Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Another Part of Hell
Getting to my gulag is very difficult without gulag transport or your own. The queue at the bus interchange can easily stretch to nearly a hundred metres in the early morning. If I rely on the bloody bus, I’ll have to wake up at 6 am, which is damn ridiculous. If the gulag minibus ever breaks down, I'll blaspheme so hard even the dead will rise.
My office is a rickety, dusty and sorry affair. I have no access to a computer, nor do I have a table of my own. Three of my gulag mates occupy the tables in the main room – my superior also calls the room a ‘storeroom’ – and my superior and I do our paperwork in an enjoined room. For now I sit across him at his desk. Folders and files stack the shelves next to us. It is a bit messy and the paperwork, while not hopelessly untidy, would give any self-respecting office girl in Shenton Way a fit.
The work area is quite big, maybe fifty yards by fifty yards. Shelves holding slings, riggings, wireropes, blocks and other engineering stock fill much of the area. An overhead conveyor lift or crane, used for carrying heavy objects around, is fixed at near the opposite end where my ‘office’ is. Pallets stacked in a small area, while machines are placed and lifting vehicles are parked randomly. A flight of stairs led to the second floor, which balcony overlooks the entire floor space. For a factory in the heavy industrial area of Sinkieland, its toilet is surprisingly clean. Unfortunately, it has no toilet paper, and the portions of the sink are caked with age-old soot.
Lunch is only 45 minutes. With the nearest canteen hundreds of metres away, we have to rely on the gulag’s transport to ferry us for slop. It is a far cry from the leisurely lunch hours my colleagues and I enjoyed when I was still in my former gulag. The scenery was much better, and so was the air quality.
After my superior was called on site, I was left alone for nearly three hours. There was little to do save to read the horrible catalogue book and attempt to memorize the names of the different types of blocks, slings, hooks and whatnots. I came close to falling asleep on a few occasions. Try as I did, I could not get much into my non-technical brains. Occasionally my gulag mates would walk in to run some errand.
My interviewer told me they hadn’t prepared my employment letter as they were still undecided of what title to give me. I thought it was ‘sales coordinator’ but obviously they thought that since I wasn’t doing sales, it would not be appropriate for me to have the word ‘sales’ in my job title. Okay, I said. After lunch they finally got my employment letter ready. It says that I am an ‘admin and technical support’ – whatever that is – and the woman (my interviewer) explained the contents of the letter to me. (As if I do not know how to read. By the way, there are a couple of grammatical mistakes – pathetic.) After satisfying the general terms of contract (10 days leave and three months probation and so on and so forth) I signed the damn thing. I have a haunch that the woman knows I am probably going to leave in a few months. She kept saying things like, ‘If you stay long enough’, and ‘….may find the job not to their liking.’ Smart woman.
My gulag mates consists of Sinkies, Indians, and Chinese, with the latter comprising most of the technical workforce. From my first impression, my gulag mates in the administrative/sales/accounting/operations departments are typical Sinkies, not intellectually inclined and mostly unappealing, especially physically. The Chinese are your typical factory worker: hardworking and impatient at times. I don’t think I will make any good friends. Although I am a philistine by the standards of my atheistic friends, I do have to dumb down a lot when I talk to people. Sigh. I am neither intellectual nor boorish. Stuck in between. Neither here nor there. I expect to go to Limbo after I die.
I think my gulag is quite shambolic with its business processes and job delegation. While I was trying to digest the damn book I was tasked to read, my interviewer came to me and asked if I could furnish a transcript of my polytechnic results. I told her that I lost the damn thing long ago and few employers, if any, will ask for a transcript of the results in poly as they are contend with the diploma. She said it would be quite helpful, as it may be good for the gulag to know more things about me to afford me opportunities Besides, the Accounts girl asked for it. I was quite befuddled. Why in the Hells is a accounting staff doing the work of the HR?
My superior shot the shit a bit with me and told me they were actually looking for a person with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. My interviewer said that he needed someone to help him do the paperwork and now he tells me differently. I don’t think good interdepartmental communications is the norm in this gulag.
On the operation side, there seems to be a heavy reliance on paperwork and ‘scribbling’. If some joker cleans the whiteboard or my superior loses his notebook, we are going to suffer in our documentation. Why not computerize it? The gulag has been around for 30 years already. Surely it should have had a decent business platform by now?! Lastly, the gulag website sucks. It looks like something a child would come up with!
60,000 foreign trash from India coming in. Whether I quit tomorrow or six months later won’t matter. I don’t think I’ll ever manage to get a business-related job in the city area even on contractual basis. Why in the Hells did I get a business degree and why in Gehenna did I suffer so much for this piece of academic trash?! I should have spent the money on whores. Either way I get fucked, but at least I would have gotten a fucking good time!
Sunday, May 15, 2011
What a Dreadful Existence!
The BBC reports that a passerby pushed a suicidal man off the bridge.
