Blowin' In The Wind

Singapore's Delphic Oracle

Singapore's Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng was as enigmatic as the Delphic Oracle. The only difference was he was not prophesying the future but shedding light on the past.

An Islamic militant escaped from detention yesterday. Mas Selamat Kastari, we learnt from the newspapers today, was a leader of the dreaded Jemaah Islamiah, the Southeast Asian version of Al Qaeda, who escaped from Singapore after plots to attack Changi airport, the US embassy, and other targets were foiled seven years ago. Arrested in Indonesia two years ago, he was sent back to Singapore and kept under detention until he managed to escape yesterday.

"Massive manhunt", said The Straits Times headline over a facial shot of the goateed terrorist and a report by four reporters who had clearly burnt their shoe leather chatting up anybody living in the neighbourhood who was willing to speak -- but that apparently did not include the guardians of law and order the terrorist managed to slip past.

There was not a word about how he escaped. Only this:

Mas Selamat, 47, who took over as head of the Jemaah Islamiah (JI) terror network  here in 1999, fled the Internal Security Department's Whitley Road detention centre at 4.05pm yesterday.

The minister finally explained today:

Mas Selamat was being taken to the toilet before a meeting at the Family Visit Room when he escaped. (I am quoting from the Channel NewsAsia website. And here's the Straits Times version.)

But how did he escape? Did he suddenly run away, overpower the guards?

Sshh, we mustn't speculate! That's what the minister said. He "apologised for the incident" in parliament and said:

"This should never have happened. I am sorry that it has. An independent investigation is underway and we should not speculate now as to what and how it happened. Security at the centre has been stepped up."

Meanwhile, the terrorist is still "at large".

The minister's explanation raised more questions than answers. He must have done so for security reasons, but he was thereby emulating the Delphic Oracle.

Technorati Tags: jemaah islamiah,terrorist

Hillary and Obama impress again

I support Hillary Clinton, but every time I see Barack Obama, I feel he too would make a great president. Anyone who didn't watch their debate in Cleveland today should visit the MSNBC  website and see it now. You will see them answering each question clearly, cogently,  without fumbling even once, which is remarkable, considering they had to face the cameras for more than 80 minutes. Save the transcript. Paraphrases cannot do justice to two such highly articulate people.

Who says Hillary is selfish, opportunistic? I saw a fighter who passionately cares for the people.

She was strongest when she spoke for universal health care. Mocking Obama's plan which would require parents to buy insurance for their children but not for themselves, she said that "it would be as though Franklin Roosevelt said let's make Social Security voluntary ... or if President Johnson said let's make Medicare voluntary."

She rightly pointed out Obama was not a US senator when he opposed the Iraq war in 2002. As she said:

Many people gave speeches against the war then, and the fair comparison is he didn't have responsibility, he didn't have to vote; by 2004 he was saying that he basically agreed with the way George Bush was conducting the war. And when he came to the Senate, he and I have voted exactly the same. We have voted for the money to fund the war until relatively recently. So the fair comparison was when we both had responsibility, when it wasn't just a speech but it was actually action, where is the difference?

But while Hillary was feisty, Obama was calm and magisterial. He didn't lose a single argument, nor did Hillary.

To his credit, Obama even had good words to say of Hillary and the Clinton administration. He said she would be a "worthy nominee" and praised Clinton's multilateral foreign policy. Too bad, the video on the website does not show he patted Hillary on the back at the end of the live telecast. That's how gracious he was. 

The only loser was Tim Russert! The NBC News Washington bureau chief made a fool of himself when he asked first Obama and then Hillary if they would pull out of Iraq if the Iraqi government wanted them to do so -- and re-invade Iraq if al Qaeda "resurges" (his words, not mine).

Hillary put him down: "You know, Tim, you ask a lot of hypotheticals."

She was right. He earlier asked them if they would opt out of Nafta in six months. As a veteran journalist, he should have known that was a silly question. Both said they would have to review it before making any decision.

What the debate showed was two great candidates -- and the inadequacy of the media. Russert was childish with his stupid questions to paint Hillary and Obama into a corner. But Hillary baiters like Maureen Dowd hardly show any better judgment.

Technorati Tags: hillary clinton,obama

Hillary and Obama at their best

The Hillary-Obama debate made riveting television yesterday. Words can't describe the atmosphere in the University of Texas, Austin, auditorium as the two contenders outlined their policies with passionate conviction to an entranced audience. We saw the power of words and the exultation of the listeners. If you missed the live telecast like me, you can still watch it here. I watched the entire 88-minute videocast without getting up from my computer, it was so good. You can see the transcript at the same time as you watch the video.

