Friday, October 21, 2005
i think i am innately fascist
we're going to have a strike tomorrow. this means the public transport system will probably be at a standstill. that's coz BC (the province tt vancouver is a part of) has an ongoing teachers' strike, in addition to a health care workers strike, tt basically exists coz the teachers of the elementary and high schools in question aren't happy with their pay.
so for the past 2 weeks, they haven't been going to school, and have been standing out in the streets wearing signs about how 'teachers deserve more pay'.
now, consider the following factors below:
1. teachers here get paid more than singapore. canada is more welfare than singapore will ever be. a bus driver gets $30 an hour. and yes, you get paid even when you're on strike.
2. this pay comes out of tax-payers' money. i'm not sure about income taxes, but i know tt canadians pay a damn high income tax. and tt doesn't include the 14% tax levied on all consumers - 7% GST and 7 % PST (provincial state tax). which goes to supporting the comfy pay of public service workers and the people in need of welfare; i.e. the homeless and jobless in the streets. who according to a couple of native vancouver-ites tt i've talked to, probably ended up this way, not because there aren't enough jobs (coz there are if you look for them. a lot of sectors, especially the service sectors, are understaffed), but probably because they got involved in drugs (what else is new?) and busted all their money on drugs. but before i digress further, what i am getting at, is tt any higher pay tt teachers get will be coming out of citizens' pockets.
3. the power is in the hands of the employee, not the employer (and implicityly, the masses, not the government).
maybe i'm innately fascist. maybe i'm cold and heartless. maybe i have been indoctrinated and brainwashed by the PAP and i'm no more than their lackey now (although I suppose the fact tt i signed on the dotted line and my other half is in the force probably counts for much of the reason).
but frankly if i had my way i'd get out there and arrest all of them and throw them in jail.
strikes and protests strike (pun!) me as pointless. ok, if it's a good cause like lobbying for the release of a political prisoner in cambodia, or because some great wrong has been done, then people power is legitimate. but as the saying goes, popular opinion is the greatest lie, and there is no strength in a government tt panders to people power.
unless a strike justifies the principle behind it, it's just a major economic distortion, it causes inconveniences everywhere, it exposes political weakness (if i were the government in power, i wouldn't back down from my stand if i feel tt my stand is worth not backing down for), and it's just... i don't know... pointless to me.
in singapore, you would never get this far. coz firstly, you would need to get a licence before you can stage a public anything. and applying for a licence for something like this is obviously not going to be worth the trouble coz you're sure as hell not going to get it if your public something or other involves something political, racial or religious, or is going to stir up some kind of disharmony.
and a public assembly of 9 or more people is going to get you the suspicion of rioting. and yes, the cops are going to come in.
man. i miss singapore. where the police have power.
i come here and i learn about the ridiculous search and seizure law procedures and i miss singapore where we don't have this whole long-drawn protocol about how you need a warrant before you can search, and even so, your warrant has to be authorised by "an independent person of judicious capacity", it must be "based on reasonable and probable grounds", and the search must have been carried out in a "reasonable manner".
and if you don't have tt warrant, the search is deemed prima facie unreasonable and the burden is on the crown to prove tt it is reasonable. in which case the crown has to prove tt the search is "authorised by law", like from a statute or the common law cases; the "law is reasonable", and tt the search was "carried out in a reasonable manner">
and if the search is not "authorised" or fails to satisfy all three conditions, we have to go into whether the evidence itself will "affect the fairness of the trial", whether the violation of the cops in the search "is serious", and whether the "non-admission of the evidence will cause a greater mis-administration of justice".
all this just for the admittance of evidence recovered through a search and seizure.
what the fuck long-drawn procedure is this? imho, you're wasting precious time and money. the courts have to spend so much time and money and effort just to determine whether evidence is admissable. and cops who are just doing their jobs have to go through this system of whether they were being "reasonable" in doing them.
why? all because of the whole 'rights' argument. oh no, the sanctity of the home. individual freedom. blah blah blah.
yeah. some guy can grow 41 pots of marijuana in his basement for trafficking and you can still talk about what rights he has.
in singapore, try growing 41 pots of marijuana. tt's a nice cheerful "goodbye" to you. forever (think "gallows").
in singapore, you can lay off the whole admittance of evidence bullshit. you don't need a warrant or what reasonable and probable grounds crap to base it on. crime's committed, cops do their job. and at least in singapore, we have ISO 2001. cops still believe in service (although i still think tt the police force should remain a force and not become a service. we're here to arrest criminals and keep the peace, not to learn how to bow to anal complainants). cops still knock.
cnb officers just kick the door in.
which is why, thank god, singapore doesn't have much of a drug problem. like i said. which is why we don't have people O.D-ing on crack every few nights. which is why we can walk the streets at night without worrying.
which is why in NUS you can leave your laptop and belongings in the library and go to the toilet, and your belongings will probably still be there when you come back.
not so here. one of the girls got her bag and all her valuables stolen... and she had just fallen asleep in the business library here with her bag next to her.
and apparently on making a report, it seems tt the culprit is this guy who's been entering this library and stealing stuff for the past several years.
several years, and they have footage of him on cctv, and they've apparently 'banned' him from the ubc grounds (although how the fuck do you ban someone you don't even know the identity of?), and they have never caught him?
is the police here ineffective, or understaffed, or have you just tied their hands too much with all your so-called 'human rights' freedoms?
it's all a balancing act, baby.
me? i'm glad i live in singapore. and i'm glad tt the police force in singapore is what it is.
so maybe i am innately fascist. but i'll take my chances.
now playing: hotel costes - cafe de flor
so for the past 2 weeks, they haven't been going to school, and have been standing out in the streets wearing signs about how 'teachers deserve more pay'.
now, consider the following factors below:
1. teachers here get paid more than singapore. canada is more welfare than singapore will ever be. a bus driver gets $30 an hour. and yes, you get paid even when you're on strike.
