absolutum dominium

yay! i'm living in vancouver, which offers the third best quality of life in the *wurrrrld*!!!

um. and singapore is 34th.

in other related news:

taken from the star and singabloodypore:

chee soon juan has apparently been found guilty of being in contempt of court. coz at his bankruptcy hearing, he said this:

"The judiciary in Singapore is, sadly, not independent especially when it comes to dealing with opposition politicians."

yeah. we all agree tt csj ranks very highly for acts of stupidity. i mean, he he constantly testing the system, pushing for a breaking point. which is all well and good, if you consider banging your head into the wall repeatedly effective. as far as it stands, a one-man army against the institutionalised behemoth... esp a one-man army who doesn't have the requisite backing or support... is liable to be stomped on and slaughtered.

but truth is, in spite of everything, i admire this guy's idealism. his willingness to go to all lengths for something he believes in, even though i admit tt he is probably going down. but well. i think we need people like this in society, a couple of pebbles to create splashes on the stream's surface. so maybe he may not get the equivalent of matyrdom because most singaporeans don't care enough, but at the very least, his example shows off a system tt engages in massive overkill to maintain itself.

i don't like tt.

but then again i'm not really tt interested in this aspect of conversation. as mentioned before, this is neither anything surprising nor new.

what i've always had an issue with, is how someone we are being told tt singapore has this high standard of life and everyone is all well and good and happy yadda yadda yadda.

and i don't think tt i am necessarily anti-govn for the sake of being. i have never been, and i know tt pro-govnmentals accuse the others of being anti just for the sake of. i don't think so. i do acknowledge the upsides; the high standard of living, the life tt i have, the healthcare and public transport system, the amazingly ridiculous efficiency (comparing tt to vancouver, for example. wahaha)...

but seriously, if we're tt good... how come we're only 34th for quality of life?

and more so, why has singapore become a suicide capital?

let's face it, singapore isn't exactly 'transparancy inc'. we aren't able to research and discover statistics as easily as say, the US, like on things like suicide rates and wrongful convictions (tt was my pet project for my psychology and litigation module). well, at least not until now.

i agree with ben when he says tt suicide rates are telling about society. and i believe tt. i know tt a lot of people's instinctive knee jerk reaction is to compare us with japan and say tt we don't have as many suicides as japan and therefore we are still "better". i think tt is a fucked up comparison. it's like saying tt singapore is perfect coz we're not messed up like sudan or rwanda and we're not dying of starvation or something. i think if you want a nation to improve, you compare it to countries tt are doing better.

like say... developed countries like canada or sweden or switzerland, where the quality of life is supposedly higher?

i've lived in vancouver for about 7 months now. i'm lucky coz i'm not a local and i don't have to pay a ridiculous amount of taxes (the thing about welfare states is tt the taxes are absolute *madness*), but i mean apart from tt...

the pace of life is slower. of course. i walk at a slower pace here, def. it's difficult to find 24 hour convenience; i.e. 24 hour kopitiams for tt late night milo dinosaur or nasi lemak or prata; and property prices are sky high (but then again if you can afford a piece of property in sg, you can def afford something here); and movie theatres open at strange times (i.e. after 7.00pm on weekdays)... but people are happier.

i kid you not. people ask you how you are doing, and the average answer is "good", "great" or "ëxcellent". i have yet to hear a local tell me tt life is boring or tt life sucks. as long as you are willing to take the effort, you can always do something here. there is so much space, and there feels like there are so many opportunities to do something tt you want to do.

believe it or not, grades aren't *that* important here. here, what's important is job experience. a lot of teenagers and college kids here take summer jobs and part-time jobs to pay their way through college and to gain work experience. essentially, whether they get a 2-1 or 2-2 isn't tt important. it's not the cure all or end all. it's ok to take almost any subject tt you want to take. it's ok to work as a waiter in a restaurant to fund your dream life as a writer while you write tt novel and wait for it to be published. it's cool to be a hockey player or a pro snowboarder and make it to the olympics. you'll still be a nat hero.

let's compare tt to singapore. in singapore, the average answer to a "how are you?" is tt life sucks or tt you wish you were dead or something to tt effect. the rates of suicide are increasing among the young. tt is troubling. tt shows something. generally, unless you are mad, suicide is usually seen as the last resort. what does it say about society is you feel so closed in and helpless and bogged down by whatever problems tt you have tt suicide is your only escape?

many people cite things like bgr, grades (!!!), financial problems etc etc etc as leading reasons for suicide, although there are others. but if you think about it, these aren't unique problems. if you think your world is going to collapse just because he or she or whatever left you, you need to wake up your idea. coz hey, you're not *that* special. if you think tt because you failed something or other, you can't go anywhere in life, tt's just disturbing. tt's just disturbing tt the sum of our entire existence is dependant on a final piece of paper tt says something like 2-1 or 2-2 tt can be burnt in a fire in an instant.

they say tt they have increased the number of depression hotlines for people to call if they are depressed. but seriously, is this enough? how many people do use such hotlines? isn't it usually too late by this time?

my take once again: we have a knack for curing the SYMPTOMS but never really the underlying root.

and so maybe i might talk too much and not appreciate whatever it is tt *they* have done for us so far, and maybe i'm in no position to complain because i've had it good so far, but i don't believe in the here and now. i don't believe in taking things as they are just because i'm doing ok or coz people in general SEEM to be doing ok.

