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Tuesday, Mar 10, 2026 - 23:55 SGT
Posted By: Gilbert

Whatever Will Be, Will Be

"I owe him a strike!" Markog roared at my saviour.
"This is a matter of honour!"

"You think we conquered the galaxy world with honour?
You children are all the same."
Galad GOD-EMPEROR TRUMP snorted, and attacked.

- excerpt from The Lion: Son of the Forest, subverting the Arthurian trope of the Green Knight


The omission of "honour" from this blog's ongoing promotion of "Strength, Respect and Strategy" was always intentional, as it happens. There is little honour to be derived in decapitating (quite literally) a foe during ongoing negotiations, as the Iranian foreign minister (for now) has bitterly complained; but it is also entirely true, as the leading quote states, that this world was never quite won using Honour, but Strength (re: Miller's very-relevant assertion). This is one of those Truths that is perhaps extremely inappropriate to refer to in polite company - but nearly impossible to dispute nonetheless.



Sometimes it do feel like that
[Translated: Well, you will not accept it no matter how I try to explain it; perhaps only through (painful) self-experience will you understand.]
(Source: manhuagui.com)


This point will soon be returned to, but I suppose I may owe some clarification on why I have not been very forthcoming on having in-person conversations of late. About this, there is a famous koan on a man hanging from a tree by his teeth over a cliff, only to be asked by a person below as to the meaning of Bodhidharma's coming from the West. If he does not answer, he fails his duty, and if he answers, he loses his life.

While the application to my personal prediacment is not quite as dramatic, it remains in practice difficult - if not impossible - to maintain both honesty and social acceptability. A person may desire many things: to speak the truth (as far as he can make it out to be), to be popular, to be inoffensive and so on, and it frankly is hard to attain more than one of these objectives simultaneously, at least when discussing matters of any import. It is actually not that tough to "read the room" and figure out "the right thing" to say (i.e. social savvy, street-smartness, etc.), you know. It is simply that these utterances would often be quite simply untrue - and there will be a price to pay in allowing such to corrupt one's mental models.

This is all the more critical moving forward, with the recent proliferation of A.I. conversational agents that are entirely happy to obsequiously agree with - or at least contort their discourse around - one's conversation leads. It can be understood how alluring this can get, especially when augmented with a cute avatar, given how great current LLMs are at maintaining a friendly and upbeat (if somewhat generic) tone. The problem is, of course, that the original input may not actually be correct, and that the chatbot would be in an unparalleled position to influence its user's perspectives (i.e. unmatched propaganda value) - which could be relevant given the government's latest push for mass A.I. access.

This policy comes alongside a supposed push for the humanities (combined with A.I., it goes without saying), which may be timely given dwindling admissions, basically because of insufficient income potential. As oft demonstrated here, historical evidence is quite useful in modelling and projecting the future, which has to be particularly critical in a changing world (as recognized by the local authorities, to their credit) in which the old "rules" may not hold. Truly, how many today remember the lessons of previous conflicts? Next to no veterans of the Great War are left; those who came of age during the Second World War are well into their nineties; heck, I daresay most don't even know of - or want to learn about - the primal twilight struggle behind the Cold War, and how close it got to mutual annihilation.

And when the (maybe not so) surprise pop quiz comes - how will all these people do?


王道、霸道


Note rare military garb, instead of the usual Western or Mao suit
(Sources: twitter.com, 4plebs.org)


Coincidentally, President Xi has just made almost exactly the same points on China's relative popularity as explained here in January, in particular on their provision of constructive development, as opposed to America's more... muscular approach. Still, it has to be emphasized that this difference in focus is to a large extent structural: America simply can't play - and win - the same game, because they have (unwisely) abandoned far too much of their construction and manufacturing capacity. The exception would be for the military (to the tune of about a trillion dollars annually), which would however be mostly dead weight if unused. Given this, why should it be so unexpected that they seek out opportunities to apply it?

Thus the Venezuela raid, from which GEOTUS has since extracted a ton of gold as his war booty as predicted, and then now Iran while channeling Ivan Drago*. Plans for a puppet leader Selected Presidency (or Shah) have however yet to manifest with Iran pledging to fight as long as needed while flailing indiscriminately and (expectedly) closing the Strait of Hormuz (other than for China, it seems) to ramp up oil prices and invite diplomatic pressure on the U.S. and Israel.

