Gosh Darnit

Nothing really goes on in this sterile little town, so when a fight breaks out near where I stay and I missed it, I’m a bit sore. Stabbing and all, summore!

If It Ain’t Broken, Break It

The infinitely wise unelected City Hall of Kuala Lumpur decided to change the name of a road, a known brand of sorts, from Jalan Alor to Jalan Kejora. Because Kejora goes with the theme of stars due to its Bukit Bintang location (if I, a Malaysian, didn’t get that… this would so work out with tourists). Would Jalan Imbi, a main thoroughfare in the area, be renamed?

Utilitarianism

Over the Public Policy Challenge 2008 (where I was semi-finalist, pampered at Changi Village Hotel last weekend), during the dialogue with the Minister of Defense, he essentially laid out the ideological basis of how Singapore ticks: utilitarianism.

Which is why the arguments of rights and morals don’t really work here. Poor man starving in the street? As long more people benefit from that than people benefiting from helping the poor starving man, it’s just too bad. My team mate, Min Cheong, was constantly riled on how just about every policy in Singapore and the way they communicate it gives the message that we all are mere cogs within a machine, and when we stop providing for his vast machine, it’s time to either drop us or coerce us to be something better.

Rights don’t matter in Singapore. The biggest problem with utilitarianism and applying it in the case of Singapore is simply this: it is the government and the vast bureaucracy that determines what’s in the best benefit for as many people as possible. So even if hypothetically, it is within the overall happiness of society that Lee Kuan Yew is taken to the back and shot, such a decision may never take place.

And more destructively, if the government decides eventually that slaughtering an entire class of people was a net benefit for society, it would go on. Which scares me.

Innocent Blood Soon on Georgia’s Hands

Why I’m against death penalty, even in the case of murder? Because of the possibility of cases like these, where Troy Davis have been denied in all avenues of appeal, and neither executive that could pardon him would ever do – despite exonerating evidence and evidence on possible mistrial coming to light.

“I was hoping that would be the decision,” said MacPhail’s mother, Anneliese MacPhail. “I’m hoping that soon we will have some peace, that this will all be over.”

What peace, Anneliese, would you receive when a possibily innocent man is sent from his world while the person who may have killed your son would continue to walk free?

Bye, Pak Lah

Honestly, I’ll miss the old chap. The very least, he seems better than Najib (heir apparent) or Anwar, and the other UMNO goons trying to claw their way up (Ku Li, especially) seem more troubling.

Council to look into killing electronics, textile sectors

Post-8 March, one of the many glimpses of light at the end of the tunnel was the idea of letting markets decide resource allocation and pricing. That glimpse of light seemed to be extinguished.

PUTRAJAYA: The days of low wages for workers in the electronics and textile sectors may soon be over.

The Human Resources Ministry has given a directive for a wage council to be set up to look into the salaries of workers in both these sectors after receiving complaints that they “consistently received low wages.”

Why do companies pay low wages? They either do not think that higher wages in Malaysia is justified (and therefore would leave Malaysia if ever such a minimum wage is imposed) or they can’t afford higher wages (and therefore, would simply move out or shut down).

Yeah, there is a problem with high wages, especially considering fresh graduates in Singapore (divided by a 1 km causeway to Malaysia’s second-largest city) earn some three times more than Malaysian graduates. But why do they? Workforces in higher-wage countries are better educated, better qualified. They have better infrastructure. A better regulatory and tax environment. High-wage countries don’t suffocate businesses with miles of red tape, tonnes of regulation and price controls.

Yeah, there’s a brain drain. But to achieve wage parity with other countries, the soon-to-be priced-controlled wages will necessarily mean more unemployment or underemployment, and more brain drain. If I want to work in the electronics sector and thanks to the minimum wage, I can’t get a job in Malaysia, I’ll just cross the causeway, apply for a Temporary Work Permit and work there.

[Insert Idiot Geek Website] Pet Peeves

It absolutely annoys me to no uncertain end when people say that, “Hey, I can distribute/use Software X in any way I like! It’s my right! If I buy a Physical Product Y, I can do that!”

No you feeble-minded village idiot. You don’t buy software. You buy a software license. What is a license? In this case, a form of contract. If you buy a contract, say, as a sports club buys a employment contract of a sports star – it doesn’t entail the sports club having the same rights over the star as they would over a toaster they bought.

Not all contractual clauses are legit, and it depends on what sort of contract law you’re following. And this leads me on to my pet peeve #2: “I come from Country X and Clause Y is not enforceable there, so it is not enforceable anywhere” – no idiot, it’s just unenforceable in your stupid little Country X which has lawmakers or judges that couldn’t differentiate between software and hardware. Or another variant, “… Clause Y of the license agreement is unenforceable, therefore the entire agreement is not enforceable”: this almost brings stupidity to a whole new level. Invalidation of a clause does not necessarily invalidate the contract, unless the clause is extremely central to the contract.

Selamat Hari Raya

Eid Mubarak and all that. I note with irony that Singapore is the only country on earth that has Eid ul-Fitr promotions on beer. This is so wrong. I look forward to promotions on beef this coming Deepavali/Diwali.

Yes, yes, He can

Campaign advise for McCain: use this as your next ad. Freak the living hell out of every right-thinking American.