[[*---Branched Over Me---*]]

Sunday, April 17, 2005

Final Post (before the exams)

ok, i promise, this is gonna be the last post before 21st april.... and i'll start posting again....ermmm let's see, 22nd exams end, shud be celebrating, then too tired to blog at night.... so maybe 23rd bah...... set!

anyway, wanna tok a little abt current affairs.... the heated debate on whether to build casinos in s'pore..... ok, i believe the decision has been made long ago, and all these front put up by the gov to involve the people in the decision is...... a front! a front displayed to the world and the fellow singaporeans that singapore is democratic republic.....

it seems that though the results would only be announced tml, everything else has been prepared..... psychological clinics (to counsell gambling addicts) have already been set up, surveys done by the gov to show that only a mere 2% of singaporeans who gambles get addicted (yah, to me, its kinda like assuring ppl that dun worry lah, even if we set up a casino, only 2% of those who gamble get addicted), another finding of the survey shows that 70% of singaporean have gambled with toto, big sweep and 4D (ok, juz another evident presented by the researcher to show that even w/o the casino, there are still 70% of singaporeans who are gamblers...).... yep.... and the they've also mobilised old mr lee to rally for for the set of the casino....... so it seems to me the decision has been made already (and thus no pt asking the ppl!), by saying time is allowed for feedback is juz more like yi4 si4 yi4 si4 ba4 le.....

hey my dear tax-payers, we're giving u some time to voice out ur opinion ok, dun say we never let u have a say (but even u did say liao, to listen or not its still up to US!!!! cos only WE can make the soundest decision for the good of my beloved country and fellow comrades...... and anyway juz co-operate by saying something, anything... for a show.....).

and after the decision is made, dun come and kao bei kao bu ok (yesh, cos we know complaining is ur forte, and be reminded u're not supposed to demonstrate on the streets, anyway, we dun think there'll be demos given that singaporeans are juz scaredy cats who wouldn't dare to and couldn't be bothered to do so..., juz like that blogger call lim teng XXXX..... and anyway we're gonna prosecute her for slandering the govt, so that she can't take the final exams of her 15yrs of education on thur and fri, and have to repeat her edu from nursery 1 cos we perceive that she shud receive more national education and learn to be more compliant to the govt..... and hell, of course she can't go to the US anymore cos our major trading partner, the US federal govt, has voided her hard-earned visa because we say that she's a threat to national security and could possibly place a bomb at the singapore-US embassy there........)

ok, shan't say anymore, there isn;t much freedom of speech here u see......

i dun really support the idea of having a casino here, even though i understand it could mean lotsa revenue for us, in terms of tax rev or tourists' receipts..... the reason? of course for the social reason! this whole issue reminded me of shuang1 tian1 zi4 zun1's (i'm sure any singaporeans would know this drama serial) shan1 hu2 dao3...... oh singapore's gonna have a new name call the coral island!

okok, i personally do gamble abit, during chinese new yr where my relatives and i will play blackjack and i bot toto and 4d before as well. but i juz dun quite like the idea of having a casino. i guess its cos i personally know of ppl who are gambling addicts, who gamble heavily and then lose their money, borrow from loanshark and burden their families. ok, sounds like some channel 8 drama right? nope! they're my relatives.... these ppl, when they're gambling, they're so engrossed, the stakes got higher and higher and it juz didn;t cross their minds abt how they are gonna finance their losses.

so what they do is to borrow from loansharks (cos they're rather accessible at the point of time) and when they're being pressed for repayment, what do they do? simple, they thought, ask from their families! once, twice and even thrice, the family members help by lending the gamblers money (note that often times, the money is not being returned to the lender at all!), on the note that being siblings or relative, they do not want the gamblers to be harmed by the loansharks or that they do not want the gamblers to kill themselves after being driven to the wall by the ah longs...

and what if these insensible, unrepentant gamblers continue their foolish habits? one fine day the relatives are gonna run out of money after having been squeezed dry of every single cent of their hard-earned savings and what happen? they snap!

i personally witnessed a closely-knit extended family almost fell apart because someone in the family is a gambling addict. its this 1 person affecting many families. i understand as i ever fell victim before. will decide if i shud share my story since i'll be washing dirty linen in the public........ hmm....not good for my image....ahem....

i have my reasons for feeling strongly abt this casino issue..... but what to do.... virtually nothing much can be done abt it.... juz wait and hope that the worst case scenario wun take place and that the govt will use the tax rev gained to do its ppl some good, like issuing more ERS and on monthly basis (dream on!), build larger libraries,reduce income tax rates, waive this and that etc etc etc....

till next time
gera!

[[ Hit by a fallen branch ]]*|11:23 pm|

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