Reply to CZ

CZ, I think you very well know who is the unintellectual and immature one. I shan't bother to respond to obnoxious dogs like you.

What the hell is wrong with the Democrats?

I've had enough with the democrats keep wanting to push for a troop withdrawal in Iraq. Can't they think? What will be the consequences? I shan't elaborate here... Just read me letter I wrote to Howard Dean below. He is the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

40 Cairnhill Road
#02-02Singapore 229660
Republic of Singapore

January 14, 2007

Dr. Howard Brush Dean III
Chairman
Democratic National Committee
430 S. Capitol St. SE
Washington, DC 20003
United States of America

Dear Dr. Dean:

I am writing to you regarding The Congress considering in pushing for an Iraqi troop withdrawal. In the following paragraphs, I will state several reasons on why Congress should not force the White House to pull the brave men and women out of Iraq.

A troop pullout will ultimately lead to ramifications such as an unprecedented surge in sectarian violence, exponential rise in radical Islamism, worldwide dissatisfaction with the United States and American disillusionment with the Democratic Party. Please let me elaborate.

I once attended a lecture on U.S. foreign policy given by former Singaporean ambassador to the United Nations, Kishore Mahbubani, and one point he made that is very relevant to this issue is that one of the main reasons why there is so much international dissatisfaction with the United States is because, down the annals of history, after the U.S. had removed and disabled a “totalitarian” or “dictatorial” regime from a “nation not of the free world” by means of combat, it often left the affected nation to rebuild itself on its own, often without the adequate financing and infrastructure. These events have led many to think of the White House administration as callous and apathetic to the social, psychological, economical, spiritual and infrastructural damage that they had caused.

I disagree with what Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid mentioned to President Bush in their letter dated January 5, 2007. Quote: “make the Iraqi political leadership aware that our commitment is not open ended, that we cannot resolve their sectarian violence…” This statement undermines American military strategy and superiority and highlights a weak and incompetent legislative body. America is responsible for all the damage and sectarian violence that has manifested throughout Iraq. It is absolutely true that sectarian violence was not caused by America; the Iraqi people brought about the violence of their own volition, but the living conditions caused by the war for the Iraqi people engendered the hatred and brutality. Therefore, it is America’s obligation and duty to aid, assist and bring about some respite to the Iraqis in every way possible.

In the long run, the Islamic world’s unhappiness with America’s failure to restore Iraq will breed Islamic radicals throughout the world and in the United States. This will ultimately be a threat to national security and will imperil the citizens of this great nation. America’s failure to deploy more troops to Iraq now presages a heavier burden on the military and gross federal debt in future as more extreme forms of Islamic governments will surface across the globe, and again, America will try to frustrate their efforts but will be of little effect as the military budget will be extremely stretched by then.

A very plausible result of the aforementioned aftermath of a present troop withdrawal is an American public despondent about the Democratic Party and indifferent to its platitudinous rhetoric on foreign policy in future, similar with what the Republican Party is experiencing at present when they lost grip of the bicameral Congress.

Operation Iraqi Freedom has been on for a hat trick of years already. I fully understand the Democrats’ good intentions to pull those heroes out of Iraq, but there lies a Catch-22, so please consider very carefully the costs and benefits, both in the short and long run, of doing so.

I therefore sincerely appeal to you to urge the leaders of both the House of Representatives and the United States Senate to work in partnership with the President, not in partisanship, as Nancy Pelosi once said. For a stable Iraq, for national security, for world peace, for a better tomorrow.

I thank you for your time and patience in reading this letter.

God bless you. God bless America.

Sincerely,


Pavin Limanont

The Maldives

This is totally awesome... My dad came home today saying that we'll be going to The Maldives during the March school hols... It's like a dream come true! Wow. I really can't wait for the day to come... I've seen photos of the maldives before and the scenery was just stunning. The sea is clear blue and you can see really deep into the water clearly. It is like a paradise island. For those of you who don't know where Maldives is or have never even heard of it, it is a group of islands just south of India. It is an independent country with a population of approximately 300,000 and the capital is Malé. The population is mainly muslim.

I was actually planning to go to the Middle East during the March hols for a short break but since my dad said Maldives, oh well, I'm fine with it. Wanted to go to Dubai, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and bahrain on a tour and to shop as well. I need to enjoy myself one last time before going into the army.

Now I can add Maldives to the list of countries that I've been to: USA, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, India.

Irreplaceable

I LOVE Beyonce's R&B hit "Irreplaceable", released in October last year. It has a great rhythm and bass. Vocals are fantastic as well... You have to go listen to it. I guess the song was inspired because she wanted to encourage females to stand up for their rights by leaving bad relationships and ditch lousy boyfriends. IRREPLACEABLE was no. 1 on: U.S. Billboard Hot 100, U.S. Billboard Pop 100, U.S. Billboard Hot digital songs, U.S. Hot R&B/Hip-Hop songs, United World chart, Australian ARIA singles chart, Chinese singles chart, Indonesian LIMA Top 50, Irish Singles Chart, New Zealand RIANZ singles chart, Polish singles chart... The lyrics make a lot of sense:

