Organic-Ally

The words 'big' and 'mega' have been in the news all around the world. The big banks and other massive financial institutions have fallen, or are falling. I could not understand how Fannie May and Freddie Mac could become so big that they are not allowed to fall. (They were 'born big', being instruments created by the American government.) And the likes of Morgan Stanley and Lehman Brothers.... Big does not mean invincible. In Singapore recently the spotlight has also fallen on the 'mega-churches', non-denominational churches led by very charismatic personalities that now boast of thousands of 'attendees' (apparently not all are 'members') in sparkling new buildings with massive carparks, state-of-the-art audio-visual equipment, huge auditoriums, etc. with millions of dollars in the pot. This scrutiny is partly due to the fallout from a few major charities where the accounting has been found to be somewhat less than transparent. (My ex-bo...

Recently the 'not in my backyard' syndrome reared its ugly head in Singapore. Somehow news got round that a disused school in Serangoon Gardens -- a rather nice, quiet, very middle-class part of Singapore -- were to be converted into a dormitory to house a thousand foreign workers. There are more that 500,000 such foreign workers in Singapore working in construction sites, apart from many more thousands working as domestic servants in households while both parents are at work. I know Serangoon Garden well because I had relatives living there, and I used to have to change buses at what is called the 'circus' (roundabout) when I went to Nanyang Junior College. I wrote the following letter to Straits Times and it was, of course, rejected. Basically I believe that there has been a dereliction of duty on the part of the policy-makers to make life in Singapore more human/bearable for the foreign workers in our midst: ============= Social scientists have long debated the meani...

Having found the Olympics a bit too political and commercial, I found myself sitting down in front of the Paralympics by default (the TV was on, we'd just come back from a walk, I was tired). It was interesting how some commentators say 'paralympics' in such a way that it sounds like 'power-lympics'. And for me, I think the 'power-limp-picks' was a lot more meaningful. Part of the opening ceremony brought tears to my eyes. Can't see the point of an Olympics with tennis, basketball, etc, being played by top-notch, overpaid professionals. And beach volleyball? It's just an excuse for TV to sell spots to beer companies so that men could ogle at those bodies. I might never understand the different categories in the paralympics, but it tugs at more than one heart string when I see these athletes strive against mental and physical disabilities to excel in the various fields of sport. This is the real Olympics for me. Back to Organic-Ally . Become our fan o...