It has become almost an annual pilgrimage since my first visit in 2009, with only a break in 2011. I had wanted to post this right after I came back in April but only these few days I had only found time to sort out the photos I have taken over the past few months. No thanks to Ingress, in particular. I almost had to cancel this trip because for the better part of the week before my flight, I was down with flu. It was particular bad two days before, when I was shivering in cold in spite of the warm weather. It would have been really sad if I had to cancel the trip, because I love Phuket and I would miss it dearly if I can’t go. This time round I stayed again at the Woraburi Resort. There wasn’t much changes and the staff are still as friendly. What has changed, is that some of the staff can now speak Mandarin, perhaps as a reaction of the tourism industry in Phuket due to the number of mainland Chinese tourists flooding all parts of the world. Two of them attempted to speak to me in Mandarin even though they heard me conversing in English with my companions. When I told some friends of this, their reaction was horror, and even revulsion for being mistaken as mainlander Chinese. I have to say that Singapore appears to be the only place in the region that rejects the new reality of a resurgent China, even though we had no problem adapting to the influx of Japanese and Korean tourists in the past. For a predominantly Chinese place to reject Chinese, it has got to be another first for Singapore! The eradication of Chinese education in Singapore has been so successful that many Singaporean Chinese have become OCBC – Orang Cina Bukan Cina. Well done, PAP! Anyway, rants aside. I had once again visited Phuket during the Songkran. The reason being that is the only time where I can play with water with abandon and not worry about getting soaking wet. While I would admit I hated being sprayed in the face and eyes with high-powered water guns, that doesn’t really happen very often anyway. It helps a great deal to get the stress and frustrations out of me as well. I will end here and let the pictures speak for themselves. Unfortunately I ain’t very good at photography so I might not have captured the essence of what I saw very well. But I do hope it manages to bring out the beauty of the place so others may visit the place to experience it for themselves.
Archive for Others
Travel Journal – Phuket, Again…
Commentary – Why I disagree with Kong Hee’s “theology”
First, let me make it clear that the opinion I expressed in the post below does not represent the opinion of any church. I write this knowing that I will earn the enmity of many, but failing to speak out would be the equivalent of a sin of omission – i.e. failing to do what is required to alert someone to the perils before him and allow harm to come to that person. Here goes… When the matter of financial irregularities in CHC hit the news, I was two minded about what stand to take. After some consideration, I felt that there is no reason for me to be blackmailed by the opinion that good Christians should always stand together with other Christians and pray for them. Faith should not blind us, nor should it negate our ability to reason. What exactly is the point of praying in this case unless the irregularities found are planted evidence? Kong Hee and the other five have hired some of the best lawyers in this country and are fully capable of explaining to the Courts what has been done. Whether their explanation will be to the Courts’ satisfaction that no wrongdoing has been committed is another matter entirely. While CHC’ers may consider this entire matter to be the schemes of the Devil or some form of persecution, it is hard for me to accept that considering my objection and revulsion to Kong Hee’s teachings. It is even more repulsive when some said Kong Hee will have to suffer like Jesus. The image of the anti-Christ comes immediately to mind. Therefore, if I were to pray, it will be for God to open the eyes of CHC’ers to see things objectively, and also for wisdom upon the judge presiding over the case. It wouldn’t do for the innocent to be convicted, nor for the guilty to go scot free. I admit I know very little about CHC as I have only been there twice. Nevertheless, how well I know CHC is not a prerequisite to what I have to say as I am only speaking out against what I do know. My first impression of CHC after my both of those visits was that it is very much like a pop concert. I decided I preferred the church I was still attending then as it was the place where Christ came looking for me again after seven years or so. I had visited CHC because two fellow believers who went over from their previous church invited me. One of them actually left CHC not long after in 2003 because of the blatant use of the church as a platform to promote Sun Ho’s music albums. I wouldn’t have given more thought about those two visits or the sermons preached in those services. Suffice to say they were forgettable. Though I often hear about how supposedly anointed a speaker Kong Hee was and how the church numbers have increased, I did not feel edified by his messages and a church’s numbers really meant very little in my personal opinion. After all, people go to church for all sorts of reasons and not necessarily there to seek God. On top of which, how much of that “growth” came from members leaving other churches is another matter