i don't want a future where i have a lot of work because people are getting screwed over left right and centre. i don't want to have to attend to 10 mati cases a week because teenagers are feeling so despaired and despairing coz they feel like they can't get anywhere coz they can't get past the stigma of N/T or ITE; i don't want to have to arrest people accused of stealing, robbing, aggravated assault or even murder because they ended up deep in debt to a casino... oops i mean, IR... and they were driven by desperation to do something or other.

this is work tt i do not need, because it will be symptomatic of a society tt is in on the surface, all silver and gleaming, but underneath it all rotten and decaying.

is my prediction too apocolyptic? maybe it is.

but fact remains, this is my country. and no matter what, it means something to me. fuck it. but i'd rather stay and fight and rant for all i am worth, than say... leave.

oh. and in yet other World news (okay. so *i* can read it. you don't have to):

Slobodan Milosevic, the ex-president of both Yugoslavia and Serbia who unleashed four wars in the Balkans in the 1990s, was found dead in his cell at The Hague war-crimes tribunal. Mr Milosevic died shortly before the finish of his four-year trial on charges of crimes against humanity.

Eight foreign election monitors were expelled from Belarus ahead of the presidential vote on March 19th. The election campaign, which is expected to see Alyaksandr Lukashenka retain the presidency, has seen many cases of intimidation and the beating-up of opposition figures.

France was convulsed by student protests against a new labour contract that will weaken job protection for young employees. The Sorbonne and many other universities were occupied and there were violent clashes with riot police. The government, led by Dominique de Villepin, the prime minister, insisted it would stick to its plans to bring in the contract.

The first of two television debates in the Italian election campaign was adjudged a win for the centre-left opposition leader, Romano Prodi. A few days earlier, the centre-right prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, walked out of an interview after hostile questioning.

In Iraq, police recovered the bodies from two mass killings, taking the number of corpses discovered this week as a result of execution-style murders to at least 87. The dead were probably victims of an escalating cycle of sectarian violence between Shia and Sunni extremists. Meanwhile, Iraq's parliament held its inaugural session.

Israeli troops stormed a Palestinian jail in the town of Jericho in the West Bank, capturing a senior militant leader and dozens of other Palestinians. The Israelis moved in after American and British monitors left the prison, complaining of poor security arrangements. Palestinian militants burnt down the British Council building in Gaza in revenge.

Five high-ranking Kenyans, including former heads of intelligence and the central bank, were charged with fraud over the 1990s Goldenberg scam. Although cheered by the news, anti-corruption campaigners pointed out that charges have yet to be brought against former members of the present government who resigned recently over corruption allegations.

In South Africa the opposition Democratic Alliance candidate was elected mayor of Cape Town. Former journalist Helen Zille (who is white) becomes the only mayor of a major city not from the African National Congress party.

The government of Chad claimed that it had foiled a coup attempt that involved shooting down President Idriss Déby's plane. Several former army officers recently defected to join rebels in the east of the country operating out of neighbouring Sudan.

In a legislative election in Colombia, supporters of the president, Álvaro Uribe, won a majority in both houses of Congress. That pointed to an easy victory for Mr Uribe in a presidential election in May at which he will seek a second term. His chief opponent will be Horacio Serpa, a Liberal whom he defeated in 2002 and who won a party primary held in parallel with the legislative vote.

Canada's new Conservative prime minister, Stephen Harper, made a two-day visit to his country's troops in Afghanistan. He rejected calls for a parliamentary debate on their deployment, which was ordered by the previous Liberal government.

Brazil's main opposition party named Geraldo Alckmin, the governor of São Paulo state, as its presidential candidate in October's election. He will face a tough fight against the incumbent president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

The presidents of Argentina and Uruguay issued a joint statement in an effort to dampen a dispute over the building of two cellulose plants on the Uruguayan bank of their riverine border. Uruguay said it would recommend a 90-day halt to construction and a new environmental study, provided Argentine demonstrators stopped blockading a border bridge. But it was not clear if this deal would stick.

Congressmen expressed satisfaction about the details of DP World's plan to find an American buyer for its newly acquired holdings in several American ports. The Dubai-based company's decision defused a political row between Congress, which made it clear that it would not allow an Arab firm to run the ports, and George Bush, who maintained there was no security threat.

Democratic leaders backed away from a move by Russ Feingold, a senator from Wisconsin, to censure Mr Bush for a controversial domestic eavesdropping programme. Republicans have vowed to use the issue to their advantage in the mid-term elections; polls show strong public support for the surveillance of suspected terrorists.

The UN General Assembly voted to set up a new 47-member Human Rights Council to replace the discredited Commission on Human Rights. The United States, along with three other countries, voted against the proposals arguing that they still would not prevent the worst violators becoming members. But it agreed to work with others to make the new body effective.

Protesters in Bangkok continued to demonstrate for the resignation of Thailand's prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, over corruption allegations. Meanwhile, the head of the country's electoral commission said the general election, called by Mr Thaksin for April 2nd, may have to be postponed. The opposition's boycott of the ballot is making it difficult to fulfil a requirement that a full parliament choose a prime minister.

Human Rights Watch reported that representatives of Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels were extorting money from the Sri Lankan diaspora, mainly in Britain and Canada, to fund a “final war”. The allegation comes amid an upsurge in violence that has claimed over 120 lives in the country.

The UN envoy to Afghanistan warned that the Taliban still posed a threat to the country's security. Insurgents in the country have stepped up their campaign recently with a wave of suicide bombings and kidnappings of foreigners.

ladidadida.