However, while commentators including new "prescriptive history" hotness Professor Jiang** have forecast America's eventual "defeat" with reference to their past quagmires in Iraq and then Afghanistan - both with arguably inferior military power and territorial advantages - they may well have neglected the innate genius of the GOD-EMPEROR. To wit: America's previous losses (stretching back to Vietnam) were in trying to "nation-build" after the initial invasions, and domestic war weariness due to a steady stream of returning casualties. One then figures that they can keep up a bombing campaign nigh-indefinitely (i.e. the decapitate-until-we-get-somebody-happy-to-work-with-us plan)... unless another player with comparable productive capabilities (i.e. China) joins in.


Emperor or Hegemon?
(Source: hani.co.kr)


There has thus far been little indication of China getting directly involved, though, first and foremost because of an inability to project credible force at that distance; while they have three (not-so-advanced and untested) aircraft carriers, this is probably insufficient to contest American control, much less the incoming French armada as well. Moreover, China has just raised their non-reliance on military force (away from their own [claimed] borders, at a minimum) as part of their moral superiority over the U.S., who honestly would probably be quite willing to embarrass China in a direct confrontation.

Further on this, China has recently promoted a (Confucian-based) narrative contrasting the Way of Kings (王道, promoting benevolence) against the Way of the Hegemon (霸道, relying on force) in their contest against America, following on from their Foreign Minister's description of such from their tariffs reaction last year, and as also implied by Xi to our Prime Minister during his state visit that June. Definitely, opinions may differ on this (as with our declaration that the GOD-EMPEROR understands the essence of Kings), and it might be noted that both Ways presuppose a monarch at the top.

Continuing, it should also be noted that the original philosophy actually recognizes both Ways as complementary - yin and yang, as it were; while China's refusal thus far to resort to force and hard power (i.e. "law of the jungle", as being imposed by the Lion King of America) might play well to the Reddit peanut gallery, I daresay attitudes to military strength (and willingness to apply it) are much hazier amongst actual governments. Economic potential is one thing, but what use is it to an ally or partner, if they just get couped and put under new management (as promised for Cuba by GEOTUS, and as projected in the previous post) by the thus-invincible God of War? The real Game should begin only after Cuba, in any case...



果然是金毛红衫的霸道！***
[N.B. It is further hinted that Ryu (Asian "Dragon") and Ken (your average blond American) are actually unbeatable when linking up... the implication which is left as an exercise to the reader until the next post on the subject.]
(Source: manhuagui.com)


[To be continued...]


[*Which brings us to, why did he name his U.N. competitor, the Board of Peace? Because you may never get bored of winning, but they sure are getting bored of peace. No refunds, btw.]

[**Interestingly, his approach has been observed to be inspired by Asimov's psychohistory, and about time too. Can't really fault his calling Singapore out for money laundering either, and we may soon see how much "face" the big boys want to give, going forward, as The Greatest Game gets more serious.]

[***This is from the non-canon but pretty well-known Street Fighter III Hong Kong comic from the nineties, that delves unexpectedly deeply into various philosophical themes, on a re-read. After awhile, it is possible to imagine how the artists and writers of the genres might have influenced each other - which could be an entire thesis in itself. More on this next time.]



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Thursday, Mar 05, 2026 - 23:38 SGT
Posted By: Gilbert

That's The Second Head

Well, that didn't take too long, following from the first one in January - and it probably won't be the last:


Frankly, one can't really fault LKY even if he did really take some cues from the CIA in the early years
(Source: dailymail.co.uk)


For those who have been on holiday, the reigning God of War, the GOD-EMPEROR TRUMP, took out Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the 28th of February in conjunction with Israeli forces, kicking off yet another Iran War. Global reaction was more mixed than might have been expected, and despite some European nations such as France and Belgium stating that it did not follow international law, others like Germany have withheld criticism*, with fellow Anglos Canada and Britain supporting the action despite recent beef with America - and Saudi Arabia supposedly onboard too.

From this, GEOTUS's statement that he does not need "international law" appears largely true, reflecting his essential honesty in reflecting actual reality, in contrast to past U.S. Presidents. The latest strikes have been critiqued by news outlets as "imperialism", but let us be candid - what can you call an entity with over 700 military bases spread all over the world, but an Empire? And when the casus belli is divine will, what else can one name its leader, but a GOD-EMPEROR?

In any case, the very smart people agency CIA, whom have featured so prominently in recent posts, have been busy following up their initial planning (and likely propaganda operations in Team Blue media) with another effort at formenting an uprising by Kurdish forces, which should be entirely believable given their couping Iran back in 1953. Tellingly, Iranian diplomacy has been reported** to be directed towards the CIA rather than the U.S. Department of War, which may be a sign of who's actually calling the shots.