entirely. Even so, I thought at that time it was a good thing people are going to church. Since salvation belongs to God, having more people exposed to the Gospel cannot be bad. In any case, I would have completely forgotten about Kong Hee, since he is but one of the many preachers. God could anoint anyone with His Holy Spirit to speak and I have often felt attachment to a pastor (or even to pop stars and soccer players) to be akin to idolatry. I certainly had my doubts about Sun Ho’s career even though I didn’t really care at that time. When the charges about financial irregularities came about, I was totally puzzled when her secular career is now said to be part of something called a “Crossover Project”. There are two things that I find chronologically mind-bogging. If I remembered correctly, Sun Ho resigned from CHC in 2003 to pursue her secular singing career, due to the criticisms about the church being used to promote her personal career. Yet, CHC’s current propaganda gives me the impression that her departure then was the beginning of the “Crossover Project”, which is said to have began back in 2002 or perhaps even earlier since she spoke about 10 years of Crossover recently. If that is the case, why the necessity to resign at that time? Why even discard the “pastor-singer” moniker at all? Anyway, I started paying attention to CHC again about 4 years ago because Sun Ho’s “China Wine” MTV was posted on Facebook. That MTV was as uninspiring and completely forgettable as Kong Hee’s sermons. I couldn’t fathom how anyone would think of Jesus in that MTV, not to mention that it might actually stumble a new convert. What came on the heels of that was an article by the titled “The Power of Pop Culture” by Kong Hee published in the CHC’s quarterly newsletter. I felt it was nothing more than self justification for the lifestyle Sun Ho is pursuing in the United States. All my theological disagreement with the teachings of Kong Hee thus began after reading that piece. Thereafter, I viewed a few of Kong Hee’s sermons which happened to be shared on Facebook. Sadly, just like his piece on “The Power of Pop Culture”, verses were often quoted out of context as long as they justify whatever message being preached at that time to exhort the congregation to open their wallets and give in return for spectacular amount of returns and blessing from God, who would otherwise hold it back like some kind of mafia Don. Without any doubt, if that is the theological basis of the so-called “Prosperity Gospel”, I found that it is not only questionable – it is outright heresy. Let me layout my reasons for my objection to whatever that is preached in CHC. For all intentions and purposes, I don’t think any message that preaches personal gain through endless giving is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel is often offensive to people who heard it for the first time because it declares all men to be sinful and condemned. It is a message for all mankind to repent and turn from our evil ways, and to accept Jesus Christ as the only means of redemption and salvation (Romans 3:23 ~ 24). It would be irreconcilable for CHC or Kong Hee to preach the Gospel when their very own church leadership pursues a highfalutin lifestyle. As far as I am concerned, the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been dead in CHC for some time. I have a rather simplistic view of what conversion means. It means one hears the Gospel, believes in it by accepting Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, repents of his sins and be baptised by water in Jesus’ name. We often say we give our lives to Jesus, but we cannot give back to God what originally belonged to Him. In reality, when we believed, God gives us a new lease of life and then charge us with the task of the Great Commission – i.e. to bring the Gospel on to everyone who have yet believed and make disciples of them (Matthew 28:18~20). There is no fanciful way to bring Jesus to the masses. We seek to obey God by preaching the same message that all are sinful and condemned. In most cases, we earned nothing but the enmity of all whom we shared the message because very often we Christians have our own failings which invite criticisms, and in particular accusations of hypocrisy. However, becoming a Christian does not and will not make someone the paragon of virtue or the ultimate arbiter in morality. The fact that we failed to live up to the standards set by God simply means we need them all the more to show how far we have fallen. To discard them simply means a further slide away from what God expects of us. It is exactly for this reason why a Savior is needed. God expects perfect righteousness which we cannot attain no matter how much “good” we do. Our good works are counted as filthy rags – or in the original Hebrew, used sanitary cloth – before God (Isaiah 64:6) and only Christ offers that perfect righteousness that He has imputed to us through faith in Him. Simply put, if a church isn’t preaching the Gospel, then its claims to be fulfilling the Great Commission is an utter sham. All the more so when it panders to the world by the means where it’s most acceptable and well received. This basically says a lot about what I think of the “Crossover Project”. Other than preaching the Gospel, God also expects us to do good works. For faith without works is dead. Good works is not another way to earn us a way into heaven, or to