P1 registration & social mobility?

“When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard.” You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God.” (Leviticus 19:9-10)

I got a call from a friend recently asking for advice on P1 registration for her only daughter. I could feel the stress and anxiety she had over this matter. It came as a surprise that this issue remains as contentious and socially divisive as two decades ago when my eldest girl went through the same exercise. This implies that most parents today still do not accept that every primary school is equally good despite the assurance from the ministry. One can gauge the popularity of a particular school by the number of places registered under phase 2B, where many parents are willing to put up at least 40 hours of volunteer work in the school of their choice in a year in order to qualify.

Are the children of disadvantaged households really been deprived of head start when they ended up in the less popular primary schools? Is the pace of social mobility among the lower-income group been affected even by our primary school registration system? Personally I think for primary school level, as long as the parents take keen interest in their children’s studies, the kids should do well in PSLE. Now it seems that the clamour for the Singapore’s brand of meritocracy to be reformed is getting louder. The very success of such system apparently breeds a group of people who are the beneficiaries, believing the system is absolutely just and fair; that they are entitled to their rewards for their hardworking. In fact they view those who are not so successful under such system as slothful, undeserved help or support. It is ironical that these are the people who are against social redistribution policies of the government.

I think it is time for us to put a ‘compassionate’ touch to this system. We have to acknowledge that there are people down there who despite all their best efforts, for one reason or the other, could not move up the social and economic ladder.

Is present age more evil?

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? “(Jeremiah 17:9)
“Everyone who practices wickedness hates the light and does not come to the light, so that his actions may not be exposed. “(John 3:20)

 

In a city where there are relatively fewer crimes than other world cities, we are appalled by the gruesome Kovan double murders taken place recently. Has evil increased compared to the past, or is the condition of man more evil now than before? In reality, the types and extent of evil deeds probably the same, just that with modern technology, we are more aware of them than before. Nowadays we can instantly obtain this information through the media, not constraint by geographical distance. In the past, it is very easy to hide one’s evil deeds. Dallas Willard once said that, "almost all evil deeds and intents are begun with the thought that they can be hidden by deceit."

 

The Bible explains that we all born with a sinful nature. When we are forced under a certain set of situations or circumstances, all of us are capable of manifesting those malevolent behaviours. There is no such thing as small or big evil in the eyes of God. Hacking someone’s computer, spreading malicious rumours, discrimination, avarice etc, are no better than someone who committed murder, rape or robbery. Evils are all built on lies, secrets, and darkness. They required the absence of light to survive.

'Letters to God'

‘And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:2-4)

There is no denial that as we entered adulthood, our worldview change. We think that we are pretty self-sufficient, especially when everything is going in our favor. We acquired more knowledge but unfortunately mistaken it as wisdom.  The more we know, the more we become skeptical and cynical.

Little children have no such hang-up like we adults. They are very impressionable. Here are some examples of their ‘letters to God’:

   ‘Dear God, I would like to live nine hundred years like the guy in the Bible.’

• ‘Dear God, We read that Thomas Edison made light, but in Sunday school they said you did. So I bet he stole your idea.’
• ‘Dear God, if you give me a genie lamp, I will give you everything I have except my money and my chess set.’
• ‘Dear God, Please send xxxxxx to different camp this year.’
• ‘Dear God, May be Cain & Abel would not kill so much if they have their own rooms. It works with my brother and me.’
• ‘Dear God, Please put another holiday between Christmas and Easter. There is nothing good in them now.’
• ‘Dear God, Instead of letting people died & having to make new ones, why don’t you just keep the ones you have now?’
• ‘Dear God, I went to this wedding and they kissed in the church. Is it OK?’
• ‘Dear God, I’m American. What are you?’
• ‘Dear God, Thanks for a baby brother, but what I am praying is a puppy.’
• ‘Dear God, I bet it is very hard for you to love all and everybody in the whole world. There are only four people in our family. I can never do that.’
• Dear God, I would like to live nine hundred years like the guy in the Bible.'