If a man wants to off himself, he should go to somewhere remote where his final contemplations regarding the worthiness of continuing his dreary existence will not be interrupted by curious onlookers and social/security services workers. If non-human animals can slink off to some obscure corner to wait for their demise, humans can do the same too.
A passerby who comes across a suicidal person should let him be. He is neither friend nor family. Attempts to convince him may only serve to delay the inevitable. Even if he does not off himself this time round, he may succeed at a later time. His existence is dreadful enough as it; he does not need to listen to platitudes from any do-gooders.
A petrol bomb was thrown into a bank in
Every day we get all kinds of news. A few reports are irrelevant or even uplifting, but the majority of them are bad, most often than not horrible. It amazes me that people are still procreating and producing babies into this wretched world. Have they seriously thought about the implications of having children, the moral responsibility they happily forget for the price of an orgasm? How can anyone who claims that he loves children possibly want to bring them into existence in this acrimonious world, where these animals will grow up to be nothing but animals competing against one another and exploiting themselves and their fellow animals?
There are those who will argue that the news agencies prefer to report bad news as these cater to their readers’ tastes. Bad news and scandals mean more copies sold. While I do not disagree with this view, even the most cheery optimists must admit that our world is seriously fucked-up. We live in a world where children and women are abused, wars and genocides occur with alarming regularity, 40% of the world population earn less than a dollar a day, millions of innocents are prosecuted and persecuted, and their basic rights violated with impunity, nature is being raped to the point of death and her resources are depleted at a shocking rate, politicians and bankers are allowed to reward themselves with million dollar salaries, bonuses and pensions for fucking the rest of the world up, wealth and power are held by a few elites, and costs of living go up and the wages of the masses become depressed. I can go on and on but it does not change a damn thing. To simply say that news agencies report bad news to sell copies is the sign of a blinkered outlook. The media reports on wars and other armed conflicts, crimes, scandals, human rights violations, disasters and other depressing news because they are there to be reported in the first place!
To reiterate my point, to bring a child into this inhumane world is irresponsible. The extremely rich, powerful, and wealthy, who can shelter their children from the ravages of the ‘real world’, probably has a case for propagating their genes, but by cloistering their whelps they will inadvertently deprive them of the experience of living a real life. It would be better if these plants in a greenhouse have never been born. Resources are already scarce as they are; do not deplete them further by producing more consumers. Either you guarantee your child a great life, one that is complete, or you do not reproduce. It’s all or nothing. No other way.
I have finally found a job. My new gulag is in some obscure and stinking corner in a heavy industrial area. The environment sucks, my pay sucks, and the benefits (if you can call them that) sucks as well. I would kill to work in the city area but with the market flooding with foreign ‘talent’, it is really incredibly difficult for a Sinkie to find decent work. I was turned off by the horrible environment but I have to eat. The bills do not stop when you stop working and they certainly are not going to pay themselves.
The Times of India reported that as part of a free trade agreement with
To those who voted for the regime, you have no fucking right to fucking complain about conditions in Sinkieland for the next five years. If you lose your job to a foreign ‘talent’, find your wages depressed, have to work longer hours to show your slavemasters that you are cheaper, better and faster, find yourself unable to afford housing and have to deal with rising costs, are bullied by foreigners and treated like a second-class or third-class citizen in your own fucking country, or suffer whatever grievances that arise from the regime’s traitorous policies, I have four words for you:
SHUT THE FUCK UP.
Friday, May 6, 2011
I Despair
Monday, April 25, 2011
Why Marry?!
A friend chatted with us on WhatsApp. He complained that people are not turning up at his wedding ‘at the last minute’, which resulted in his losing revenue from the hongbao money. It has been very difficult for him. As if the preparations aren’t bad enough, he has to fork out most of the banquet costs. His wife-to-be is pretty skint; she is short of more than 20 grand and my friend is expected to shoulder the burden resulting from her non-contribution. He still has to pay over 30 grand on his renovation and a further 3 grand on their honeymoon, plus other charges that amount to over 10 grand.
There is a moral lesson to be learnt here. I have always believed that we should seek to learn from people’s mistakes because we will never live long enough to make enough of them to learn from. So here is why my friend’s trials and tribulations can serve as a warning to all would-be-bridegrooms.
First of all, marriage is a monstrous institution that deprives a man of his rights and burdens him with all kinds of responsibility. By getting hitched, a man loses much of his freedom. He no longer can go out with his mates for a drink or a whoring session as much as he wants. Instead, he has to tend to his wife and keep her entertained and happy. If the couple has children, the man is expected to be the major contributor to the household income. If he divorces her, he has to fork out alimony every month.
Second, in this time and age, setting up a Chinese banquet to commemorate the awarding of legal rights to two individuals of the same specie to screw each other for the purposes of pleasure and procreation is irrational. A Chinese wedding can easily cost over 10 grand. The ballroom and the overpriced slop already amount to close to 10 grand, and each table (assuming 10 seats) can cost $1,000 to $1,500. We have not even covered the cost of the photographer and his studio, the wedding costumes, car rental, and other hidden costs. Instead of coughing up 30, 40 grand for an undignified slop feast that lasts only a few hours, why not ditch this ridiculous spectacle and save the money for more useful things like renovation and the purchasing of furniture and fittings?