Anyone who says Hillary is uninspiring as a speaker should have seen her speak on health care. This woman cares. But Obama was something else. I have watched him on television deliver soul-stirring speeches like the one in Chicago on Super Tuesday when he said, "We are the change we have been waiting for." But he can mesmerise even when he is answering questions, like he did at the debate yesterday. Young, handsome, making his points forcefully, calmly, in a resonant voice and clear enunciation that would do a Shakespearean actor proud, he was commanding, presidential.

It's Hillary's misfortune -- and I say it as one of her admirers -- that she is running against such a charismatic figure as Obama. I have no doubt she would make an excellent president. But so would Obama -- if he is half as good as he looks and sounds. See I am still a Hillary supporter, saying Obama would be excellent if he is half as good as he seems! Actually, when I saw and heard him on television, I had no such doubts.

The finest words in the debate were spoken by Hillary in the closing minutes when she said:

You know, the hits I've taken in life are nothing compared to what goes on every single day in the lives of people across our country. And I resolved at a very young age that I'd been blessed, and that I was called by my faith and by my upbringing to do what I could to give others the same opportunities and blessings that I took for granted. That's what gets me up in the morning. That's what motivates me in this campaign.

The audience cheered.

But Obama was magnificent too. I wish whoever wins would choose the other as the running mate. They would make a dream team.

Confessions of a famous American newsman

Confessions of an American Media Man by Tom Plate

This is a book anyone interested in newspapers and magazines will enjoy. The American journalist Tom Plate, whose syndicated column appears in The Straits Times, looks back on his working life before he became a full-time teacher at the University of Calfornia, Los Angeles. And what a life he had -- Amherst, Princeton, Newsday, the New York magazine, the now defunct Los Angeles Herald Examiner,Time, Los Angeles Times.

And, by the way, he was first offered a job by Ben Bradlee at the Washington Post after a summer job there as an intern while an Amherst undergraduate. He turned it down, saying  he wanted to go to graduate school after finishing college. "Graduate school ain't worth shit," scoffed Bradlee. Plate disagrees. Every journalist should have a master's at least, he says, preferably in public policy, international relations or economics. Though now teaching journalism himself, he doesn't much care for J-schools except for the very best -- Columbia, Annenberg.

Plate, who made his name as an editor, not a reporter, admits he was an earnest, young man who read the Newsweek before he read Playboy. No wonder, he admires Singapore, where Playboy is banned. He did write for Playboy later and says he liked its editors and Hugh Hefner.

This is a book with a rich cast of characters. Virtually every famous American journalist and publisher is present:

• Bradlee in the Washington Post newsroom "on the prowl like a cat looking for a fight"
• Bill Moyers and David Laventhol, who mentored Plate at Newsday
• the legendary editor Clay Felker, who lured him away to New York magazine 
• the writer Gail Sheehy who worked for Felker and was his girlfriend (they later married)
• the brilliant Tom Wolfe, who was then writing for New York magazine, was so polite he could never say No
• Rupert Murdoch who, Plate says, sussed him out but didn't give him a job after taking over New York magazine
• the late Sir David English of the Daily Mail, who, according to Plate, was the greatest newspaper editor (Plate worked briefly for him in London under a friendly arrangement with his then employer, the Los Angeles Herald Examiner)
• Strobe Talbott at Time magazine, who later joined the Clinton's administration
• the USA Today founder Al Neuharth
• the former Los Angeles Times publisher Otis Chandler

The list goes on and on.

Plate, to his credit, writes intimately and entertainingly about public figures and the news business. He describes how he got an impromptu interview with then president Bill Clinton during an economic summit at Davos by getting Clinton to pose with an attractive Chinese newswoman from Hong Kong or Taiwan.

He recalls how one section of Time magazine used to close every Friday night with a resounding thud on the floor. Its top editor, who used to start drinking beer and move on to Scotch while going through the copy, would pass out once the job was done.

Plate recalls when the Time editors gave him a farewell party at the chic restaurant 21 in New York, even one of the speakers passed out while proposing a toast.

Plate was unhappy at Time and was asked to leave. It's the mark of a great journalist that he writes candidly about his humiliation. The hours were very long, he was regarded as an outsider, he says. But he also admits his editing deteriorated as a result of the long hours and though he was looking for another job, it was the top editors at Time, not he, who decided he should leave. But they gave him time to find an even better paid job as the editor of another magazine.

