy will work that is good as I mean to lull them into a false sense of confidence. Once they move. I will deploy the strategy of waiting them out….I will transform time into a deadly weapon where the passing of everyday will cut like a razor, but to accomplish this, I will need to project the image despite being denied electricity and water life goes on not only as usual. But I may even have to get at least ten of these kerosene lanterns. As I want to light up my house in the night royally. It will be so bright that everyone in the village can see it as I live on a hill.

The moral of this story – in peace you do well to prepare for war!’

Why the totalitarianism of ‘political correctness’ has made the strong Singaporean ashamed to be strong

These days the word that gets you ahead in life has to be SAFE! So providing you are ultra careful with what you say that you go thru it at ten million times the day before and you tie a string on your thumb to remind yourself never to scratch your balls in public…you will be safe. SAFE also means you should never offend anyone and that means you should only stick to neutral topics like the weather and home renovation and cultivate the perculiar yet increasingly popular habit of talking about things without bothering to go into any depth.

Stay safe!

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‘If you really must know. Trump didnt win the presidential elections. Hillary Clinton gave it to him on a silver plater. The reason why she did that was because no reasonable and sane American could understand what kind of ticket she was running for because her message was so politically correct that it simply didnt make any sense at all!

And that just happens to be a pithy summary of what happens when political correctness is taken way too far. As a consequence of the proliferation of PC. These days everyone goes around bubblewrapped. And since everyone is presumed to be hypersensitive, people with strong opinions are considered anti social and even undesirable.

It is in this perverse way that we make ourselves weaker and alienate the strong and most capable from our community.’

Integrating your darkside into daily life

We have traditionally been told to cast away our darkside as it is considered an undesirable aspect of our character….but that logic cannot possibly hold true. As nature is not stupid, if our darkside was really such a mill stone the development of our character…. nature would not have polished and honed it razor sharp like a samurai sword for mellinia.

Based on my personal experience in the wild….our darkside many aspects that can not only make us a better person, but it may well be by integrating our darkside into our daily life it may actually be more necessary to living a purposeful life than we actually think.

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‘You can literally make out those people who have a five bar connection with their darkside. For one they look super alert. They all dont have that what’s happening here? victim expression. They’re alert because they’re scanning for weakness and sensing X,Y and Z power structures – this is a very primal instinct.

So in other words they’re connecting with some dark pre-Edenic ancient force.

Let me just share with you how I developed this theory. I live with eleven guard dogs in my compound. Look these are not cute furry golden retrievers. They’re man eating Dobermans. Now this is what I observe – what the pack will do every morning is pick on ONLY one dog. If you’ve never seen this before, it’s vicious because the dog being picked on is surrounded and he or she is most certainly shit scared, but he or she still has some fight despite being really petrified and the rest will maul away….but the strange thing is it is never allowed to go so far as to disable the dog. How they actually begin and stop is still not clear to me. There seems to be no cue. Not the type I can detect and I know dogs well.

The pack seems to know instinctively when to break off and when to switch their collective anger at another dog.

And I watch this phenomenon every day and one day I began to ask – what the hell is happening here? Is this a dominance thingy that is some how relatable to power and dog pecking order politics?

I dont know. But what I do know is animals unlike human never deny their primal instincts that’s to say they dont ever differentiate between their darkside from their normal mode. To me its one monolithic entity thats highly integrated.

That I think is how they tune themselves mentally, physically and possibly even spiritually. Always remember this – they never go so far as to seriously injure the dog they’re all picking on. Now some people reading this will say…so what! Big deal! Hello! it is a very big deal possibly even big enough to be a Nobel prize observation because when you consider how much firepower one doberman has and here you have nine dogs picking on one and at the end of it, its like they all suddenly stop and say to you whose looking at this with a horrified expression because you are simply powerless to stop it! – sorry, we’re just playing around!

No! No! I sit down every morning in my yard and I see this.

Something very significant is happening here! These dogs arent engaged it some rough and tumble ritual. They’re making a meaningful connection that is arguably vital and even jugular in so far as it adds value to their role as guard dogs. They’re connecting with their dark side. Fellowshipping with it even. And it is darkness that keeps them sane in the wild.

So I know it sounds perverse, but when I say – you should connect with your darkside…I am not advising you to be a bad person. Or even condoning violence. On the contrary by making that connection – we complete the loop of what it means to be gainfully human thereby giving us all tremendous insight that allows us to be gentler and better humans.’

