hi from down under

spent the whole day today at home, which is in fact my sister's house. well, it's not really her house. she rented it. but no one really cares about such details...

i was mightily impressed with myself that i actually managed to keep myself occupied with just a tv and internet. i actually spent an hour or two just downloading stuff.. and accessing them of course.. it was quite fun. i even gotta hear the new tune some british fellas came up with to celebrate liverpool's champions league success called "do the dudek"

i personally think it's nice enough for a song that's not meant to be taken seriously...lyrics are quite cute...

speaking of liverpool please be informed hammann has signed a new one year deal.. good on ya mate (looks like i'm catching the aus accent after all)

being in sydney has been nice so far. there are sights here you can never get in singapore. the landscape, the natural land formations. looking out to the vast open sea from the edge of a 5 storey rock cliff while watching surfers catch 2 metre high surfs.. it really is nice to see such things for a change.. and i have to admit seeing it in person is the best experience in the world.

however, i still think about singapore alot. i think about how my close friends are doing, the things i have to do if i return and the homely comforts that have been collecting dust all this while.. guess no matter how fun or new some other place is, there is no other place like your home town.. if not for my family being here, i would be really home sick

i admit i like singapore alot.. but if in the future i was asked to be an expat in some foreign land i would still do it IF it led to better prospects or if the expat job was in japan. (hey my future jap wife is waiting for me to meet her there after all)

we'll just have to see won't we...

the contrasting fortunes of this world

just watched an australian produced documentary on how two 14 year old girls were conned into taking a job at batam that was in fact prostitution.

these girls have not even started menstruating yet and already they had to endure having 5 men every night and are tested positive for verenial diseases. i only pray they did not get HIV

these girls left their home towns because they wanted to escape the poverty cycle. they come from villages so poor the parents cannot afford to send them to school. they make a living from farming yet all they own is one small plot of land without even a chicken of their own let alone cattle or sheep.

the reason why some people are so eager to have such young girls in batam are because there are many perverted, sick men from malaysia and singapore who are more than willing to take the 1/2 hour ferry ride to batam so that they can enjoy cheap sex without having to worry about getting the girl pregnant. after all, she has not even started ovulating yet. what could be more convenient than that for them right?

as a singaporean, it is emberassing for me to say that, from the looks of it, it seems like most of the customers are singaporean. it is easy to say "let's boycott batam" but frankly that won't solve the problem and perhaps even irrepsonsible. we shouldn't boycott an island so in need of our tourist dollar. but we should be spending that tourist dollar on beach resorts, elephant rides and heck even a casino if possible. almost anything is better than spending the money on prostitution or drugs.

the best way we can stop this atrocity from happening is not by donating money to rescue those young girls. it is by sending out a message that if those sex-driven men want sex they better make sure the girl is a willing above age prositute or face tough punishment. at the very least can we offer free condoms to them before they board the ferry? then again that would only encourage them further won't it?

here i was a few days ago complaining about the weather. how utterly, emberassingly pathetic that now sounds in comparison to what i just watched.

as my pastor once said, it is pointless to ask why i have such a wonderful comfortable life when i could have been born into a poor rural family just like that girl instead. what is more important is to ask HOW we should make use of the gifts God has given us. i know HE has blessed me with the ability to make a difference to others, be it in a small or big way. and i just have got to make sure i fulfil that potential in me.