Happy New Year 2011

Happy New Year everybody!

Ok, that's all I've got to say. Bye!. See you next year (which means tomorrow).

2010 Top 10 people

This is my list of the top 10 people of the year in 2010. I think this year's list is much more in-depth than last year's one. Anyway, here we go.

Number 10


General Stanley McChrystal

This former Commander of the U.S. Forces Afghanistan (USFOR-A) caused quite an uproar in the middle of the year for his remarks in a Rolling Stone magazine article.

McChrystal and his staff made unflattering comments about Joe Biden, America's Vice-President, and other government officials. When questioned, he didn't deny the content.

The event prompted President Barack Obama to call the four-star general for a meeting at the White House where the latter tendered his resignation. Obama accepted it and days after the resignation, McChrystal decided to retire.

Not many people have the balls to take on the President, a man like Stanley McChrystal should deserve some sort of recognition.

Number 9


Angry Birds developers

First of all, in case you don't know, Angry Birds is a game that was released for iPhone in December 2009. With its ultra-addictive gameplay and cheap price, it took the entire mobile gaming world by storm this year.

Android and Symbian versions of the game were also created due to its overwhelming popularity. This catapult-puzzle game was developed by Rovio Mobile, a company in Finland and has sold over 12 million copies in Apple's App Store.

Gamers all around the world might be having fun (or difficulties) with the game. However, it is the people who created it who will have the last laugh.

Number 8


Konstantin Novoselov

Ok, maybe I should add Andre Geim in too since both of them are known for their work on graphene. I decided to put Novoselov name as I think Geim has already won more awards.

Both teacher and student (yes, Geim is the teacher) are also the recipients of this year's Nobel Prize in Physics. Novoselov is also the youngest Nobel laureate in 18 years.

The Russian scientist also won the 2010 Knights Commander of the Order of Netherlands Lion, a highly prestigious accolade for exceptional people.

Number 7


Naoto Kan

Last year, I had Yukio Hatoyama. This year, his successor also managed to garner a spot in my list. The current Japanese Prime Minister had a good taste of what ups and downs in life are all about in 2010.

The former finance minister a=only assumed office as PM in June after Hatoyama's shock resignation (actually not really that shocking).

Kan had to deal with problems regarding the economy, cabinet, and most notably the Senkaku Islands incident which strained relations with China.

The Japanese government stepped into the currency market in September by buying U.S. dollars to weaken the yen. It was a move welcomed by exporters, brokers as well as the public.

I wonder how long will he last as PM since Japan has a trend of changing governments in the last few years.

Number 6


Bill Gates

What is the world's richest man doing here in this list? Other than being a dropout student of Harvard, chairman of Microsoft and biggest shareholder of the company, he is also a philanthropist.

Together with his wife, they are the founders of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. It is basically a charity thingy. This year, together with Warren Buffet (world no. 2 wealthiest man), Bill has embarked on a mission to get more billionaires to pledge their support for charity.

This is the kind of people who deserve to be rich, the kind who has a charitable heart. When will it be my turn?


Number 5


Xavier Hernández

After living on Earth for 3 decades, it is high time Xavi did something big in his career as a footballer. Luckily, he did it and it wasn't just one.

In 2010, the Barcelona midfielder won the Spanish League, Spanish Supercup, World Cup and World Player of the Year award.

The class of Xavi is out of this world. No human passes a ball with his foot better than this man from Spain. He is also the only sports representative in this list.

Number 4


Kim Jong-il

Let's keep this short. This short crazy old lady (or you can argue that she's a man) have been making headlines around the globe annually. 2010 has been a year where he created (and destroyed) lots of things.

See? Mr Kim, you finally managed to beat the Americans in something! There isn't anyone from America who is above 4th spot in this list.

Number 3


Julian Gillard

Current Prime Minister of Australia and the first female to do so in the country's history.

She overthrew Kevin Rudd, then Australian PM, after snatching party leadership from him thus, becoming head of government.

During the August federal election, her Labor party and the Coalition each garnered 72 seats in the 150-seat parliament. Under the persuasion of Gillard, 4 crossbench MPs decided to side by Labor hence, letting Gillard and Labor to remain in power.

Number 2


So Nyuh Shi Dae (Girls' Generation)

Right now, it's Girls' Generation! This list looks a bit boring at first right? Right, but SNSD thoroughly deserves the runners-up spot.