I wouldn’t mind getting a Jimny as a second run around

Because my go too mechanical horse is a Toyota Hilux and its a big big and very big car. The problem is I dont need to haul stuff all the time, sometimes with my Toyota. I feel like a big 747 hauling just a crate of apples.

But a Jimny would do very nicely as a second car. The problem is Suzuki doesnt have plans to locally assemble this fire cracker, so the selling price might just be as high as a hilux.

I happen to think the Jimny is a great little car ideal for small jobs. I can see myself chalking up decent mileage on a set of wheels like the Jimny. But regrettably, I dont think the marketing folk in Suzuki share my vision….thats a pity.

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‘When one lives in the frontier. It is quite normal for one’s to go thru a sort of evolution in taste and preference. For example, I used to like slim women becauze I thought that was elegant, but these days I prefer my women to be slightly round and even big boned. That way if some thing happens to me in the field. My woman can carry me home like a sack of potatoes. I also like my women to be stronger than me. And I definitely want them to be level headed. Of course many of those who like to write me charming death threats say that I like my women to be like furniture that is why I much prefer them level headed so that I can put a big mug of tiger beer on their head while I watch TV. They say all sorts of hurtful things about me such like I am chauvanistic and I like to demean women. But my needs are actually very humble and functional that at least is what people who know me say.’

Nothing is likely to change even in the ‘new’ Malaysia

Real and meaningful change is only possible if the party political process is willing to dismantle identity politics and consign it to the garbage heap of history.

The problem is no political party is willing to do this, not even PKR has any intentions to do this.

And if nothing ever changes at a deep and fundamental level…then whatever changes will at best only be cosmetic. Because everything fundamentally remains the same….it is just old dressed up as new that is all.

Only one big reason why Chan Chun Sing will be a ‘good’ PM for Singapore

Either way you choose to splice the cake….Singapore cannot do without a military man in the top post. A civilian would be an absolute disaster in so many ways that I rather not elaborate. As it is based on even the most conservative and forgiving scenario permutations, the region is likely to experienced increased tensions due to scarcity of opportunities and resources and whether Singapore likes it or not, it will need to project a much more muscular and assertive foreign policy….either that of other countries will come in a write the rules!

In my calculation it does not pay for Singapore to be a nice guy any longer…if I am pressed it is not only because we all know, nice guys always end up last and holding a bag with a blur, ‘wtf happened?’ expression. But there’s only so much nice diplomacy can accomplish especially when the otherside is hell bent on playing hard ball. It makes far more sense for Singapore to be a closet psychopath* if the imperative is to win geo economically and politically.

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*You better upload this if you want to go places! Better still if you can print, laminate and carry it in your wallet and read it out at least three times a day!

No one in this world has ever got any where with just being nice…you want to know why Mahathir & Co won and Najib went the other way. It was because the former was a super duper bad ass street fighter who didnt hold back on the punches. So forget this idea that nice necessarily gets you anywhere….the only place that it will buy you is a hole in the ground!

It makes far more sense to project the image of a person who has the capacity to inflict pain and grief and to use that perception of power for good! That is nice as well, but it is a very strategic and intelligent application of the word nice because now it is purposeful and has a very clear and unambigious intent that is designed to achieve a very specific goal.

For example if your boss knows deep down. You can do his job. i can almost guarantee you 100%, he will get rid of you. But on the otherhand if he also knows you have a dark side and you’re capable of sabotaging him so that he loses favor and you’re doing all this just to take over his job. I can almost guarantee you that he will most probably transfer you out with a promotion.

My point is it is ONLY when the otherside realizes that you have every capacity to turn bad and evil when they fail to provision enough incentives for you not to go down that road that you can get a ticket to sit on the table of life and play hard ball with real bargaining chips.

This is the first rule you learn in the power and politics of a street fight.’

Tupolev TU-114 ‘Rossiya’

In my considered opinion one of the most greviously underrated workhorses of the aviation world.

Tupolev never resolved the niggling vibration problem of the counter rotating turboprops that dogged and eventually put a big fat nail into the coffin of the 114

Airplaneski!

This is like so funny….you will probably end up crying. i watch alot of documentaries during the evening. There’s precious little to do in the plantation when the sun goes down.