"Should Women Drive?"

In a non-secular society like Singapore, such a question will surely fire a long chain of verbal, physical and written attacks on men by women.

It will be interesting to note that Saudi Arabia bans women from driving. In a letter by one reader Munir Al-Shahrani: "Driving by women leads to evil.....Can you imagine what it would be like if her car broke down? She would have to seek help from men."

I have my own views.

Each society has the right to deem what is right for it. And it has to be up to that society to judge the righteousness and morality of an individual.

Many might say that Saudi Arabia needs to further open up and to allow for more human rights and freedom for women. I believe otherwise, as such a thing has to be decided upon collectively by the society, not by outsiders like us.

I may not agree to what they are doing, I believe in equality. If women might do the "wrong" things or be led into doing so or lead others in doing so, if they come into contact with men........then are men immune to such? I guess the world will be less chaotic if we ban men from driving and from leaving the home and veil them.

HEALTH........its not only painful for the patient....it also weighs upon our wallets

The health issue is a big challenge for any nations. The SARS outbreak has once demostrated the power of such an epidemic. Can our country's health system take an attack of such scale once more? There are worries of a next wave of pandemic more deadly than SARS. Hence, will there be enough medicial supplies, doctors, nurses and other related services?

The cost of health care is rising every-year. Public health-care costs rise even higher. The public sector needs to retain and attract doctors, lest they all join private practice. There is also a deficit in the number of nurses. The cost of medicine and medication increases as more powerful doses are needed to ward off and cure modern infections.

For us, average Singaporeans, we all hope that the government can help us to alleviate the medicial bills burden. The government has recently revamped the medicial insurance in Singapore.

MEDISAVE
Medisave is a national medical savings scheme which helps individuals put aside part of their income into their Medisave Accounts to meet their future personal or immediate family's hospitalisation, day surgery and certain outpatient expenses.

MEDISHIELD
Medishield is a low-cost catastrophic medical insurance scheme which helps Medisave account holders and their dependants meet the cost of treatment for serious or prolonged illnesses. Singaporeans can use their Medisave savings to pay the premiums of Medishield or Medisave-approved insurance schemes available in the private sector.

MEDIFUND
Medifund is an endowment fund set up by the Singapore Government as a safety net to help needy Singapore citizen who are not able to pay for their heavily subsidised medical care at restructured hospital.



No doubt, the Government do provide safety nets for everyone in Singapore. However, the adequency of it remains highly debateable. Besides relying on the initiatives by the Government, one must also get other types of medical and board insurance or commonly known as Health Insurance from the insurance companies like Great Eastern or Prudential.

For an amount every month, you can be covered for surgical, room and board charges and other medical fees. It is vital to do so as this is to prevent ONE admission to hosptial that can possibly wipe out all your savings.

One other point to note is pertaining to illness like cancer and other long-term illnesses, such will not only cause the patient to lose the ability to work to his/her potential and also the treatment will be very expensive and it can go on for quite some time. Hence, the family will have to work out quite a large sum of money. This is when proper insurance planning really alleviate such pains.

Protection is a must........even if it sounds like a cliche.......BETTER BE SAFE THAN BE SORRY!!!!!!!

Taiwan.....nation?state?province?country?

TAIWAN

Taiwan is stuck. Chen Shuibian is also stuck.

Taiwan is not a country as what the PRC mainland says.......Taiwan however functions like an independent nation, with its national emblem, national flag, national athem, constitution, political framework and parties, a full-fleged functioning industy.

Taiwanese are confused, I am confused, the world is confused. USA also finds it hard to keep lying to PRC.......USA wants a democratic Republic of China.....PRC wants a ONE CHINA under the title People's Republic of China.

Within Taiwan, there are two main political forces........

The GREEN: Led by Chen Shuibian and his party, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).....they want an INDEPENDENT TAIWAN......a REPUBLIC OF TAIWAN instead of ROC....in short, they have given up hope of reuniting with mainland China.

The BLUE: Led by Kuomintang or the Chinese Republic Party........their aim is ultimately to RE-GOVERN CHINA.....mainland plus taiwan...afterall KMT once formed the government of CHINA. However, the dream will remain a dream so as long as the Chinese Communist Party refuses to allow for democracy.....all KMT can do now is to hang on to the status quo and pray for an eternal stand-off.......

Outside Taiwan, there are two main forces too......

USA & gang....they don't want to see a united China. The current PRC is already too powerful for all....outsourcing, factory of the world, cheap cheap cheap.

PRC.....the CCP has actively quell any hope of an Independent Taiwan.....using diplomacy, army and CHINA's economic clout......

For the moment, I can see that all sides want a status quo......everything to remain as it is......for KMT and USA....its a feeble hope that normacy is the path...where normacy means an undeclared independence

PRC has too much problem on its hands......HUGE income disparity....unstable growth......energy crisis.......and it knows that Taiwan is not a problem per se....no point forcing Taiwan to raise the PRC five-star red-sky flag and sing the "forward we march", afterall, economically how long can they stay independent without reliance on the mainland.

For Chen Shuibian, let just say that, enjoy your presidency while you can. Don't bother to make bold changes, don't bother to think of independence, don't bother to try to do any funny stuff.......no one will take notice.


情以民所系
权以民所用
利以民所某

Welcome to the Dark Side

Human is the most intelligent being on Earth.

Human dominates the Earth.

Human has the power to alter Earth.

Human has the knowledge to destroy Earth.

Humans (most) are self-centric.

Human came up with POLITICS to gain power, ECONOMY to gain resources, FINANCE to gain wealth, MORALITY to gain sympathy.........

Humans ARE SCARY.......they can think......they can scheme....they can kill.....they can DEVISE PLANS TO MAKE OTHERS SUFFER.....a death worse than death itself........