Feelings of ill-will

ARTICLE FROM THE STRAITS TIMES

May 29, 2009

Couple guilty of sedition

Their claim that they did not know nature of contents rejected

By Elena Chong
		Ong and his wife Dorothy Chan leaving the Subordinate Courts yesterday. The couple is in hot water for distributing seditious tracts. -- ST PHOTO: CAROLINE CHIA

A CHRISTIAN couple who mass-mailed evangelical tracts to the public for many years were on Thursday found guilty of distributing seditious or objectionable publications to three Muslims.

About this case ONG Kian Cheong, 50, and Dorothy Chan Hien Leng, 46, claimed trial to two charges each of distributing seditious publications and one each of distributing an objectionable publication and possessing seditious tracts. Two of the recipients, Madam Farharti Ahmad, 36, and Mr Irwan Ariffin, 32, received an evangelistic comic tract titled The Little Bride through the mail in March and October 2007 respectively. Another recipient, Mr Isa Raffee, 35, was sent Who Is Allah? in December that year. All three told the court that they felt angry, insulted and offended, and believed a Christian group had sent them. ... more

Ong Kian Cheong, 50, a SingTel technical officer, and his wife, Dorothy Chan Hien Leng, 46, a UBS associate director, were also convicted of having 439 copies of 11 seditious publications at their Maplewoods Condominium on Jan 30 last year.

This is the first time a full trial under the Sedition Act has been heard.

In 2005, a man was jailed a month for posting inflammatory and vicious remarks about Muslims and Malays on the Internet.

The following year, a 21-year-old accounts assistant received a stern warning for posting an offensive cartoon of Jesus Christ on his blog.

Ong was arrested on Jan 30 last year after he was seen by police dropping off a stack of brown envelopes into a post box outside his office at ComCentre at Exeter Road.

He subsequently led the officers to his car and his home, where more of the Chick Publications materials were seized. Chan was arrested the same day.

The case centred on whether the couple, who were then attending Berean Christian Church at Havelock Road, knew or had reason to believe that the publications they had mailed to the three were seditious.

The prosecution argued that the couple had carried out their evangelical mission 'with eyes wide open', and that they were fully aware of the offensive nature of the contents.

They distributed those offensive publications to members of different faiths in Singapore with no regard for their feelings or sensitivities, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Anandan Bala in his closing submissions.

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This article from the Straits Times brings back memories from the past.

More than a decade ago when I was still in secondary school, students from my school were made to attend church service every week. The service was 2 hours long, if memory still serves me well, and we had to sing praises of the lord. Singing christian songs with woeful melodies was bad enough for a teenager who wanted to do only "cool" things. Singing christian songs was definately not cool. What made it worse was, some of the songs were actually mandrain songs! WTf? Christian songs in maindrain? Totally not cool.

So one day, I decided I'd enough. I gathered some of my friends and proposed this to them: Let's skip this totally "uncool" 2 hours every week and head out for some food at the nearby hawker's centre. And so we did that every week for a couple of months before disaster struck: Our absence from the church service was finally noticed by the teachers.

As a result, each of us got 5 demerit points, which was 33% of the path to getting yourself expelled from school. Add detention classes to that.

Of course I wasn't all too happy about that. I told my parents about it and whined about those long boring 2 hours of hell we were made to go through every week. Then I mention this "Why do they keep saying that we will have to go to hell for not believing in jesus?" to my old man. My old man sort of LOLed and said something that I shall decline to reveal here.

Ok. Back to the main topic.

Question 1)

Why is it that telling a muslim that hell awaits him if he doesn't turn to Jesus a crime while telling the same thing to an atheist not? I'm sure it did "promote feelings of ill-will and hostility" between me and the pastor. Heck, I'd be pissed if anyone else were to tell me that I'd be "going to hell".

Question 2)

Why was it that I was never given the option of not attending the church service?

Oh well. Just food for thought.

Roundworm of the dog

The roundworm of the dog, also known as Toxocara canis, is a common intestinal parasite found in dogs.