And if I were a betting man, I would wager that GEOTUS is not quite done yet; such is the price of international order.


[*Singapore is, as usual, pragmatically "deeply concerned".]

[**Notably denied by Iranian intelligence sources, which may be another example of Team Blue propaganda.]


Amazing what one can find on the Internet nowdays!


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Thursday, Feb 19, 2026 - 23:04 SGT
Posted By: Gilbert

The Complete Pandemic Game (I)

Considering as the "Pandemic Game" has been repeatedly referenced on this blog regarding the COVID-19 pandemic (recognized by the WHO as having lasted just over three years, from March 2020 to May 2023), it may be time to finally compile and summarize my understanding as to what had actually happened, and what should have, but did not, happen.

There are several reasons why I am writing this, at this particular time in February 2026, or some three years after the worst of the pandemic had been over. Firstly, I had intended to address the issue as a whole since at least 2022, but would be sidetracked by the continued emergence of new revelations and evidence. While one cannot discount future disclosures, the major narrative(s) on the pandemic have largely stabilized, which should allow an attempt at analyzing all these individual parts as components of a unified theory.

Secondly, it had been next to impossible to discuss or question certain aspects of the pandemic while the event was in progress, publicly at least. Eminent clinicians had fallen foul of the establishment and (quite likely misguided) online lynch mob for voicing some entirely reasonable doubts, with reputations and careers destroyed (temporarily, in the best case). That said, it should be emphasized that some of the greatest (and most atrocious) misgivings have relatively little to do with any specific medical expertise, as shall be explained.

Thirdly, this telling has been weighing on my mind for ages, and in putting keypress to Notepad, I hope to finally rid myself of this burden. Again, the standard disclaimer that all of the following on the topic is my personal interpretation, with no relation to any other entity or organization, applies. Further, the primary objective of the analysis is not intended to attack or lay blame on any individual or group, but to try and figure out what had actually transpired - and perhaps inform an improved response to future pandemics and crises.


Prelude: Jubensha (剧本杀)

"The most valuable intellectual property could well be the original questions you are capable of framing in your mind - since many of the answers to existing questions have already been commoditised."

- Ravi Velloor, Is Singapore prepared for a 'rent-a-human' world?; in The Straits Times, February 19, 2026



Liar Game would make a good jubensha, come to think of it
(Source: mangafire.to)


This remark on the precedence of questions over answers came at a quite opportune time for this post, borrowing as it does from Einstein's (and doubtless many other prominent scientists') philosophy on problem-solving. This assertion is also supported in jubensha, the live action role-playing genre so popular in China*, of which I had just participated in my first session. While they vary widely in setting and difficulty, a mix of logic and lateral thinking is typically required to solve the underlying mystery.

However, there remain some significant distinctions between the (artificial) scenarios presented in jubensha games (and whodunnit novels) and real life. To begin with, the author (and gamemaster, or GM) has full control over all information presented to participants in jubensha. Given this, the solution can (and usually) depends on the (very) careful reading of minute details in the provided clues and rules.

Next, what is not presented is often as critical as what is - for many cases, the solution can become trivial, or at any rate much easier, were an additional otherwise unremarkable fact to be revealed. Moreover, the information density can be expected to be high, in that there are only so many red herrings and dead ends that can be included, while remaining within the scope of the genre. Then, once the creative brainstorming part is dispensed with, what remains tends to be similar to a logic grid (word) puzzle** integrating event timings and alibis.

In contrast, real life has no GM - or no single GM, at least. Especially with the advent of the Internet, the amount of available information and "facts" is essentially infinite, and has to be winnowed and filtered by the participants (i.e. all of humanity). That said, there is at least no compulsory viewpoint to be imposed on everybody, which implies reduced influence of perspective control (which can frankly become extremely contrived in jubensha) and pure logical deduction.

This does unfortunately make discovering (some sort of) Truth feel like a fool's errand - how is it even possible to make sense of a firehose of oft-conflicting information, in our post-truth society? One approach is to simply disengage and disregard all news (i.e. give up), which however also relinquishes any potential of making a difference and righting wrongs. Another is to pick and stick to one's trusted information sources (i.e. GMs), which has led to much partisan division. A third, and apparently superior if more complex method would be to weigh and consider multiple sources - which is easier said than done, all the more when many issues are gatekept behind specialist credentials (e.g. can one speak about the practical impact of supposed inflation, if not an economist?)

Which brings us back to the original point, on the importance of (the correct) questions - while the authoritative answer might never be known, the incongruence*** of relevant parties' behaviour can at least suggest very strongly that some shenanigans was involved. Such questioning will play a large role in the following analysis of the Pandemic Game, and hopefully inform as to some possible answers.


