Cluster Bomb and Singapore's Role as a Merchant of Death?

The article below was lifted off "The Online Citizen - Campaign the Singapore Government to stop producing cluster bombs published on the 23 May 2008."

The Singapore government, through its government-linked company, Singapore Technologies Kinetics Ltd (ST Kinetics), manufactures, stockpiles and publicly advertises two types of cluster ammunitions for sale (Cluster Munition Coalition 2008) .

They are the ‘155mm DPICM artillery projectiles (containing 63 or 49 grenades) equipped with electro- mechanical self-destruct fuzes with an advertised dud rate of 3 percent’ and ‘a 120mm mortar bomb which delivers 25 DPICM grenades’ (Singapore Technologies Engineering n.d., cited in Cluster Munition Coalition, 2008 ).

As world governmental representatives converged in Dublin on the 19th May to seek an agreement on banning cluster bombs, the absence of major producers such as United States, China and Russia have seriously undermined these efforts (Gergely 2008) . The U.N. Development Programme claimed that ‘cluster munitions have caused more than 13,000 confirmed injuries and deaths around the world, the vast majority of them in Laos, Vietnam and Afghanistan‘ (Gergely 2008).

In a brief online scan of Singapore’s two major newspapers, TODAY and Straits Times, dating 16 to 20 May, both well-read newspapers in the country have remained silent over this issue. The online blogosophere has also been muted on Singapore’s role in possessing such bombs.
Singapore has also not attended the international conferences held in Oslo, Lima, Vienna, and Wellington which seek to prohibit the use of cluster bombs. As of April 2008, Singapore remains not having subscribed to the Wellington Declaration which affirms the countries’ “objective of concluding the negotiation of such an instrument prohibiting cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm to civilians’. The declaration is a prerequisite to full participation in the conference in Dublin (Cluster Coalition Munition, 2008).

Cluster munitions can cause excessive harm to civilians even when the conflict has been over for it ‘can remain a threat for decades’. It is primarily a weapon which contains ‘multiple explosive submunitions’ which are ‘dropped from aircrafts or fired from the ground and designed to break open in mid-air, releasing the submunitions and saturating an area that can be the size of several football fields. Anybody within that area, be they military or civilian, is very likely to be killed or seriously injured’.

Those that are not exploded, and most of them don’t, ‘are left on the ground and, like landmines, remain a fatal threat’. As such, people are prevented from using ‘their land and to access schools and hospitals’. Cluster munitions have been used since the Second World War and most recently in Lebanon in 2006 (Cluster Munition Coalition Ireland 2008). Given that the world-wide trend is towards banning cluster bombs; and that the Singapore government has remained steadfastly committed to manufacturing and selling such munitions, Singaporeans should be duly concerned about these weapons being used against innocent civilians.

What then, can Singaporeans do, given that the media has not reported on this issue?

They can:

1. Act as citizen journalists by highlighting this issue in their website or blog.
2. Sign and forward the petition which is to campaign on the ban at Dublin .
3. Execute a nation-wide campaign to pressurise the government into entering into negotiations with the aim to ban cluster bombs.
4. Write to their MPs and urge them to field questions about this issue during Question Time in Parliament; or to the Opposition, appealing to them to take up this cause.
5. Tell everyone you know about Singapore’s involvement as a producer of cluster munitions and its detrimental effects.


It is a known fact that ST kinetics is a local state-affiliated company who does a lot of military hardware design and production. Of course, economies of scale matters and most of the items designed and produced are often also available for sale through its military contract overseas. So don't be surprise that a local designed weapon variant shows up in North America or something. Also, if wiki can be trusted, Ultimax 100 is a staple weapon with the US Marines.

Singapore is also pretty low profile in their research projects. This secrecy actually works in their favour. Helping to shroud everything will prevent the sparking off an arms race in the region. I am sure potential aggressors will be very interested in what kind of armaments we are producing for sale as an indication of what we actually have in stock in our arsenal.

I don't know much about the weapons we have in the arsenal in singapore. From what I gather, the 155mm DPICM round is designed to air burst and spread its munition around the targeted area of which it may either, explode on impact, explode after delay or explode when triggered as a mine.

If that is difficult to understand, just go and catch Iron-man and watch the part where Tony Starks test-launch the Jericho missile and its repulsor technology. That scene itself should convince you of its lethality or its awesomeness or whatever.

