Generation Wave’s Statement for 87th National Day of Burma

This was obtained from Sit Mone's blog. The following is not the translation of Generation Wave’s statement, It is only the blogger’s opinion of the situation of the Military ruled Burma)

Background of Generation Wave

A new generation of activists calling themselves "Generation Wave", came together on October 9. They have begun distributing anti-junta pamphlets and posters in Rangoon, as part of a new effort to revive the spirit of the people's movement of September, which the military junta crushed.

The new group, which operates undercover, have begun distributing posters and pamphlets that carry messages such as 'CNG (Change New Government)', 'FFF (Freedom From Fear)', and 88 generation student leader, now detained, Min Ko Naing's poem titled 'Bah Kah Tah', in crowded places in Rangoon since October 15.

His Analysis of the current political climate of Burma

• Burmese Generals have no interest in the National Reconciliation (Officially declared the exclusion of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and NLD in the future Burmese Politics)

• Wishful thinking of China and ASEAN to be actively persuade Generals to the path of Democracy does not materialise.

• Burmese Generals have shown the world that they have no respect for UN.

Conclusion,

They have declared the world that they are the special species in Burma, so that they will continue the policy of modern day Slavery of Burma forever. And they are only afraid of the stick!

On the 87th anniversary of National Day of Burma, only hope of the future of the Burma is in the hand of the Burmese people.

Bizarre Weather Forecast

I totally didn’t expect the heavy rain which started yesterday morning would last till late at night. The weather seems to be getting more and more unpredictable that even the Met Service cannot provide an accurate weather forecast for Singapore. On 1^st Dec it issued a statement:

"a surge of Northeast Monsoon wind could bring widespread intermittent moderate to heavy rain to Singapore" between Tuesday and Friday.

and later on 3^rd Dec it did a correction to its previous forecast:

But now, the Met Service said such moderate to heavy rain has only been seen in parts of Indonesia, but not in Singapore as earlier forecast.

"The forecast of widespread moderate to heavy rain in the next few days is no longer expected in Singapore. The winds are expected to weaken in the next few days," it said.

It later issued a third statement through a Straits Times article on 5^th Dec stating:

Northeast monsoon means heavy showers may last till weekend

SINGAPORE experienced widespread intermittent rain, heavy at times, on Wednesday, brought about by the northeast monsoon.

This marks the start of the rainy season here, which usually lasts from December to January, said the National Environment Agency (NEA) in a statement.”

NEA said the island's been experiencing windy conditions in the past several days, due to the onset of the northeast monsoon in the region since late November.

Windy conditions are also common.

NEA said the forecast for Thursday is cloudy with intermittent rain, heavy at times.

Afternoon showers may be expected on Friday and Saturday.

Singapore’s property market is running a fever

Singapore’s hot property market has become the latest noteworthy conversation topic and it is not just the private property market that sees massive rises in Singapore’s house prices over the past year, even the local HDB residential market has seen record transaction prices.

It was only a month ago we read in the news that two Marine Parade 5-room flats were sold for record prices of $750,888 and $730,000, and a 3-room HDB flat was sold for $380,000. Crazy isn’t it? For $380,000, you could easily afford a resale HDB executive maisonette in areas like Bukit Batok.

Although the resale price index stated on the HDB’s website seems to show a continual healthy increase over the previous quarter in 2007, it would be interesting to note that the number of resale applications registered seems to have started to decrease across the board for all flat types in the 3^rd quarter of 2007. While I do not deny this could be a normal fluctuation, it would be a sign for concern should it continue to drop in the 4th quarter of 2007.

I must declare I am no expert in the property market but I believe there must always be a “tipping point” in the price of goods which is ultimately dependent on the supply and demand forces of the market. When the demand for resale flats come down as a result of a lack of affordability by most buyers, the price of flats would also drop naturally.

While we are still far from the 1997’s resale price index peak range of 130s, I think it is not prudent for any buyer to pay high prices for a resale flat during this period even though industry experts have been assuring us that residential property is still a good long-term investment. Why do I think so?

Scenario 1:

If we were to follow the trend on HDB’s resale price index, it is barely 1 year before the property market overheats. Give and take, let us say 2 years before the property market starts to crash, the buyers who have bought their flats recently would not be in time for their next sale if they intend to because they cannot meet the minimum occupation period (MOP) of 2.5 years from the effective date of purchase if the owners takes a loan from HDB and without CPF Housing Grant Scheme(otherwise MOP would be 5 years) . And even if they do not take any HDB loan for the purchase, the window period would still have to be a minimum of 1 year. It would thus be a risky short-term investment as no one can predict exactly when the crash will happen.

Scenario 2:

Even if the buyers decide not to sell but hold on to their newly purchased, already over-valued flats while waiting for a better price, they would be caught in a difficult financial situation where they have to finance their house loans and at the same time, see their flat values drop until asking prices are adjusted to the clearing level. The actual total loss at the next sale may be unimaginable. The 1997 property market crash victims know it.