[*Possibly better known as detective/deduction games (typically with less plot and structure) elsewhere, of which Mafia/Werewolf is probably the top example.]

[**Some resemblance to linear algebra may be noted, where the jubensha ideal is to have a single canonical solution.]

[***Analogous to proof by contradiction.]


Degrees Of Wrongness

A second major point on investigating the pandemic and various other topics, is that one can almost never be proven right or correct beyond absolute doubt, in the real world at least. In keeping with the jubensha theme, consider one of the oldest tropes - the murder victim in a locked room. In a game, it may be taken as an axiom that the only key to the room was in the victim's pocket, and the lock was unpickable. In real life, it is usually impossible to be certain that there is no duplicate key, and many locks are but momentary inconveniences for a semi-skilled guy with the appropriate tools.

On this note, I have occasionally been reminded that I may not be correct, when advancing various hypotheses - which is fair enough. However, it is also the case that some hypotheses can be thought as almost certainly (and glaringly) incorrect****, while acknowledging that their opposite or converse is not then automatically correct. The example of what the Earth is, by Asimov in his The Relativity of Wrong, would be a classic illustration of the concept:

When my friend the English literature expert tells me that in every century scientists think they have worked out the universe and are always wrong, what I want to know is how wrong are they? Are they always wrong to the same degree? Let's take an example...

Nowadays, of course, we are taught that the flat-earth theory is wrong; that it is all wrong, terribly wrong, absolutely. But it isn't. The curvature of the earth is nearly 0 per mile, so that although the flat-earth theory is wrong, it happens to be nearly right [N.B. from a local perspective]. That's why the theory lasted so long...

And yet is the earth a sphere?

No, it is not a sphere; not in the strict mathematical sense. A sphere has certain mathematical properties; for instance, all diameters (that is, all straight lines that pass from one point on its surface, through the center, to another point on its surface) have the same length.

That, however, is not true of the earth. Various diameters of the earth differ in length.

The earth has an equatorial bulge, in other words. It is flattened at the poles. It is an "oblate spheroid" rather than a sphere [due to centrifugal force; However,] The correction in going from spherical to oblate spheroidal is much smaller than going from flat to spherical. Therefore, although the notion of the earth as a sphere is wrong, strictly speaking, it is not as wrong as the notion of the earth as flat.

Even the oblate-spheroidal notion of the earth is wrong, strictly speaking... It turned out that the equatorial bulge south of the equator was slightly bulgier than the bulge north of the equator, [and thus] there seemed no other way of describing this than by saying the earth was pear-shaped.

...

In short, my English Lit friend*****, living in a mental world of absolute rights and wrongs, may be imagining that because all theories are wrong, the earth may be thought spherical now, but cubical next century, and a hollow icosahedron the next, and a doughnut shape the one after. What actually happens is that once scientists get hold of a good concept they gradually refine and extend it with greater and greater subtlety as their instruments of measurement improve. Theories are not so much wrong as incomplete.


We will be drawing on these concepts pretty often in the dissection of the Pandemic Game to come.


[****Which may be why certain philosophical traditions prefer to describe things by negation, since it is easier to assert what they are not, than what exactly they are.]

[*****Were Asimov not a famous author, this slander of English Literature experts might be thought quite mean-spirited.]

[To be continued...]



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Saturday, Feb 14, 2026 - 00:38 SGT
Posted By: Gilbert

It's Just Daggers Now


Wonder how much of this was A.I.Composed?
[N.B. Forget Grok, Bytedance's Seedance 2.0 is pretty incredible for video generation already - and without pesky censorship concerns*!]
(Source: straitstimes.com)

[*Probably unless it involves the CCP.]


The lack of subtlety in U.S.-China interactions - especially on the part of the former - had been noted last December, but America is really rubbing it in with a (series of) blatant CIA recruitment videos aimed at Chinese citizens, particularly military officers. Per the last post, they're not even offering bribe money now! Overall, the production values are decent enough, but I have to confess that the messaging seemed rather vague on the first watch-through - for example, the wording on the laptop form was "连络中央情报局" (i.e. intended to mean the CIA), but "中央" alone would far more often refer (in China) to the CCP's Central Committee (i.e. "中央委员会"), and be understood as a metonymy for China's national-level government as a whole.