If you say Hallyu blew strongly all around Asia in 2010, you might as well say it was SNSD who led the attack. Korean popular culture seems incomplete without mentioning this 9-girl group.

Their popularity has never decreased from South Korea to Southeast Asia to as far as America. They won the Disk Daesang Award (Best Album) and Artist of the Year in the Golden Disk and Melon Music Awards respectively.

They were also picked as "Star of the Year" aka most influential artist by a survey from Sports Korea.

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So can you guess who's Number One?
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Number 1


YOU YOU YOU

Yes, it's you. You survived another year. Another year of ups and downs. Give yourself a pat on the back. You deserved it.

Top 10 epic failures of Singapore in 2010

For this year's year-end special post, I will have not one but two Top 10 posts. Similar to last year, I will have my Top 10 people of the year post.

As for the second one which I will be posting today, it is the Top 10 epic failures of Singapore in 2010 where I list 10 Singaporean flops that occurred this year.

Number 10


National team knocked out of the AFF Suzuki Cup group stages

Unable to beat a team whose name is Phillipines, only scored the winning goal in the last minute against Myanmar and losing to Vietnam 0:1.

If the women's table tennis team being crowned world champions was the biggest success in Singapore sports this year, then the football team is no doubt the biggest failure.

Number 9


Battlestar Galactica's shut-down due to a technical glitch

The main attraction of Universal Studios at Resorts World Sentosa had to be closed because of some technical problems. Definitely a big embarrassment for RWS and the government.

Marina Bay Sands looks set to pawn the Sentosa IR hands down.

Number 8


Taufik Batisah singing the National Anthem wrongly (again)

The winner of the first Singapore Idol competition sang "berseru" instead of "bersatu" during the National Day Parade. This is not the first time he sang this Malay song incorrectly, and he's a Malay.

Number 7


Singapore YOG cheer by JJ Lin

There is even a Facebook fan page for people to join and show their displeasure at this awful song. Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah. Seriously, only those from the kindergarten will enjoy listening to it. And JJ Lin of course

Number 6


My World Cup bets with Singapore Pools

I decided to put myself in this list as well since I'm a Singaporean and Singapore Pools has "Singapore" in it. I cannot remember how many bets did I made but none of them turned out to be correct.

Luckily, the BPL helped to cut my losses by allowing me to win some money back from several matches.

Number 5


Irritating MRT jingle

Another one associated with music. Hearing three aunties making noise inside an already squeezy MRT train will only frustrate you more. At least SMRT did listen to the complaints and stopped broadcasting it after some time.

Number 4


Mah Bow Tan's denial that HDB flats are unaffordable

The more he denies and defends, the more agitated people will become. Citizens were blamed for the shortage of public housing as they had "fantasy-home dreams" when in fact, it was the PRs who drove up property prices.

Minister Mah, better pray that you can win in the next election because many opposition candidates are arrowing you.

Number 3


Flash floods in Orchard Road (and other parts of the country)

A certain PAP minister said that floods are "freak events which occur once in fifty years". However, the country has been flooded so many times that NEA has to issue flood alerts whenever it rains.

Marina Barrage also played a part in this "freak event" which the government conveniently avoid talking about. In fact, the government tried to shirk responsibility.

The blame was passed on from NEA to PUB and then to Singaporeans for wanting "everything to be perfect". That's the reality of our highly-paid ministers, nobody ever apologizes for screw-ups.

Number 2


Government urging citizens to welcome foreigners

The government's addiction to foreigners and treating them like citizens is nothing new. Prime Minister Lee continued to urge Singaporeans to welcome more aliens here during his National Day Rally.

Other ministers also took turns to convince Singaporeans to accept these so-called foreign talents to no avail. Maybe we should hire some foreigner to be our ministers as well, they are definitely cheaper and better.

Number 1


YOG Organizing Committee

Number one epic failure of all.

School students were forced to stand in the rain. Others were threatened to sign up as volunteers. NTU students had to give up their hostels. The hilarious opening ceremony where clueless flag bearers walked around on stage.

Food poisoning of the YOG volunteers. Poor commentary by the commentators. Roads lanes were "reserved" for YOG buses. Singapore received worldwide attention (and laughter) for arresting a YOG critic over some harmless comments.