Third, marriage is between two consenting individuals. I understand that they may want to share their joy with their close friends and families, but is there absolutely a need to invite associates, colleagues, and some relatives whom you have never seen in 1,000 years, only to have some of these buggers ‘not turning up at the last minute’ and costing you expensive seats? Why not just have a simple wedding reception and be done with it?! It is just a mating ritual damn it, and in most cases, the mating would have had been done before the actual official event!
For the abovementioned reasons, I would not willingly enter into such an unfair contract. The best thing for any society is to demolish this stupid legislation and its horrible contractual obligations. Humans are animals and are happiest when unconstrained by such artificial and suffocating constructs.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Randomness
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
From Atlantis to the Sphinx: Recovering the Lost Wisdom of the Ancient World

Wilson argues his case for the existence of an ancient civilization strongly. The more I read his arguments, the more difficult it is not to find the high-brow attitude of the mainstream academia deplorable. These 'respectable' people may scoff at the idea of an ancient civilization that possessed great technology, but in turn, they have failed to provide compelling evidence to dismiss these claims. Indeed, it does not take a doctor of archeology to wonder just how impossible it would be for a primitive people to build magnificent edifices such as pyramids, a feat that would challenge even a modern architect with vast technological resources. Also, it will not escape the notice of even casual readers of history or mythology to realize that legends of catastrophic floods, prevalent across most cultures, cannot be dismissed as mere coincidence.
To further strengthen his case, Wilson discusses the history of humankind and evolution and attacks the views of conventional evolutionists and anthologists by stating cases in which evidence run contrary to that presented in the official canon. Mankind might have a far longer history than what we are being led to believe. It is fascinating how the writer goes about his task of demolishing established ‘facts’. He believes the pyramids of both the Mayan and Egyptian civilizations were originally erected as projects in astronomy and in both he finds similar properties, such as the correspondence of their measurements to the circumference of the Earth and the precession of the heavenly bodies. An astonishing claim, and one that is thought-provoking.
Wilson’s discussion on synchronicity leads me to wonder: does reality affect the mind, or does the mind affect reality? He quotes from an experience he had while he was researching for a book. Upon returning from his walk, he found the book containing the vital piece of information he needed. Although skeptics will dismiss this incident and a few other cases Wilson cites as mere coincidence or nonsense, I, who have had episodes of synchronicity, cannot help but wonder if ‘something is there’, something currently unknowable, that just eludes understanding, but which is no less real.
A book of this nature would not be completed without an inclusion of the ‘dual brains’ concept and the heightened consciousness aspect of it. With the onset of language and religion, Wilson asserts, the right brain has been largely supplanted by its left half, as it has become more evolutionary feasible. However, he feels that the right brain, with its intuition (moon knowledge), as opposed to the solar knowledge of the logic (left brain) may be accessible at will, complementing the incumbent’s mental facilities. This is definitely an area which scientists should invest their energies into. The possibilities are endless.
The controversial material presented in this book makes it very difficult at times, not to verge on the realms of pseudoscience and New Age nonsense. However, Wilson’s reasoned arguments, coupled with his unobfuscatory diction prevents it from tilting over the edge. From Atlantis to the Sphinx will provide you with hours of edutainment. If you can’t borrow it at the library, buy it.
Rating: 4/5
P.S. For the apocalyptic-minded, the next ‘Doomsday falls on the 22nd of December 2012. As history has shown, it may not necessarily mean the end of the world, but rather, it may be the heralding of a new epoch.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
中国女人!请不要上老外的床(新东方校长俞敏洪夫人写)
Chinese women! Please don’t get into bed with foreigners.
If you ask a foreigner why he came to
But I tell you, apart from the very few who are sponsored by the government, and those who are backed by large companies, the overwhelming majority are here for two reasons:
- They can’t support themselves very well at home, or maybe even can’t support themselves at all.
- They come for the Chinese girls.
One afternoon, me and my friend (a French girl), were returning home from eating out. We were at the entrance of our place of work. Far away opposite where we were standing, an old guy was collecting rubbish and pushing a small cart. At this point the French girl poked me, “”Did you see that?”
“See what?” I replied, bewildered.
“In front of you.”
I then discovered that the old guy was a foreigner. His hair was long, dirty, and messy. No wonder I thought that he was just a garbage collector. The cart in front of him was not for carrying rubbish; in it was a baby of mixed parentage. I then noticed a young, beautiful, and statuesque Chinese girl was beside him.
The French girl giggled, “Why do Chinese girls do this?” She was laughing because we were discussing this ‘issue’ during our meal. Actually, I’d already heard stories about this kind of foreigners with Chinese girls, but I’d never thought anything of it. Before my eyes, however, was a sight too powerful to ignore: a gorgeous Chinese girl with an old, ugly, dirty, short, bald, and shrivelled foreigner, and their baby in a push-chair.