The life cycle of Toxocara canis goes like this:

1) Eggs, which may be found in cockroaches, rats, earthworms, are ingested

2) Lavae hatch and migrates through the intestinal wall and to the liver

3) Lavae then migrates to the lungs via the blood stream and is then coughed out and swallowed

4) Adults then develop in the intestines once again, laying eggs that are excreted

5) This cycle takes about 4-5 weeks to complete




However, most of the lavae actually end up encysted in muscles where they lay dormant instead of developing into adults in the small intestine. In the bitch, these encysted lavae become reactivated during late pregnancy and the fetuses are infected. The worms can also be transmitted to pups via milk. Worms transmitted to pups in this manner take 2 weeks to develop into adults and start producing eggs.

This has great significance on the treatment regime of pups. Infected pups require treatment with an appropriate anthelmintic (eg. Benzamindazoles, macrocyclic lactones, pyrantel) every 2 weeks starting from 2 weeks of age till they are weaned. The reason for this is due to the transmammary route of infection. Once they are weaned, treatment will need to me administered once a month till 6 months of age. The reason for this is that by 6 months of age, most of the lavae will be encysted in muscles, instead of completing their life cycle. Thereafter, treatment will only be required 2 - 4 times a year.

Toxocara canis also poses a zoonotic threat, especially to young children. The reason for this is two-fold: Children have poorer hygiene practices as well as a relatively immature immune system.

Toxocarasis in humans typically have 2 presentations:

1) Visceral lava migrans - lavae migrate to other organs in the body, causing signs and symptoms referable to where the lavae localise

2) Ocular lava migrans - lavae migrate into the eye

PS: This is what the adults look like


















And this is what the egg looks like. Note the L2 stage inside the egg on the right hand side.

Oil prices, cab companies and cab drivers

S'pore's taxi fares likely to go up soon

TAXI drivers want it and their associations have asked for it, so all that remains is for the biggest taxi operator ComfortDelGro to go ahead and do it - raise taxi fares that is.

All the signs point to it happening, and soon. A year after the last increase, which saw the flag-down rate go up by 10 cents to at least $2.50 and peak period surcharge double to $2, sources say a bigger jump is imminent.

The flag-down fare is expected to rise by 30 cents, bringing the minimum starting fare to $2.80.

Newer taxis such as the Hyundai Sonata and Kia Magentis charge 20 cents more, so their flag-down rate should hit $3, The Straits Times understands.Distance and time-based rates are also expected to change. Currently, the meter advances by 10 cents every 210m or every 25 seconds of waiting. After 10km, it jumps 10 cents every 175m.

Industry observers expect leading operator ComfortDelGro to make the first move this month, but the company has remained mum about its plans.

'Fare adjustment is a commercially sensitive topic, so we cannot comment on it,' ComfortDelGro spokesman Tammy Tan said.

For the past three weeks or so, the company - which has a fleet of 15,000 taxis - has been sending its cabs to have their meters adjusted.

Ms Tan said this was mainly to update the meters for next year's public holiday slots. There is a $1 surcharge for public holidays.

But The Straits Times understands the tweaks - taking around 20 minutes per cab - also include adding a chip to allow the metered fare structure to be adjusted wirelessly.

Taxi drivers have been calling for a fare hike for several weeks now, citing the higher cost of fuel and the two percentage point rise in the goods and services tax, which has raised their rental rate by an average of $50 a month.

Diesel at the pumps, after a discount, has risen by around 20 per cent since the last cab fare increase in July last year, raising fuel cost per cab by around $300 each month.

Member of Parliament Seng Han Thong, an adviser to the taxi operators' associations, said taxi fares should be pegged to the cost cabbies bear. He told The Straits Times two weeks ago that the taxi operators' associations have been lobbying for a fare rise.

'Although taxi drivers are always worried about losing business if fares go up too high...they still hope there would be a fare increase,' Mr Seng said.