So it’s time we take the inherent risk seriously as once the property market crashes, it is hard to stop. Potential buyers should not try to stretch themselves too much. We certainly want our money to be more liquid so that we can all survive through the impending recession and cope with the relentless rising cost of living.

Al Jazeera on Singapore’s Singtel MioTV

It was reported in Straits Times yesterday that Al Jazeera has received permission to be broadcast in Singapore on Singtel’s pay-TV service, MioTV. A few questions may come to our mind:

What is Al Jazeera?

“Jazeera” means island. According to International Herald Tribune’s article titled “How Al Jazeera can go up a gear”, Al Jazeera is a Qatar-based TV which is owned by the royal family of Qatar. It launched its English Service, Al Jazeera International, on 15 November 2006 and has obtained TV rights in several countries and regions such as United States and the Latin America.

Who is in Al Jazeera?

According to Mediachannel.org, Al Jazeera has assembled a team of TV pros from BBC, APTN, ITV, CNN and CNBC, among others, and will have 40 bureaus worldwide with broadcast centres in Doha, Kuala Lumpur, London and Washington. Some of the journalists’ names include Peggy Holter, Josh Rushing and Mark Teboe. The Programming Director, Paul Gibbs worked with BBC and Discovery Channel previously. It would also be interesting to take a look at their code of ethics.

Has Al Jazeera received any criticisms on its coverage since it’s a Middle Eastern TV station?

United States President George Bush and his administrative leaders have called the station’s coverage inflammatory and misleading for its journalistic style biased in favour of Arab causes. Al Jazeera has also attracted numerous criticisms and controversies with regard to the war on terrorism:

The most famous controversy would have to be the false allegation over the telecast of videos of masked terrorists beheading western hostages in Iraq. Other controversies include the broadcasting of Osama bin Laden’s videos. In those videos, Osama defended and justified the New York’s World Trade Centre attacks on September 11, 2001. US accused Al Jazeera of engaging in propaganda for the terrorists.

Shocking enough? It seems Al Jazeera is not going to be another ordinary TV station seeking to increase its viewership base worldwide and their coming to Singapore is going to make a big difference to the already well-controlled mainstream media. Al Jazeera is certainly going to influence the way we see the world with more war news and gory scenes, and with more controversial issues such as the Singapore-Burma ties which has recently caused an embarassment to our Singapore government. Tony Birtley of Al Jazeera reported in the following video which includes interviews with Chee Siok Chin of SDP and Alex Au of yawningbread.org:

Al-Jazeera can be broadcast in S'pore: officials

Al-JAZEERA'S English channel has received permission to be broadcast in the city-state, the government said on Monday.

The Arab broadcaster's English news service will be available to subscribers of Singapore Telecommunications' (SingTel) pay-TV service, the Media Development Authority (MDA) said in a statement.

'MDA has approved SingTel's application to offer the Al-Jazeera English channel on MioTV - its IPTV (Internet Protocol television) service,' Amy Chua, MDA's director for media content division, said in the statement. Officials did not say when Al-Jazeera would go on the air.

Qatar-based Al-Jazeera has said it will provide an alternative perspective to international news channels based in Europe and the United States. Al-Jazeera's Arabic service, which celebrated its 10th anniversary in November 2006, has revolutionised news media in the Arab world, but it has also stirred controversy.

It gained worldwide recognition mainly due to its broadcast of videotapes issued by Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. -- AFP

World AIDS Day Means Little in Burma

December 1 was the 20th World AIDS Day and people around the word celebrated and commemorated the occasion. However, in Burma, HIV/AIDS activists and volunteers are being arrested and hunted down daily by the military authorities.

Phyu Phyu Thin, a well-known HIV/AIDS activist and member of the National League for Democracy, who was active in the recent demonstrations, is now in hiding from the security forces while several youth members of the NLD who were working with her group of nationwide volunteers have either been arrested or are in hiding too.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy by telephone from her hiding place on Friday, Phyu Phyu Thin said that since 2002 the volunteer group has taken care of more than 1,800 persons living with HIV/AIDS throughout the country.

This year alone, they have taken in about 600 new persons living with HIV/AIDS. Of those, about 200 patients are now directly under their care, while another 40 patients are receiving antiretroviral (ARV) drugs from their group.

“The hunting down and arresting of HIV/AIDS workers is not only disturbing for us, but is also disappointing and discouraging for the patients,” she said, adding that the group now has to recruit new volunteers to replace those who have been arrested or have had to go into hiding. The volunteers take on several duties, including buying medicine for the patients and helping to arrange treatment with various NGOs.

According to Yazar, a colleague of Phyu Phyu Thin, many of the HIV/AIDS patients are wives and children of bus drivers and fishermen who often have contact with sex workers.

This year, he said, the group has taken in many pregnant women who have been infected with the HIV/AIDS virus, while about 18 persons, including one child, had died while under their care.