An American newsman who admires Singapore

The American journalist Tom Plate, whose column appears in The Straits Times, admires Singapore. In his book, Confessions of an American Media Man, he writes:

Sure, Singapore had its problems -- ethnic tension, excessive political uprightness, constant worries about unemployment. But they've done one heck of a job. The city state has one of the highest per capita incomes in the world. The environment is so clean that it is a Western environmentalist's paradise. There is no littering...  The public education system consistently rates as one of the best in the world. The Singapore cabinet invariably fields a team whose collective IQ is at least equal to that of its neighbours' cabinets combined; its civil servants are paid well and its appointment process is, by and large merit-driven; and its much-maligned, if always pro-government, news media... serves all its ethnicities pretty well by not sensationalising frictions and counts one world-class daily newspaper, The Straits Times, among its holdings.   

That's the only mention of The Straits Times, which sometime ago published this section of the book where Plate also writes about his interview with Lee Kuan Yew. When asked what was Singapore's biggest problem after independence in the 1960s, he writes,

Remarkable Singapore

I wrote yesterday that the 1.8 billion Singapore dollars ($1.27 billion) in benefits that Singaporeans will be getting in a budget surplus sharing package is less than one-fifth the amount Singapore is investing in Citigroup. I was having a little fun, knowing the local newspapers would never publish such comparisons. They highlight the benefits instead. But I don't think what the government is doing for Singapore can be measured  in dollars and cents only. Let's not forget the intangibles -- the quality of life in Singapore.

People may have greater social security in the West. But we enjoy peace and stability, an excellent public transport network, a good education system and great amenities. Home ownership is as high as 93 percent and unemployment fell to as low as 1.6 percent in December, according to the Department of Statistics. These are remarkable figures.

Of course, there's a huge income gap: the per capita income from work for the top 10 percent of the employed households last year was 7,940 Singapore dollars -- more than twice as much for the next 10 percent (3,460 Singapore dollars) and more than 25 times times as much as for the poorest 10 percent (310 Singapore dollars).

Among Singapore's major trading partners, only Hong Kong has a wider income gap. Singapore's Gini coefficient -- a measure of income inequality -- was 0.46 last year, according to the government. The corresponding figures for

• Hong Kong 0.523 (survey year 2001)
• Malaysia 0.461 (2002)
• Thailand 0.420 (2002)
• Indonesia 0.363 (2005)
• China 0.469(2004)
• Philippines 0.445 (2003)
• India 0.368 (2004)
• Japan 0.381 (2002)
• South Korea 0.351 (2006)
• Australia 0.352 (1994 )
• New Zealand 0.362 (1997)
• UK 0.340 (2005)
• US 0.450 (2007)

But the government is trying to address this problem. One reason the income tax for top earners was not reduced from 20 percent could be a desire to narrow the gap.

Citigroup 5, Singaporeans 1

Citigroup 5, Singaporeans 1.

That would be the scoreline if this were a game of soccer.

Singaporeans will be getting 1.8 billion Singapore dollars ($1.27 billion)in education grants, Medisave top-ups, income tax rebates and other benefits under a budget surplus sharing package

Citigroup is getting more than five times as much from the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC), which has agreed to invest $6.9 billion for a 4 percent stake in the troubled banking giant.

Singapore has a budget surplus of 6.4 billion Singapore dollars. Not that the budget has anything to do with the Citigroup deal. GIC is a private company managing Singapore's foreign reserves. It has also decided to invest 11 billion Swiss francs ($10 billion) in UBS and become the Swiss bank's biggest shareholder with a 9 percent stake. UBS announced yesterday it had lost $18 billion in the US subprime mortgage crisis.

The Finance Ministry, which prepares the budget, has its own sovereign fund, Temasek Holdings. Temasek has decided to invest $4.4 billion and take a 9.9 percent stake in the ailing Wall Street firm, Merrill Lynch.

Technorati Tags: budget,citigroup

Price hike follows tax hike

Singapore is facing its steepest price rises in 27 years -- partly due to government policy. The cost of living has gone up partly because of the sales tax hike last year, Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said today while presenting this year's budget.

But the main reason for inflation is high prices of food and oil due to rising global demand, he said, adding that "inflation is higher today than we have been used to for many years".

The consumer price index, which averaged 2 percent last year, hit 4.4 percent in December and is expected to hit 4.5 percent to 5.5 percent this year -- Singapore's highest inflation rate since 1981, according to Channel NewsAsia. Prices rose after the Goods and Services Tax (GST) was raised from 5 percent to 7 percent in July last year.

Shanmugratnam said in his budget speech:

The relatively high ‘headline’ consumer price index (CPI) numbers that we are now seeing, like in December, are partly due to the GST increase in July last year. The CPI inflation figure continues to show the impact of the GST change, because it is comparing prices this month with prices 12 months ago, that is, before the GST increase in July 2007. But if we compare prices today with prices say in September last year, there has been little further increase due to the GST change. The GST change has caused only a one-off increase in prices, and not continuing price increases.