Some quarters have called for fares to rise substantially to manage demand, so that commuters who need a cab will find it easier to get one.

Cabby Chew Lian Sheng, 37, said that is the 'only way to manage demand', since taxi companies are unable to put more taxis on the road because there are not enough drivers around.

Mr Chew said the flag-down fare should be between $7 and $10. 'There'd be a public outcry. But cabbies can earn a living with fewer trips.'

Mr Chew is also of the view that surcharges must be removed or at least, simplified, as they 'create an artificial market'.

Cabby Manjeet Singh, 62, said the flag-down fare should be $6 or $7. 'It's pathetic now,' he said. 'We should also abolish the surcharges - they are very confusing.'

Transport researcher and National University of Singapore lecturer Lee Der-Horng said simply raising fares would not solve all taxi woes. He said a 'package solution' was needed.

This includes having Electronic Road Pricing subsidies to encourage cabbies to go into the Central Business District; more designated taxi stands in the city centre; and simplifying surcharges.

Associate Professor Lee also suggested having 'a centralised call booking system...This way, passengers will just need to dial one number to get access to the pool of taxis from all taxi companies',

He said doing away with all surcharges may not be the answer. For instance, how can cabbies be encouraged to ply the 'graveyard shift' otherwise?

Nevertheless, he reckons the imbalance between demand and supply 'cannot be fully resolved'.

christan@sph.com.sg

tracysua@sph.com.sg

http://www.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/Singapore/Story/A1Story20071204-39471.html

Will the rapidly increasing cost of living in Peasant land ever slow down and come to stop? The possibility of that happening does not look too hopeful.

When Comfort introduce their new range of cabs like the Hyundai Sonata and Kias Magentis and starts charging people more just because it is supposedly more luxurious, do we have a choice in rejecting it and saying, “hey this is not what we need, why do you buy things and then charge us more when we could have more of the old and enjoy a lower fare”? The situation is the same as the investment made in TVs being put in place everywhere by the public transport companies and their so called “value-adding” by giving us more commercials to watch while they reap the benefits of the advertising dollar.

Instead of lobbying for an increase in cab fares, shouldn’t people be lobbying against the cost of diesel which in the first place is the root of their problems?

The increase in oil prices in recent times have been link to the increasing oil prices which reach a peak of USD 99 but now it is currently trading around the USD 88 – 90 region. The response to raise oil prices is always swift but the response to lower it is ever so lagging and may not even happen at all. As a local oil company who has the power to influence the price level of petrol, SPC could have taken a lead to cut their prices thus forcing other oil companies to do likewise but no, that won’t happen as SPC is a public listed company and they have to take care of their “shareholder’s interest”.

Calculating from the $50 increase in rental rates due to the 2% increase in GST, the cost of renting a cab is $2,675 a month, translating to approximately $90 a day for renting a cab in a month of 30 days. If Comfort wants to help their drivers, lowering their rental charges would go a long way in helping them. As Comfort is a public listed company, I also wouldn’t expect them to do so as they have to take care of their “shareholder’s interest”.

You die your business

I was on my way home after buying lunch when I was stopped by an asian girl who was wearing a T-shirt with the symbol of the red cross printed on it. She seemed to sense my aversion towards her when she asked me if she could have a moment of my time. (Aversion towards the Red Cross symbol, not towards the girl. Don't anything think ok?)

"Don't worry. I'm will not ask you to donate blood." she said.

I thought to myself : "Shit! What else can a person donate? Only organs and money! That's even worse."

My guess was accurate as it could get. She was trying to get me to donate some money to the red cross to help bush fire victims on a monthly basis. I had actually decided not to donate any money to any charity whatsoever with the NKF scandal and possibly RenCi at the back of my head. However, I eventually succumbed to her power of persuasion nonetheless (hehe) and hence had to pledge a dollar a day to the Red Cross foundation.