Indeed, before the logo reveal at the end, the entire video wouldn't have been out of place as a call for Red Guard-type anti-counterrevolutionary fervour (possibly relevant from Xi's recent purges of the Central Military Commission [N.B. also 中央], leaving just himself and one other member... for now), which could have led to momentary confusion as to whether this was some sort of modern self-criticism campaign (that Xi's father was once on the receiving end of, as it happens), and led to much bewilderment at select party branches.

One supposes being the reigning God of War does confer some privileges, including a quite overt approach to "espionage" (think James Bond just showing up at the beginning of the movie with an IWI Negev light machine gun in each hand, and a bandolier of high explosive grenades); GOD-EMPEROR TRUMP has certainly lent truth to many of this blog's previous analyses, including assertions last month that he "doesn't need international law" (well, probably true) and that he has offered the "easy way or the hard way" (with respect to Greenland), exactly reflecting our December explanation.



果然是雄狮堂主，懂王川普！
(Source: instagram.com)


Certainly the most colourful of these fulfilled predictions was GEOTUS depicting himself as a Lion King in a, uh, rather tasteless video also featuring other political personages past and present, which has been defended as a honest mistake by a staffer. That said, while the vast majority of the initial outrage was about the portrayal of the Obamas, it can be quickly confirmed that the entire clip was massively offensive, so it could be less discriminatory than it appears at first glance.

At the higher geopolitical level, this only bolsters the description of great power politics as a "jungle world" by our late, great founding Foreign Minister S. Rajaratnam, as also brought up in a late January commentary in The Straits Times by the former LKYSPP Dean, who applied a crocodile analogy instead. The article would also discuss Carney's salient warning at Davos on how "the old order is not coming back", and that "if you are not at the table, you are on the menu" - on which more soon.

Today's focus will be closer to home, with the latest update in Singapore's on-and-off cyber defence adventures being yet another alleged attack from the UNC3886 hacker group, this time on all four of our major telcos. The local Operation Cyber Guardian supposedly spent eleven months evicting the snoops with there being "no evidence to-date that sensitive or personal data such as customer records were accessed or exfiltrated" - which could be reassuring, or just a sign that the attackers were pretty skilled actually.

The Chinese embassy promptly called out The Straits Times by name to express their strong dissatisfaction with the "groundless smears", though it was soon pointed out that that no explicit denial was made, apparently out of future plausible deniability considerations. Then again, some appreciation might be had for their Ministry of State Security not openly recruiting Singaporeans as informants on YouTube, mass-produced generic A.I. slop videos notwithstanding...



Makes a change from the usual property agent leaflets


By the way, this Falungong brochure was found nicely folded within an envelope in my letterbox, which had me recall when The Epoch Times was distributed on university campus perhaps some fifteen or twenty years past. Seeing as it's basically open season for propaganda locally, the more the merrier, I say!



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Saturday, Feb 07, 2026 - 00:01 SGT
Posted By: Gilbert

Ere I Saw Alba

An update's long overdue, so here's a quick recounting of my birthday visit to the new permanent exhibition of the Albatross File at the National Library, after the splash it made in the local media on "reshaping school history lessons". Long story short, the lost-and-found dossier by founding Finance Minister Goh Keng Swee revealed that Singapore's separation from Malaysia in 1965 was a preplanned "bloodless coup" agreed with the (non-Singapore) Malaysian leaders, supposedly "...right under the noses of the British, the Australians and New Zealanders who were defending Malaysia with their blood and treasure", as the always-eloquent LKY put it - while adding that he did not want to do it, as consistent with the former narrative.

As students of the English language might have suspected, Goh intended "Albatross" as an allusion to the maritime avian choker of the same name, which did quite aptly describe Singapore's then-situation. The more-pertinent question here would be why the government took so long to make a big hoo-hah over the documents, seeing as they had been rediscovered in a dusty storeroom some forty-four years ago back in 1982, which was definitely sufficient for high school textbooks to have been corrected* for two generations at least.

Well, this timing might - if I may be so bold - be attributed to recent geopolitical developments, seeing as the primary message of the files was that the Singapore authorities (i.e. the PAP) were cunning and sovereign masters of their own fates (as opposed to being passively expelled by the Tunku), a condition that may be becoming increasingly hard to maintain in the forthcoming Age of Empires II (refer Maduro, and now quite probably Cuba, Iran and Canada etc., with that last perhaps to confront their own separation vote for Alberta[oss?])

[*On this, it may be of interest to examine the evolution of Wikipedia on the matter too; Singapore's wiki page had asserted that "the Malaysian Parliament voted 126 to 0 to expel Singapore from Malaysia; the Singaporean delegates were not present and could not vote" as recently as December 2014, with the "secret negotiations" updated for the current version, though "expulsion from the federation" remains in the second paragraph of the Introduction.]