LGBT challenge

Leviticus 18:22 "Do not practice homosexuality, having sex with another man as with a woman. It is a detestable sin." (Leviticus 18:22)

LGBT Challenge In this country, Section 377A of the Penal Code criminalizes gay sex. It was legally challenged recently by a gay couple on the ground that it is unconstitutional but the case was dismissed by the court. The gay partners’ statement after the verdict shocked me: “we believe that most people here do not believe that gay people should be jailed for something they can’t change.”

In reality, very few people actually become gay because of biological sexual orientation. More do so out of their choice of lifestyles. In today’s context, homosexuality is no more seen in the light of morality and social values. In fact, moral values are relative and nothing is absolute. We live in an era when more are taking the view that there is no such thing as ‘objective truth’ and believe that ‘my truth is as good as your truth’. Truth has thus been dethroned and replaced with the enthronement of ‘reason’. So don’t talk about sin since sin is what a person conceived in his mind. For that reason, Christians are often been singled out as being narrow-minded self-righteousness, intolerance, biased, hatred towards LGBT.

In UK, gay couples are called civil partnerships. They are allowed to be registered as married couples, hence, entitled to a wide range of legal, social rights and benefits. In fact, they get better deals than those heterosexuals who choose co-habitation over marriage. Will our country moves toward that direction eventually? I think so as we have already been told to manage these tensions, to be caring and sensitive, patience and compromise. Just look at the massive crowd of 21,000 turned out at the ‘pink dot’ rally last Saturday at Hong Lim Park.

In this country, we are benefitting from the moral standards of our forefathers, but thing will change if we embrace liberalism indiscriminately. The morals, values and ethnics of our culture are disintegrating at an alarming pace. How would our society defines ‘family’ and 'marriage'in future? It is scary to think of that.

Haze is here!

Haze is here again and we really have no idea how long it is going to last this time. Hopefully there is no El-Nino this year or else things will become worst. Despite all the high-level talks every year, no significant solutions taken place so far. We living in this part of the world, just have to bear with it every year.

I can still recall the terrible haze that we went through in 1997, the year my younger child was born. Thick haze was seen every day for several months. I had to wrap and cover my child up whenever we left the home. This coupled with the onset of the Asia financial crisis, making that year a very miserable and downcast one indeed.

Still, I think haze is bearable as compared to other natural disasters. We are so immensely blessed (or spoilt is a better word) that none of us ever experience starvation here. My mind brings me to a story told in the Bible (2 Kings 6:24-30) which vividly depicts what famine is like.

The king of Syria around BC850, launched a siege and surrounded Samaria so that people could not go in or out of the city. It lasted a long time that brought about a terrible famine, so bad that food prices went through the roof. A donkey’s head cost about 2 pounds (about 1 kilo) of silver and a bowl of seeds cost about 2 ounces (about 55 grams) of silver.

One day, the king of Israel was walking on the city’s wall. A woman cried out, “Help me, your majesty.” He answered, “If God does not help you, I cannot help you. I do not have any wheat or wine. What is your trouble?” The woman said, "Another woman and I were so hungry that we agreed to eat our sons. She said if we ate my son one day, we could eat hers the next day. So yesterday we cooked my son and ate him. But today when I went to her house to eat her son, she had hidden him." When the king heard the woman’s story he ripped apart his robe.

We need to learn to value plenty and be thankful what we have, and realize how deceitful money can bring. In time of despair situation like famine, even money is parted freely for anything that is edible!

Marrying foreigners

‘A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies.’ (Proverbs 31:10)

There has been an increasing number of Singaporeans married foreigners in recent years, especially among the Singapore men. Recently two guys that I know of got hitched with foreign girls. Both knew the other parties only for a few months. One is a graduate marrying a Korean girl, and the other is a poly graduate marrying a Thai woman. That came as a big surprise to me because both are good -looking, well educated, so to me, finding Singaporean wives shouldn’t be a problem for them.

I wonder whether this phenomenon has to do with the more liberal immigration (since last April) rule for the foreign spouses.  In the past, the immigration rule here was very stringent for them and we read many tearful stories of mothers forced to leave their families and children behind. Even Singaporeans married graduates had to get permission from the relevant authority before they could go for R.O.M. I guess now as we grapple with a shrinking population, we have to be more ‘pragmatic’.

Now these foreign spouses not only can get long-term visit pass, but also allow to work under a special scheme (no foreign workers’ levy for their employers). They are also eligible for subsidized medical benefits.