obtain reconciliation with God. They are basically another outward manifestation of our faith in, and our obedience to God. It is part of our transformation into the image of Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. Charitable deeds are one of the ways we perform good works, and being charitable is not limited to money – for e.g giving up our seat on the MRT to those in need is one of them. Also, being charitable does not mean giving money foolishly away or using money for whatever purposes imagined to be for good. The Bible specifically talks about helping the poor, the widowed, and the fatherless. That brings me to the matter of tithing. During the Old Testament days in the Theocracy of Israel, the Israelites are commanded to tithe (Leviticus 27:30). The very essence of tithing is for charity, with only the tithe of the third year given to the Levites – the priesthood class (ref. Deuteronomy 12:19; Deuteronomy 14:27 ~ 29; Deuteronomy 26:12 ~ 13). In essence, it is what would pass for a modern day social security and taxation plan in the Theocracy of Israel back then. God has given very specific command on how the tithes should be used as well, making sure no one prospers from it. When Israel failed to do so, God rebuked them, even accusing them of robbing Him (Malachi 3:7 ~ 8). Now, there is no equivalent of the Levites in the New Testament context, since Jesus has become the High Priest and now intercedes on our behalf. The pastors are different from the Levites and thus we are not tithing “to pay them”. That does not mean we should not tithe, we simply need to understand why; when or if we are feel compelled or led to give. Once we understand the reasons, obeying and giving to church simply becomes a matter of joy. God does love a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:6 ~ 15), but in the context of that passage, the preceding paragraph talks about giving to those who were in need (e.g. the Macedonian Church at that time). It is not some kind of loophole in the Scriptures where we can use to strong-arm the Creator of the Universe into showering the believers with blessings. In the New Testament church, believers are encouraged to give offerings as we are expected to help one another so there will be no lack among believers. All the more so for those who have given up their job to serve full time in church. Clearly, we cannot expect anyone to make sacrifices and eat all the way into their own savings to serve God full-time. But that money is not given for their prosperity. If they are getting so much money that they can afford to fly in private jets and to live in lodgings way above everyone else, while someone within the congregation is in dire need, then something is seriously wrong! In any case, God has never failed to command us to look after the disadvantaged regardless of the Old Testament Temple period or the New Testament period. If a church has stored up huge amount of money, then my opinion is that should simply expand charitable services within the community where it got the money. If a church will not help the community in which it is founded and decided that it has other non-charitable priorities, then it should really just leave and stop being hypocritical. It simply defies basic economic principles when one believes that giving beyond his capacity “will earn one many times more in return”. It also belittles the other Christians who gave time, and service to serve God in other capacities – turning them into nothing more but second-class citizens in God’s kingdom. It is simply common sense to ask Kong Hee how does God bless this other group many times in return. God certainly never intended the Holy Scriptures to become an excuse for leaders to make believers pour out their hard earn money into a bottomless pit. The Scriptures have examples on how God works when He truly intends something to be done. For example, when God commanded Moses to build the Tabernacle, Moses was told what to ask from the Israelites. But God’s servants do not take more than what is necessary because Moses immediately told the people to stop giving when he realised that there is more than enough (Exodus 36:6 ~ 7). In short, there wouldn’t be any issue asking the congregation to give as long as there is a target figure in the first place. (If one example is not enough, read up 1st and 2nd Chronicles on the first temple which King Solomon is instructed to built, and be truly amazed! Then read up on the second temple in the Book of Ezra chapters 1 ~ 3 as well. Pay special attention to where the material is coming from and see whether anyone actually gave until they wept.) Kong Hee’s “theology” has really very little feet to stand on. If anyone justifies taking from the congregation by quoting Scriptures, then it is necessary for the congregation to evaluate whether it follows God’s modus operandi according to the Scriptures too. The Scriptures should be the very fail-safe to prevent anyone from asking fellow believers to sign them a blank cheque, and in specific to prevent someone from using Scriptures to their advantage and abuse certain parts to suit their own personal agenda. Believers are thus equipped to play the role of a watch dog over their own church leaders had they been reading their Bible. They can be sure to a certain extent when their leaders tell them to give, whether the instructions really came from the Almighty Himself or not.