Able Was I?

American: We have freedom of speech here in America. I can go to the White House and shout that Reagan is an idiot!

Russian: So? I can go to the Kremlin and shout that Reagan is an idiot too!

- old Soviet-era joke, as supposedly recounted by Reagan


I suppose it may not be a bad idea to try and project Strength and "independence", given how a U.S. Presidential advisor has just reconfirmed that "...the real world... [that] is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power... [and] these are the iron laws of the world since the beginning of time". That said, it is unlikely that dedicating an interactive display on the tenth floor of a library building would be sufficient to address doubts on this topic, and it might be entirely relevant that the exhibition provided next to no background context on the (anti-)Communist Malayan Emergency from 1948 to 1960, fought against the mostly-Chinese and China-inspired anticolonial Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA)... which could have been awkward given the PAP's own socialist left-wing roots, and more importantly their greatly increased socialization with the CCP in recent years, after re-establishing formal relations in 1990.

Another takeaway from this is that history is often mutable - who is to say that a janitor won't discover the Bluebird Files in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet at the disused PA headquarters with a sign on the door saying "Nassim Jade Transaction Records", fifty years hence? On this, there has been continued lionization of LKY for supposedly turning down a bribe from the CIA in 1960, though this was apparently at least in part because he thought at the time that "if the Americans and not the British had been in charge in Singapore and Malaya before independence I would have been in jail, probably tortured and died a Commie".

The irony here is, of course, that scarce three years later, LKY would consign many of his former party comrades to jail and torture for supposedly being Communist (which some never admitted to), supporting the old saw that the LKY of 1970 would have imprisoned the LKY of 1960. Which brings us to the key observation: LKY could afford to snub the CIA because, well, he was definitely not a Communist**, and was in fact already actively purging the leftist and suspected-Commie wing of the party. It would have been far more impressive had LKY delivered his "You do not buy and sell this Government" line to the CIA*** while proclaiming his support for Team Red, which might well have led to a promising politician disappearing in darkest Africa, given the ferocity of the Cold War contest then. Frankly, why would the CIA move against somebody who was doing their job for them, far better than they could?


[**Though he did make his kids learn Russian just in case.]

[***On this, the Boston Globe alleged that LKY's whistle-blowing was actually due to the U.S. being unable or unwilling to procure his favoured doctor for his wife, possibly reflecting the reputation of the American medical establishment even then; their claim that LKY had "privately held sympathy" for U.S. policy in Southeast Asia would be justified to an extent, by LKY's staunch support for the U.S. in the Vietnam War.]


Of Spheres And Lines

Take nothing from LKY, though - he amply manifested his (geo)political brilliance**** in bringing together two former antagonists (i.e. America and China), by explicitly supporting the ongoing Sino-Soviet split, without which the (Sino-)Soviet Union might well be still around (but hey, they have got a second chance on that)... with Singapore admittedly being the beneficiary. The challenge for the current national leadership would be adapting to a world where these two powers are not aligned, and let's just say that 7 Strategies For Continued Economic Success may possibly become largely irrelevant, if actual long-term division and bloc formation happens.

Then again, it's not like Singapore didn't thrive the last time empires and "spheres of influence" were in vogue, with said spheres just declared officially back in season by The Diplomat, no doubt influenced by the Donroe Doctrine asserting U.S. preeminence in the Western Hemisphere (over China's objections) by the Emperor of the West, TRUMP the First. Recall, de reden waarom we geen Nederlands spreken***** is because the British and Dutch empires carved the region up back in 1824, with Singapore falling just north of the dividing line. One can only imagine what might have been had Raffles (or his fellow Brits) been a more convincing negotiator (like GEOTUS) - could he have gotten Batam, Bintan and the other Riau Islands thrown into the deal... or maybe pulled Johor in?



Just imagine how much ERP can be collected!
(Source: r/imaginarymaps)


[****With his enduring influence in China leading to him getting mentioned in another (far-hotter) set of secret files, by a former British First Secretary of State and recent Ambassador to the U.S.; this may yet bring down another left-leaning administration, in the U.K. this time.]

[*****Then again, Dutch never quite took root in Indonesia either, so this might be contested; still, had the hypothetical Dutch colonial government included it in exams, I gather we wouldn't be half bad at it eventually!]