The issue now is that normal civillian might get killed if they come in contact with such munitions and the obvious lethality of such munitions may persist long after the war has ended...

After weighing the pros and cons, I am for the production of such munitions and the continous deployment of such munitions.

The pros:

1) It's profitable.

Munition sales goes into millions every year. Of course, the figure is not just for cluster bombs. But it is still profitable. If somebody has to produce and sell it, why not Singapore?

2) Bombs are doing what they are designed for specifically.

The cluster bomb does its intended purpose very well. Too well in fact. But every war and conflict has its collateral damage. The unavoidable tradeoff. After reading up on so much armed conflicts on the internet, none of the conflict documented actually shows a zero civillian casualty rate. In fact, innocent people who die from gun wounds run into thousands as well. Do we ban guns next?

3) Bombs help to win war.

With that I mean that the right munition can help to win war thus shortening the sufferings of the common people. This also means that innocent casualty figures don't climb more then can be avoided.


Personally, I think that the fact that US, Russia and China are not committed to the cease cluster bomb treaty itself has effectively undermined its usefulness. A look at the world conflicts in the last 20 years has involved these nations one way or another. Of course I don't condone the rampant usage of such weapons but neither do I believe in drawing out a war!



"Over and Out"

Week 20. The Internet Furor Post

If you haven’t realize that the Internet truly transcends race, languages and borders now, it’s either that you haven’t been following the news for a long time or you’re definitely diagnosed with techno-phobia. Recently, there are 2 cases of online netizens getting into trouble for their remarks. One for racism remarks, the other for err… insensitive remarks.

I have seen both remarks online.

Personally, I am a poor judge of people, having done so in the past and then retracting my own words. Refer to my blog post, Friday, September 01, 2006 Bad bad week.... Even though I seriously doubt anybody much comes across my posts, I need to clarify that my views are solely personal and not representative of any inclination.

For the local case, I must say that showing the whole world your racial inclination is a bad move when there is anti-sedition act in the country. But actually to be honest, he is probably not the only one out there with such inclination. (He is definitely the one most vocal about it though!) If one seriously thinks that we live in a society that is racism-free and by persecuting all those involved we can encourage a racism-free society, please hurry go and sign on. A whole new perspective awaits you!

For the china case, it’s even more far-fetch. Ranting against the survivors of the Si Chuan Earthquake because her favorite online game was suspended for the state-declared remembrance period. She even declared that all the survivors should just perish in the quake and people would not need to donate any money. I don’t even know how to define such sentiments… Err… genocide? Crime against humanity perhaps? She’s a real hardcore gamer. So I imagine that she must be having a difficult time finding one game online that echoes her sentiments. Most online game features many different races pitted against one another… the last I count in one of the more popular MMORPG, we have:

Humans, Night Elves, Dwarfs, Gnomes and Draenei VS Orcs, Tauren, Undead, Trolls and Blood Elves.…. I think future expansion packs will even add more races…

However, despite all these, she still chose to decimate her own species. Whew. Life is really complicated. LOL

On a lighter note, the both of them sure are famous now, with thousands, (maybe millions?) scrambling to see their opinions on-line. The china case is incredible; Currently I am residing at Singapore, a place that is estimated at about 3726 km away and I am aware of her opinions. Thinking of it with respect to marketing and advertising dollar, they would be considered extremely successful!




“Over and Out”

Bad Month. This May.

May is a bad month this year.

Natural Disaster is unexceptionally bad striking places in China, Si Chuan Province and Myanmar.

This two incidents made me think real long and hard…

There are people out there who can totally ignore the terrible and grave situation around them. For political reasons, no doubt. Every day, I read reports on how the junta government views international aid with disdain, thus slowing the overall humanitarian effort. Despite all these, the Junta government foreign minister is coming to Singapore for an emergency ASEAN meeting to discuss the measures to boost relief and recovery efforts. An irony isn’t it? I am thinking that they are more interested in aid packages in rebuilding the nation. This, of course, means money and goods pledge to the Myanmar for their rebuilding of the country. No prizes for guessing who will be the eventual custodians of this amount of ‘aid’.

Figures are vague with estimates of 100,000 people to have died in the cyclone that hit Myanmar. The U.N. humanitarian agency said in a new assessment that between 1.2 million and 1.9 million people were struggling to survive in the aftermath.

The right thing to do for Singapore now is to pledge financial aid to Myanmar during the ASEAN Meeting in the hope that some of this aid can trickle down to the people. I can’t help but think how much ‘aid’ will reach the common people eventually?