While filling up the "part-with-your-money" form, she introduced herself as a student from Indonesia, who had previously spent 10 years studying in Singapore before having to leave after O'levels because of her poor results for Chinese. Then, she asked me this very interesting question: "Why is it that the Singaporeans living in Singapore are so unfriendly, snobbish and kiasu compared to the ones here? My Singaporean friends here are all so friendly and nice." ( I do not live in Singapore, in case you can't make sense out of what's going on.)

I took a moment or two to think about her question, and realised her observation was spot on. Singaporeans living in Singapore are generally unfriendly, perhaps snobbish and definitely kiasu. It's not necessary to give any examples for Singaporeans ought to know themselves very well.

But the important question is : What is the root cause of the ugly Singaporean?

Before we going into identifying the root cause of it, let me list some of the traits that ugly Singaporeans, as a whole, possess.

1) Kiasu

2) Generally rude

3) Reluctance to help victims of crimes

4) Un-cooperative

5) Special ability to fall asleep immediately on MRT seat when elderly/pregnant lady appears

6) Blasting their ipods in public places

All in all, Singaporeans generally lack social grace, public spirit and civic mindedness. It seems that Singaporeans are systematically skewed to exhibit such undesirable behaviour. By the looks of it, someone has been teaching the whole nation to be rude and nasty people. Guess who? :)

Here's some lessons taught by the culprits

Lesson 1
What did you learn when they told you "We raise GST to help the poor "?
This is what you have learnt: The poor, being rather stupid and helpless, deserved to be screwed harder. But screw them in a politically correct manner, otherwise they might not vote for u next time.

Lesson 2
What did you learn when they told you "No welfare for all of you. It will lead to the development of a clutch mentality"?
This is what you have learnt: Helping the poor is bad. Not helping the poor on the other had is good. In fact, try not to help anyone.

Lesson 3
What did you learn when they told you "Competition is good. Let's have cheap foreign labour competing for low-skilled jobs with you."
This is what you have learnt: When someone is already down and out, earning low pay as a cleaner, add on to their misery by allowing the influx of cheap labour to drive their already low wage even lower. They only have themselves to blame for not being able to snag a cushy job as a million dollar minister.

Lesson 4
What did you learn when they told you "NS is for Singaporeans and university places are for foreign talents"?
This is what you have learnt: Never ever help your classmate with his work. His results might one day surpass yours and there will be no place for you in a local uni. (SIM doesn't count) Then, you would end up as a road sweeper and will have to refer to lesson 3

Lesson 5
What did you learn when they told you "The solution to lack of supply of taxis, traffic jams and the lack of hospital beds is to raise prices (means testing)"?
This is what you have learnt: Money solves all problems, especially problems with supply. There is no need to increase supply to match demand. Just jack up the prices, it's the panacea to all problems.

Lesson 6
What did you learn when they told you "Eat fish if chicken is expensive"
This is what you have learnt, which is the salient point of all the lessons: You die your business. It's really nobody else's business.

Piracy

ST Nov 13, 2007
Herbal sex pill alternatives pose hidden dangers

LOS ANGELES - MANY of the pills marketed as safe herbal alternatives to Viagra and other prescription sex medications pose a hidden danger: For men on common heart and blood-pressure drugs, popping one could lead to a stroke, or even death.

'All-natural' products with names like Stamina-RX and Vigor-25 promise an apothecary's delight of rare Asian ingredients, but many work because they contain unregulated versions of the very pharmaceuticals they are supposed to replace.

That dirty secret represents a special danger for the millions of men who take nitrates - drugs prescribed to lower blood pressure and regulate heart disease.

When mixed, nitrates and impotency pharmaceuticals can slow blood flow catastrophically, leading to a heart attack or stroke.

An investigation shows that spiked herbal impotency pills are emerging as a major public health concern that officials haven't figured out how to track, much less tame.

Emergency rooms and poison control hot lines are starting to log more incidents of the long-ignored phenomenon.

Sales of 'natural sexual enhancers' are booming - rising to nearly US$400 million (S$ 582 million) last year. And dangerous knockoffs abound.