Most importantly, nobody wanted to assume responsibility when there were so many screw-ups. Plus, the YOG budget amounted to $387 million and the government insisted that it's worthwhile.

Most people who know me are aware that I am not fond of the ruling People's Action Party. I have been taking digs at them every now and then, whether it is in real-life or online.

So, to be fair to all (but when was PAP ever fair to the rest?), I decided to criticize the opposition parties of Singapore as well. But do remember, no matter how bad they look like in this post, they are still better than the men in white.

Singapore Democratic Alliance

This alliance which consists of the Singapore People's Party, Singapore Justice Party and Singapore Malay National Organization has been going down slope ever since the 2006 elections.

Chiam See Tong of the SPP is the only member of parliament in this opposition front. But sad to say, as the sole representative of SDA, he has been in the news recently for negative reasons.

First, it was SDA's secretary general Desmond Lim's fallout with Chiam. Then, last week, Sin Kek Tong who is SPP's chairman, voiced out concerns that Chiam had contributed less than the stimulated amount of his MP allowance to the party.

With their talisman going through a rough patch at the moment, SDA will find it hard to win more seats in the next election.

They definitely have to solve internal problems first before facing external challenges from other areas. Chiam See Tong has also decided to give up his Potong Pasir seat and  contest in a GRC this time, a plan which might backfire.

National Solidarity Party

Formerly part of the SDA but parted ways with it 4 years ago. The ideology of NSP is centrism. Centrism is defined as the ideal of having moderate policies which sit in the middle of left and right wing politics.

In short, NSP's approach is play it safe and play it smooth. They are neither here nor there so do not expect much changes if their members are elected.

Goh Meng Seng, secretary general of the party, has openly expressed his interest in contesting the Tampines GRC which is led by minister Mah Bow Tan. Goh had been debating about public housing for quite some time, an issue associated to National Development minister Mah.

Yes, they can provide a credible platform for citizens to voice their concerns but they still lack the power (and guts) to force a revolution.

Reform Party

I admit that RP is currently the one which looks the most credible. It was founded only 2 years ago but as the saying goes, age is merely just a number. However, nothing is perfect.

RP needs more experienced veterans to join their ranks. They have a strong bunch of members in their youth wing but one PAP minister can easily beat them hands down in a debate.

Moreover, the one and only person who looks more "powerful" is their secretary general, Kenneth Jeyaretnam who graduated from Cambridge University.

KJ himself is one who makes contradicting statements. He lamented Singapore's censorship when he himself is a king of censorship in cyberspace.

That is quite similar to classic PAP-style politics. Silencing those who make noise and oppose.

Lastly, what with the statement "Singapore's GDP is fueled partly by the constant condemning and rebuilding of HDB which are built to last 30-40 years"?

Does that mean that the buildings will start to collapse after 40 years? Well, not at least in Queenstown.

Singapore Democratic Party

Ah-ha. There, it's none other than the mighty SDP, not! Although I am a supporter of all oppositions, I will give my vote to SDP if all parties except PAP contested.

The good and bad thing about SDP lies in its secretary general Dr Chee Soon Juan. CSJ belongs to the extremely-endangered species of politicians in Singapore. He is an all-rounder who can debate on a wide variety of issues.

But, most Singaporeans, brainwashed by PAP, see him as an obstacle to Singapore's progress, both economically and socially.

While it remains to be seen what alternatives CSJ can offer, chances of him being elected are of only a decimal value.

Moreover, SDP's approach of liberal democracy, compared to RP's social democracy, will not fit the current political landscape of Singapore. SDP's tough stance will only do it no good.

Workers' Party

Seriously, why did I list them as the last one? Precisely, because they do not give hope. WP is like PAP's ally. Read up on Russian politics to understand the concept better.

PAP as well as the state-controlled media approves WP as a "credible" opposition instead of the rest. Why? Because WP will not be a threat to PAP's dominance.

WP is there to stay and show others that there are oppositions voices within the parliament. If RP or SDP were to be elected, expect lots of noises at every parliament meeting.

It's ideology is centre-left but I think it is just simply centre-right, making friends with the ruling party. Low Thia Kiang and Sylvia Lim, the 2 MPs of the party, failed terribly at debating with the ministers.

