All bottled up...

Lots of things,
all bottled up.
Stressed,
no escape.
Things I want to say,
yet I cannot.
Boiling point,
steam builds up.
When will it all,
just blow up?

Saying goodbye is basic courtesy

No one will stop you if you want to leave, but at least say goodbye. Don't leave without saying a word. It is basic courtesy. It shows that you respect the person(s) who you are walking away from. It would be good if you share your reason for leaving, but no one will press you to share if you do not want to.

Leaving quietly tells people that you either want to hide the reasons for leaving (which means you are not brave enough to own up to and defend your decision) or that you don't respect them enough (they are not worth the time for that simple goodbye). Neither reason makes you look like a person of character.

Japan trip Oct 2012

We took a short break in Oct 2012 to visit the in-laws in Japan, including a trip with the wife's parents and her sister's family up to Lake Yamanaka and Mount Fuji. It was nice visiting Japan just as autumn starts, with the changing of the colours of the leaves.

We visited this radar dome, no longer in use, which used to be at the top of Mount Fuji. It was used to track typhoons, and after being in service for 35 years, it was retired and shifted to a nearby town at the foot of Mount Fuji.

We also visited this place near the foot of Mount Fuji, which has spring water from Mount Fuji. Look at how clear the spring water is.

No wonder people would want to use the spring water to make soba noodles. This waterwheel is used to pound soba into flour.

The kids decided to help the locals, trying to cart around a full cartload of corn.

There were quite some swans swimming around on Lake Yamanaka, and the kids tried to feed them.

We also went to this place called Kidsland (こどもの国) where the kids enjoyed themselves, feeding the animals, riding horses and even a chance to walk a goat.

And with Halloween so near the corner, there are pumpkins everywhere!

Here's the kid trying to lift up a pumpkin that is probably heavier than him.

Views of Mount Fuji in autumn

Recently, we went to Japan, and took a short trip to Lake Yamanaka (山中湖, which literally means "lake in the mountains") and even a short drive up to the fifth stage of Mount Fuji. Here are some photos of Mount Fuji in her autumn colours.

Here is Mount Fuji with Lake Yamanaka in the foreground.

There were quite some swans swimming around on Lake Yamanaka.

As we were driving around the foothills, we came to this nice plain. It is actually a military exercise ground.

Here is Mount Fuji, peeking out from the trees as seen from the second stage.

Here is how Mount Fuji looks when you are at the fifth stage, about halfway up the mountain.

A nice view of Mount Fuji surrounded by colourful autumn leaves.

After the Rain 雨あがる

I watched this film while on a red-eye flight, and didn't regret any minute of it. It is about a wandering samurai (known as ronin) who is actually a master swordsman, but at the same time a very good-natured person. Thus, he can't seem to stay long at a job, since extreme good nature and extreme expertise don't really mix very well. As mentioned by someone in the movie, when someone asks with concern if you are alright after defeating you, it seems like he is playing with you. People take insult when none was meant, simply by his overly good nature.

But does that mean we should change ourselves just so others can accept us? When the masterless samurai was denied employment for an enfringement in code of conduct, his wife puts it best by saying, it is not about what he has done, but why he did it, that really matters. A lord that cannot see beyond what he has done to try and understand why he has done it, is not worthy of his service.

It is a reminder to myself, that even as I improve myself, I must not lose sight of what I am aiming for, and what I am myself.

The aim of education

So what is the aim of education?

According to Dictionary.com, education is "the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life."

Education in Singapore seems to be focused on preparing people for life in Singapore, providing them with a foundation that they can use to find a job and work to feed themselves. It is geared towards producing workers, people who can leave the education system and straightaway contribute to society as part of the workforce.

However, is that all that education should be? Should it not be more? Should not education be about providing our people with the foundation for them to be able to make their own choices in life? Education that provides society with a ready workforce may enjoy a certain peak performance in the short run, but an education that teaches people to make choices broadens the learning-experience base, allowing that society to achieve a higher performance peak in the long run. So should we be looking at short-term gains, or do we aim for sustainable success in the long run?

Online etiquette

Recently, we have seen a lot of buzz about ethical posting on the Internet. We even have ministers coming in to give comments and there is talk about setting up agencies to police online postings, which is very much against the value of freedom that we usually enjoy on the Internet.

It set me thinking... why do we have such irresponsible behaviour on the Internet? Maybe it is just a lack of experience and knowledge. I mean, I come from a time in which the Internet was not widespread, and what we had back then were bulletin board systems (BBS). But it was enough for us to learn online etiquette. For those of us who had seen how flames wars can develop, or even unfortunate enough to be in a flame war, you will know what to avoid posting.

While it may not be realistic to make everyone learn from such painful experiences, maybe we can start with schools and at home, when kids are young. After all, kids nowadays go online at a very early age, and that is really the best time to start teaching them responsible online behaviour. Not about how to think or what to post, but rather, what is responsible posting. This may be a better option compared to policing the Internet, or having people tell us what to and what not to think/post.

Measures to cool housing market

Singapore takes new steps to cool housing market

Will this really cool the housing market? What do we really mean when we say "cool the housing market"? Is it to arrest the rise in prices? Is it to reduce the number of transactions? Or is it to bring down the prices of housing?