Review – HAME MPR-A1
To be honest, this was a purchase on impulse. For those who are looking for a technical review of the device then this post will disappoint since I don’t really talk much about the technical aspects and specifications of a device when I reviewed it. Instead, I usually talked about why I am using it, and how I used it. Here’s a short summary on how I got the device. A shop in Tanjong Pagar Xchange at the MRT Station was selling this device for S$80, even though I was told by my friend that his customer helped him get it in China for RMB 120 (approximately S$25). I decided that it would simply be cheaper if I get it online and so I politely told the sales assistant at the shop I would think about it. I understand the poor shop’s need for that margin to defray its rentals, but then I really ain’t that noble to part with my money to help the owner made a living. Went home and found it on Aliexpress for just a mere US$19.90 a piece with a shipping cost of US$30. I bought two right away and sold one to another friend at cost to defray part of the shipping costs to bring it down to US$35 (approx S$45) a piece. I bought this because an old friend showed it to me even though I really have no need for a WiFi 802.11b/g/n Wireless 3G Router. If I know of this device earlier then I wouldn’t have considered paying SingTel for multi-sim at all. Other than being a router, the device also functions as an external battery (stores 1800mAh of power), a WiFi repeater (which I haven’t and didn’t try), and it also comes with a RJ-45 ethernet port. In other words, if I end up in a foreign hotel with just an ethernet connection with a handful of devices on WiFi, I probably will still be able to get online. Of course, the only issue is that the battery in it will only give me about 3 hours of Internet connectivity since it has no external power source. In spite of the nagging thought that I don’t really have a need for it, I decided to get one because I liked the device so much as it came with its own power source. That’s not mentioning that I can easily use several devices and share the connection with one or two friends. It had worked pretty well when my friend used it in a small conference room with 4 people. All I need to do is charge it using the micro-USB port on the side of the device, simply by plugging it into the USB ports of a laptop or a desktop computer. The device can be used almost right out of the box without any need for configuration. A security conscious person would more than frown with my lack of concern about network security but my take is that the risk of drive-by hacking or someone hijacking the connection for their use in Singapore is pretty low. Anyway, though it didn’t connect successfully on the first try when I plugged in SingTel’s Huawei E169 USB Modem with a M1 simcard, restarting the device was all that is needed. While it did take a few minutes to successfully connect, it worked fine after that as I was able to surf using the browser on the Galaxy Tab and use the Facebook app even after I removed the simcard (just to be sure I am doing everything correctly). I even connected a Macbook Air to it just to be double sure I am not mistaken. The only thing I didn’t like here is that it looked rather flimsy with the E169 plugged in. If it is to be placed in a bad and used as a mobile WiFi hotspot, my advice is to be careful about its placement in the bag to avoid breaking the USB modem when the bag is dropped by accident. The device comes with a web-based configuration interface, but it is in Chinese so I didn’t really bothered to look at it as it worked right out of the box. I did notice that there are some firewall features but I didn’t bother to play with them. That probably something I will look into in the future but I had went looking for an English firmware update instead. I failed to find one even though my friend claimed he found one but his attempts to update the firmware has failed. That brief test would be the end of the story for this device. At that point of time I had kicked myself for wasteing money to purchase another white elephant. I am resigned to use it as an emergency battery for my smartphone even though I had a YooBao “Long March” 11200mAh battery. It turned out that fate had a different idea. On July 13th, I sat like a fool from Lakeside all the way to Tiong Bahru (between 1845 ~ 1910hrs) looking at the white screen on my Galaxy Tab with my SingTel simcard plugged in before even a trickle of data even flowed through. It didn’t just failed to load on my Galaxy Tab. It had actually failed to load on my Samsung Omnia 7 smartphone as well. That is why I was pretty sure it was a network issue and not one with my devices. It doesn’t matter that on both devices I had full reception, but yet nothing was loading. SingTel clearly has a capacity – not coverage – issue, and in my opinion that’s the real reason why they are capping the download limit to 2GB. While it was fair enough to say I was on a moving train, but failing to load for about 10 stations (that’s like 20 minutes) is unacceptable and utterly atrocious. That’s not mentioning I never had this problem in the North East Line or the Circle Line previously and the train is underground for those lines! So, I am still convinced at that time it was a SingTel issue because the people beside me happily loading away on their devices, even though I couldn’t tell which provider they were on. It might not be justified to blame it on SingTel, but I decided to bring the HAME MPR-A1 out to test another day since I had a M1 simcard slot into the E169. Well, surprisingly the HAME MPR-A1 worked pretty well. While I had expected the usual delays since