The New Republic

I hereby announce the establishment of a New Republic.

In this New Republic, all adult citizens receive monthly allowances from the government, instead of salaries from their employment.

Labour costs for the businesses and corporations would be in the form of labour taxes and medical reimbursements.

Business owners and private investors would still receive income from their private investments and proprietorships or partnerships.

The mandate of this New Republic centers on healthy lifestyles and stress-free living. People go to work because they know it is good for them, to keep their minds working and bodies active. The atmosphere builds on encouragement and forgiveness, and people strive to surpass themselves and build a country that prides in its strong work ethics.

The allowances rise with a person's seniority in a company, but never fall below a comfortable level even when a person is unemployed.

Emphasis is put on a person's achievement and reputation, with the education system teaching children to take after role models featured in the newspapers. Lifelong learning is a common passion, and children are taught from young the possibilities in their hands from matters as trivial as their love for video games.

Oh what a wonderful world that is!

Singapore society

Today I learnt that

- my mum's friend's sister is SR Nathan's neighbour

- my mum's friend and husband are close friends with Lee Hsien Loong, and their kids used to play together when they were young

- each kid had one bodyguard and the whole group had another one or two more bodyguards

- Ong Teng Cheong is somehow related to Lee Kwan Yew who is somehow related to Wee Kim Wee through a series of marriages, re-marriages, cousins multiple times removes and just pure blood relations

- my mum's friend is the personal assistant of Steven Riady, and she personally met his father Mochtar Riady when she was my age

- the psychologist Danny Ng who came to guest speak at NJC once at a talk I supposedly hosted was my mother's close friend. He calls her Da Jie.

- my mother's friend's neighbour is famous lawyer Subhas Anandan

Hehe I suddenly feel so close to the upper echelons of the Singapore society.

The Internet empowers the young. For the better?

This opinion is inspired by the wave of protests across North Africa and Middle East, and a spot of it in China.

What these countries have in common are extremely popular social networking sites among young people, and a lot of unemployment or hardships in those age bands.

With the speed of technological advances nowadays, the penetration of the Internet into our lives, and the open online environment, do you think it's possible that technology shifts power into the hands of the young (and away from the old)?

I feel that the youngest generations will always be the ones most adept at the newest internet/IT technologies, simply because such technologies enter their lives earlier than everyone else and smaller, faster, better becomes integrated into their worldview before their worldviews are fixed.

And these technologies vest in them a method of communication apart and away from the older generations who are used to and more comfortable with technologies part of their older worldviews. That is, those technologies that came in earlier in their lives. Like for most of us, Friendster was a huge thing, then came Facebook and then Twitter. But for kids in secondary school now, Friendster is an urban myth, while Facebook and Twitter are two essentials in their communication mix. And their activity on Facebook and Twitter are different in styles from our activity on Facebook and Twitter.

And because these technologies are so connected, it is easy to form a certain wavelength amongst these younger users that do not resonate with older users. So when the vast majority of younger users are affected by similar experiences, their voices and complaints reverberate very quickly among the young, while the effect is greatly dampened among the older ones.

But is this a good phenomenon? Sure it gives a voice to the those repressed, and an alternative media for the young and powerless. But the characteristics of these people also mean that they are inexperienced, less mature and are more attuned with the effects of stuff rather than the causes.

And they are so dispersed! When it comes to arrow pointing and directed action, who do people turn to? The owners of traditional media and power, because these people are concentrated and identifiable, when trouble in fact brews from another source. So what happens is that peace only comes when the people in power cede to the requests of the protestors.

All is well and good if the final results are increased prosperity for all. But I'm not certain if change brought this way is at all better, even for the very people who demanded the change in the first place, given the higher likelihood of their immaturity and inexperience. Like I do not see how sensible people would rape a foreign journalist while celebrating the victory of their cause. What the hell.

Then what happens when the older generations need change? How do they counter the scattered and ubiquitous voices of the young when they have no accessible communication technology more effective than the younger generation? We face the possibilities of a new neglected class.

They raped in celebration

What the hell. I will never, ever understand these people. Savages!

ps. I know it's a bit late. But still, the wave of protests has not ended.