To the left To the left
To the left To the left
To the left
Everything you own in the box to the left
In the closet, thats my stuff
Yes, if I bought it, then please don't touch
And keep talking that mess, thats fine
Could you walk and talk, at the same time?
And its my name thats on that jag
So go move your bags, let me call you a cab
Standing in the front yard, telling me
How I'm such a fool, talking 'bout
How I'll never ever find a man like you
You got me twisted
You must not know 'bout me
You must not know 'bout me
I could have another you in a minute
Matter fact, he'll be here in a minute [baby]
You must not know 'bout me
You must not know 'bout me
I can have another you by tomorrow
So don't you ever for a second get to thinkin'
You're irreplaceable
So go ahead and get grown
Call up that chick, and see if shes home
Oops I bet you thought, that I didn't know
What did you think I was putting you out for?
Because you was untrue
Rolling her around in the car that I bought you
Baby, drop them keys
Hurry up, before your taxi leaves
Standing in the front yard, telling me
How I'm such a fool, talking 'bout
How I'll never ever find a man like you
You got me twisted
You must not know 'bout me
You must not know 'bout me
I could have another you in a minute
Matter fact, he'll be here in a minute [baby]
You must not know 'bout me
You must not know 'bout me
I'll have another you by tomorrow
So don't you ever for a second get to thinkin'
You're irreplaceable
So since I'm not your everything
How about I'll be nothing? nothing at all to you
Baby i won't shed a tear for you [I won't shed a tear for you]
I won't lose a wink of sleep
Cause the truth of the matter is [truth is] Replacing you is so easy
To the left to the left To the left to the left
To the left to the left
Everything you own in the box to left
To the left to the left
Don't you ever for a second get to thinking
You're irreplaceable
You must not know 'bout me
You must not know 'bout me
I could have another you in a minute
Matter fact, he'll be here in a minute [baby]
You must not know 'bout me
You must not know 'bout me
I can have another you by tomorrow
So don't you ever for a second get to thinkin'
You must not know 'bout me
You must not know 'bout me
I could have another you in a minute
Matter fact, he'll be here in a minute
You can pack all your bags we're finished
Cause you made your bed now lay in it I could have another you by tomorrow
Don't you ever for a second get to thinkin'
You're irreplaceable....

Wasting life away...

8/1/2007: Went out with Terence and Justin today, my ex-SJI friends, to Pacific Coffee Company at Vivo. Met Terence at about 3pm. As usual, Terence and I talked about current social issues and what's hot in the news. While waiting for Justin, I read John Grisham's "The Broker". Justin came at like 6.30pm and we were quite keen on watching a movie, The Queen, but Justin has already watched it and as for the other movies, either one of us had already seen it or it wasn't interesting. We went for dinner at Sakae and after that went drinking at the Marriott Hotel. The ambience there was great with the warm, dim yellow lighting and spacious interior. We felt as though we were in the patrician league because we were surrounded by Caucasian businessmen and other social elites who bore spare tires due to years of power lunches and 4-hour dinners. Terence and I ordered a "cosmopolitan" and I got a single malt Scotch whiskey Glenmorangie on the rocks for my second drink. Justin ordered a Rum for his second. We stayed there till 1.30am... The bill was an unbelievable $92+... All the taxes were like close to 12 bucks.
Terence and Justin then came over to my house and we were watching MadTv spoofs on Youtube till 4.30am... Laughed the night away. Too tired to stay up and all of us knocked out. I woke up at about 10:30 am and then we left at 12.30pm for lunch at Marina Square. I arranged with James to meet up with his two Thai colleagues, Nat and Hong. They were really nice people and we talked about their life in Singapore. Nat was 23 and Hong was 25. Both working at DP Architects and Interior Design. After lunch, Justin, Terence and me went around looking for jobs again, as usual. It was getting late and we went our separate ways. I went down to Starbucks (Orchard Building) and ordered my all time favorite, Iced non-fat latte... Perfect way to escape. I took out my John Grisham book and stayed there to read for 2 hours while I sipped my latte. After that I went home to have dinner. Was really really broke... Spent so much money in two days. I probably won't be going out these few days.

JOBLESS!

I had been bumming around during the November and December hols of 2006... Now I'm really desperate for a job. Any job! I went down to DFS last Friday with Terence to apply for a job there as a sales assistant but they never got back to us. I then went to the Ralph Lauren Takashimaya Branch to apply as well but they didn't call me. I could tell that the manager didn't really like like me for God-knows-what reason. Anyway, the monthly salary offered was $900. They sure are severely underpaying their staff. My ex-SJI classmate, Alvin Chan, was working there. He seemed rather satisfied with his chores: taking stock, attending to the needs of customers, folding clothes, etc. Lazy as usual. Lol.

Two days ago though, I went down to Esprit Centerpoint to apply for a sales assistant post. The lady in charge was friendly and my friend working there, Celina, told me that she had already sent my application form to headquarters so the odds of me landing a job there is quite high. The pay is way better than Ralph Lauren, with a basic monthly pay of $1000, plus commission, plus OT. I'm praying hard that I will get it. It's really boring with nothing to do.

These past few days, I've been doing a lot of planning and research on a roadtrip in the United States that I organized and planned for either 2009 or 2010 with my Pulau Tinggi friends: James, Bryan, Jessebella, Clarence, Seraphina, Cheryl Kee, and Deborah Wee. The road trip will start from San Francisco and end in New York City. We'll be renting an SUV probably from Hertz and will be using Interstate 80, which will take us from San Francisco, CA all the way to Teaneck, New Jersey. From Teaneck, we'd have to transfer on to Interstate 95, which will then take us all the way to the Big Apple. We need a budget of at least $30000 for the gas, car rental, lodging and accomodation, F&B, emergencies or accidents (God forbid), shopping, etc. It will be fun. Interstate 80 takes us through 11 states, namely: California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. Most states have different traffic laws so I'm compiling an exhaustive list of the traffic laws in those states, and what the drivers, James, Bryan and Me, would have to take note of as many U.S. roadsigns and terms are different from that of SG. I'm not even halfway done on my homework yet... It's really mentally taxing planning for a roadtrip, but I guess in the end, it sure pays off.