At greatest risk are the estimated 5.5 million American men who take nitrates - generally older and more likely to need help with erectile dysfunction.

The all-natural message can be appealing to such men, warned by their doctors and ubiquitous TV commercials not to take Viagra, Cialis or Levitra.

James Neal-Kababick, director of Oregon-based Flora Research Laboratories, said about 90 per cent of the hundreds of samples he has analyzed contained forms of patented pharmaceuticals - some with doses more than twice that of prescription erectile dysfunction medicine.

Other testers report similar results, particularly among pills that promise immediate results.
An elderly man in a retirement community north of Los Angeles took an in-the-mail sample and landed in the hospital for four days.

Tim Fulmer, a lawyer representing Spontane-ES, said the pill did not contain any pharmaceutical and was not responsible for the stroke.

Mark B. Mycyk, a Chicago emergency room doctor who directs Northwestern University's clinical toxicology research program, said he is seeing increasing numbers of patients who unwittingly took prescription-strength doses of the alternatives, a trend he attributes to ease of purchase on the Internet and the desperation of vulnerable men.

He said he wouldn't be surprised if there'd been undetected deaths from bad herbal pills.
Some herbal labels warn off users with heart or blood-pressure problems if they have taken their medicine within six hours; some doctors say 24 hrs or more would be safer.

The AP often couldn't determine from records whether incidents reported to tracking systems of the federal Food and Drug Administration and state poison control centers involved mixing herbal alternatives with nitrates.

Some men in their 30s who went to emergency rooms after taking herbal sex pills were presumably otherwise healthy, but they showed the transitory side effects of the active ingredients in regulated impotency pharmaceuticals, such as difficulty seeing clearly or severe headaches, records show.

While public health officials don't know the extent of the problem, they agree that incidents are vastly underreported, with national tracking systems capturing perhaps as little as 1 percent of them. Victims may be embarrassed, and doctors rarely ask about supplements.

Since 2001, sales of supplements marketed as natural sexual enhancers have risen US$100 million to US$398 million last year, including herbal mixtures, according to estimates by Nutrition Business Journal.

Some legitimate herbal mixtures claim to work gradually over weeks; it's the herbals marketed for immediate trysts that often are the problem.

Tight budgets, weak regulations and other priorities limit the FDA's ability to police the products, often promoted via blasts of e-mail spam and fly-by-night websites.

Linda Silvers, who leads an FDA team that targets fraudulent health products sold online said, ' a website can look sophisticated and legitimate, but actually be an illegal operation.'

In many cases, the ingredients used to alter herbal pills come from Asia, particularly China, where the sexual enhancers are cooked up in labs at the beginning of a winding supply chain.
The FDA has placed pills by two manufacturers in China and one from Malaysia on an import watch list.

Spiked pills have turned up in Thailand, Taiwan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Malaysia, the United Kingdom and the United States, according to testing done by Pfizer Inc., the New York-based pharmaceutical giant that developed Viagra.

The company said that 69 per cent of 3,400 supplements it purchased in China contained sildenafil citrate, the main ingredient in Viagra.

Pfizer didn't check for the patented ingredients of its rivals.

While herbal alternatives often contain exact copies of the patented drugs, some makers tweak the molecules to keep the effect of the original pharmaceutical while avoiding the scrutiny of the FDA and outside testing labs.

During the past year, the FDA has orchestrated eight recalls of 'herbal' pills that contained the ingredients found in Viagra, Cialis or Levitra, or their unregulated chemical cousins. -- AP
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A perfect example to illustrate why "herbal" remedies that are marketed as natural and safe can be the exact opposite of what they are suppose to be. How did the manufacturers of these remedies know that their products are safe? Did they run tests on them? Maybe Pfizer did so on their behalf.

To add insult to injury, the herbal sex pills were not even "natural". There were in fact pirated versions of the real thing.

Seems like the lines between alternative medicine, quackery and fraud is starting to blur. Oh, was there even a distinction between them in the first place?