In a nutshell, all opposition parties agree on most stuff like abolishing the Internal Security Act and having a waive for Goods and Services Tax. They just need to pool their resources together to fight the giant, only then can they emerge victorious.

Volunteering with your heart

I think I shall speak for the innocent group of people who had been suffering from injustice for a long time. These people, like myself, are youngsters who always get "accused" of not participating actively in social/community work (or you can say CIP).

They always hear themselves being labelled as lazing around instead of contributing to society by doing some voluntary work. Most of the time, it is their parents who wronged them.

Like when they see other youngsters going from house to house to collect whatever stuff or a group of them in uniform doing social work, they will think that their son/daughter should participate as well.

I would like to take this opportunity to make this clear once and for all. If you happen to be reading this and have a parent like that too, make sure he or she reads this too.

Those so-called volunteers yes, I said so-called, 9 out of 10 of them are not volunteering with their hearts. Do you really think those students really choose to do community work on their own? It's for the sake of that few CCA points!

Do you really believe that these students will continue volunteering after achieving 30 hours of CIP? Well, of course they will if Singapore beats England in a football match.

I have seen countless of examples. My ex-classmates, current ones and friends outside, they are just let's-do-it-now-and-after-we-are-done-we-won't-do-it-again.

So, next time when you see a group of youngsters (especially those wearing the same type of shirt), think twice before making a conclusion. They wouldn't have exist in front of your eyes if CIP didn't exist to be mandatory.

Back to myself, I am not saying that I am lazy nor am I trying to boast that I volunteer with my heart. One does not need to let everyone know if he/she does charity/voluntary work.

To all parents out there, before you criticize your child for not taking part in these activities, think of the last sentence in the above paragraph. Maybe, he/she did volunteer but chose to remain silent over it.

That is what I call volunteering with your heart, not those who are a slave to some petty CCA points.

I received this weird, or should I say lame, email in the inbox of my school account today. It is sent by a China boy (ah, China again?) who is a current SP student.

And judging from the title of the email, I believe I wasn't one of the intended recipients. I am a pinky Singapore citizen.

For those who don't understand Chinese, this is roughly what the content is all about. [ ] denotes my own thoughts

"Title: hi, fellow students who are studying abroad

Hi Comrades

It was not easy using special channels to find everybody's email. Let me introduce myself: SP Business IT 2013 student from Beijing, male, born in year '91, been in Singapore for 3 years plus.

Have been studying in SP for almost 9 months, life has been quite fulfilling so far except that there is a lack of the unique atmosphere when interacting with my local classmates.

I believe everybody has similar thoughts as me right? Sometimes, when I chat with Singapore students, we can't seem to talk about something interesting.

Therefore, suggesting everybody to know one another via some communication channel (best is to create a Q group, [I think it's the QQ thing china people use as MSN] mine is full, whoever creates one let me know);

I usually like to hang around in the library, those who have a mutual interest can join me to enjoy the richness of books, also I really love the piano, I believe they are many countrymen whom are like me too right? There is a piano club at the school's Sports Hall, there is a piano there, welcome all that are interested to join!

First said so much [I don't understand this line so I did a direct translation]

So, join Q:195252432, wish to contact via SMS also can: 90877972

Wishing all comrades Happy Holidays!"

How was my translation? Not bad right? Think can go be a subber right? (person who does the subtitles for a show)

Whether, it is real or not, I think I am going to reply him anyway. At least state some reasons why Singapore students are giving the cold shoulder to their China counterparts.

How should I address him? What's his damn name? Maybe just call him a kid from North Korea's only ally.

Tron: Legacy

Went to watch Tron: Legacy today. I thought it's worth writing a review since it was quite a nice show. Please refrain from reading this post if you don't want any spoilers.

I watched the 2D version as I read from the newspapers that 1/5 of the show is not in 3D anyway. I would say this film, together with Inception, are the only two movies that can rival the alien-themed Avatar.

Tron's computer graphics were done not only with excellent skills but also with bountiful amounts of sincerity. Compared to Avatar, this film has more human touch to it and you can relate to the characters with ease compared to those blue aliens.

The biggest setback is its old-school plot. Boy enters/experience a brand new world, boy is in danger, boy is going to get killed by the baddie, a girl appears and saves him. Together with an old hag, they combine to fight against the baddie. End of story.