…

……

………


The earthquake in china is less grave in terms of casualty rates and recovery efforts. I have been following the news shown on cable with dad. Dad is a fervent follower of cable news. He watches the news shown on cable first before switching over to watch the local news at 1100. The news reports are certainly heart-wrenching. The special focus on the china quake will focus on the damages and the recovery effort providing an insight on what has happened, what is being done for the rescue operations, the difficulty faced and a breakdown on what will proceed next. The entire delivery is peppered with video footage, geographical maps and interviews with specialists. Seating through a session with dad provides me with a lot of insights on the situation. Definitely more than seating through the local news…


It is not the first time that I am watching the local news.

Our local news adopts an objective reporting approach. Everything is touch and go. With that, I mean that where video and audio clips are not shown in total and chopped off halfway. Sometimes or is it all the time??? There are two newscasters in a half an hour reporting session, attempting a dialogue interspersed within the news to liven up the session. It resembles what you can see in news overseas, especially in the States. I personally prefer the more content-heavy and edgier approach in the cable news.

The many videos shown on cable news featuring the China Premier Wen Jiabao doing site visits to see how the people are coping is very touching. Reports show that he was on a helicopter flying to the affected areas within an hours after the earthquake was reported. While flying over, he was busy with planning for the refugees and excavation with his aides in the helicopter. I am impressed with his tenacity.

I vaguely remember that in one of the video, he was visiting refugees in one of the holding area (I think its one of the sports centre??) , a little girl was bawling her eyes out, having lost everything and orphaned by the quake. He went over and immediately offered words of consolement. The little girl was obviously grieved beyond words yet one could see that she was trying her best to put on her best behaviour for the premier. His exact words to her were "Don't cry, the country will take care of you. The country will provide food, lodging and studies for you." The little was trying her best to stop crying but just can't manage to stop. The premier upon realising that words were not helping then gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder drew her into a gentle hug and allowed her to continue crying.

At this juncture, all the premier's aides couldn't help but shed a tear at this tear-jerking scene. The premier himself did not shed any tears but one could see that he was genuinely distressed at the situation. Despite being thousands of miles away, even I could feel my emotion overwhelming me. I realised that the premier himself has shown great strength in character and crisis management by not lamenting with the masses, but instead emerged clear-headed to provide clarity and focus on rescue efforts.

I also realised when the premier himself uttered those words, he had already planned well ahead for the future of these people. It shows that he genuinely cared for the people and is willing to toil on their behalf. I think to a certain extent, being a geology postgrad had given him the technical expertise to handle geology disasters. I have no doubts that China will recover from this quake, emerge stronger and better prepared under the guidance of this man, a hands-on and down-to-earth politician.

I have learnt something out of this two incident. The crux of handling natural crisis lies heavily on a swift, decisive and people-focused leadership. This two countries are currently undergoing a tumultous and difficult time. But I have no doubts that one will emerge stronger and the other one will invariably wallow in hardship for a longer time then is required.



"Over and Out""

The Post on TalkingCock Parenting Preparation Exercise Post

Taken from Talkingcock aka "The best Singapore Satire Website ever..." in response to the State’s Times reporting a survey showing that more young Singaporeans now want to get married and have chewren thanks to the Gahmen's policies.

(1) Mess Exercise - Smear peanut butter all over your sofa and curtains. Place a fishball under your sofa cushion and leave it there for 3 months.

(2) Toy Exercise - Buy a giant box of Lego. (Thumbtacks also can.) Ask your friend to spread them all over the floor of your flat. Simulate the middle of the night by putting on a blindfold and trying to walk to your toilet or kitchen. When you step on a Lego or thumbtack, do not scream because this would wake your child up at night.

(3) Supermarket Exercise - Go to Hay Dairies in Lim Chu Kang and borrow two of their goats. Take them with you to your supermarket to do your groceries. Always keep them in sight, and pay for anything they eat or damage.

(4) Dressing Exercise - Buy one very big, very buay song live octopus. Try to stuff it into a small net bag and make sure all its arms stay inside.

(5) Feeding Exercise - Get a large plastic bottle. Fill it halfway with water. Suspend the bottle from the ceiling with a bungee cord. Separately, make a bowl of Quaker Oats by adding warm milk to the dry oats. Start to swing the jug. As it swings, try to insert as many spoonfuls of the soggy oats as you can into the mouth of the bottle. As you do, make sounds like “um-um-um” or pretend to be an aeroplane. After a while, just dump the contents of the bottle onto the floor.