He stressed:

Singaporeans have not been materially affected by the GST increase, because the government has provided the majority of citizens with substantial offsets, which more than make up for the increased spending on GST by most families. Lower-income families are in fact receiving offsets which are several times larger than their higher GST payments.

Rising property prices have also contributed to inflation, he added.

(The) rising values of homes... will contribute significantly to inflation this year. However, here too, most Singaporeans are not materially affected, as 95 percent of citizens own their own homes and do not pay rentals.

Early Beatles

I love the Beatles, especially their early songs. I thought Sergeant Pepper's was the greatest album when it was released (yes, I am that old) but now I prefer their earlier exuberance. For the same reason, I love the Beach Boys. This song, of course, is for my wife in Calcutta (Kolkata). I am missing her on this Valentine's Day.

Fats Domino: I Want to Walk You Home

What's a Valentine's Day without some love songs? I love Fats Domino. Here he is singing I Want to Walk You Home. It reminds me of  days long gone by when I met my wife for the first time at the university in Calcutta (Kolkata). We used to go to the National Library and enjoyed walking around the garden.

Day Bath

Valentine's Day isn't complete for long-married couples like me and my wife without the significant other in our lives. My wife in Calcutta (Kolkata) loved this poem when I read it out to her over the phone from Singapore. Both of us were thinking of our son, now in college in America. This poem took us back in time when he was a baby and loved being bathed by his mum.

Day Bath

By Debra Spencer

Last night I walked back and forth,
his small head heavy against my chest,
round eyes watching me in the dark
his body a sandbag in my arms
I longed for sleep but couldn't bear his crying
so bore him back and forth until the sun rose
and he slept. Now the doors are open,
noon sunlight coming in,
and I can see fuchsias opening.
Now we bathe. I hold him, the soap
makes our skins glide past each other.
I lay him wet on my thighs, his head on my knees,
his feet dancing against my chest,
and I rinse him, pouring water
from my cupped hand.
No matter how I feel, he's the same,
eyes expectant, mouth ready,
with his fat legs and arms,
his belly, his small solid back.
Last night I wanted nothing more
than to get him out of my arms.
Today he fits neatly
along the hollow my thighs make,
and with his fragrant skin against mine
I feel brash, like a sunflower.

Technorati Tags: debra spencer,day bath,valentine

The Longly-Weds Know

It's Valentine's Day. So here's a poem to all those lucky couples who like me and my wife have been married for decades. Many happy returns of the day!

The Longly-Weds Know

By Leah Furnas

That it isn't about the Golden Anniversary at all,
But about all the unremarkable years
that Hallmark doesn't even make a card for.

It's about the 2nd anniversary when they were surprised
to find they cared more for each other than last year

And the 4th when both kids had chickenpox
and she threw her shoe at him for no real reason

And the 6th when he accidentally got drunk on the way
home from work because being a husband and father
was so damned hard

It's about the 11th and 12th and 13th years when
they discovered they could survive crisis

And the 22nd anniversary when they looked
at each other across the empty nest, and found it good.

It's about the 37th year when she finally
decided she could never change him

And the 38th when he decided
a little change wasn't that bad

It's about the 46th anniversary when they both
bought cards, and forgot to give them to each other

But most of all it's about the end of the 49th year
when they discovered you don't have to be old

to have your 50th anniversary!!!!

 

Technorati Tags: leah furnas,the longly-weds know,valentine

Singapore's average income puzzle

"Singaporeans' household incomes in 2007 highest in a decade but income gap between high and low income groups widens," reports The Straits Times. It adds:

Data published on Wednesday by the Department of Statistics showed that the average household income from work rose to $6,280*, from $5,730 the previous year.

But it doesn't say the median household income from work was less: $4,870 or more a month for the employed households.

(Please note all figures in Singapore dollars. One US dollar is worth about 1.5 Singapore dollars.)

Actually, the per capita income of 90 percent of the households is less than the average monthly household income, going by the department's own report.

That's not mentioned by The Straits Times or Channel NewsAsia, which also reports only the average monthly income.

But you will find the median household income in the Key Household Trends 2007 report which you can download from the Department of Statistics website.

The median income tends to be lower than the average income. In 2005, according to the department, average household income from work was $5,400 while median household income from work was $3,830.

The median income is considered by many statisticians to be a better indicator than the average income, says Wikipedia.

Why?

Because if nine people earn $1,000 each and another person earns $11,000, their average income will be $2,000!