Other than being able to rival against big big Avatar, Tron: Legacy also has something else which makes it belong to the category of scarce movies. It is one of the rare films that doesn't have any kissing scenes. Well, the theme is science-fic anyway. What do you expect? Expect some superb and dazzling animations then.

By the way, I would gladly award 4.5 stars out of 5 for it. Minus 0.5 marks because I don't understand how did they find food to eat in the virtual world.

19 Dec

I wanted to blog yesterday but due to some technical errors, I was not able to do so. Anyway, I am currently facing another mental block again. So while I continue to look for inspiration, here is a list of things I did recently/had been doing.

-Tinker and tweak with Wordpress which is hosted on my Wampserver

-Borrowed the book To Kill A Mockingbird from library and currently stuck at chapter two

-Borrowed the book The Kite Runner from library but have yet to start reading

-Doing an independent research on and study of Korean pop culture and how it affects Asia

-Embarking on a new story writing assignment. This time it will be a novel. Presently at the stage of creating characters and their relationships

-Drafting my "Top 10 people of 2010" article

-Composing a song that is a summary of the year

-Learning/exploring new magic tricks

-Cycling at the park

Ok, I shall stop here. Happy early birthday to Dr. Mahathir who is celebrating it tomorrow. 85 years old already still want to act hero? Oh wait, Singapore has a 87 year-old man who still don't want to retire.

According to a Pew Research Center study in America, older people are catching up to the younger generation on Internet usage.

While associates of Gen X and Gen Y still dominate in areas like surfing the net with smartphones, some regions have seen a rise in a number of older folks.

One notable area is the usage of social networking sites like Facebook. There is approximately a 30% increase in the number of uncles and aunties (aged 45-55) on these sites in two years.

However, the speediest rise in users of social networking sites turn out to be the 74 years old and above category. Usage was four times more compared to two years ago.

About 83% of the Millenials belong to the virtual world online while the older adults amount to 61%. This figure is almost double of what there was in 2008.

It is evident that social networking has become part of our lives, whether it is online of offline (real world). It is interesting to see how "digital" human beings will transform into in the next decade.

Most annoying Christmas song

Recently, there was this online survey conducted by an advertising agency in Bulgaria. Apparently, it asked surveyors to pick the Christmas song which they hate the most.

As expected (I guessed it correctly), the 1984 song Last Christmas by Wham! was declared the winner with more than 28000 voters choosing it. That amounted to 19% of the votes.

Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas was the runner-up with 15% of the voting population selecting it. I agree that both songs are on par in terms of irritation.

I remember blogging about the song Last Christmas in 2009 where I stated that the lyrics are absolutely dumb. "Last Christmas, I gave you my heart. But the very next day, you gave it away. This year, to save all the tears, I'll give it to someone special"

Ok, so you had learned your lesson last year right? And you are still giving it to the wrong person every year for the past 26 years?

Traditional Christmas songs with nostalgic cliche and annoying tunes move aside. Animals are the "in" thing now.

China inflation

It is confirmed. China's inflation is the highest in the world, at least for the past two years. This should raise concerns over the tightening measures of the world's most populous country.

Chinese leaders have vowed to contain the inflation and ensure stable growth for the country but it remains to be seen what action will be taken.

An 11.7% increase in food prices was the main factor why the consumer price index jumped by 0.7% from October to November. Another increase in residential prices which amounted to 5.8% also accounted for the hike.

Fruits claimed the top spot in food prices with an jump of 28.1% year on year. Eggs, grain and oil take second to fourth spot respectively.

There are several reasons to this statistical change. One would be strong fiscal spending and that prices are still "affordable". However, this enlarges the danger of a backlash next year.

The bad weather also played a part. The price of vegetables went up but it is evident that non-veggies food were the main culprits this time. Vegetable prices had already started increasing few months ago.

Anyway, expect prices to be stable by the end of 2010 with government measures on the way to curb this annoying rising index.

Real Madrid winter season collection

Yup, that's me.

I am dressing up for Real Madrid's winter season collection and this is my avatar. Pictured here is an adidas jacket with white track pants and of course, the conspicuos golden scarf. Never mind the dog in front of me.

Aff Suzuki Cup final post

Alright, this shall be the final post on the AFF Suzuki Cup since Singapore crashed out of it on Wednesday night.