The French girl wouldn’t stop laughing - I had no idea why she was laughing like that - and at that moment, as a Chinese, my self-respect was affected deeply.
Several days later, I made three decisions:
- Tell everybody the ugly truth about the foreigners I know.
- Inspire the Chinese people to rise up and stop Chinese girls from fawning over foreign men.
- Research on how foreign women look at Chinese men so that I could use the knowledge gained to help Chinese men attract foreign women.
To address the issue. My first act was to go with my colleagues to interview some white women who live in
Taking a more systematic approach, we also handed out a questionnaire to these white women, to get them to describe how they view Chinese men, and try to find out who are the five most charming Chinese men that they could think of. This research will answer for me these questions:
- Are foreign women interested in Chinese men?
- What do the single foreign women in
- What can Chinese men do to make themselves more attractive to foreign women?
- What kind of Chinese men are most attractive to foreign women?
- What kind of foreign women go for Chinese guys?
- How do you meet foreign women?
- In public, how does one approach a foreign woman?
- When did
John is one such example. Not long ago, I met him on the street, holding hands with a Chinese girl who is taller than him. Introducing himself, he said that his Chinese girlfriend works for the Home and Motors Company.
John is an American, 42 years old, and 1.67 metres in height. As he was a university dropout, he couldn’t get himself a decent job. After living in
John wasn’t happy. After a couple of months in
When we were ordering dinner, John ordered a pretty expensive dish,. My friend asked him in English, “The thing you ordered was pretty expensive. Do you intend to pay for it yourself?” John carried on like a kid who’d been caught doing something naughty. I saw him racking his brain. I told my friend in Chinese not to worry and then in English, told him to continue choosing.
After that, because of work and other responsibilities, I quickly forgot about him. The next time I saw him, he told me that he’d found an English teaching job in a school in
Also, on a
A taxi driver told me that once outside a famous bar, he met a black man with both his hands aound a Chinese girl. Originally, he thought that she was a working girl so he wasn’t bothered, but they ended asking them to drop her off at the dormitories of a famous college. He was shocked.
It’s been reported that, a hospital in Beijing received a AIDS patient, an American businessman who confessed before dying, in the preceding weeks in Beijing, he had been with six Chinese women Further investigation, revealed most of them were respected intellectuals.
This kind of foreigners can’t find jobs in their own country. They use their status as foreigners in
Recently, a joke has been doing the rounds on the Chinese internet sites about a foreigner seeking marriage in
A 47 year-old foreigner signed himself up at a Chinese marriage-agency but for a long time there were no inquiries. Then suddenly one day, he received two marriage proposals. The foreigner was shocked. Investigation revealed that one of the staff at the marriage agency had put his age at 67.
An independent survey recently confirmed that Chinese women don’t marry foreign men for love. It also discovered, the average age gap between a Chinese woman marrying a Western man is 10.5 years. 13% are of entirely different generations - a full 20-year age gap. It is reported that the record age gap for a Chinese-foreign marriage is 54 years. On the day they were married the American man was 82 and the Chinese girl was 28.
Incidentally, I recently saw a joke in an American magazine. It goes like this: “A man in his eighties took his pregnant wife (in her twenties) to the hospital. The doctor gently asked him if it was possible that the baby could have been someone else’s. The old man replied, “No way, I can perform miracles. Once, when my wife and I went hunting with one of her boyfriends, I used an umbrella to point at a deer, that deer just dropped dead there and then.”
I don’t know if that Chinese girl will get pregnant, but it definitely makes one respect the human capacity for creating miracles. You might have achieved something, but you’ve lost the most valuable thing: self-respect.
Needless to say, the instigators of these ugly foreigners’ success are the Chinese women. But for these women, most of whom have never been abroad, their brains are full of fantasies. So, today I want to take this opportunity to tell them the truth. If you’ve found true love, I congratulate you and wish you luck. Personally I say, if it’s true love, then no matter what troubles the future brings, it’s worth pursuing.
Nevertheless, I also want to warn you. Firstly, Chinese women seek marriages that are stable. However, in developed Western countries, the divorce rate is around 50% and for inter-racial marriages, the rate is even higher.
Secondly, I find it highly unlikely that the foreign men of today can give Chinese girls true love because the first ingredient of true love is respect. And in the eyes of foreign men, the image of Chinese women has already been ruined by that minority, It’s already changed. They are now the world’s most open, most forward, least careful, simple-minded, half-witted, stupid and easy girls. It’s very hard to believe that any man would give true love to this kind of girl. I only have one example, I heard an American say he was looking for an Asian girl who was a combination of maid, cook, and sex worker.