IMBS's War on Everything: Satire on ST forum

Nov 12, 2007

We should consider having our own Anti-social Behaviour Act to deal with ugly S'poreans

THE Scottish Parliament passed the Anti-social Behaviour Act (ABA) in 2004 with the original intention of curbing noise nuisance.

This Act, which empowers authorised officers and the police to take summary action against an offender by imposing a fine and even confiscating the offending equipment, is effective in curtailing the noise problem.

We should have a similar Act in Singapore modified and expanded in scope to deal with the various anti-social behaviour problems here.

Here are some anti-social behaviour problems which can be corrected by this Act.

>>On MRT trains and public buses, it can be used to catch and fine those who fail to give up the designated seats for the pregnant, disabled and elderly. It can also be used to nab those who assault bus drivers when asked to produce their passes for identification.

>>On the road, it can be used to punish those who grab the oncoming taxi without consideration that another person is there earlier waiting for it. The cabby can be reminded that if he picks up the queue-jumper, he will be reported to the police for action to be taken against him under this Act.

>>In crowded car parks, it can be used to fine inconsiderate and discourteous drivers who go against the directional sign to occupy the empty lot, ignoring those who were there earlier.

>>At various places, it can discipline people who display anti-social and repugnant behaviours such as queue-jumping and spitting.

>>On the Internet, it can be used to punish and discipline irresponsible bloggers who are quick to insult a person by their libellous remarks or foul language. The police can fine the errant bloggers who usually operate under the cloak of anonymity and ask them to apologise and reveal their true identities including their photographs on their blogs.

This Act is all-embracing and can be applied in some way to eradicate any anti-social behaviour displayed by the ugly Singaporeans. Should there be any future anti-social behaviours, the ambit of the Act can be enlarged to deal with these new problems.

The ugly Singaporeans are a bane to society as they destroy our efforts in building a gracious society. They also tarnish our image as a First World country by their Third World behaviours.
National campaigns in the past have not yielded much results and we should not discontinue these ongoing programmes aimed at changing their values, attitudes and behaviours.

We should also seriously consider having our own ABA to reform those hard-core anti-social elements who cannot be changed by the persuasive approach of national campaigns.

Nelson Quah
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I am of the opinion that since the Straits Times is the premier newspaper of Singapore, satire must not be allowed to be passed off as constructive suggestions on the ST forum. How can? Straits Times must be serious and not joke around, otherwise it will drop further down the newspaper rankings! Then again even if the Straits Times switched to reporting jokes, it's ranking can't go down much further.

Still, in line with my war on everything, I must not allow this letter go scott free since it's too funny.

"On MRT trains and public buses, it can be used to catch and fine those who fail to give up the designated seats for the pregnant, disabled and elderly. It can also be used to nab those who assault bus drivers when asked to produce their passes for identification. "

Mr Quah here suggests that we fine those who occupy the designated seats for the pregnant. But that is not the root of the problem because everyone else must had refused to give up their seats to the pregnant, disabled and elderly, that's why it is a problem. Mr Quah must be trying to be funny here by solely laying the blame on those who occupy designated seats. I mean how is it enough just to fine such a small number of people who sat on the designated seats? EVERYONE MUST BE FINED! Have can we let the rest go scott free?

He also suggests that we nab those who assault bus drivers. I don't this such a display of naivety is funny. We already have laws to throw such people into jail. I suspect Mr Quah here is a bus driver, trying to push the bus driver agenda. First they want extra protection while on duty. Next, they will want to have special protection after duty. How can taxpayer's money go to pay personal bodyguards for bus drivers?

"On the road, it can be used to punish those who grab the oncoming taxi without consideration that another person is there earlier waiting for it. The cabby can be reminded that if he picks up the queue-jumper, he will be reported to the police for action to be taken against him under this Act. "

On this, Mr Quah is trying to punk those poor old taxi drivers which he perceives to be a competitor to the bus drivers by putting them in a damned-if-we-do-damned-if-we-don't position. How would the taxi driver know who's the queue-jumper? Then when the taxi driver gets fed up and refuses to pick up both of them, they will complain him to the authorities.