Singapore's loss did not seem acceptable. They did not even give their one hundred percent when playing the match against Vietnam. Knowing that a draw is sufficient to advance to the semi-finals, they should just use the "park the bus" method.

That is, to have ten men behind the ball and defend in numbers. There is no need to attack at all (since the strikers aren't in good form either). This method would surely bring a positive result although it might anger the Vietnamese.

Who cares? It is still legitimate and as long as it benefits Singapore, why not use it? Vietnam undeservedly won the championship two years ago anyway. Now, I just hope Malaysia can finish them off.

There are many tactical flaws in the Lions, all thanks to coach Raddy Avramovic. Like playing 4-3-3 against Philippines before guai guai switch back to 4-4-2 when it is ineffective. Most people can tell that it is ineffective right before the match.

Choosing Muhammad Riduan over Khairul Amri when the latter is obviously the finer player among the two. Using Aleksandar Duric when he is already forty years old.

Maybe we should start a petition to sack Raddy once and for all.

Mozzie Dance

Excuse me, are you dancing?

Check out the latest mozzie dance by a erm, mosquito. I filmed this in my room last night

AFF Suzuki Cup Preview 3

Singapore will face Vietnam in their final group game of the AFF Suzuki Cup tomorrow. The Vietnamese badly need to win this match or they face the prospect of being eliminated when they are both the hosts and defending champions.

The Lions would only require a draw to advance to the semi-finals. The other two teams of the group, Philippines and Myanmar, also play a decisive role to whom gets qualified. But either way, Singapore still looks safe for a spot in the semis.

Vietnam will give Singapore a tough time and the latter have not emerged victorious whenever both sides meet for more than a decade. Plus, the game is held at My Dinh National Stadium in Hanoi which can house 40000 noisy home supporters.

I expect Singapore to just squeeze out a goalless stalemate with the Vietnamese controlling the game. Goalkeeper Hassan Sunny should get ready to suffer several moments of heart attacks while playing.

I hope Vietnam gets eliminated eventually because they did not deserve to be the winners two years ago. Thailand would certainly agree with me on this point.

As for the Singapore squad, Aleksandar Duric is currently the top scorer with 2 goals but I believe the Lions would have scored many more if he didn't play.

The injury-time goal against Myanmar clearly showed that Duric was sluggish and communicated half a second slower with Agu Casmir the scorer. Luckily, Agu's finishing was clinical or else everyone would have blamed Duric for his "lagging performance".

Raddy Avramovic had once again exposed his flaws as a manger. He made two substitutions at only half-time which includes replacing the ineffective Noh Alam Shah and bringing on Khairul Amri.

If Avaramovic had foreseen this (before the game), Singapore might have enjoyed an easier time in the first 45 minutes. This shows that the Serb doesn't know how to fully utilize the resources at his disposal.

I would be a much better coach of the national team

Breakout

The complicated and sophisticated relationship map of Breakout

This show will commence tonight. Might not be as nice as Unriddle but definitely better than the over-hyped The Little Nyonya a couple of years back.

It is the same scriptwriter again. Ang Eng Tee unbelievably won "Best Script" in the 2009 Star Awards for The Little Nyonya which had many illogical scenes.

Yes, it is always him who writes the script for blockbuster dramas. But the media industry in Singapore is really facing a shortage of quality scriptwriters.

Similar to last year's year-end blockbuster drama, Together, Breakout's characters are also unique to one another, putting emphasis on characterization. In my opinion, I think a stronger plot would be more crucial for a blockbuster drama.

Before I forget, look who we have again. It's Jeanette Aw the actress who gains widespread hatred when acting demure. Need I also emphasize on the expressionless face of hers when acting?

MST coming

Ok, mid-semester tests (don't understand why they call it a test when it's an exam) are coming again. So this means that I will have less time to update this blog.

However, rest assured that I will update it whenever I am free or when an idea/inspiration strikes my head. Having said that, I have declared myself on annual leave for five days subject to management approval.

Oh yes, and right after MST would be school holidays and they will be used for doing FYP. And finally, it will be the last 2 months of me as a student of Singapore Poly.

Time really flies. We are already in December. New's Year Day was like only last week.

Was reading about Credit Suisse's Global Wealth Report 2010 and remembered that The Straits Times aka No.1 propaganda newspaper made a report about it some time back.