While finding a life partner may have become easier for some people, but I hope people do take marriage seriously, considering the unavoidable relationship conflicts, huge responsibilities etc.

Genetic Test

‘Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.’ (James 4:14)

Genetic test Genetic test becomes a talking point recently when Angelina Jolie, 37, had a double mastectomy after learning from the genetic test that she carried a faulty BRCA1 gene which gives her an 87% chance of getting breast cancer and 50% chance for ovarian cancer. Her mother died of ovarian cancer at the age of 56. She will also go for oophorectomy in future.

This type of surgery involves removing as much of the ‘at-risk’ tissue as possible. But since it is not possible to do it completely, the doctor may prescribe natural or synthetic substances such as the drug, Tamoxifen, to further reduce the cancer risk. Genetic test for breast and ovarian cancer is the most sought after as compared to other types of cancer (such as pancreatic) as a woman can surgically remove her breasts and the whole reproductive system, and still functions normally notwithstanding having to bear some side-effects.

BRCA1 and BRCA2 (*) are human genes known as tumor suppressors. Mutation of these genes has been linked to hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. If a harmful BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation is found, several options are available to help a person manage her cancer risk. Some hints of the existence of hereditary factors:

1. Cancers occurring at younger ages than usual

2. More than one type of cancer in a single person

3. Cancers occurring in both of a pair of organs (e.g. both breasts)

4. Similar cancer in a set of siblings

The test normally begins with a family member who has breast or ovarian cancer. If that person is found to have a harmful BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation, then other family members can be tested to see if they also have the mutation. A positive test result provides information only about a person’s risk of developing cancer. It cannot tell whether that person will actually develop cancer or when. On the other hand, having a negative test result does not mean that a person will not develop cancer. It just means that the person’s risk of cancer is probably the same as that of people in the general population. It is possible for a person to have a mutation in a gene other than BRCA1 or BRCA2 that increases her cancer risk but is not detectable by the tests used.

Frankly speaking, my medical oncologist has never mentioned such test during consultations and I do not know much about it till recently. May be I shall ask her the next time when I see her. A positive test result may have an effect on one’s emotions, relationships, finances, and medical choices etc. It may even have bearing on one’s insurance policies, employment. Anyway, it is not cheap to do such test over here. I read from newspapers that it is somewhere between S$ 2500-3500.

Currently, hereditary cancers are still not common in this country. Older generations (our parents) are healthier and have long life-span but I am not so sure of my generation, worst, the younger generation, giving the deteriorating physical environment and the lifestyles we are in. May be more people will  go for such test in future.

(*) BRCA1: breast cancer susceptibility gene 1 /BRCA2 : breast cancer susceptibility gene 2

'Health & Wealth' gospel

‘For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear.’ (2 Timothy 4:3)

The trial of the leaders of a prominent church will commence soon, undoubtedly it will bring spotlight to the teachings and practices of the ‘Wealth and Health’ gospel. It is very sad indeed to see that many of the contemporary churches strive to be market- driven or seeker-driven in order to attract people. Church can degenerate into a place where one gets ‘feeling good’ effects from the charismatic preachers, stage performances etc. It looks that pastors are ‘worshipped’ than God.

Every bible verse can be quoted out of context to support erroneous teachings. The Wealth and Health gospel is just one of the many. Its doctrines mainly centers on three aspects: Giving, Positive Confession and Faith. Giving is positively correlated to material blessings one receives from God. That provides the motive for donations to the church. Positive confession implies that when one confesses ‘positive’ things, he will get positive things in life. Lastly, the definition of faith it promotes is you must have faith in your ‘own faith’. So if you pray for healing and not healed, it is because you lack in faith, blame yourself.

Where is the message of love, suffering, truth, holiness, humility etc? We know that in real life our Christian experiences said otherwise. Adversities, disappointments, struggles etc are part and parcel of life. May be devout Christians encountered more of these things. Those ‘mountain-top’ experiences are rare and far between, and are incapable of sustain one’s faith in the long run. Christianity is not a one-off conversion, but a process which involves the transformation of one’s intellectual, moral and relational dimensions. The challenge is not just believe mentally but how to translate the biblical truths into wisdom for everyday living.