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Sunday, June 30, 2013 - 20:53 SGT
Posted By: Gilbert

Objectivity

"We want fairness.
There is no fairness if you do not let us cheat!"

- Parents of students in Zhongxiang, China


While preposterous on first sight, let us examine this mentality from their perspective. Here, let me add an anecdote: when I was reading an Asian History module as breadth for Economics, one of the teaching assistants was briefly at a loss for words, when an insensitive student asked her if India was corrupt. Clearly patriotic, she rejected the accusation, but did admit a deficiency along the lines of "things are sometimes done differently over there".

China and India both being ancient and great civilizations happening to be in similar stages of development (of course uneven between regions), this phenomenon, if maybe not that widespread, is still one that they share. Doubtless, cheating occurs elsewhere too, even in supposedly less corrupt places. Even we - I do think our reputation for being square and going by-the-book is richly deserved - are not at 100%, even if the latest case I can recall involved a teacher independently taking the initiative to help out her students.

The vital difference is then, I suppose, the attitude involved. On one side, you have the tricksters who at least recognize that what they're doing is supposed to be on the down low. The other side is then the ones who do it openly, and are outraged when told to desist, as in the introductory case.

Largely law-abiding citizens of nations high on the Corruption Perceptions Index might be horrified at these goings-on, but, as mentioned, let us look at it from the perspective of one of the parents involved. Cribbing from one of the comments in the Telegraph report, education is seen as a ticket to prosperity in China (and India, and Singapore, and...)

Singaporean parents are plainly no laggards in "ensuring their child's future" either, as the hordes of volunteers and price premium for flats near popular primary schools indicate. Personally, I think it's silly, since I believe that our neighbourhood schools are well competent enough - certainly the gap between them and the "best" is far smaller than it could be, but that isn't going to stop the kiasu scrabbling.

However, when it comes to P-Day, the furthest even the most kiasu parents would be willing to go is to hire private tutors, stock up on chicken essence, and spend their leave drilling the poor kids - certainly not pack them off with radio receivers and hole up next door to supply them with answers!

But back to the prototypical involved parent elsewhere. All his life, he's been through this - to get something done, he had to know somebody who knows somebody, and work towards pallying up with them, at least briefly. Oh, it wouldn't be described as something as crass as bribery; more a matter of making new acquaintances and being absolutely delighted with their company, and if a couple of gifts get exchanged because they're so awesome, well, it's simply part and parcel of a normal healthy friendship, right?


Graft? Nah, it's just Tuesday over here
(Source: theposselist.com)


And if one does this for needs ranging from traffic fines to obtaining permission to build an additional room, is it that much to expect that the basic principles apply to exams too?

Quora, again, has much to say about this. A post from China demonstrates the order of the times, with reference to a famous forum thread where users flaunted their status (not unknown here either). Anyway, a poseur kicked off with a couple of IWC watches, only to be swiftly humbled by a flood of Ferragamos, Fred Leightons and Ferraris.

Things then escalated quickly. The first jewellery-bedecked wannabes were shut up after a few newcomers wandered in and began posting photos of their mining permits, bank account with a balance of nearly one billion yuan (over US$160 million), and a bedful of land ownership certificates (though interestingly, the bedsheets wouldn't have looked out of place in an average household)

This exchange finally concluded instantly when somebody displayed his invitation to Zhongnanhai (the central headquarters for the Communist Party of China), and the entire forum post was then censored (why, what did you expect?). The Quora contributor signed off by commenting that access to the power core is valued more than anything else in Chinese society. Which makes sense - what use is billions in possessions, when the government of the day can just confiscate it, lock one up and throw away the key, as more than one Russian tycoon has realised?

On the bright side, at least some of the younger set don't like this state of affairs either, but culture probably doesn't change so quickly.


Smoke And Mirrors

"...As he walked down the steps, he saw three government officials, laughing, like powerful men do when they are together. They got into a large black car and drove away so fast that a woman, carrying a baby on her back, lost her balance and fell over..."

