been meaning to come here to put down my thoughts but always lazy to really sit down and write. interestingly just now i have a crazy thought. maybe i can write a book. a book to talk about how fortunate we are, this generation of young people. we are simply born in the right place right time. economy is doing well. no one is going to war. even if there's war, it doesn't affect us directly. EVEN if it does affect us directly, somehow the impact is a little cushioned. diseases come diseases go. we are still living as though everything is normal. the SARS scare seem to only affect us at that period of time. most of us are probably more bothered with the troublesome procedure of getting our temperature scanned at many places more than the effect the disease has on us. now the number one most wanted man in the country actually escape and things are still normal. how lucky.

on the note about the escape, interestingly, all we read from the news are the different kind of efforts that our government put in to TRY to arrest him. i only read an article about how the minister apologise for the mistake. nothing much is detailed on how the hell singapore number one criminal escape. ok, maybe that's a little classified. or are we too ashamed to own up for the mistake we did? something somewhere went wrong. the whole nation is put at risk and yet we don't know what exactly happened. now, there's completely no news about this fellow. did the media plan the news according to importance or popularity? why cant there be a short update right at the start of every news? i don't know how many citizens (or just people living in the country carrying a pink ic) are bothered by it. i am. everyday i read the news, i hope to see the news of his capture. are we controlled by the media? you can say that the government is trying to maintain the stability in the country, so they do not want us to be panic. but i am concerned. an update at the start of the news will be good.

so, here i am, sitting comfortably in my room, typing this entry. no fear of terrorism (actually i'm damn worried. i kept my eyes open starring into forest when i took the bus just in case i manage to see him), no fear of disease outbreak, no fear of war, no fear of natural disaster, no fear of the lack of food. nothing. no fear at all. that, is how fortunate we are. we only worried if we can get an A for the test next week. worried if the fellow sitting beside you during lecture will beat you in the common test tomorrow. we are, indeed, the spoilt brat.



i read the entry of nicole's. very interesting perspective on the crane collapse incident. i, too, was feeling very relieved that the crane did not manage to hit the bus stop that is always so crowded. i did feel a little sad that people died. she was right. why did we focus on the fact the no students were hurt? what happened if, instead of 3 workers who died, one phd student got hit? will there be more reports? remember how the top student at the dragonboat incident earned himself a full page worth of reports? so exactly, are we promoting elitism?


random again, the next interesting though i had recently is about the usefulness of an office space. perhaps i haven been to much offices around but of what exact use is office space for now we can totally rely on email, telephone and internet database? perhaps long time ago they need the space so as to share resources such as database. even longer ago, perhaps office provide you with the computer and telephone. now, internet and mobile phones are so convenient, why cant we work at home? why do everyone still have to travel downtown early in the morning, creating jams, reducing economic efficiency, increasing things like ERP and ultimately creating a upset mind in everybody? i have to admit there are jobs which you need to be physically present at a certain place. i'm also sure that there will be at least 30% of the people who report to office everyday simply to sit in front of a computer and use it for the whole day. why can't we do it at home? here comes the hit. is it because that the trust between employer and employee is so low that the employer can't bear to give salary to people he can't see working? there's alot of argument (sociologically speaking and all) with this. all i'm saying is, if those can (and need to) stay at home, why not? why not report to work for meetings or for a weekly update? all the talks about family life.