wireless connectivity are less reliable than a cabled one, everything loaded pretty smoothly. The only complaint about the MPR-A1 would be the fact that it felt pretty hot after about an hour and the power runs out after three hours. But it serves my purpose so I don’t really complain about that. I subsequently tested it with the SingTel simcard as well and that episode of bad network didn’t recur. Now, here’s for some pure conjecture. Another friend who worked as a sub-contractor which installed SingTel’s LTE equipment told me that a part of the equipment used by SingTel for its LTE expansion is supplied by Huawei (the other supplier being Ericsson). The E169 is a Huawei device so I am wondering whether I am not getting a similar issue while using the MPR-A1 because of that. The only issue with this speculation is that I didn’t originally use the device with a SingTel simcard, and I ain’t aware whether M1 uses any Huawei equipment at all. That said, I have decided against another Samsung smartphone should I decide on a replacement for my Omnia 7 in October even though I liked the Galaxy S III a lot. While I may have mostly blamed SingTel for that bad experience on July 13th, I cannot rule out that part of that problem maybe with how Samsung designed its antenna or the chip it used for telecommunications since both are Samsung devices. The same cannot be said about the two strangers next to me who obviously didn’t have a problem on the train that day, and I noticed they are using Blackberry and a HTC respectively. That said, I am wondering whether I should get a smartphone that’s completely “rare” in Singapore. Perhaps one that is made by Huawei or one of those Haier ones from China. After all, as long as it comes with an English interface, I don’t really give a flying damn about the brand. In fact, uniqueness shows character and unlike iFreaks I will not let a device manufacturer like Apple turn me into a drone. No manufacturer should define my character and what is cool for me. I determine what my lifestyle should be and it is not something a manufacturer can sell to me in the form of a overpriced device.
Micro-USB Port for charging
USB Port for 3G USB Modem
Mode switch & Battery Indicator
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Random Discourse – Total Defense Day
February 15 is Total Defense Day in Singapore. The day is chosen for this purpose because Singapore fell to the Japanese on the same day 70 years ago in 1942. It took the Japanese just 69days (Dec 8, 1941 ~ Feb 15, 1942) to advance all the way from Kota Bahru on the North East of the Malayan Peninsula (near the border of Thailand) to City Hall in Singapore. What followed was more than 3 years of hardship and suffering under Japanese Rule. The Imperial Japanese forces were specifically hard on the Chinese population, and the Sook Ching Massacre alone claimed at least 25,000 ~ 50,000 lives. Today, only the monument at the War Memorial Park next to Raffles City stands in mute testimony to the Japanese atrocities. I know the older generation hated the Japanese with a passion. Two weeks ago a friend told me that his grandmother still referred to the Japanese as “Nip Boon Sai” (Japanese shit in Hokkien) and she taught them never to trust the Japanese. My father was a 6-year old boy when the Japanese surrendered and he once mentioned to me that his only memories of the Japanese as a boy was a public beating. A man was accused of stealing and the Japanese beat him on his back with a pole until the pole broke. Needless to say, the man’s spine broke too and he died. My maternal grandmother was forced to marry my maternal grandfather a short while after the Japanese occupied Singapore. She has to cut her hair short and dress up like a boy because her mother was afraid that the Japanese soldiers would rape her. In a certain way, the only “positive outcome” of the Japanese occupation was that my mother was born a year before the Japanese surrender. Otherwise, I probably would never be as well. We often forget just how small Singapore is. The longest distance between east to west is 41.8km, and from north to south is 22.5km. With modern guided weapons, an attacking aircraft probably does not even need to enter our airspace to deliver its ordnance and lay waste to large parts of our country. An artillery piece in Johor would be able to fire on any part of our little island. Any tank will be able to make its way from Tuas to Changi within a hour at full speed. Yes, we are that small and that vulnerable. I’ll admit I often complain about National Service. I often talk about it as a waste of my time. Yet I also understand that we don’t really have a choice but to serve. Because no one except ourselves will defend Singapore – the only home I knew. Perhaps I wouldn’t survive more than a minute if it comes to war because I certainly ain’t soldier material. But being lined up by enemy forces and gunned down on a beach without a fight isn’t any better. There are those who are asking for National Service to be abolished but I’ll not be so naive. Kuwait is a fine example of just how quickly a small national can lose everything in a short time frame. Unlike Kuwait, we are way smaller. Not to mention we do not have oil which means no coalition of Western nations will come and save us. Our neighbours may not be our enemies now, but who can tell what happens in the future? We often say – low crime rate does not mean no crime. Similarly, just because the threat of war is low, it does not mean there won’t be wars in the future. It really doesn’t matter Taiwan or a lot of countries in the world have reduced or even abolished mandatory conscription. Let’s not forget, we are Singapore.