The Straits Times claimed that Singapore is ranked 2nd in Asia Pacific and 4th in the world in terms of average personal wealth.

Sure or not? One might ask. Well, it's only one side of the story.

That is not an accurate calculation as only 3.6% of the population (not revealed in the newspaper) owned more than USD500000. The majority which is around 55% fall in the 10000-100000 range. Approximately 23% are in the 1000-10000.

With all these figures, who the heck are the wealthy ones in Singapore to be labeled 4th in the world?

On the other hand, using median wealth per adult (in USD) would be a more balanced and accurate approach. And the average number of Singapore only amounts to 30092 when it comes to median.

Unlike mean (or average), median takes the value which separates the higher half from the lower half.

Here is an example to paint a clearer picture

Let's say there are 7 people living in Raymond Kingdom and their wealth are

1. $50000
2. $60000
3. $65000
4. $65000
5. $70000
6. $75000
7. $80000

Here, the numbers are quite fairly distributed. The average wealth in this case is $66429. The median would be number 4 which is $65000. Quite close right?

How about this?

1. $50000
2. $60000
3. $65000
4. $65000
5. $70000
6. $75000
7. $500000

The 7th person is obviously the odd one out. So, the median still remains status quo at $65000 but the average would work out to be $126429!!!

While The Straits Times can continue to boast about all the "fictional facts", Singapore is sadly ranked at 25th spot in terms of median wealth. I better not put up the list in case of copyright issues, you can google on your own.

And sad to say, Singapore is the only one in the list where median wealth is less than GDP per capita.

AFF Suzuki Cup preview 2

The 2010 AFF Suzuki Cup officially starts today. Singapore will play their first game of the tournament tomorrow when they take on Philippines. The result of this match looks quite predictable but as the saying goes "The ball is round."

The Lions should stick to 4-4-2 with a flat midfield. Here is the probable line-up for tomorrow's match.

Hassan Sunny; Baihakki Khaizan, Daniel Bennet, Rosman Sulaiman, Juma'at Jantan; Mustafic Fahrudin, Shahdan Sulaiman, Ridhuan Muhammad, Sharil Ishak; Aleksandar Duric, Noh Alam Shah.

Singapore coach Radojko Avramovic is expected to pair the 40 year-old Duric and fiery Noh Alam Shah in attack. Although Duric does not match the styles of the other attacking players like Alam Shah, Sharil and Ridhuan, he is still expected to start.

That is the weakness of Raddy as a coach. He puts personal records ahead of team tactics. So what if Duric has scored more than 300 S League goals?

He looks better off as a substitute 2/3 into the game where he can launch aerial assaults on weary defenders. Instead, the Lions can opt for 4-2-3-1 with Sharil as the central attacking midfielder supporting Alam Shah.

Spain, Liverpool and Real Madrid all use this formation to deadly effects. 4-4-2 looks a bit too direct for Singapore. The point is just to offload long balls for the forwards to chase.

Notable absentees from the squad this time include Hariss Harun (what a pity), John Wilkinson (yeah, cos he sucks) and Shi Jiayi (personal reasons).

I am not sure what happened to Shaiful Esah, the one and only left-footed player in the national team. His name was also missing in the list. If Shaiful was called up, he could be deployed on the left wing and that would be exciting to watch.

With three central midfielders missing, Shahdan Sulaiman will certainly get to start in tomorrow's game. Although still quite an unknown name among fans, I can assure you that he has the potential to make it big.

The deep-lying playmaker can form a formidable partnership in central midfield with defensive linchpin Mustafic Fahrudin and the creative Sharil.

Another player whose name is also less heard of also stand a chance of starting the match against Philippines. He is Rosman Sulaiman slotted at right-back at the expense of the experienced Noh Rahman.

I think this is the position where Raddy will have the biggest headache as both players cancel out each other in terms of technique.

I foresee Hassan Sunny to beat Lionel Lewis for the goalkeeping role. Both are good players but at the moment, Hassan looks more reliable and steady. Expect Izwan Mahbud, the third-choice goalie, to find his trip to Vietnam more of a holiday than work.

Final score: Singapore 4:0 Philippines. Noh Alam Shah at the double, Sharil Ishak netting one and the Filipinos scoring an own goal.