Wikipedia explains the difference between average and median income, quoting the US Census Bureau:

Median income is the amount which divides the income distribution into two equal groups, half having income above that amount, and half having income below that amount. Mean income (average) is the amount obtained by dividing the total aggregate income of a group by the number of units in that group.

Look at the Department of Statistics' report and you will see the average household income was pushed up by the high-income group.

The per capita household monthly income from work for the top 10 percent of the employed households is $7,940 and for the next 10 percent, $3,460. In other words, the per capita income of 90 percent of the households is less than Singapore's average household income.

Dire Straits

I believe several schools in Singapore subscribe to The Straits Times, the leading local English daily. It should be used for English lessons. Take this passage, for example, about a pension scheme drawn up by a committee:

They unveiled their new scheme, which the Government has accepted, yesterday.

To be called CPF Life, the scheme will roll out in 2013.

This is not the way news agencies such as Reuters and the Associated Press write. They prefer simple sentences with as few clauses and punctuation marks as possible to avoid ambiguity.

Look at the first sentence. It is hanging on a comma. You only have to remove the comma to mangle it: 

They unveiled their new scheme, which the Government has accepted yesterday.

That, of course, is incorrect.

Let's take the next sentence:.

To be called CPF Life, the scheme will roll out in 2013.

If not dubious, it's certainly ambiguous. I guess the reporter means: "The scheme, which is to be called CPF Life, will be rolled out in 2013." But it could also mean: "The scheme will be rolled out in 2013 in order to be called CPF Life." 

Is the sentence grammatically correct? It is -- if this is correct.

To be named John, the baby will be born on February 15.

That's not how we write, do we?

I also hate the expression, "the scheme will roll out". Cars run, planes fly, ships sail, wagons roll -- but schemes are rolled out.

We could live with those sentences, but not with these -- taken from another front-page report in The Straits Times today. Two of them are incorrect.

Singapore's life expectancy for men and women of older age groups (sic) have (sic) also improved...

Living longer is not all plain sailing, and that is something Mr Chua appreciates...

To cope with the additional living and medical expenses, he is prepared to scrap dreams of seeing places like South Korea and Japan for vacations (sic). South-east Asian destinations will do.

The first sentence is wrong. The subject,"Singapore's life expectancy", is singular and does not agree with the verb, "have", which is plural. And isn't it better to say,"older men and women"?

Coming to the last sentence, I can only wonder about Mr Chua's dreams. How did he expect to see South Korea and Japan? On business trips? That is what the sentence suggests: ''... he is prepared to scrap dreams of seeing places like South Korea and Japan for vacations".

Surely, this what the writer means:

To cope with the additional living and medical expenses, he is prepared to scrap dreams of seeing distant places like South Korea and Japan for vacations nearer home, in South-east Asia.

It's not a beautiful sentence, but at least it doesn't draw a line between "dreams" and "vacations".

Errors are inevitable in any newspaper. But when The Straits Times is not tripping up on language, it is slipping up in its reporting.

Dylan Thomas and Fern Hill

I was surprised to find I had never posted my favourite poem here. I had quoted a couple of lines a long time ago, but never posted the whole poem. The poem: Fern Hill by Dylan Thomas. I have loved it ever since I read it in my schooldays in Calcutta (Kolkata). That was a long time ago.

I just came across a website where the poem is explained. But I think the poem can be enjoyed on its own. Just read it aloud and visualise the scene. The last lines linger in your mind.

Further down is another favourite poem of mine: In My Craft Or Sullen Art, also by Dylan Thomas.

I have loved Dylan Thomas since my schooldays. It might have had something to do with growing up in the late Sixties and early Seventies. Dylan Thomas can seem almost psychedelic at times. One of his poems which first made a deep impression on me was Light Breaks Where No Sun Shines. Those who remember the music of the Sixties will know what I am talking of. Not that Dylan Thomas had anything to do with psychedelia. He was born on October 27, 1914, in Swansea, Wales, and died on November 9, 1953, in Greenwich Village, New York, less than a fortnight after his 39th birthday.

I won't pretend to understand all his words or allusions. But it is impossible to resist the magic of his words.

Fern Hill by Dylan Thomas

Now as I was young and easy under the apple boughs
About the lilting house and happy as the grass was green,
The night above the dingle starry,
Time let me hail and climb
Golden in the heydays of his eyes,
And honoured among wagons I was prince of the apple towns
And once below a time I lordly had the trees and leaves
Trail with daisies and barley
Down the rivers of the windfall light.

