Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Pure Fiction

You know credibility is at stake when the picture on the cover bears faint resemblance to the present day subject of another ghost written excuse to fill the book shelf. Asked why he would want to "write" another book, Lee Kuan Yew, 89 going on 90, said, "To recount what has struck my life before I lose my memory."

The ghost writers, Han Fook Kwang et al says  - unlike the earlier two volumes of memoirs, "Singapore Story" and "From Third World To First" - this 400-page exercise in ego massage focuses more on the future than the past. Lee must be the only person who has "memories" of the future. Artistic licence has just embarked on a new frontier.

As in previous publications, Lee just can't resist insulting other countries, "The iPhone, iPad, Microsoft, the Internet - these were created in America, not elsewhere. The Chinese have many talented individuals compared to the Americans, but why have they not been able to come up with similar inventions?"

Er, Mr Know-It-All, the Chinese invented papermaking, the compass, gunpowder, and printing (both woodblock and movable type). The Chinese also invented the blast furnace, paper money, sternpost rudder, water-powered clockworks, the multiple-tube seed drill and heavy moldboard iron plow. Compared to these technologies involving mechanics, hydraulics, and mathematics applied to metallurgy, agriculture, engineering, craftsmanship, horology, nautics, and warfare, iPhones and iPads are mere toys. Besides, real men prefer Android smartphones and tablets. Try explaining that to a guy who doesn't text because he "can't find the keys" on his mobile phone.

Sorry, America is not on the decline, not because of the power of creativity. The success of America is ensured by its full embrace of democracy. The problems with the Arab Spring is not that democracy has failed, or that Egyptians lack the cultural and sociological reasoning to appreciate equal citizenship.  The problems lie with the damage inflicted by the cabal rule of dictators like Mubarak on a nation, damage which will take years to unwind. The best bit about America is that the presidents are limited to two terms. Somebody else is always given a chance to contribute his best for the nation. One-man rule, or one-cabal rule, is the cancer of civilisation.

Lee once said he will call it a day when his stories can fit into a thumbdrive. Well, the 2 volumes of Hitler's Mein Kampf take up only 1 megabytes (mb), 3 Lord of the Ring books 2 mb, 7 books of the Harry Porter series 6 mb, and the Oxford Complete Works of Shakespeare occupy only 7 mb of disk space. Even "The Untold Story of Mao" by June Chang and Jon Holliday, 1780 pages of text and photographs, require only 6 mb. It is doubtful all of Lee's books can even fill up a 2 GB drive. Han said he thought Hard Truths was the last book, and his subject could not endure interviews longer than 1 hour for this one, so why is he still on the payroll?

33 comments:

  1. I pity the NUS academics whose sole job is to study the "Thoughts of LKY" and hold annual conferences to reflect on these words of wisdom.

    Then again, I guess they wouldn't mind selling their souls or dignity for a few pieces of silver.

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    Replies
    1. NUS academics need to be PAP sycophants in order to succeed in that PAP-controlled brain-washing, erm I mean, higher education institution.

      Delete


  2. No doubt there is no moral high ground, he commands an audience and people actually listen and believe!

    It would be better if he just put a couple of bullets into anyone who opposed him. It would have been easier to deal with.

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  3. LKY couldn't fathom how technology can improve at such an exponential rate - now storage space for thumbdrives have reached hundred of GBs rather than than double digits. And we haven't even talked about solid state portable hard drives yet.

    LKY, as usual, is full of himself. He doesn't give enough credit to others for his success. A leader is nothing without followers.

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    Replies
    1. please spell leader correctly here. It is spell "LEEDER"

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  4. Daft is not a dirty word, ego is.

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  5. Apart from the history of scientific inventions and not-so-modern IT hardware (thumbdrive of 15 years ago could amply fill his 2mb of "fairy tales"), his ignorance spans everything else under the sun. But like all foxes, he feigns and plagiarizes and paraphrases all the people who come to kowtow to him even today (for photo ops, like Nixon and his pal Kiss rushing to take picture with the senile Mao before he kicked the bucket 3 years later). How else could he have informed the gullible yankee diplomats/spies that sotongmee was reality (unless he had first hand knowledge.... hmmm)

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    Replies
    1. Name card should read; Social Engineer.

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    2. Headstone should read; Failed Social Engineer

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    3. The fact LKY raised a useless son implies his attempt at social engineering was destined for failure from the beginning.

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  6. His time is running out, better for him to use the last of his moment for some good reflection & confession, deeply repent rather than writing books that has no value to anyone.

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  7. You have seen the people of N.Korea cry their eyes out on T.V. when Kim Jong Il died. We will have our day soon when all the sycophants will jostle for a piece of the action. Some. apparently, have decided to jump the queue, helping the old man prepare for his journey to the hereafter and perpetuating his myths.