Maybe you’re only after money. I understand you and I don’t blame you. But I want to tell you, before committing yourself, you should be certain of two things: i) Is this foreigner really rich? (I know many foreigners in
Maybe you want to travel abroad. Again, I don’t blame you. But before you commit yourself you should be certain of two things: i) This foreigner wants to go home. The outside world is generally wealthier than
My colleague’s neighbour’s daughter married a Japanese mountain farmer. The neighbour often says some analogies in front of my colleague “Now we don’t care about money. 100,000, 200,000 is a small number.” But, my neighbour replies, “Do you know if your daughter’s really happy in
Maybe you’re after sex. In
By saying this, Miss Shi really stirred the pot. Swathes of Chinese men came out of the woodwork to defend themselves. This topic had been discussed in our local newspapers over several months, it’s even spilled over into parts of the international media. Apparently, this is a very sensitive subject for Chinese men.
Granted, this 2/10 figure was subjective. What are Chinese men really like in bed? I did my own investigation.
This time my subject was not Chinese women who had married Western men. I wanted to ask white women who had married Chinese men, or had once had a Chinese boyfriend. I bluntly asked them one question,: what are Chinese men like in bed? They bluntly replied, very good, some even said perfect. One even responded with a question of her own: “are Chinese men not confident in their own sexual prowess?”
I should continue my investigation. After I have finished my research I will make my findings public.
I’d like to tell everyone, the latest research on sex shows that, a woman’s pleasure in bed does not depend on the man she is with, it depends on herself. This research goes to show, a woman’s failure to enjoy herself in bed is usually the result of her own suppression of her own spirit. As long as women can raise above this repression, then they can be as happy and carefree as men in bed, perhaps even more so. This research proves that the real reason Miss Shi’s friend experienced so much pleasure the first time she was with a Western man was because of what he represented to her allowed her to let go of her repression.
The most recent studies have shown that men and women have similar responses to sexual stimulation. Previously, it was believed that men depended on visual stimulation and women depended on atmosphere and ambience to prepare for sex. This had been used to explain why men like to watch porn. But visual stimulation can also arouse women, even to the point of orgasm.
I can tell you, Chinese men’s problem is not physical, it is psychological. What is Chinese men’s biggest problem? Lack of sexual technique. Western men’s advantages are that in both urban and rural areas, they have sexual counselling and treatment clinics,, and an open attitude towards sex,. If they have a problem, they can seek support. To use an inappropriate example, an old lady who has cooked all her life is not as good as a young chef, because professional training is so important.
I call upon you to eliminate all of these ugly foreign men. Some of you might already be blaming the Chinese women, but aren’t we all responsible for creating this situation for the ugly foreign men?
The kind of women who are only after money are everywhere in the world, in
An American Professor of Chinese, who has an incomparable love of Chinese history and cherishes Chinese culture, took her husband to
I also don’t get it, we’re all Chinese people, but in a short twenty years, our attitudes have changed so much.
I would like to know, the ones who give special attention to foreigners, especially the Americans, are they these same women? I can understand the American President’s visit to
Here, I am appealing for one thing: stop Chinese women from surrounding Western men. I am deeply aware that as an individual, my power is miniscule, so I want to encourage everybody to rise up: if you know any young Chinese girls who have opportunities to meet foreign men, please feel duty bound to show them this essay.
If you married a foreigner, bravely stand up and tell your sisters: your life abroad is actually lonely, repressed, painful, and homesick. If you are the parents of such people, don’t boast about your daughter’s life bound to this sluttish moneybags existence.
If you are a translator, under no circumstances get emotionally involved. Our translation of the names of foreign countries shows that we subconsciously have an inferiority complex to them. We translate the word
If you work in an international company, don’t look up to foreigners. Foreign affairs are not all big affairs. Have a better attitude towards your own fellow citizens - foreigners come and go. Don’t forget, the food you eat is cooked by Chinese people, the clothes you wear are made by Chinese people, your salary is paid by Chinese people.
If you work in sport, don’t let foreigners earn Chinese people’ money. Most importantly, don’t welcome foreign thugs like Tyson into
If you work in an insurance company, don’t look at foreigners differently again, treat them the same as your compatriots.
If you work in positions of authority, please be less corrupt. The corruption is the main reason for the bad atmosphere in our society, and this is your responsibility.
If you are an economist, don’t just think about your vested interests, don’t just think about powerful people. Say a few words for the man on the street please.
If you are a policy maker, do not get wrapped up in self-interest. If the mountains are bald, the water is smelly, the air is dirty, the dust storms are rising, and every day morals are declining., if nobody cares, and social harmony is lost, if the suffering are left for dead, then what does your power really count for?
If you’ve earned yourself some money, be kind. Have some morals in the way you spend it. Don’t be greedy and materialistic. Contribute to society.
If you are a doctor, please save people’s lives. Do your job ethically. Don’t let the angels in white die in your hands.
If you are a lawyer, respect the law. Don’t use your power to prey on innocent people.
If you are a film-maker, don’t waste all of your money on crowd-pleasing. Make some films about Chinese girls who turn down foreign men, or Chinese men who hook-up with Western girls.