And as I was green and carefree, famous among the barns
About the happy yard and singing as the farm was home,
In the sun that is young once only,
Time let me play and be
Golden in the mercy of his means,
And green and golden I was huntsman and herdsman, the calves
Sang to my horn, the foxes on the hills barked clear and cold,
And the sabbath rang slowly
In the pebbles of the holy streams.

Hillary and Obama: Super Tuesday

I have been watching Hillary Clinton's victory speech in New York on CNN again. I see a woman smiling, poised, self-confident and relaxed among her cheering supporters, reaching out to America. She said:

We must continue to be a nation that strives always to give each of our children a better future, a nation of optimists who believe our best days are yet to come, a nation of idealists, holding fast to our deepest values, that we are all created equal, that we all deserve to fulfill our God given potential, that we are destined for progress together...

So today we say with one voice — give us the child who wants to learn, give us the people in need of work, give us the veterans who need our care. We say give us this economy to rebuild and this war to end. Give us this nation to heal, this world to lead, this moment to seize.

She promises the same care and healing that Obama does. So why does he call her a divisive figure? He did it again in his victory speech in Chicago:

This isn’t about me and it’s not about Senator Clinton. As I’ve said before, she was a friend before this campaign, she’ll be a friend after it’s over.

I respect her. I respect her as a colleague. I congratulate her on her victories tonight. She’s been running an outstanding race.

But this fall — this fall, we owe the American people a real choice.

(APPLAUSE)

We have to choose between change and more of the same. We have to choose between looking backwards and looking forwards. We have to choose between our future and our past.

 

Then, looking into the television camera, he said:

It’s a choice between a candidate who’s taken more money from Washington lobbyists from either Republican in this race and a campaign that has not taken a dime of their money, because we have been funded by you. You have funded this campaign.

He conveniently did not add that he was getting help not just from ordinary people but also from some of the Democratic Party's biggest fundraisers. He said:

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.

A wonderful line -- but self-serving too. He was not just complimenting his supporters but pressing his own claim to be president.

Hillary: Give us this nation to heal

Hillary Clinton spoke well too. She smiled and was a picture of grace and determination as she addressed her supporters in New York. I liked best the last part of her speech. The complete transcript can be found at Raw Data:

We must continue to be a nation that strives always to give each of our children a better future, a nation of optimists who believe our best days are yet to come, a nation of idealists, holding fast to our deepest values, that we are all created equal, that we all deserve to fulfill our God given potential, that we are destined for progress together.

It’s the ideal inscribed on the base of the Statute of Liberty in this great city that has overlooked our harbor through wars and depression and the dark days of September 11, the words we all know that give voice to America’s embrace — “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free” — a constant reminder that here in America, we face our challenges and we embrace all of our people.

So today we say with one voice — give us the child who wants to learn, give us the people in need of work, give us the veterans who need our care. We say give us this economy to rebuild and this war to end. Give us this nation to heal, this world to lead, this moment to seize.

I know we’re ready.
Thank you all and God bless you.

Technorati Tags: hillary clinton

Obama: We are the change we seek

I loved this line from Obama's speech in Chicago: "We are the change that we seek." I didn't quote it in my previous post for I wanted to make sure I got the quote right. Well, I got it now from Raw Data, part of the Fox News network, can you believe it?! It has a complete transcript of the speech. Here's the part I liked best:

We are the change that we seek.We are the hope of those boys who have so little, who’ve been told that they cannot have what they dreamed, that they cannot be what they imagine.

Yes, they can. We are the hope of the father who goes to work before dawn and lies awake with doubt that tells him he cannot give his children the same opportunities that someone gave him.

Yes, he can.

We are the hope of the woman who hears that her city will not be rebuilt, that she cannot somehow claim the life that was swept away in a terrible storm.

Yes, she can.

We are the hope of the future, the answer to the cynics who tell us our house must stand divided, that we cannot come together, that we cannot remake this world as it should be.

 

Technorati Tags: obama

Obama wows

I just watched Barack Obama speaking in Chicago. Wow! If Hillary is grace, Obama is fire! Couldn't they please, please come together as running mates for the November election?

Obama doesn't need ads or music videos featuring others; all he has to do is  address the people himself.

I still find Hillary more sympathetic, more experienced, perhaps even wiser, and she is the one I support.

But if Obama wins, I hope he goes all the way to the White House and brings about the changes he is promising.

He looked so heroic as he addressed his supporters in Chicago. Handsome, confident, impassioned, he gave a rousing speech. "We are the change," he said. And the people roared their approval.

I have never seen Martin Luther King, only read some of his speeches. But today I saw a spellbinder: Obama!

I hope he truly believes every word he spoke -- and retains this belief for years to come.

