"The average person thinks he isn't." - Father Larry Lorenzoni

***

Someone (Singapore Indian): [*** project] is doomed
bunch of indians from india who SUCK

Me: so even singapore indians hate indian indians

Someone: yes
i seriously abhor them

i don't like those [China Chinese] either

SMELLY
and weird
and cannot mix with the locals
same as the india indian

actually depends. about 60% in PGP don' smell.. but the 40% who DO.. good god
they stink to high heaven
the china chinese are terribly unhygenic, revolting, smell like wet clothes and MSG all the time

like 80% of them
anyway, bottomline - all shld be shipped back to motherland

Me: oh yes your flushing bowl story [PRCs washing a dirty bowl by flushing it in a toilet bowl]
no one believes it


Someone else: oh and whenever i google fer stuff.
70% of the time i will see ur blog too.


The following is a good illustration of the academic attitude (in the Arts and Social Sciences):

Me: some poor kids spend their money on new handphones and handphone bills
can you think of ways to change their mentality other than by counselling them?

Someone: why do you want to change their mentality?

Me: because even though they get free food, textbooks, uniforms etc because they are poor they're wasting money on new handphones

Someone: maybe they don't want to look poor so they see it a worthy investment? i tend to think that if there really were more pressing things they have to spend on, they would have.

but maybe i'm wrong

Me: yeah you are
people aren't rational. sigh.

Someone: but the kind of rationality you seem to be thinking of would make them feel poorer and maybe they've weighed dignity or self-image to be more important?

i dont see why 'rationality' should trump all the time

Me: because then they end up going hungry and doing badly in school and dropping out and becoming drug addicts or gangsters and going to jail

Someone: didn't you say they get free food?

Me: some of them sell their food vouchers to other students for money

and food vouchers only feed them while they're in school
when they go home how?

and it's basic logic that if you spend X money, you can't spend this X money on something else

Someone: hm i would make the food vouchers non-transferable

Me: you have any idea what the cost of that would be?

you need to print individual vouchers
you need to distribute them individually
cannot mxi up

the vendors need to verify identity

it's very expensive

Someone: only printing costs money what. distributing and verifying identity doesn't cost money, only a little more time.

Me: it's a form of cost also
we lump it under "transaction costs"

imagine the yong tau hoo store in arts
imagine their verifying identities

Someone: actually since you're printing same number of vouchers, it's not more money, just time

Me: vouchers will have to be individualised
it's harder to distribute

and you need to sort them properly
if there's a mixup how? people go hungry

how are they currently distributed?
don't mix them up la, aiyoh

Someone: given to them at the start of the week

pls lor
it's not hard to imagine how things can go wrong
the more obstacles and conditions you insert the more the possibilities for cockups

that's why, one phrase, transaction costs
a lot of well-meaning policies ignore this
and then we end up having crap happening


HWMNBN: [LDPVTP says someone says is "amused by the fact that i appear very sympathetic but am actually a vicious bastard. her own words"]

me to LDPVTW: you're all malice and evil, underneath your pose of outraged righteousness
which i respect

[LDPVTP] says:
the pose, or the malice + evil?

nw.t. says:
either. both. does it matter?

[LDPVTP] says:
just asking
at first i was amused with her
then i got very upset for a week or so
until i cornered her and asked her what she meant by it

the explanation was satisfactory. so. back to being amused by it

nw.t. says:
why would you be upset?
a creature of perfect evil should be untainted by conscience
or was it because you'd revealed your hand?

[LDPVTP] says:
no i was upset because i'm not randomly vicious
that distinction was somewhat lost in the original comment

nw.t. says:
true. your viciuosness is pretty deliberate

so what was her explanation?
and why did you bother?

[LDPVTP] says:
her explanation clarified the non/random distinction
which was fair enough.

nw.t. says:
can you add more colour?

[LDPVTP] says:
i bother because i'm profoundly against being randomly vicious, and do not wish to be thought of in that light

colour?

nw.t. says:
so you would rather be a deliberately vicious bastard as oppose dto being a random one? ie. hannibal lecter vs guy who sprays his uzi in a crowded mcdonald's?

in what conext did she say it?

[LDPVTP] says:
post-lunch coffee, stoning time

statement of fact, yes
why do you need to know so much ?

nw.t. says:
so while the two fo you were stoning over coffee
she called you a vicious bastard
and you were amused so you told gabriel

[LDPVTP] says:
mm

nw.t. says:
and then after some thought you decided you were angry about it
so you wen tback to her to clarify

[LDPVTP] says:
mm

no actually i asked her why
there and then. and she said she didn't know

then after some thought i realised it was highly suspicious that she didn't know why she thought so. The woman is absolutely rational
i.e. there might have been some background behind it. thus i was pissed at her for a whole week

HWMNBN: women.

nw.t. says:
why didn't you confront her there an dthen?
and, more to the point, why do you even bother?
is it a woman thing?

[LDPVTP] says:
because i didn't think there might have been anything to pursue there and then?
no, i think it's just a me thing

*shrugs*

nw.t. says:
so why are you a vicious bastard?
i mean, i know, having seen it firsthand, but i'd like to hear it in your won words

[LDPVTP] says:
because once i have decided upon a course of action, i do it to the fullest extent of my ability and without remorse

nw.t. says:
that's hardly vicious
i agree you have an appealing absence of sentiment when it comes to certain things

but there is a definite sadism in the capacity with which you execute your actions
i hardly think [the person] was referring to you as a resolute bastard
rather than a vicious bastard

HWMNBN: OH MY FUCKING GOD YOU HAVE TO READ THIS

[LDPVTP] says:
i know her quite well
so i know what she meant.
especially after one week of being overtly pissed at her

nw.t. says:
did you do anything about being pissed, or did you, like a woman , let it stew and fester?

[LDPVTP] says:
i did something a little more subtle
we have a girl clique we hang out with

nw.t. says:
although, i must admit, confronting about the issue is quite un woman like, and a mark to your credit

[LDPVTP] says:
initially i simply transferred the agitation to them, so that they would ask her.
after they returned information that was not satisfactory, i went to ask her myself after appropriate preliminary bribery of joy and laughter

HWMNBN: .............................

women think on levels that are completely antithetical to common sense

Me: amen

HWMNBN: nw.t. says:
.........
i take back my earlier kudos about you directly confronting her about the issue

Me: this will get her panties in a bunch
you're just savouring that right