If you work in dentistry, please recommend a decent toothpaste for the Chinese people. Today’s Chinese people rely too much on primitive methods of oral hygiene.
If you work in advertising, please have less of these disgusting words like “royal”, “noble” “elite”, “successful” and “luxury.”
If you serve as a role model for young kids, please impart to them a sense of shame. When I was young, my mother told me, clothes may be tattered, but will never be dirty; people may be poor, but will never be downtrodden; wealth cannot be prostituted, conviction cannot be destroyed, the head can be cut and blood can flow, but life is precious, love is even more valuable. Why don’t today’s children hear such speeches?
If you are a Chinese woman, hold your head up high. If you are a Chinese man, straighten your spine. In this world, there is an unalienable truth, if a person doesn’t respect himself, he will never achieve the respect of others. This is the same for both country and race.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
A Kind of Afterlife
A friend of mine, whom I haven’t seen since university, called me last week and asked me out for slop. Being blokes, we shot the shit about specs and towards the end of our conversation, a thought occurred to me. I asked him if he was peddling insurance. He said yes. I told him I already had insurance and therefore could not help him. He was fine with that but insisted that it wouldn’t hurt to just come out for slop.
Then a few days ago, I ran into an old friend. He left the military last year and is now an insurance agent. The majority of ex-regulars either join some government-linked engineering firm as technicians or become insurance agents. The reasons are simple. Despite whatever achievements you had in the military, nobody ‘outside’ really gives a damn about them. (Welcome to the real world – it sucks!) This is what you get after spending the golden years of your existence serving the nation: your experience and skills are simply non-transferable and your efforts are unrecognized by most prospective employers. The worst part is that you picked up few useful skills (if any) in the military and you are out of touch with the real world. As a regular, you do the same shit every day. You laze around when you get the chance. You are paid to do simple things like attend parades. You soon start to think about how glamorous it is to wear a tie to work, work in
Unlike in the military, there is no such thing as taking MC ‘for fun’ or when you ‘don’t feel like going to work’. You have no canteen breaks and you certainly do not get paid a decent salary to stand in some ‘change of command’ parade or attend some ‘pride day’ or ‘army family day’. You can slack and screw up but it is unlikely that you will be sacked. You begin to think that you are too good for the military and that you are getting ripped off and underpaid for contributing so much. This is true for many regulars but there are also those who are paid the same salary for doing a bloody
Where was I? Oh yes the skill relevance. Big government-linked firms are always hiring technicians and unlike their competitors, they recognize to some extent your military experience. An army mechanic can easily land a job as a technician or mechanic in one of these companies as long as he does not talk rubbish in his interview or ask for the sky in his wage demands. For the rest who want to wear a tie, insurance and sales are popular fields to go into. Why? Because they do not require any experience or qualifications! For example, all you need to apply for an insurance job is just four credits in your ‘O’ Levels and to qualify, you just need to pass two computerized tests. If you can make it in sales or insurance, everybody gains. If you can’t sell anything, too bad. The company loses nothing by giving you a try and then dismissing you if necessary, when you fail!
Seriously, if you want to be a military man, you should strive to make it your career. There is no point realizing that you can’t cut it when you are in your late-twenties and then correcting your mistake by going into a different field. You would have lost much precious time and it is always painful to start all over when you are jaded and battling hard to find positives in your wayward existence.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
A Male Animal Rants
Local specs have a maddening tendency to denounce all foreign, or more specifically Asian women from poorer countries as god-diggers, whores, and vixens who are after our money. While this is true in many cases, such blatant generalization is unreasonable and does not befit our local specs, many of whom have high education and impressive professional credentials. Before they point an accusing finger at their foreign counterparts, they should look themselves in the mirror and ask if they are not dissimilar to those they criticize. What is the difference between a spec from China or Thailand who chooses to marry a local bloke to improve her economic circumstances and a sgspec who only goes for local blokes who earn a higher income or a laowai , who is perceived as being richer? Both are motivated by money! Gold-diggers from poorer countries may be less educated and as a result, they are denied many opportunities to improve their economic straits and social status – at least they can use this as an excuse for their mercenary ways. In contrast, many sgspecs are well-educated and have high earning power. Some enjoy promising careers and a few are even high-flyers. I am sure they are capable of looking after themselves, an ability no doubt enhanced by the critical thinking and intelligence their education affords them. What excuse then, has the sgspec for relying on men? Before criticizing foreign hussies for their despicable ways, maybe they should put themselves in their sisters’ shoes (no stiletto heels for these poor wenches, unless provided by the wallets of their sugar daddies) and honestly ask themselves if they will do the same thing (which, in essence, they are already doing). After all, judging by the cloying manner some sgspecs adopt around laowais, I dare say that they are no better than some Vietnamese hussy walking the streets of Geylang!