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Saturday, Jan 24, 2026 - 21:04 SGT
Posted By: Gilbert

A Meaning In Years

Since I'm hitting the big 42, here's coverage of a recent short trip to Indonesia - and some related thoughts:


Back To Bali

It has been almost two years since I was last there for a conference, and it was good to see that the monkeys had reformed their thieving ways - or maybe it was just that they had been adequately bribed at the resort. The highlight of this holiday was dinner at Merlin's, which featured a custom Tarot-inspired spread to decide the dishes. For the record:
  • Past: VI. Addiction
  • Present: IX. Magic
  • Future: IX. Discovery
  • Lesson: III. Self Confidence
  • Superpower: V. Wisdom
  • Love: II. Honeymoon
  • Destiny-tion: XI. Sphinx, Transylvania, Romania

This appears an extension of the basic Past, Present, Future spread, if also with a reworked deck to facilitate good vibes, because it would be hard to spin cards like Death, The Devil and The Hanged Man into a lighthearted and palatable entrée; since we're on the subject of food, the latest update to the local (short-lived) budget meal initiative has had the national broadsheet conclude from their interviews that "diners were generally unconcerned" - which may imply that S$3.50 may no longer be sufficient for a slap-up meal - which recalls one of the most-famous parliamentary exchanges on food subsidies from some twenty years ago, that asserted about S$3 for a basic meal even back then.

On to traffic, it only struck me on this trip that there were essentially no traffic lights on the island, which had the drivers somehow navigate their way through swarms of motorcycles and scooters at intersections - while also squeezing the cars past oncoming vehicles along what definitely felt like single-lane roads (which recalls the recurring query on how the heck a bus can fit within a lane, given that it contains double seats on either side of an aisle). All this appears possible due to lower average speeds, a more conservative driving style (countering the stereotype of maniac traffic in certain less-developed countries), greater awareness by all road users, and some courtesy habits (e.g. honking when approaching bends)



Vote for Dog at Lodge, or Cat on Bench!
[N.B. This may recall the story of wise Yudhisthira from the Mahabharata, who would not leave his (pariah) dog behind for all of Heaven.]



Great Scott

The trip would also coincide with the passing of influential cartoonist and humourist Scott Adams at 68 from prostate cancer, despite the best efforts of GEOTUS and RFK Jr. to procure the Pluvicto drug that he wanted*. The former would duly eulogize Adams as a Great Influencer, and as covered here back in May 2016 on 7 Reasons Why TRUMP Will Be The Next POTUS (indeed), Adams was perhaps the only high-profile analyst that correctly identified TRUMP's persuasion genius leading into that historic election, making this a case of Game recognizes Game. Before that, Adams was best known as the brains behind Dilbert (an early prototype of yours truly, maybe) and the author of an eclectic selection of self-help tracts, including God's Debris (as reviewed here in 2007)

On that last, Adams had reportedly independently rediscovered Pascal's wager towards the end, resulting in a (close to) deathbed conversion, the appropriateness and effectiveness of which would be hotly debated. Although this might not have the savoir faire of Voltaire, Adams remains a quite-uniquely clear-headed investigator of reality, which has had him convincingly debate Sam Harris on the merits of TRUMP, amongst other feats of cutting through media sophistry and social engineering. As with many honest prophets, Scottadamus would wind up abandoned by the general public, with his trying out of Ivermectin as part of a last-ditch treatment predictably dissed as using "worm pills" - but that's a subject for next time.

One believes Adams' last act - somewhat reminiscent of his namesake, the First of Man - was one final effort at persuasion, or at any rate, of driving inquiry particularly amongst believers. A typical analysis of his case goes as follows: suppose his deathbed conversion was indeed legitimate; if so, what would be the reward for the lifetime adherent of an Abrahamic religion, over and above that for last-minute opportunists?



There are levels to this too
(Source: facebook.com)


As Adams often demonstrates in his comics and writings (and as comprehensively recounted in Astral Codex Ten, whose author happens to share the same first name and initial), this question might be better approached through a switch of framing and perspective. In this case, the pertinent question would be: have non-believers actually done anything, to be deserving of eternal damnation? Further questions naturally follow: How would one know what specific flavour of God is correct, then - since this seems to often come down to "the one that is most politically and culturally dominant amongst the social circle of my family and/or geographic region"? And what does it say about humanity, that such a belief is so widely accepted?

One has to confess that the entire idea of transactional admission to Heaven or Hell remains problematic - consider, for example, the old trope of an old lady waiting to cross the road. A person might help her for nothing, because it was the right and compassionate thing to do. Let us say, then, that Elon Musk suddenly appears, and offers a million bucks for somebody to do the deed. Not many would turn down the opportunity in real life, one figures - and the deed remains worthy - but maybe it still says something about those that performed it out of a promise of reward, and not for its own sake...