He claimed that the patients usually died because they did not recognize their symptoms in time, were misdiagnosed or received poor treatment.

Yarzar added that since July 2006, when HIV/AIDS clinics stopped supplying ARV drugs to new patients, many victims of the disease have come directly to the volunteer group.

ARV treatment is available in Rangoon through the AZG clinic run by French-based Médecins Sans Frontières and the Rangoon Infectious Diseases Hospital [Wai Bar Gi].

However, limited funds are available and several patients must be referred to local NGOs, such as Yankin Yate Mon, who specifically treat patients who have contracted the virus from drug usage.

SIA's Singapore Girl

I am going on a holiday trip to Hong Kong soon and for the first time, I’ll be flying by Singapore Airlines (SIA). I’ve been very interested to know how the Singapore Girls are different from the air stewardesses from the other airlines. There has been so much hullabaloo about SIA’s iconic Singapore Girl which has been an important part of the airline’s culture since 1972.

So I wonder. What exactly makes a Singapore Girl? For the benefit of the foreigners visiting my site, the well-known Singapore Girl strategy was brainstormed by French haute-couture designer Pierre Balmain. The Singapore Girl dons a special version of the Malay sarong kebaya as her uniform, which turns out to be a powerful brand icon and SIA personalises her as a unique Asian figure who is gentle, caring, elegant and serene.

I have had some bad experiences on other airlines. British Airways is one. Can you imagine an air stewardess telling you to “wait for your turn” when you requested for a drink? I found that extremely rude. United Airlines is another. The stewardesses were so unprofessional that they seemed to be treating passengers like cattles when we were leaving the plane. Maybe for the prices I paid, I shouldn’t complain so much. Anyhow I will get a chance to see how our SIA’s Singapore Girl matches up with them.

I hope I do get to take a photo with her on my 4-hour flight with the near-celebrity of Asia. Right now, I can only dream of her.

Political opinion polls and non-censorships

Pardon me for being forgetful. Did we see such letters being published in our mainstream media during last year’s General Elections? Are Singaporeans so apathetic that not even a single soul wrote such “offensive” letters to the press during the election time? Or did the press simply practice self-censorship during the period?

Also, there are numerous opinion polls on whether children feel happy and on whether people feel disgusted about gays etc but there aren't any opinion surveys on the performance of the Prime Minister and his government. Isn’t it a common practice in many democratic countries and a good way to ensure good governance? I think we have a lot to learn from the Thais:

Thailand's Election Opinion Polls:

Democrats way ahead, says poll

Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva is in the lead for the position of prime minister, winning the backing of 46 per cent of those polled. PPP leader Samak Sundaravej trailed far behind with 23 per cent. Banharn Silapa-archa of Chart Thai received 6 per cent and Suwit Khunkitti of Puea Pandin got 3 per cent.

PPP headed for 190 seats

The People Power Party will win as many as 190 seats in the election, sweeping all regions except Bangkok and the South, where the predicted runners-up, the Democrat Party, is more popular, according to the first analysis of the upcoming election by the Nation Group.

Two of the letters to The Nation, the national newspaper:

Political promises are worth the price of a vote: a pittance

The finding from a poll that more than 50 per cent of people would accept money in exchange for their votes should be given serious thought.

It's easy for us to say that these people don't understand that vote-buying will harm the nation. But if we look from another perspective, the finding could indicate these people don't believe in promises made by any political party. They probably believe that promises are just marketing tools to get votes without any real intention to keep them. They might not believe that if they don't sell their votes, in the next few years they will have a school as good as Triam Udom not too far from their homes. They probably don't believe also that their children will have a better future. People, no matter how illiterate, will choose the better choice from their point of view. And if they choose to sell their votes, it could mean that they don't believe their living conditions will improve if they choose otherwise.

If politicians cannot prove through their deeds that they can improve the lives of the poor, increasing numbers of people may sell their votes for cash. And we cannot blame them. While we feel sad about this, it is an embarrassment for the politicians in the sense that a lot of people believe no promises of any party are worth more than a small sum of money.

Prichar, Bangkok

One baht for the forces, one baht for the children

When politicians recently controlled the purse strings of government, they voted themselves big pay rises. Now we have the military in charge, and surprise, they vote themselves big pay rises and a giant budget increase for weapons of dubious need. What if educators were in charge of government; would we then get ample budget for educating children? Here's my proposal: for every baht allocated for military spending, one baht be allocated for education, and one additional baht be earmarked for social welfare to take care of the sick, the elderly and the poor.

Currently, there are many kids who don't go to school for various reasons, all having to do with lack of money: their parents can't afford required new uniforms, shoes and/or books. Another reason is that kids are compelled to work for their parents to eke out a few extra baht per day to survive. Instead of maintaining an aircraft carrier that's non-functional and purchasing two new subs, the government should give more than lip service to seeing that no child is deprived of an education due to poverty.

Ken Albertsen, Chiang Rai