Sgspecs are losing market share to their Asian sisters and it is not difficult to understand why this state of affairs has come to pass. Sgspecs’ inability to understand market and customer preferences means that they have failed to erect an effective barrier to entrants to safeguard their market space. Mistakenly believing themselves to be highly attractive due to their education, they have overlooked the fact that high education is of little relevance to the needs of their customers (local blokes) and in some ways, a high education is an unwanted commodity that only serves to lower their market attractiveness. Most modern specs demand their men to be more educated and earn more money than they do. Given that many females these days have at least tertiary education, they are effectively pricing themselves out of most of the market. In addition, a high education does not improve a spec’s ability to be a supportive, caring and gentle girlfriend and in some cases, it may even make her think that she is some kind of rare and protected breed, causing her to adopt a ‘princess attitude’, demanding this and that from all males and not just her boyfriend and throwing little bitch fits and melodramatic tantrums to get her way. We blokes are indoctrinated from young to look after our mates. Even though our mates may earn more than we do, it does not really matter for most of us. (I leave the gigolos out.) We do not expect to live off our women anyway.
Esteemed works such as The Satanic Bible recognize that the best way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. Few things beat the joy of knowing that your loving girlfriend or wife is taking time and effort to prepare a scrumptious meal for you. Such a simple gesture is very endearing indeed. Sadly, many sgspecs do not even know how to whip up a decent meal, preferring to eat out or rely on their maids or mother to cook for them. Many women are busy with their careers but surely it will not kill them to cook once in a while to pamper their men. A man will not be motivated to go home when he knows that all he gets every time is some slop prepared by the maid or worse, no slop at all. Instead of making themselves more attractive by learning to do some feminine chores, they disguise their inadequacies by criticizing us for not knowing how to do the housework and that we aren’t independent! Incredible! We males go through at least two years of army training, during which we suffer through countless stand-by-beds* and area-cleanings. We know how to mop or sweep the floor, windows, and even the ceiling. We know how to wash our own muddy clothes and we can do it without using a fucking washing machine. And we definitely know, at the very least, how to cook a packet of instant noodles or boil an egg, and wash the utensils afterward – no thanks to our outfield training – and to say that we are incompetent around the house is simply disgraceful! The same cannot be said for some of our ‘precious and delicate specs’, who will complain of melting in the sun when they have to walk from one bus stop to another!
As I have stated, what blokes really want is a caring and supportive girlfriend. Of course if possible we would like her to be beautiful. (We always get stick from females about this ‘shallowness’. A spec who seeks a rich bloke for a husband or boyfriend is exercising her goddamn prerogative. A bloke who asks for a pretty girlfriend is a shallow bastard. Double standards, double standards…) If sgspecs cannot satisfy our needs, we have to seek alternatives in the form of cnspecs, vcspecs, and myspecs! If we are being despised by our own women, some of whom now prefer Europeans and Americans, it will be unfair for us to retain our brand loyalty to a brand that does not reciprocate our loyalty and provides us with no customer satisfaction. Just look at Nokia. They have been losing market share and revenue to Samsung and Apple, and Chinese manufacturers because they are stuck in their own bubble and are making little effort in making their products more appealing to their customers. To borrow from Nokia’s CEO, Elop, sgspecs are like a man on the platform of a burning oil rig in the middle of a freezing ocean. However unappealing the icy waters may be, he has to jump. It is time that sgspecs appreciate the situation they are in and take measures to make themselves more attractive to their customer segment. They shouldn’t think that there will always be laowais for them to hook up with. The reality of globalization means that many foreign competitors will find it easier to enter the market. They will have attributes which are superior to sgspecs’ and traits which are more attractive to both laowais and locals. For example, specs from Vietnam and Thailand are prettier and more submissive. Chinese and Hong Kong specs, although materialistic, are smarter and prettier. Sgspecs, do not think for a moment that you are the centre of the universe or that your degrees and your careers and your cars and your ability to speak English make you irresistible. The world are catching up and it is time for sgspecs to go back to basics and truly understand that despite what the trash columnists in Cleo, Her World and all the fucking rubbish fashion mags say about what guys want, we are really simple in our needs: a caring and supportive girlfriend. (Of course, being pretty is an advantage but not a must - sounds like a job ad, I know.) We definitely do not like a high-priced spoilt princess! And if I may inspire some hope in sgspecs, the majority of local blokes still prefer a sgspec for their girlfriend. The ball is in your court, ladies.
