Boredom strikes! 01 (Jul 08 - Oct 09)

[blid2def]

Hi MM
Maybe she needs to complete her 'national service' , whatever it could be.

Breastfeed the babies at KK Hospital?

Sorry, stupid adult joke.

[LenaHuat]

Hi GR
On reflection, my proposition can't be right. She must have shown evidence of renunciation b4 our immigration grants her citizenship. Maybe she's afraid of eggs and tomatoes raining on her. I gonna monitor the authorities' replies to several letters written to the forum abt this issue. Can't wait to get my kaypoh hand on the authorities' responses.

[kennynah]

wah gong li, becoming singaporean ah.... not bad...a bit over the hill...but still...got leow...after major major makeup and constant liposuction... i prefer isabelle leung to be a singaporean...

[winston]

Tycoon fined in cash-for-kidney case

Retail tycoon Tang Wee Sung was sentenced to one day in jail and fined S$17,000 (HK$82,848.70) by a Singapore court for trying to buy a kidney and lying about it in a case that's forced lawmakers to rethink a ban on organ trading.

District court judge Ng Peng Hong said he took into consideration Tang's poor health in sentencing the 56-year-old former head of CK Tang, one of the city-state's oldest department store chains.

Tang's case made front-page news in Singapore, highlighting the plight of kidney-failure patients in a country where twice as many sufferers join transplant waiting lists as there are organs available.

BLOOMBERG

[kennynah]

understandably, the buyer is more concerned about saving his own life than moral issues... m not taking sides on this... football stand spectators have no speaking rights on such matters, imo...

always easy to stand on high moral pedestal to pass a judgement, difficult to act in socially acceptable ways when rubber meets the road, sometimes.

[millionairemind]

Actually I see nothing wrong with buying an organ cos on one hand it saves a life and on the other, the poor on the other end get a shot at cash which can be used to better their lives...

But hor, ppe. sure say poor will be exploited... I understand that. My only take is life is unfair... it has never been fair, unfortunately..

[sidney]

Agree with MM. This is buy-Sell trade off. 1 to save live, the other to save his whole families!

I just dun like the middle man due to ethics issues. But then in trade we need a broker right? If govt were to legalise organ trade in future, the broker can be do away and let proper authoritries to handle everyone with equal treatment (both rich and not so rich get equal chance to buy organs)

[kennynah]

here in singapore, i remember singaporeans are all automatic organ donor, unless we opt out... tio bo?

[millionairemind]

The rise in China nationalism is a concern...

Gong Li's citizenship switch stirs outrage in China
AFP - Tuesday, November 11BEIJING (AFP) - - Chinese actress Gong Li's decision to become a Singapore citizen sparked an online debate in China Tuesday, with many branding her a traitor but others defending the star.

Gong, who served recently as a Chinese parliament delegate, collected her Singaporean citizenship over the weekend, a lawmaker in the city-state told AFP on Monday.

The move requires her to forsake her Chinese citizenship, and the decision triggered some fierce condemnation of the 43-year-old star of "Farewell My Concubine" and "Memoirs of a Geisha".

"All traitors will be nailed to history's mast of shame. We should resolutely reject any futher contact with such people," on person said in a chat forum on the popular portal Sohu.com.

Added another: "Traitors like this don't even love their own country. These people were only fake countrymen of ours. Let them slink off to other countries and die!"

The state-run Xinhua news agency said speculation that she was actively seeking foreign citizenship resulted in Gong being left off the list of delegates for the 2008 session of parliament earlier this year.

However, many people also expressed understanding for Gong's decision, noting the pressure such stars face in China, and making veiled criticisms of life in the communist country.

"Why doesn't anyone ask why people want to emigrate? We see one Chinese person after another take US citizenship," one person said on Sohu. "Why don't we see Americans taking Chinese citizenship?"

Another suggested that many of the critics would leap at the chance to emigrate like a moth to the flame.

"My compatriots, as you blab here, can you really say you love your country? Ask yourself, how many of you are not moths as well?"

The backlash comes after a spike in nationalist sentiments in China this year.

Those passions were partly triggered by Western criticism of a military crackdown on Tibetans following an uprising against Chinese rule in March.

Chinese Internet forums were then filled with anti-Western diatribes that the ruling Communist Party allowed to flourish.

[winston]

She could have handled this better eg. making a statement that it's becuz her husband is SPorean.

Nationalismn is collective inflated egos. If left unchecked it can lead to war