I did wonder when he spoke of raising teachers' pay, whether they are paid entirely by the federal government for him to make such a promise. He also spoke of reducing dependence on oil and tapping other energy sources which made me wonder, "Haven't we heard that before from other leaders?" But I guess leaders have to make large promises for they have to inspire people.

And if Obama or Hillary can carry out even some of their promises, that will be great.

I still wish they would be running mates. If Obama has the vision and Hillary the wisdom that comes from experience, why don't they realise they would be the dream ticket?

Technorati Tags: obama

Kennedy snubbed in home state!

I am all for Hillary Clinton. But I stuck my neck out a week ago and asked if John McCain would be facing Barack Obama in the presidential election this November. Obama is certainly doing very well from the projections so far. But the best moments for me so far?

• Watching Hillary (New York Times photo) address her supporters after winning in New York. She looked presidential, spoke beautifully and had the grace to congratulate Obama on his wins. She is every inch a lady.
• Hillary's victory in Massachusetts. Senator Edward Kennedy could not deliver his own state to Barack Obama! Is the Kennedy mystique past its sell-by date? I like the old liberal, but he should have stayed above this fray. It was wonderful to see Hillary carry Massachusetts despite both the Massachusetts Democratic senators, Kennedy and Kerry, endorsing Obama.

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The Inheritance Of Loss

The Inheritance Of Loss by Kiran Desai

The Inheritance Of Loss, which won the 2006 Man Booker Prize, is like the world itself, both tragic and comic and with moments of great beauty.

The protagonists are misfits one and all -- Sai the orphaned teenager, her grandfather the retired judge, and their cook preserving an English lifestyle in a crumbling house in an Indian hill station, and the cook's son, Biju, an illegal immigrant drifting from one menial job to another, unable to make it in America.

Whether in India or America, they are all living in a hostile environment. Sai suffers agonies in love when ethnic unrest breaks out among the local people and she and her grandfather and the cook are ostracised as outsiders.

But there's more to the story. Set in the Himalayan foothills, it's sheer poetry. Like this description of the judge's dog cowering during a thunderstorm:

A lightning conductor atop (the house) ran a wire into an underground pit of salt, which would save them, but Mutt couldn't understand. With renewed thunder and a blast upon the tin roof, she sought refuge behind the curtains, under the beds. But either her behind was left vulnerable, or her nose, and she was frightened by the wind making ghost sounds.... whoo hooo hooo.

"Don't be scared, puppy dog, little frog, little duck, duckie dog. It's just rain."

She tried to smile, but her tail kept folding under her and her eyes were those of a soldier in war, finished with caring for silly myths of courage. Her ears strained beyond the horizon, anticipating what didn't fail to arrive, yet another wave of bombardment, the wound of civilisation crumbling -- she had never known it so big -- cities and monuments fell -- and she fled again.

There's humour too. When two elderly ladies -- one with a daughter working for the BBC in England, and the other with a daughter working for CNN in America -- meet, each snubs the other in a polite war of words over whether England is superior to America:

Perhaps England and America did not know they were in a fight to the death, but it was being fought on their behalf, anyway, by these two spirited widows of Kalimpong.

Obama joins Bud Light!

Imagine scooping the New York Times! I am so pleased to see the Times running a story comparing the Obama and Hillary websites a day after I wrote about the two sites! We even agree that Obama has the cooler website! "Is Obama a Mac and Clinton a PC?", asks the Times. It ignores one important fact: Obama's caught up with Hillary in opinion polls; Apple still trails a mile behind PCs in computer sales.

Obama's running against not only Hillary but also Budweiser,Diet Pepsi, Bridgestone, Go Daddy, FedEx, Tide, Paramount, Audi, Dell, Toyota! I am talking about the Super Bowl ad he ran like those corporate giants. "Join", the  30-second spot delivering his message, showing crowds of supporters,despair in Iraq and the destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina, can be seen on YouTube.

Obama's covering all the bases to get his message across: the Super Bowl ad for football fans, the "Yes we can" video featuring the Black Eyed Peas' frontman will.i.am and directed by Bob Dylan's son, Jesse Dylan, for the MTV types.

Talk about vision, Obama has it. He is reaching out, competing even with Bud Light commercials. He's smart enough to know the froth always rises to the top.

Mind the (income) gap

"PM: Let's tackle cost fears together", reports The Straits Times. It was not the most carefully thought out headline. True, it was quoting Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong who said:

"We can overcome this problem by working together. People making adjustments, the Government doing its part. We must stay together even during difficult periods."