Having said that, would I go for a sgspec? NO.I am only interested in specs from Hong Kong, Taiwan or China. Most local specs do not appeal to me and some of them are quite repulsive. I like beautiful women and local specs are generally inferior to the aforementioned specs in terms of looks. If you insist that these foreigners are gold-diggers and only interested in money, let me ask you: because of their monetary requirements in a prospective mate, aren’t local specs materialistic as well? Let me use an analogy. Nokia phones and iPhones have the same basic functions. They allow you to text-message and make calls, and may break down just after their warranty periods have expired. You know that you are paying a steep price for the Nokia or Apple phone you purchase and are therefore in a way ‘overcharged’ and ‘screwed’ by both companies, but you know that the iPhone lets you surf the internet, play Angry Birds, use Google Map, and download all kinds of fun stuff from iTunes whereas the Nokia phone gives you a lousy interface (you need to navigate through layers and press a few buttons before you get to the application you want), a Ovi Map that does not work, applications you never need, unplayable ‘bouncing balls’ and ‘racing cars’ games and a boring Ovi Store, any reasonable person will choose a iPhone over a Nokia phone. (To digress, I am getting rid of my Nokia phone and getting a iPhone. (Bye bye Elop, hello Jobs!) Likewise, I am given two materialistic wenches to choose: a sgspec (not pretty), and a cnspec (pretty) and I know they are screwing me for my money, of course I will take the pretty one! I am not daft!
To round it up, if you are a Shitholer bloke and cannot get a local spec to be your girlfriend, do not feel sorry for yourself. You have lost nothing. If you are a foreigner who likes sgspecs, please take them all. You have my gratitude.
* Stand by bed - In the military, this is an inspection of the barrack’s cleanliness by a superior, which is usually done after the poor soldiers or recruits have spent a few hours or more on cleaning the barracks until not a single speck of dust remains on all surfaces. Given that the barrack is not in a clean-room, this is an impossible task and the inevitable failure leads to punishment, usually in the form of harsh scoldings and press-ups ‘sessions’ but can also include re-stand by beds, the awarding of extra duties and confinements.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Chaotic Thoughts
According to a local tabloid, surveys show that 40% of young people lost their virginity before the age of 18. This marks an astonishing 100% increase, from the 20% score found in a similar survey a decade ago. It is heartening to know that our young people, who are often criticized for being apathetic, have answered our regime’s call for greater efforts towards increasing productivity. Surely, the future of our nation is in safe hands.
In Toffeeweb news, President Gaddafi has been spotted in a fish and chips shop at
President Gaddafi is keen to invest his ill-gotten gains from his 42 years of totalitarian rule of
A source close to Gaddafi says that this is ‘a match made in heaven’ and ‘a historic landmark in the relationship of two great countries’.
There is this bloke who keeps asking me on Facebook about the effects of stretching and adrenaline rush on physical performance and the prevention of injuries. I don’t get what this joker is trying to do. I have already explained to him what I know, and he still asks me more questions. He should also brush up on his reading comprehension skills; he asked me on what I have already answered. I am losing my patience with him. Maybe I should refer him to Doctor Soo, and not necessarily for the purpose of helping him improve his medical knowledge.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
A Few Thoughts
FA Cup 4th Round
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Rants are Back!
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
The Last Books of H.G.Wells

The Last Books of H.G. Wells contains H.G Wells’s last two works: ‘The happy turning: a dream of life’ and ‘Mind at the end of its tether’. Although they are only as long as pamphlets, their power to captivate is not diminished in the least. The mood in these two pieces, which is in stark contrast to the other, is simply fascinating.
‘The happy turning: a dream of life’ is cheerful and filled with optimism. Taking a secret path, the protagonist meets Jesus of Nazareth and begins a conversation with him In a matter-of-factly manner, the reputed Son of God narrates an comedy of errors in a ridiculous odyssey that culminated with his crucifixion and subsequent deification.
Delightfully blasphemous, the narration will outrage religious fundamentalists and leave atheists chuckling at its irreverent humour. The best part of the pamphlet, for me, is the ‘A hymn of hate against sycamore’, in which Wells curses at the hated sycamore in Biblical prose. Rarely have I read a rant so funny.
Nihilistic and depressing, ‘Mind at the end of its tether’ is shocking in its incoherence and fatalism. Written in the third person, the pamphlet is more a product of Wells’s denial of his impending demise than it is a serious work of literature. Convinced that mankind is going extinct and that ‘there is no way out or round or through’, Wells argues his view vehemently by bombarding his readers with meaningless rhetoric. He soon realizes his initial arguments make no sense, starts anew and expounds on evolutionary principles and warns of the dangers of ‘gigantism’. Despite his feverish efforts, he fails to convey fully the thrust of his arguments and as a result, the rest of the pamphlet descends into barely disguised desperation.
His natural optimism shines through the bleakness in the end, however. Wells makes a heroic and ultimately futile stand in the last sentence of this work: ‘…that small minority which will succeed in seeing life out to its inevitable end.’ Whether this line reflects his hope for a medical miracle or an acceptance of his terminal condition we will never know. ‘Mind at the end of its tether’ is surely the best eulogy ever penned by an author for himself.
To conclude, The Last Books of H.G. Wells is an emotional roller-coaster. One story elevates you to the Elysian Fields and the other plunges you into deepest Tartarus. Truly wonderful!
Rating: 4/5
Friday, January 21, 2011
Bamboo Goalposts

Join Rowan Simons as he recounts his two decades in
More than just being ‘another football book’, Bamboo Goalposts charts
Unlike many foreign writers on
Bamboo Goalposts is a must read for all football and
Rating: 5/5