2. this pay comes out of tax-payers' money. i'm not sure about income taxes, but i know tt canadians pay a damn high income tax. and tt doesn't include the 14% tax levied on all consumers - 7% GST and 7 % PST (provincial state tax). which goes to supporting the comfy pay of public service workers and the people in need of welfare; i.e. the homeless and jobless in the streets. who according to a couple of native vancouver-ites tt i've talked to, probably ended up this way, not because there aren't enough jobs (coz there are if you look for them. a lot of sectors, especially the service sectors, are understaffed), but probably because they got involved in drugs (what else is new?) and busted all their money on drugs. but before i digress further, what i am getting at, is tt any higher pay tt teachers get will be coming out of citizens' pockets.
3. the power is in the hands of the employee, not the employer (and implicityly, the masses, not the government).
maybe i'm innately fascist. maybe i'm cold and heartless. maybe i have been indoctrinated and brainwashed by the PAP and i'm no more than their lackey now (although I suppose the fact tt i signed on the dotted line and my other half is in the force probably counts for much of the reason).
but frankly if i had my way i'd get out there and arrest all of them and throw them in jail.
strikes and protests strike (pun!) me as pointless. ok, if it's a good cause like lobbying for the release of a political prisoner in cambodia, or because some great wrong has been done, then people power is legitimate. but as the saying goes, popular opinion is the greatest lie, and there is no strength in a government tt panders to people power.
unless a strike justifies the principle behind it, it's just a major economic distortion, it causes inconveniences everywhere, it exposes political weakness (if i were the government in power, i wouldn't back down from my stand if i feel tt my stand is worth not backing down for), and it's just... i don't know... pointless to me.
in singapore, you would never get this far. coz firstly, you would need to get a licence before you can stage a public anything. and applying for a licence for something like this is obviously not going to be worth the trouble coz you're sure as hell not going to get it if your public something or other involves something political, racial or religious, or is going to stir up some kind of disharmony.
and a public assembly of 9 or more people is going to get you the suspicion of rioting. and yes, the cops are going to come in.
man. i miss singapore. where the police have power.
i come here and i learn about the ridiculous search and seizure law procedures and i miss singapore where we don't have this whole long-drawn protocol about how you need a warrant before you can search, and even so, your warrant has to be authorised by "an independent person of judicious capacity", it must be "based on reasonable and probable grounds", and the search must have been carried out in a "reasonable manner".
and if you don't have tt warrant, the search is deemed prima facie unreasonable and the burden is on the crown to prove tt it is reasonable. in which case the crown has to prove tt the search is "authorised by law", like from a statute or the common law cases; the "law is reasonable", and tt the search was "carried out in a reasonable manner">
and if the search is not "authorised" or fails to satisfy all three conditions, we have to go into whether the evidence itself will "affect the fairness of the trial", whether the violation of the cops in the search "is serious", and whether the "non-admission of the evidence will cause a greater mis-administration of justice".
all this just for the admittance of evidence recovered through a search and seizure.
what the fuck long-drawn procedure is this? imho, you're wasting precious time and money. the courts have to spend so much time and money and effort just to determine whether evidence is admissable. and cops who are just doing their jobs have to go through this system of whether they were being "reasonable" in doing them.
why? all because of the whole 'rights' argument. oh no, the sanctity of the home. individual freedom. blah blah blah.
yeah. some guy can grow 41 pots of marijuana in his basement for trafficking and you can still talk about what rights he has.
in singapore, try growing 41 pots of marijuana. tt's a nice cheerful "goodbye" to you. forever (think "gallows").
in singapore, you can lay off the whole admittance of evidence bullshit. you don't need a warrant or what reasonable and probable grounds crap to base it on. crime's committed, cops do their job. and at least in singapore, we have ISO 2001. cops still believe in service (although i still think tt the police force should remain a force and not become a service. we're here to arrest criminals and keep the peace, not to learn how to bow to anal complainants). cops still knock.
cnb officers just kick the door in.
which is why, thank god, singapore doesn't have much of a drug problem. like i said. which is why we don't have people O.D-ing on crack every few nights. which is why we can walk the streets at night without worrying.
which is why in NUS you can leave your laptop and belongings in the library and go to the toilet, and your belongings will probably still be there when you come back.
not so here. one of the girls got her bag and all her valuables stolen... and she had just fallen asleep in the business library here with her bag next to her.
and apparently on making a report, it seems tt the culprit is this guy who's been entering this library and stealing stuff for the past several years.
several years, and they have footage of him on cctv, and they've apparently 'banned' him from the ubc grounds (although how the fuck do you ban someone you don't even know the identity of?), and they have never caught him?
is the police here ineffective, or understaffed, or have you just tied their hands too much with all your so-called 'human rights' freedoms?
it's all a balancing act, baby.
me? i'm glad i live in singapore. and i'm glad tt the police force in singapore is what it is.
so maybe i am innately fascist. but i'll take my chances.
# posted by Kitana @ 10/21/2005 03:42:00 PM 