- Dragonstrike, Hawksley & Holberton
(and partly why I don't like to laugh)


On the haze, there's been a marked improvement, thanks mainly to the shifting winds leaving Malaysia to bear the brunt for now. On the Indonesian side, their President has very graciously apologized, which to me might be rather generous given that the crisis appears self-inflicted to a large extent, with palm oil giants sullenly going from denying everything to admitting that fires may have been found within what may be their concessions, but it's not their fault.

One might hope for Western-style broad landowner liability laws, but given how things likely work in practice, I daresay we would merely see more beautiful friendships blossoming and more brown envelopes changing hands. Such is life.

The social mobility buzzword is again making the rounds here, with a fairly well-written Today commentary drawing a distinction between static meritocracy, where initial performance (i.e. doing well in exams) is the deciding factor, and dynamic meritocracy, where one's ongoing contributions are what is rewarded.

A fine sentiment, no doubt, but there's this little realisation about social mobility that I had neglected to cover the last time this was seriously raised here: mobility per se is relative as measured - to have a success story involving a kid with parents in the bottom tenth percentile of income rising to the top tenth percentile, another kid, or some combination of kids thereof, has to fall by the same amount.

It might then be more pertinent to ask whether the quality of life for those in the bottom tenth percentile has improved over time (probably not). Of course, mobility is still important to track - while perfect mobility (i.e. the status of parents has completely no bearing on that of the child) is unrealistic, very low levels, together with a rising income gap, rent-seeking economic climate and legacy appointments, would suggest that society is becoming irredeemably stratified, and we all know what historically tends to happen then.

In the most underwhelming closet reveal for some time, SDP politician Vincent Wijeysingha has come out as gay, to absolutely zero astonishment. That said, his cause has been gaining ground, with the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) struck down in America, over 20000 participating in the local Pink Dot rally (about ten times that at the May Day protest!), and even Bert and Ernie joining in.

Personally, I'm for separating civil unions from marriage - any two adults can obtain a union, with all the attendant rights and benefits (and obligations), leaving each religion free to confer upon or deny them "married" status under their rites - but since this is an eminently sensible solution, I expect no support.

Both civil and human rights pale here however when pitted against feline power, though, with massive queues forming, and tempers frayed (quote of the day, by a disappointed queuer at somebody ahead of him: "Is he Singaporean? Is he educated?"), over Hello Kitty plushies, which are apparently changing hands online for outrageous sums (which kind of reminds me of the housing situation). The kicker is that one can just ship in the full set straight from the manufacturers, but to each his own, I suppose.

Which does make me wonder why McDonald's doesn't go with the flow and concentrate on their core business:


The realignment will probably be more profitable



More C++/GPU Discoveries

  • auto_increment (++) on float variables is illegal on Nvidia (use +=1 instead), but is fine on AMD GPUs.
  • Assigning too little memory with malloc() causes silent overwriting of other data (e.g. STL vectors)
  • FLT_MIN is not the smallest possible float value as mathematically understood! (oldie but goldie)

Desaru One Dayer

Had signed up for this S$69 trip with some of the 4O people, so I forced myself to wake up at 5:30 a.m. on a Saturday morning, an accomplishment in itself. The van started off from Pearl's Centre, we had noodles and three-coloured milk tea at a Johor Bahru coffeeshop, and I then napped as we continued on to our first destination - the Desaru Chocobo Farm.

Founded by a retired SIA pilot, the Chocobo Farm currently houses more than 300 chocobos of all sizes and ages. While not explicitly stated, it is probable that they are one of the major suppliers to Square Enix, where the chocobos are gainfully employed in either the Final Fantasy titles, or their own Chocobo spin-off series, as faithful steeds.


