China, America and Shame
I can't remember when I started being truly disappointed with America. Maybe it was when I first visited it in the late 80s and I saw that LA / Hollywood had poor people everywhere. Maybe it was when I...
View ArticleLiverpool Luck
Liverpool won two lucky Champions League titles by overcoming 3 goal deficits against Olympiakos, AC Milan and Barcelona. In the 2004-2005 season, they had to beat Olympiakos by 2 goals in the final...
View ArticleChanges in Singapore
The 1985 recession in Singapore was some kind of a turning point in our history, but I don't know cos I was too young to make sense of it. In the mid 90s, there were 4 revolutions. First was the post...
View ArticleAmerican Presidential Races
1992 was an unusual race because there was an unusually strong third party candidate (Ross Perot), that led to an unusual occurance of a president being denied a second term, and this also produced the...
View ArticleComputers, Mathematics and Me
The first story about mathematics that I know, it'll have to go all the way back to when my father was a kid, growing up – well Singapore has never been a truly poor country, but it was bad enough. His...
View ArticleSingaporean Dilemma
Since Sudhir popped up onto the scene to become a major commentator, he's been a refreshing voice. He's got a really interesting viewpoint to share: True multi-racialism and multi-culturalism is...
View ArticlePragmatism vs Fun
When I was applying to college, I picked out three places. Two of them were “Bottom of the hill” and “Snowy Hill”. I met up with a guy who also considered going to both these places, and he ended up in...
View ArticleLounges and spaces
I don't really remember when lounging around started becoming much of an obsession for me. Considering how much my childhood revolved around studying, it was notable that I hardly took any notice of...
View ArticleHumble
I have never worked for SendGrid. But one day my former workplace came up with a slogan for what they like to see in their own people. Hungry, Humble, Happy and Honest. The 4 Hs. I was a little...
View ArticleWhy American Democracy is dysfunctional
I'm thinking about what went wrong with American democracy. I'm going to list down all the flaws in the system. This is not an endorsement of authoritarianism. So far, there are relatively few places...
View ArticleArsenal the mirage and Liverpool the champions
You could look at this highlight reel and think that Arsenal are a great team. The list of great attacking players is staggering. Van Persie. Lacazette, Jack Wilshire, Andrey Arsharvin, Aaron Ramsay,...
View ArticleFirst thoughts on nomination day
1. In Aljunied there is a PAP "B" team, and the WP has packed the decks with their best ppl. So it's a signal to the Singapore ppl: that's your opposition ward. Everybody else, pls vote PAP. 2....
View ArticleGeneral Elections in the past
There is a little bit of a symmetry here. I am back where I was just before my trip to Mexico. Then, as now, I was thinking about working in data science. (In between those years, I had mainly earned a...
View Article2020 Elections - the campaign
This elections took place under a more grim mood. Unemployment was staggering. Everybody was shut up in their houses. There would not be a party atmosphere. This would be the third elections in the new...
View ArticleWorker's Party
There is this astounding statistic that the WP won more than half of the votes that it contested for. They contested for 21 seats and won 10. They were, far and away the most successful opposition...
View ArticleNighthawks at the Diner
I still remember that when I was on that crazy 10km hike in the middle of the night. It was a tradition that all the sec 3 ppl in that crazy uniform group had to hike from a certain girl's school to...
View ArticleBlank Spaces of History
It's usually the case that some of the biographies publishing industry will write biographies of big political figures. None of them come bigger than presidential biographies.When we look at the...
View ArticleOther Peoples' Lives / Broken Record
Sometimes, the comment is not about you. Sometimes it's not about you.I'm back in the same apartment that I had turned my back on almost 10 years ago. I left, trying to take my life to the next level....
View ArticleBullying
I don't really think that I had to think too much about this. I kinda used to get bullied in school, sorda. There are people who neither bully nor get bullied. There are people who bully, and people...
View ArticleSliding Doors Moment
Every close presidential election in the USA is a sliding doors moment. I don't really know what would have happened if Dewey defeated Truman, but that would have been consequential, because Truman...
View Article