He promised help to the needy. No doubt the prime minister will deliver on his promise: it is farsighted government policies that have made Singapore prosperous.

But the fact is ministers and civil servants just had a pay rise which increased the prime minister's annual salary to 3.76 million Singapore dollars ($2.6 million) -- six times that of President Bush -- while the median household income from work was 3,830 Singapore dollars a month in 2005, the most recent official figures from Statistics Singapore.

Can anyone imagine people earning five- or six-figure monthly incomes having to practise the same kind of economy or leading the same lifestyle as those earning less than 4,000 Singapore dollars a month?

The Straits Times headline should have just said, "PM: Let's tackle cost fears".

See how Channel NewsAsia reported the story: "PM Lee says govt will help mitigate rising costs of food", says the headline. Not a word about togetherness.

Obama rocking the vote

Barack Obama is rocking the vote. Not only is he outspending Hillary Clinton in his television and radio advertising campaign, advertising in 21 of the 22 states holding Democratic caucuses and primaries on Super Tuesday while Hillary has run ads in just 16 states; he is also tailoring his ads to local sentiments -- anti-Wall Street in Hartford and Fargo, anti-Iraq war in Minneapolis and Albuquerque, says the New York Times.

It's a highly sophisticated campaign. Visit Obama's website which is using pop culture and the American belief in self-improvement, affirmation and creative visualisation to build up support for him. Start at the top. Next to his image is his message:

"I am asking you to believe.
Not just in my ability to bring about real change in Washington... I am asking you to believe in yours."

See how it flatters voters while reiterating his claim to bring about real change in Washington: it's a positive message aimed at getting the voters to identify with him.

Compare that with the banner headline on Hillary's website:

Make history.

Simple, positive and ambitious, but notice the difference: Obama starts with "I am asking you to believe. Not just in my ability (but) yours." It could be taken from a book by Napoleon Hill, Shakti Gawain or other gurus of mind power and creative visualisation.

And, further down, below the navigation tabs, I saw today a YouTube video of pop stars singing "Yes we can" while Obama delivers his "Yes we can" speech. This should go viral.

Yahoo and Microsoft

What's going to happen to My Yahoo and del.cio.us? That's what I wanted to know when I heard yesterday that Microsoft wanted to buy Yahoo. I love Google Reader and iGoogle, but I need My Yahoo and del.icio.us too.

Techcrunch says My Yahoo and del.icio.us are likely to stay even if Microsoft buys Yahoo. They are indispensable.

No social bookmarking site is as useful and convenient as del.icio.us. Digg may be great for checking out the hottest technology stories, but when you want to bookmark articles for your own reference, del.icio.us is handiest.

And My Yahoo is one of the earliest and best personalised start pages around. iGoogle has more features. But if all you want is plenty of stories from your favourite websites on your start page, My Yahoo is great. I have tried Netvibes and Pageflakes. They are all right if you are happy with 20 or 30 RSS feeds on one page. If you want more, try My Yahoo.

And then there's Flickr.

No wonder Microsoft has offered as much as $44.6 billion for Yahoo. For all its problems, Yahoo has some of the most popular and useful sites on the Net.

But will they get better under Microsoft? I am not so sure.

 

Hillary and Obama

Will it be Barack Obama vs John McCain, I asked in my last post two days ago. The winds are certainly blowing in his favour. Gallup reports he is now just just four points behind Hillary Clinton (AP photo) -- 43 percent to 39 percent. Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson expects him to win not only the Democratic nomination but more:
Obama may have the best chance to win big in November and receive a broad mandate.

Robinson explains:

Of all the major candidates, I believe he has the most crossover appeal; I know dyed-in-the-wool conservative Republicans who are so mesmerized by his oratory that they say they would actually vote for him over McCain or Romney.

Just how liberals like Senator Edward Kennedy ended up on the same side as conservatives like David Brooks and Andrew Sullivan is a mystery which will no doubt beget several doctoral theses. Meanwhile, let's agree with Robinson who says:

Obama has the magic.

All that magic is pulling in the big bucks too. He raised a staggering $32 million last month while it took the Clintons three months -- October to December -- to collect $26.8 million. The Baltimore Sun reported:

Obama is airing commercials in all 22 states that hold Democratic primaries and caucuses except Oklahoma and his home state of Illinois. Clinton is advertising in 12 Super Tuesday states, including... New York.

And Obama will launch radio and television ads on Friday in a half-dozen states holding contests between February 9 and February 12, reported Reuters.

Yet Andrew Sullivan writes:

She (Hillary) is still a formidable candidate and her massive institutional advantage may eventually give her the nomination.

Oh when will Obama supporters stop painting him as an underdog?