The USsenal Wedding

The ideal of The USsenal Wedding originated from our favourite soccer team. Nevertheless, our favourite team is definitely Arsenal FC.
Alot of my friends asked me :''Why 'USsenal' and not 'Arsenal', was it a typo error'?
Well, the US in 'USsenal Wedding' stands for the 'two of US' as well as 'Unique & Significant' - which represented the feelings towards our relationship throughout these years.

Most importantly, it represented the club that we both loved so much since our dating days.
Arsenal - always Unique & Significant to the both of US. Cheers (''.)

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Killing the gamble root

The following could be a longer read than usual.

Everyday, we are greeted with many different type of news when we scroll our feed on social media or read the newspapers. The world is ever changing at breakneck speed and more ridiculous news appears by the day. There are news which I have chosen to ignore since the day I have accepted that journalism isn’t as polished as it used to be and in fact, journalists these days lack the cutting edge to be one anyway.  A lot of things these days are no longer what it used to be too. It’s not about me grumbling and forever living in the ‘policeman wear shorts’ era, but it’s important that people are aware and compare old and new with the correct attitude to maintain standards or even improve. If not, why do we study History since if we are only concerned with ‘whatever’ happens in modern day and leave it to seek its own truth.

People like to lament things like the often breaking down of the trains, buildings and many more stuff in Singapore. Very often, ‘reasonable’ reasons given would be it’s unfair to compare Singapore back then and now you know.. we had 2 million people and now we have 5.6 million…What to expect right?

However, I beg to differ.

While time is always moving and as technology starts to shape up people’s lives, I believe its’ still down to people if they want to make a difference or not.  It’s always about priorities, isn’t it?  If LKY can be concerned about a fault he had seen while strolling along Singapore River to get some respite from mourning of his beloved wife, and duly corrected it, there is no basis why it couldn’t be done by the new generation. Yet, standards are dropping to compromise certain situations because priorities have shifted.

As such, I loathe reading topics which have no reading value. It is even more disappointing to finish an article reluctantly and realised valuable time is lost reading it. Many people can write beautiful essays filled with wonder Shakespearean vocabulary, but to me, it is as good as dead if there is no life in your writing piece.

However, one day, I chanced upon a piece of news that Singapore will be allowing online betting at Singapore Pools for horse racing and of course, the very much valued 4D or TOTO.

It was of course met with strong opposition from the little opposition in parliament and of course again, any opposition in voting is useless anyway since it only requires 50+1 to pass any bill unless for constitution changes or budget issues. However, it raised an alarm as well when I read that several mps have voiced their concerns last year when it was first mooted.

Singapore prides itself as a No.1 country in a lot of things. However, I have started to realise that we, being a small state, cannot always try to be No.1 if every thing. Not only would we be stretching our countrymen, but there could be several repercussions which I say, in one serious word: irreversible.  We have had many new things in the last 20 years which may say to have made our country better. But have they really made Singaporeans better?

Opening the casinos were necessary, many argued, for tourism and to put Singapore on a world map. It creates revenue for us and also creates jobs for Singaporeans. Right now, Im sure enough that that ‘create jobs for Singaporeans’ is just perhaps one last bullet point factored in the power slides during the presentation by the casinos to ensure that it looks more presentable in an other wise bland projection screen. However, it would be factually correct to say that they have indeed improved Singapore on the world stage, albeit brining in events like the night F1 race.

While it sure makes us look good on the outside, there have had to be several extra safety nets casted to rescue victims and broken families due to the casinos. As I said in front, mechanisms don’t change, it’s always the priorities. While the people in charge understand the advantages clearly, it makes for equal to know that there is a similar weight of drawbacks as well on the other scale. LKY was strongly against the opening of the casinos, but I believed he had no other choice as he could not always babysit the next leadership. Singapore was successful early because we had close knit families and members who would toil day and night to ensure each and every family member succeed. This is something which has always been mistaken. Everyone thought Singaporeans could succeed because we are hard working and have a strong attitude to be the best that we do and ensure Singapore survived. Wrong, I would say. It’s the love of our families that made our early forefathers strived so hard for the loved ones that propelled Singapore into what we are today.  Yes, our leader’s foresight was equally important, but if you have broken families for people to return to daily, how would a reasonable leadership say that we can succeed because my plans say so?

Gambling destroys lives. However, gambling is legalized as it’s termed as a necessary evil, some say. Or rather, many say. The addiction starts young and gambling is already prevalent in education quarters as young as in primary schools. I would admit that when I was young, I had played some games with friends over some World Cup stickers in the hope of winning more stickers from them. It was played with some betting on the highest serial no. of the stickers from each stack. That is gambling and we are talking about a scenario which took place in 1988. Who would say that activities as such or rather about stationery or pokemon cards do no longer exist amongst our youth today?

By allowing online gambling in Singapore, counselors of social service centres say’ Lets build more safety nets.’ They say we need to have even more plans drawn up to protect the people who may be drawn into addiction of online gambling. How many families have they planned or quota to be allowed destroyed before it’s considered a successful work year? Yes, safety nets may help to curb or do some limitation exercise. Consider this scenario: A good father turns into a gambling addict, gets into trouble with loan sharks. His wife who has never worked much is forced to enter the working world and children have to starve and survive the weird stares of peers. The family goes through a harrowing period such as harassment from loan sharks and power supply lines cut and by the time safety nets were out and the father be on the mend, it has already destroyed the family. Mother files for divorce and the poor children had to crawl through important milestones such as PSLE and birthdays all by themselves as they witnessed how their father turned as event after events unfold in front of their eyes like a never ending horror story. They have had to bear the awkwardness of surviving on handout vouchers from the social service centres and not knowing when the sun could rise happily in their house once again. Tell me, what do safety nets do other than fulfilling the promise that ‘they will be there when it happens’. It seems as they are things which people would be happy using them? Think! Who would be happy clutching a voucher on one hand and quickly slurping the hot bowl of noodles on the other, while worrying if the next meal could satisfy the next hunger pang. A safety net is albeit but a net where it catches you at the end of your journey. Can the damage done be reversed? Sadly, no.

By legalizing online gambling, doesn’t it send a mixed signal to our own people? Singapore is after all a small country, no matter what achievements you talk about. We are vulnerable not only because we lack in natural resources but because we are like a mini kampong. Any slight policy change could see its effect in a very short time and any adverse change may take a long time to ride out its poison.

A major reason they say is: By giving a complete ban, there will be an increase of underground and illegal betting. It was the same for soccer betting, 4D and casinos. My question is: So did the legalized gambling reduced gambling addiction and social problems due to gambling? No. In fact, more safety nets, education, posters and advertisements were raised to ‘try’ to curb the problem as much as they can. It didn’t reduce the gambling. In fact, gamblers would even be more happy that the government condones gambling after all and they would then more likely to bet even more, one bet at Pools and one bet with the spiky hair Ah beng.

At the end of the day, its’ all about revenue which was why the idea was even mooted. To me, it doesn’t matter the legalized online betting is opened to curb the illegal ones. To me its just as simple as 1+ 1= 2. It’s just an additional platform for gamblers to stake their money on and lose. Winnings from gambling is really, trust me, a poor source of returns from the money you had invested in your lost bets. Its even worse than putting the money into a bank for the measly interest. 

Besides, online gambling can even speed up addiction faster than you can say Shakespeare. Its all only numbers and with the ease of how electronic transfers are made these days, it could be no difficult problem for people to lose their entire savings or salary in a day.


The world is changing and no doubt our little red dot is too.