Given this, my current understanding is: let us say that God exists. If so, then He knows everything - including one's underlying motivations - anyway. And if so, what was the point of all this ornamentation? Humans are amazing, if one thinks about it; after conceiving of an Almighty, their very next move is to attempt to come up with all manner of ways to swindle Him! Considering this, it seems reasonable not to wish for or believe in anybody else to suffer eternal torment, while accepting that one cannot control what others think of him. In following this, I sleep quite well at night, thank you.


[*On the subject of curing cancer, this appears to have become a point of contention from the U.S. regarding China.]



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Wednesday, Jan 14, 2026 - 00:49 SGT
Posted By: Gilbert

Some National Resolutions (Part III)


Five undeniably great leaders headline the NYT!
(Sources: nytimes.com, youtube.com)


Part III should be a good place to return the ongoing National Resolutions series closer to home, while also catching up on some loose ends. Reflecting the concerns from Part II, China has just identified Team Blue Europe's real threat as themselves, and pressed them to bar entry to Taiwanese politicians, lest they fall foul of the (Team) "Red line" mentioned; that Venezuela raid seems to have hit a raw nerve with respect to the apparent failure of their radars, though they might take comfort in the latest news that the radars were not connected to the (Russian) air defence systems, probably thanks to U.S. intelligence.

Otherwise, China has indeed been rather quiet on Venezuela after the initial (ineffectual) protests, and one supposes they are willing to wait Taiwan out, especially given their abysmal population replacement rate. On the local end, our Deputy Prime Minister has seen fit to announce that only three per cent of registered retail businesses here are owned by PRCs (with 89% by Singaporeans), to which sharp commentators noted that this statistic neglected that foreign Chinese retail entities would much more likely be large [advanced] chains (e.g. Haidilao, Scarlett and Mixue - that last already the world's largest food-service chain, having overtaken Starbucks), each of which would equal dozens of individual storefronts.

Such strategic information-control maneuvers - as with the latest head-scratcher on TraceTogether not breaking public trust - could then have inspired the New York Times to place our Senior Minister on the same level as TRUMP and Putin* (while omitting Xi somehow), a honour surely matching Hegseth's elevation of LKY from last May. This appears to be due to strenuous nomination from our SM's nephew, who alleged a "pattern of using police investigations and criminal prosecutions to dispose of or exile his (political) opponents", as is currently happening with the (quite popular) Leader of the Opposition, aptly mirrored by TRUMP's investigation of Fed chair Powell.



More great leaders
(Source: channelnewsasia.com)


Our Prime Minister's New Year Message bluntly acknowledged the end of the previous global order while emphasizing economic Strategy and success (which has had our President also sound out on national debt at MIT) as a "means to an end" - the echoing of the U.S. National Security Strategy here might be mere happenstance. Anyhow, one understands if all this was put on the backburner, after GEOTUS TRUMP called him two days later to reaffirm the Strength of their bilateral partnership (as recently supported) - right before Maduro got snatched.

It was all a close partner wishing to deepen cooperation (as with the Chinese, recall?) could do, then, to express "grave concern" over the unilateral military intervention, with our Senior Minister soon saying that it was "quite clearly a contravention of international law", concurrent with the new dean of the LKYSPP (after the previous one left soon after questioning America's place as Number One) raising the need for "international law and rules". On this, let us just assert for now that there is a reason why America (and to a lesser extent, Team Blue) has consistently used the phrasing of "rules-based [international] order" (RBO), instead of (U.N. Charter-based) "international law" - they are quite evidently not the same thing**.

This had local discussants debate Singapore's true foreign policy principles online, and it was realized that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' boilerplate press statement was in fact essentially the same as that put out for Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 - which is congurent with claims of (relative) neutrality, I guess. Registered Team Blue flag-waver Bilahari Kausikan took the opportunity to repeat former Foreign Minister S. Rajaratnam's description of practical diplomacy as taking place in a "jungle world" - now containing a Great American Empire...



Didn't know it was that happening on USS Iwo Jima
[N.B. The static image in the news sure didn't reflect the fun!]
[N.N.B. The immaculate product placement for the Nike sweatsuit has reportedly overshadowed the viral Adidas Chinese jacket, in yet another show of American dominance.]


[*Who has evidently revived the Cossacks as hinted, this time with satellite internet attached. Some may laugh, but show me an alternative single-seater army vehicle that is fuelled by grass, tackles off-road terrain, and self-replicates over time.]

[**Put simply, America makes (up) the rules.]



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