The Monk, The Clown And The Minister

Hey, Money No Enough is my line!

Venerable Shi Ming Yi (Chinese: 释明义) was the darling of Singapore socialites (the government awarded him the Public Service Medal in 1996) when he rappelled down highrise buildings and froze his rocks in ice to raise money, lots of money, for Ren Ci hospital. He has done his time for his $50K crime, but somehow it ain't enough for some people. The gala dinner of Nov 21 to mark his 20 years of service as an abbot apparently has raised the ire of some folks in the Buddhist community. Maybe it was the price tag of $1,000-a-table, maybe this was only his 18th and not 20th year. A nun said, "He's climbed too far up, and now he has a long way to fall."

Trangressions of the flesh are apparently more forgivable in Sin city. Jack Neo's 2 year- extramarital affair with 22-year old model Ms Zhong Jiayan and his sexual harassment of Foyce Le Xuan, 25, could have turned real nasty. Fortunately he had a direct line to George Yeo. It was also convenient that his 46-year-old wife Mdm Irene Kang said she already about the affair a year ago, and WikiLeaks was not a threat then. Nobody even bothered to slap the cross dresser with a court order to stay 100 m away from any nubile aspiring Fann Wong wannabe.

Hence no heads were turned when the philanderer was invited to grace Education Minister Ng Eng Hen's launch of the ITE Performing Arts Higher Nitec programme for 2013. MOE has had its hands full recently with school girls making out on camera in a premier JC, horny female teachers coupling with male students and a principal making hits on their favoured male staff - and getting away with it. Ng Eng Hen seems to take all these shenanigans in good stride, as if it was all a holistic exercise in public education. Let's see if Jack Neo's new film will feature lots of teenagers in Sexy Japanese School Girl Uniforms.