It's been a turbulent past couple of weeks hasn't it?? Typhoon Nargis swept through the Irrawady Delta and inundated the whole area wiping villages off the maps, killing whole families and leaving those alive clutching at what little strands of hope they may have. Sichuan was rocked at it's foundations by a big one and the same scenario played itself out in a matter of days. Last count: 55000 dead in Sichuan and God knows how many in Myanmar, considering the efficiency of the military government in accepting aid.
It really peeves me that the government could come up with the dumbest of reasons to not accept aid. Pride?? I say it's sheer stupidity. How could anyone put a price on the lives that are affected? Instead of accepting whatever aid that is made available, they managed to alienate themselves by refusing aid when it's practically at their doorstep. Maybe it's a Myanmar thing, just as it is a Singaporean thing to keep asking for more handouts from our government when we are so privileged. At least the Chinese, while being selective in accepting aid, did not reject aid outright, and in doing so, deserves the sympathy of the world.
The hot topic today is the judgement of the International Court of Justice on the sovereignty of Pedra Branca. As patriotic as I am, I just can't fathom all the hullaballoo with regards to rocky outcrop the size of a football field. My first question is, is it really worth all that trouble to go to the ICJ and argue about that rock? While I agree that if it's part of our island, we should defend and ensure no one encroaches on our territory. But that piece of rock was 40 nautical miles away. All this talk about sovereignty is good, but it's overkill to go to the ICJ for that piece of rock.
At the same time I can't understand the Malaysians. I mean if you left a flower pot at the void deck for a few years and don't claim it even after someone comes along and plants a chilli plant and tends to it for a few years more, what right have you to that tree or the flower pot for that matter. Does the flower pot mean that much to you in the first place for you to leave it at the void deck for years? I mean, Pedra Branca is in the middle of nowhere and no one in the right mind would even want to live that faraway. If there was gold or better still, oil there, heck, I'd send in the Commandos, if necessary, should the Malaysians even come close. But seriously, I doubt even Mahathir would want to live there.
Oh and talking about oil.......
I am getting worried at the ever climbing, nope, make that soaring price of oil. Last I heard, it's scratching $135 per barrel. Everyone knows that oil is just about the most precious commodity in the world now. For all the talk about green technology, nothing is close to replacing oil as the lifeline of the world. Not just it's economy. The increase in the price of oil results in the increase in everything else - which is what's happening right now. Food prices jumped, utility bills jumped, petrol pump prices jumped - twice in a matter of days.......and so am I.
If this goes on, I might have to learn how to drive like the Flintstones and start eating grass. What I'm saying is many of us have read about the Great Depression of the 1930s but were lucky enough not to have experienced it, if we're not careful, we might just go through something like it.
Oh and by the way, if you were at the moon or just came out from under your shell, Manchester United are the Champions of England and Europe!!!
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