The new measures are likely to achieve all these. By restricting the entry of buyers into the market (because the barrier to entry is now much higher), demand is being driven back. With a fixed short run supply, this means a drop in housing prices in the short run as well as less transactions. Simple demand-supply theory.

Let's see how this turns out.

12... 34...

Wow. 34.

Inkling - Limiting the limitless

I was reading "Dune Genesis", a short article by Frank Herbert, when I came across this.

"The flaw must lie in our methods of description, in languages, in social networks of meaning, in moral structures, and in philosophies and religions-all of which convey implicit limits where no limits exist."

Could it be, that in defining something, in giving something shape, we are actually limiting it? It kind of ties in with one of my inklings from taiji, that giving something shape limits it and allows it to be used against yourself (in other words, by giving something shape, you limit it and give it a weakness).

This is probably something that deserves more thought. Something best left for those times when I need something to ponder on. And have the luxury of time to spend pondering it. But do feel free to share if you have any thoughts on this.

Thoughts on Dune and the dangers of bureaucracy

Have you ever read the book "Dune" by Frank Herbert?

I was reading an article about the origins of the Dune universe, and this idea that one of the themes of the Dune series is "that people seem to have an inbuilt hunger for a powerful, charismatic leader to whom we can surrender our responsibility for making difficult decisions" and that "even if the original leader resists the temptation to abuse power, the bureaucracy which springs up around him will outlive him, and over time a bureaucracy becomes more and more incented to prioritize its own needs over the needs of people." This was the case in the Fremen Jihad after Paul Atreides came to power.

How about our own history? In human history, how many cases have we seen of such occurrences? Many dynasties in Chinese history were founded by a great man, only to decay when the bureaucracy founded started to prioritise its own needs over the needs of the people it was developed to govern. Have we really learnt from history not to make the same mistakes? Will the system we have developed continue to remember that its purpose is to serve the greater good and not to serve the system itself? Or will we walk down the same path of decay as others have before us?

Frank Herbert himself said it best in his article, Dune Genesis.

F1 weekend

Today is the annual Singapore F1 Grand Prix, the 5th since it started in 2008. While there was no news about the renewal of the F1 tour for some time, it is now official that the race will continue in Singapore for another 5 more years.

Lewis Hamilton started in the pole position. But a gearbox problem caused him to retire early in the race. In the end, Vettel won the race, with Button coming in 2nd and Alonso in 3rd place.

5 more years of racing in September!

What are dracones?

For those who wondered what dracones are, here's some info.

Basically, a dracone barge is "a large flexible watertight tube intended to carry a liquid cargo while towed mostly-submerged behind a ship."

The idea seems to have come from Frank Herbert, one of my favourite authors. It probably came from his novel, The Dragon in the Sea .

Here's how a dracone barge look like:

Disputed island

For those who know, this is actually the disputed island called Uotsurishima 魚釣島 which is the largest island in the Senkaku Islands group (called Diaoyu Islands by the Chinese). I had a chance to go up close and take this shot, not something that I would want to do now given the rise in tensions in that part of the world.

We are probably going to be reading about this dispute in the papers for a while...

Forcing the issue

Recently, Japan has been taking a strong stance with regards to her territorial issues with China over the Senkaku Islands (known as Diaoyu Islands also) and South Korea over Dokdo (known as Takeshima too).

Personally, I think this is a very bad time to force the issue for Japan.

China is undergoing leadership change during this time. No leader likes to be seen as weak, and thus China is unlikely to come to any compromise over this issue at this time. In fact, bringing up the issue now only forces China to take a strong stance with regards to the territorial issue.

There is also a Chinese saying, that while brothers may fight amongst themselves while at home, they will unite against an external threat. The recent stance taken by Taiwan over the Diaoyu Islands, supporting China's claim, is a clear sign of this. For Japan, bringing up the issue now may just push Taiwan more towards China, something that may not be strategically beneficial for Japan. It only means Japan becomes more isolated in East Asia. It also means one less strategic foothold for the US in the region, something which the US is not likely to want or tolerate.

It is also election year in the US, and while bringing up the issue now forces the US to make clear stance on their commitment towards Japan, given the complex economic relation between the US and China, the US is not likely to want to antagonise China during this critical period. To the US, Japan is that insensitive, childish friend trying to make them take sides in a quarrel with deeply buried implications.

Taking a strong stance on territorial issues with China is also a reminder to South Korea that the issue for Dokdo is still up on the table. South Korea has never forgotten Japan's aggression in the 20th century, and any strong stance by the Japanese is like a reminder to them of Japan's militant past, something that South Korea is always apprehensive about and still fresh in their memories. While both countries are allies of the US and would only be strategically beneficial to be friendly to each other, such issues will drive them apart and further isolate Japan in the region.

Economically speaking, Sino-Japanese trade is important for both sides, yet if China decides to boycott Japanese goods, China still has the production capability to supply her own domestic demand. Chinese factories have been facing production slowdown; this is a good opportunity for them to increase output and put under-utilised factories back on track. Japan, however, will suffer an economic blow, driving her already stagnant economy even further back.

So while it seems like a good time for Japan to bring up the issue and force the US to commit to Japan, when you consider all other factors in, it may just be a bad move by Japan, one that she cannot easily back away from now, and with possible long-term negative strategic implications for her.