"In crowded car parks, it can be used to fine inconsiderate and discourteous drivers who go against the directional sign to occupy the empty lot, ignoring those who were there earlier. "

Hmmm....... how can a mere fine be sufficient? I say we jail that bastard!

"At various places, it can discipline people who display anti-social and repugnant behaviours such as queue-jumping and spitting. "

Come on Mr Quah, it is very unSingaporean to jump queues and spit. Where's your sense of national identity? At least he did not mention fining people who refuse to speak up against such behaviour. I mean it is so totally Singaporean NOT to speak up when someone cuts into your queue. We need to preserve our national identity at all costs!

"On the Internet, it can be used to punish and discipline irresponsible bloggers who are quick to insult a person by their libellous remarks or foul language. The police can fine the errant bloggers who usually operate under the cloak of anonymity and ask them to apologise and reveal their true identities including their photographs on their blogs. "

Of course, I'm not here to pick on every single point Mr Quah has raised. I do support this suggestion of his to curb wayward bloggers. Bloggers like Mollymeek, the epitome of Irresponsible Blogging, bloggers like Luckytan whose sarcasm is so sarcastic that it is insulting, bloggers like Rockson who is so unrefined and vulgar. This is where my examples end for it is libellous to suggest that a fellow blogger makes libellous remarks and being a responsible, polite and refined blogger that I am, I will have to reluctantly give it a miss. As for posting their photographs on their blogs, I think Mr Quah is too caught up with the NPNT (no picture no talk) nonsense on Hardwarezone Forums. Surely he must know that our great leaders have said something to the effect that the identity is not important and that it is the message that is important. To be fair to bloggers, perhaps we can have 2 catagories of blogs: The NPNT kind and the GPGT kind.

Even though Mr Quah has brought up one valid point, I think take offense with his remark that "The ugly Singaporeans are a bane to society as they destroy our efforts in building a gracious society."

Come on Mr Quah, to turn Singapore into a gracious society is so unSingaporean. Where is your sense of national identity? Having a gracious society is a western value. Are you suggesting that we erode our unique Asian values and embrace foreign interference?

IMBS's War on Everything: War on pots and kettles (Alternative medicine)

Nov 11, 2007
No cane, no gain?
Many flocked to Jurong West last week for an offbeat treatment for aches and pains: caning

By Debbie Yong

THEY sat on red plastic stools in a loose circle at an HDB void deck in Jurong West, waiting for their turn to be caned.

They pointed, whispered to one another and occasionally cringed as they watched an elderly man in the middle use a slim wooden rod to repeatedly strike at a bare-bodied man until his flesh turned red and raw.

Some passers-by stopped to stare before continuing on their way with a shudder.Mostly middle-aged and complaining of backaches and muscle soreness, the crowd of about 25 who had gathered at Block 987C in Jurong West Street 93 on Thursday afternoon believed caning to be a form of physiotherapy.

'My shoulders used to be very stiff but after my first caning session four days ago, I feel much better,' said bus driver Chua Cheng Hui, 55, who was on his third visit.

'I want to catch Master Goh one last time before he leaves,' he added, referring to physiotherapist Goh Seng Guan, 72.

Mr Goh, a Malaysian, was on a one-week trip to visit friends in Singapore from last Saturday to Friday.

But he ended up working throughout his holiday after a Shin Min Daily News report on Monday on his unusual form of therapy sent readers knocking on the door of his Singaporean hosts, Mr Png Peng Siah, 60, and Madam Qui Em, 56.

He promptly set up a makeshift shop outside their ground- floor flat, with Mr Png and Madam Qui taking turns to record customers' names and issue queue numbers.

Over the next three days, he whipped a steady stream of about 50 to 70 customers a day, working from 10am to 10pm with short breaks in between for meals.

He charged about $20 per person. The cash was discreetly pocketed at the end of each five-minute caning session.

