I'm going to avoid putting too much links to the whole handover thing (it's been done to death on TV and newspapers), but I will make a few comments.

Well, PM Lee made a fine speech last night about being inclusive and such. I wonder what he meant when he said that Singapore should allow space for people to be "different." Did he mean to encourage entrepreneurship, or was he hinting at tolerance towards single parent families and GLBT lifestyles?

Anyway just one day into the handover and our neighbors are already asking so many questions. On a slightly less complaining tone, here's an editorial by the NST on the handover reaffirming our old friendship. More stories on Mrs Lee Hsien Loong (also known as Ho Ching) by our Malaysian friends.

Here's an article about how our youths don't know who the new PM is (psst... Lee Hsien Loong) and I think this is the malaise I'm trying to get rid of. My girlfriend also said the same thing to me last night, about how it didn't matter who took over. She was far more interested in Average Joe than in watching the handover. Sigh...

The Star had a good article about the challenges that faced PM Lee and his new old team. And there's a good line in there that sort of reflects my thinking:

“Nothing is permanent. My generation will be the last to grow up so
self-assured about the future. My son’s generation must be prepared to work
outside of Singapore,” said a middle-aged man who lost his job in a
multi-national firm several years ago.

I was at a Singapore International Foundation recently and this guy asked a question about how to keep Singaporeans in Singapore. Minister Yaacob Ibrahim went on to say that we can't keep them here, but create a sense of rootedness, so Singapore is always home. He went on to mention that his brother is overseas, but still identifies with Singapore. I too feel this way about Singapore. I may have to work overseas, but Singapore is where I identify with. Everyone keeps saying that overseas is good, but if you look carefully there's implicit racism overseas and there are invisible barriers. I should know, I'm living overseas.

Ok, talkingcock is still down. Yup. The system in down. Talking about downed systems, a new variant of the blaster worm is at work. Run... Hide... Be very afraid...

Also talking about systems down, everyone should visit http://www.engrish.com, for some really funny s*%t.

Back to PM Lee's speech (getting used to PM Lee again, after a 14 year break)... He also mentioned about education going beyond just training for jobs, but truly to explore and learn. Of course we all know that the current education system was created by Mr Goh Keng Swee. But different times call for different measures, and it is heartening to see that at least they're sort of in touch with reality.

Well that's it for now. Catch all of you soon. This may be my last post for a long while, so don't fret if you see nothing. I'm just on holiday.