Young chocobos padding about


We first passed by batches of younglings up to three months old, which were sheltered so as to protect them from the rain (but not the heat, as chocobos can comfortably stand temperatures over 40 degrees Celsius in their natural habitat). In the presentation that followed, we learnt, among other things, that the haze had increased their water consumption, and that the females can lay a (huge) egg every few days (though most are likely unfertilised - RM60 each)

The presenter proceeded to open one sample with a nail and then a conical drill, before passing the contents about in a Tupperware container for inspection. Two more eggs were placed on the ground, where those interested could stand on them (weight limit: about 130kg, no stilettos)

More facts followed. Older chocobos establish a pecking order by bullying the younger ones (also to relieve boredom), a process which left most of them a bit bare in the butt. Some yearlings and two-yearlings are slaughtered for their thigh meat (available as satay). A sternum was brought out and slammed on a metal support to demonstrate its toughness. Apparently, while docile, chocobos are tough critters, and can even defend themselves from up to two lions with their two-toed kick packing 200kg of painful punch.

They can live over 70 years in the wild, usually slightly less when tamed, and males are typically black with red accents on their legs and beak, while females are a drab grey (Wikipedia informs us this is due to division of labour, in which the female matches the sand when incubating eggs in the day, and the males matching the night when it's their shift). As they are dyed a uniform yellow when they get recruited, though, the original colouration is purely academic.


Mature chocobo taking a break
(Source: moddb.com)


Since the chocobos have yet to attend finishing school to learn how to balance loads, and visitors are unlikely to possess a wild chocobo riding license, only children are permitted to mount them for photos (RM20), after which an official My Littlest Chocobo Rider certification will be issued.

Other birds coexist peacefully with chocobos, with the farm full of run-of-the-mill chickens roaming about (a couple of special Polish visitors were cooped up). There was even a lone down-on-its-luck cassowary (a.k.a. Australian dinosaur bird) that needed a place to bunk, after not making the cut as an extra for Ice Age 3, and now Jurassic Park 4, but who was not yet desperate enough to audition for the Creation Museum.

The very fruitful visit ended with a walk by some simply adorable week-old chocobo chicks, and then the gift shop, where ostrich shell lampshades and paintings could be bought. The biggest treat was yet to come, however, lying in a tank, as it was, at the gift shop's entrance:


It moved!
[N.B. Estd. time remaining to full extraction: eight hours]


A taste of chocobo omelette and satay later, it was lunch-time, where certain members of the group were disappointed that the professed lobster appeared to be junior crayfish. For me, I wasn't too arsed, since the other dishes were very edible, and it's S$69 for everything, come on.

Stopped by a temple, the main attraction of which was the free mini fish spa at the side. There were some herbs with signs describing their properties in Chinese too, but nothing else that most would go out of their way for.

Next was Desaru Fruit Farm, where we discovered that the tour cost RM20 extra (but included free fruit at the end). After a brief open-side bus ride, the walk wound its way under a canopy of jambu creepers, and ended at a mini-zoo. Hamsters were supposed to be on the headroll, but were nowhere to be seen (to Mr. Ham's incandescent rage); even the mouse enclosure had been taken over by poultry.

There were at least some warm fuzzies:


RM20 for one, RM35 for a pair


With there being time to burn before dinner, we dropped by a shopping mall, and planned to patronise a "family leisure arcade" before finding that its gate was closed and it had people apparently gambling inside. Oops. Remarks were made about the profusion of mobile phone accessory shops, not too unlike some Singapore heartland markets. One might question how many covers a person can need, but since they're still operating, the answer may be "more than one would think".

[N.B. On this, with SimCity Social gone, it appears that Tynon (formerly of Evony) has been trying to get my attention. I assume that this sort of campaign does work]

We ended up continuing our bridge series while snacking on Marrybrown's, and dinner at a more upscale-looking establishment was followed by more bridge. Arrived before the sky had darkened at Kota Tinggi Firefly Park, which of course meant that yet more hands were played.

Eventually, we donned lifejackets and sat down for the 45-minute boat ride, and did witness tiny dots flickering on leaves in the distance, with the odd intrepid fly actually condescending to fly. Not too bad if one desires some serenity and reflection, likely disappointing if one had expected to be entertained by glowing swarms of Disney sparkle.

Learnt the meaning of habis (as in: diesel habis) on the return journey.



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