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    Replies
    1. Some people bring happiness 'wherever' they go. Some people bring happiness 'whenever' they go. When his time is up, I think many will be bringing out their champagnes. It is about time to chill them now.

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    2. Can I say " double happiness" if the father and son go together?

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  8. If any Japanese knows English, most likely he would be one of the minority Japanese to be able to command a good job prospects whether in Japan or go global ?

    So WTF would he/she wants to emigrate to another country ? It is not as if Japan is deteriorating to become another Spain or Italy on the brink of bankruptcy. I really don't know why is he so obsessed with Japan not adopting a liberal immigration policy.

    Some more if the senile old man insist that the 'Stop at Two' policy cannot be blamed for our low fertility rate, then why did he not have the foresight not to have implemented it in the first place.

    Looks like our senile old man is simply talking cock now ?

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  9. "One Man's View of the World" is strictly one man's view before he loses his memory. If you like, it is a book by an idol for his fans. You won't trust a nonagenarian to drive a car, would you take a nonagenarian's view seriously?

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  10. 'Males with long hair will be serve last'. Follow by 'Stop at two' and a long series of social control. Looks like the pain (for the controlled) will soon End. We wish.

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    Replies
    1. The actual warning reads; 'Males with long hair will be attended to last'. A sick joke? No, that's how we are controlled.

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    2. Those back-packers with long hair were sent packing back.

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  11. Great as he wants to be
    and great as many dafts
    want to make him be, the
    Man has single handedly
    caused the population to
    nose-dive with his 'Stop
    At Two' Nonsense.
    And to make the Nonsense
    worse, Singaporeans were
    and are turned(social-engineered)
    to become robots.
    Do chill your champagnes, dont
    uncork them yet.
    Get a few more bottles.

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  12. So this IBM (international big mouth) has a penchant for dissing other countries. (Hey Hen, love acronyms!) Not surprising, seeing as he even runs down his own people. I recall he had a "I stand corrected" moment when he described Johor as "notorious for shootings, muggings and carjacking". As for calling it a day, I will only believe it if I see the old fossil in a 6 x 2 x 2.

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  13. his book will become the bestseller if it is placed under comedy/joke book section and titled as "The PAP Art of TalkingCock and Singing Song" . Foreword: What PAP says, just do the opposite .

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  14. do not underestimate the ones remaining.

    There is a large pool of think alike, do alike in the party ranks. For each Bill passed in parliament, it is in the style "a la " LKY. Depart he will ... rest assured the template is set and will even be adjusted for the next 100 years.

    " the rules may be removed only at the discretion of the Minister..."

    Not the courts
    Not the people
    Not the police
    Not the lawyers

    There you have it... enshrined, entrenched forever.

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  15. We don't have to wait long for the toady Han to interview the Son for the next book.


    Saycheese

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  16. pse tell old toad not to contribute to
    global warming with his nonsensical
    thoughts the books can be recycled
    to make a 6 x 2 x 2 box for himself
    we already auffering too much fm the
    haze
    Save the trees besides everyone is daft
    enough not to buy it

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  17. for his cUming birthday ...

    me, a daft subject of his royal highness, wishes to wish his excellency a;

    h A p PY bIrthDay, long live the self proclaimed god
    stay ,mentally alert, witness history in the making.
    but reside in a febble cocoon but not lying on a bed because of your AMD

    ten thousand years, ten thousand years .....


    this is my love of the glorious lee

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  18. /// Lee must be the only person who has "memories" of the future. Artistic licence has just embarked on a new frontier. ///

    Back to the Future - Part IV.

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    Replies
    1. He is a forecaster extraordinaire, a prognosticator, a seer, the oracle; he can see the future, so of course he has memories of it.
      LOL.

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    2. "Back to the Future" is more about going back to the past. He is a dinosaur, a relic, a fossil, caught in his time-warp - so you are probably right.

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  19. In his dying days, LKY is trying to clean up his image. He wants people to rever him, love him(not FEAR him) and respect him. He is getting desparate. Less and less people love him. They just wait to see him go. But before that happens, Singaporeans want to see the money in Temasek Holdings transferred to the people of Singapore.

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    Replies
    1. Not only less and less people love him, but less and less fear him.
      The old fart is at a point in his life where he is damned if he goes and damned if he lives on. Many want him to live long enough to see the downfall of his son and the PAP, while on the otherhand, many want him to bite the dust soonest to give joy for celebration.....

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  20. Asked where he drew comfort from if not from religion, he said: “It is the end of any aches and pains and suffering. So I hope the end will come quickly.”

    I didn't know whether to cry or to laugh when I read the above.
    A split second latter, I laughed till I cried. Happy National Day!

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  21. Android is still from America anyways?
    Perhaps name a few recent mindblowing invention that the Chinese have come up with before putting down the US?

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