TR EMERITUS

Hungry Ghost month is just round the corner and my good friend Syafarin Sarif posted a photo on a hawker stall selling "Goreng Hantu". I have explained it was a simple delicacy of oil fried dough (well I guess other culture will pan fry or bake doughs but Chinese use hot oil to deep fry them!) which was made out of Chinese folk belief that for those people who have done great evil deeds, they will go to 18 levels of Hell under. Goreng Hantu was created to register the Chinese great hatred against QingKui and his wife who are seen as Great Betrayers of the Chinese Han people during Southern Song Dynasty. They collaborated with foreign tribe to work against the Song Dynasty, putting fake and made up charges on patriotic general YueFei to put him to death. People wish these great traitors of their time to go to Hell and suffer the punishment of being deep fried in boiling oil. In Chinese folklore, people who were evil and bad will be sent to Hell which has 18 levels, providing 18 types of gruesome punishment to these sinful ghosts. One of the punishment is repeated deep frying in boiling oil. A twin doughs are made to resemble Qingkui and his wife, putting them into boiling oil for deep frying, signifying the kind of punishment people wished upon them for their betrayal. After frying them, people would just eat them up! It may be just folklore with lots of symbolism but it is also a warning to devils and evil people they will suffer great punishment in Hell. It is believed that only during the Hungry Ghost month, these Ghosts in Hell will be released to roam in our world, a temporary relief from their gruesome sufferings in Hell. Such Chinese folklore and beliefs serve to warn living humans to behave themselves, else ... Ghost spirits in Chinese culture are believed not able to eat at all. It is a kind of punishment they suffer until they have served their terms for their sins. Whenever they try to open their mouth to eat, a flame will appear and burn out the food in front of them, spiritually speaking. That's why it is called "Hungry Ghosts". Thus why would Chinese offer food to these ghostly spirits during Hungry Ghost month? It is believed that these Hungry Ghosts could "enjoy" the food by smelling them. Next time, you may try some food that was offered to these ghostly spirits and you may find them tasteless, smell different or simply taste different. It is also why in some religions, they do smoke puja, the offering of incense. In Taoism and Buddhism, they believe they could actually help these ghostly spirits to open their mouth, curb the flame and allow them to "eat" properly. Chinese Buddhist temples with monks residing in them normally would carry out such ritual （蒙山施食，放焰口）everyday before they shut the temple doors. Thus, technically speaking, temples are normally surrounded by wondering spirits. Thus it is believed that when food or incense offerings are made, don't disturb, keep away if you feel that your body is weak and may be attacked by these spirits. Don't even say anything disrespectful. So during Hungry Ghost month, don't need to be overly concerned but be respectful, regardless of your religious belief. It is just a month of R&R for the suffering ghosts in Hell. This is why you can see lots of temporary make shift wayang shows, singing and dancing, feasting and burning of offerings etc. It is basically a Taoist practice. For Buddhists, we "celebrate" Hungry Ghost month very differently. Strictly speaking, it is not what the Taoists believe.... That's another story for another post.   Goh Meng Seng      Read More →

A First Class Economist Explains Why The Increase In GST Is Totally Unnecessary And Will Only Cause More Hardship! The former Chief Economist Of GIC brilliantly destroys Lawrence Wong’s and the PAP’s rhetoric that raising GST is vital for Singapore’s future. The PAP is a party reduced to empty slogans these days. It is incapable of new thinking.It is like a broken record which repeats the same mantra of 40 years ago. Its slogans are bereft of substance and are like the hollow chestnut. I love the quote from Keynes which Lam Keong uses. I am a Keynesian through and through and in these difficult economic times, we need to hew even more closely to Keynesian Economics. The world’s economy is in trouble and Singapore will not be spared. Inflation is the leviathan which will not be slayed anytime soon. More and more people will drown under the oppressive costs of living if Government does not lend a helping hand. In these rough economic times, it is morally wrong to be increasing taxes such as GST which will impoverish even more people. Keynes also said- “the difficulty lies,not in the new ideas,but in escaping from the old ones”. The PAP is the dinosaur which refuses to abandon its old discredited ideas.   Lim Tean      Read More →

Recently, I saw a psychology article about Russian citizens ignoring emails, video and information talking about the atrocities of what happened in Ukraine to innocent people. The national Russian propaganda has successfully brainwashed citizens, just like CCP propaganda or even Pappy propaganda. So the writer said, there is no point giving them the negativity of the truth, you need to provide them information of what hurts them instead. Then they will start to open up and hear your views. It looks quite similar to so many CCP and PAPPY lovers here, you sent them the truth, they defend and ignore. Today, the topic is why you need to VTO. LT already said half this country are foreign born, so foreign immigration is key strategy of Pappy, moving towards 10M probably by 2050. Pappy's key strategies are quite clear: 1. Continue to import and convert foreigners in the name of foreign talents. 2. All kind of hikes and changes to CPF to milk your bank account despite surpluses always instead of deficit. 3. Propaganda to brainwash public into submission, for example be a hawker or self employed on MSM. Another example, no money, go rent a HDB. 4. Massive deployment of IBs to counter criticism. 5. Dragging potential oppositions through mud to scare the voters. 6. Pretend to listen: All kind of surveys and feedbacks but nothing changed. What already happened and will continue to happen: 1. More and more youths unable to find unemployment, older PMETs are replaced by incoming migrants. End up as self employed, PHV driver, food delivery or security guard. 2. Un-affordable housing or rental, Singapore is looking like Hong Kong, there is no middle class. Foreigners and new migrants are driving HDBs into million buy. 3. Discrimination and congregation of certain races: Already happening in IT and Banking and many industries. Locals are being discriminated and sidelined. 4. Climbing crime rates, irony is more and more foreigners or new citizens are culprits ie. recent $32M scam and 3AC. What will happen to you? Whether new citizen or old citizen or foreigner. 1. High cost of living. 2. No job security and fierce competition, loss of job or under-employed, many new citizens who came 10 or 20 years ago are relegated to unemployed or driving PHV also. 3. Most unhappy workforce, this is a fact for many years. 4. Unable to own a place or be bogged down with huge and long loans. 5. Unable to retire: Depletion of CPF (retirement) due to many new schemes and paying massive amount for housing loans. Recently, one young guy was working two jobs and dropped dead from working. Many old aged folks continue to work because they don't have enough savings to recover. So if you are new or old citizen, is this what you want? The only to stop the circus is to vote these clowns out. If you are hoping and dreaming they would change, we are back to the the rat wheel to carry on running the rat wheel. This is the reason why many foreigners think Singaporeans are stupid, we have no courage for change. We just hope things will come falling from sky.   Mary Lam      Read More →