Mr Goh, who runs two orthopaedic centres in Betong, southern Thailand, and Penang, Malaysia, with his wife, said he learnt the skill from a Tibetan lama when he was 20 and has been doing it for the last 50 years.

He claimed to be a certified Chinese physician in Thailand, but did not have his certificate with him.

His work tools: home-brewed medicated oil with his portrait on the label and 11 wooden rods of varying lengths and thickness laid out on a small wooden table.

The caning helps to loosen up muscles and improve blood circulation, he explained, as he pointed out black bruises that had appeared on clients' skins, indicating 'toxins that were being purged from the blood circulation system'.

Madam Qui, a cleaner, first met him in 1996, when she sought treatment for a pain in her shoulder at his Thailand centre, on a friend's recommendation.

His first visit here was with his wife last December, when Madam Qui invited them for a holiday.

Many of his customers, an equal mix of men and women, said they were trying it out of curiosity.

One resident of the same block, painter Ramdan Sardon, 45, who complained of a chronic backache, said: 'I see so many people here queueing from morning to night, maybe it works.'

Maintenance officer Vincent Loh, 35, said the pain was bearable, but acknowledged that he would have to wait a few days to know if the caning was effective, by which time Mr Goh would have left.

Insurance agent Raymond Goh, 53, said he came because the acupuncture treatment he had received for his sore calf in the past year was not working.

'It's more painful than death - this is the first and last time I'm doing it,' he said as he hobbled away with a swollen calf.

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practitioners interviewed were sceptical about the effectiveness of this treatment.

Physiotherapist Simon Toh, 55, said there used to be a shop specialising in caning therapy at People's Park Complex run by a Taiwanese woman, but it shut after less than a year.

He said: 'Singaporeans prefer to play safe with conventional methods of treatment. People might try it only as a last resort, after taking Western medicine or seeing TCM physicians.'

Retired TCM practitioner Liang Ming Na, 60, said it was a 'very ancient practice' which originated from rural villages and is not orthodox.

Thye Shan Medical Hall's Madam Tang Eng Hua said: 'It does not have any scientific basis. The bruises could be a result of repeated hitting and anyone can rub a sore muscle to make it loosen up and feel better.

'Furthermore, it must be done with skill and care. If not, you could end up hurting someone, especially when it's the elderly.'

One passer-by at the scene, interior designer Wendy Goh, 41, saw the queue and quipped: 'Why should I pay someone to beat me?
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Wow! 50-70 "patients" per day at $20 each, nets Master Goh $30,000 a month at least if he works on weekends as well. T_T I DON'T WANT TO STUDY ANYMORE ALREADY!!!!!! I might as well go cane someone as well!

On a more serious note, can the caning treatment work? Apparently, it could very well "work", according to the Gate control theory of pain and depending on your definition of what is considered effective. An simple explanation, without all that jargon on wikipedia of how caning is supposed to help relieve your pain goes like this: If you hurt your foot, pinching you arm will "distract" your attention from the pain of your foot, thereby making you feel less pain from your foot. This means that you might was well go cane yourself. You don't need a "Master" to cane you. You could even pay me $10 to cane you!!!

But this is not the main point of this post.

This is the main point

"Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practitioners interviewed were sceptical about the effectiveness of this treatment. "

What were the reasons given by TCM practitioners?

"Retired TCM practitioner Liang Ming Na, 60, said it was a 'very ancient practice' which originated from rural villages and is not orthodox. "

"Thye Shan Medical Hall's Madam Tang Eng Hua said: 'It does not have any scientific basis. The bruises could be a result of repeated hitting and anyone can rub a sore muscle to make it loosen up and feel better. "

Orthodoxy has got nothing to do with the effectiveness of a treatment. A treatment is effective because it works, not because it is orthodox. By the way, I sure the rest of the TCM practices are damn orthodox. :) As for Madam Tang's claim that caning doesn't have any scientific basis, I would say caning is likely to have as much scientific basis as acupuncture. :) Talk about pot calling kettle black!