(6) Night-Time Exercise - Fill a small cloth bag with 5 kg of sand. Soak it completely in water. At 3 pm, pick up the bag and stand up, swaying gently back and forth while humming songs. Keep doing this till 8 pm. Put down the bag, and set your alarm clock for 9 pm, then try to sleep. At 9 pm, wake up, pick up the bag again and resume swaying and humming every song you’ve ever known. If you run out of songs, make some up. Continue till 5 am. Take a nap, and set alarm clock for 6 am. At 6 am, wake up and make breakfast. Keep this up for 5 years. Look happy.

(7) Car Exercise - Forget the BMW and buy a MPV. Buy a cone of ice cream and put it in your dashboard compartment. Leave it there. Take a twenty cent coin. Stick it into your CD player. Buy a big packet of cookies. Mash them into your back seat. Take your car keys and run them along both sides of your car. There! Just like the real thing!

(8) Mother's Body Exercise - Buy a large bean bag chair. Attach it to the front of your clothes for 9 months. After that, remove 6 beans.

(9) Financial Exercise - Go to the nearest NTUC. Go to the cashier and give her your wallet, telling her to help herself. Now go to your bank and arrange for your pay to be GIRO’d directly to NTUC from now on. Go to the mama stall and buy a newspaper. Go home and read it quietly for the last time.

(10) Sanity Exercise - Make sure your TV can only switch to children’s channels. Throw out all your DVDs and buy only the Best of the Wiggles, Barney, Dora the Explorer, etc. Check in every few weeks with your psychiatrist to see if your IQ is still normal.

(11) Final Exercise - Find a couple who already have a young child. Lecture them on how they can improve their tolerance lah, discipline lah, toilet training lah, patience lah, the child’s table manners lah, the kid’s PSLE results lah, etc. Tell them how the kindergarten they enrolled their kid in is just not good enough, and they must enroll in all sorts of extra classes like Music & Drama, Speech, and donno what else. Emphasise to them that they must never, ever allow their kids to stray onto the wrong path or their future will be fucked forever. Enjoy this experience while it lasts. Because when you have your own kid, it’ll happen to you.


*Guffaw*

Oh Yes! By the way, "Barney's Let's Imagine Live!" will be in Singapore in June! So start the exercise today! Please people, add talkingcock to your favourite. We all need to enjoy a good laugh sometimes!




"Over and Out"

The Cloyingly Sweet and Decaying Smell

This fart entry totally describes the unhappiness and cringe worthy experience that I encountered while performing the action.

Now, there are quite a number of sweet young things living in my block. An enjoyable day would normally revolve around the running into one of these sweet young things while departing from the household and taking the same lift as them.

I noticed a pattern normally. The incidence of running into them is normally higher during the weekdays and during peak hours when people go to school and work. So last Saturday, after waking up from my slumber, I decided to go downstairs to buy some stuff. But it is actually all an excuse to go downstairs to enjoy a stick. I kinda enjoy the thrill of leading a double life. So off I went, groggy from sleep, with tousled hair, a few day worth of stubble on my face and totally dressed in my best slob attire…

Ah… the lift was empty. So I stepped in. Often, the desire to sh** is sometime very strong in the morning especially during the first two hours that you wake up. It must be the building up of gases overnight. Feeling like a volcano is about to erupt in my shorts, I let rip the fart, and it didn’t disappoint, coming out in a loud resounding woom! (If I were in a smaller lift, I could have sworn that the lift shook.) Even I was impressed that I might have outdone myself finally. I couldn't help but grin a little manically at my sick persona and the smell.

I would have stopped myself from doing what I wrote in the last paragraph if I had known that the lift is going to stop at the 6th floor. And yes, not one but two sweeties stepped into the lift. I recognize one of them as a resident of this block and another unrecognized one… I guess the friend of the sweetie.

The smell. Oh…. The smell. The perfume worn by them and fart gas actually mixed together to form a cloyingly sweet foul smell. And the furtive glance that they kept exchanging with one another. It was only a short trip down to level one. But the trip felt like eternity, as if I was caught in a Mangekyu Sharingan jutsu like Kakashi.

It was so embarrassing. I thought that I would just die on the spot. Too bad I survived the embarrassment with huge damage to my ego and charm…



“Over and Out”