George Bush has this irritating (some say endearing) habit of being all chummy with world leaders.At the G8 summit, this time, it was Canadian PM Harper who was caught being in da ‘hood with Georgie.

Recently, I’ve been having a fair bit of pork dishes, and here’s what I’ve got to say about them.

FIrst off, it’s bak kut teh (pork bone soup, for non-Singaporeans) at Rangoon Road. Ng Ah Sio Bak Kut Teh serves up a steaming bowl of goodness, the light type of BKT, as opposed to the dark version. As with both, spices make up an important component of BKT, and this shop enters my list of BKT places due to their balanced usage of spices, thus ensuring that the pork flavour has not been overpowered by tumeric, cloves or cinnamon.

Normally, I’d order lettuce and pig liver as I’m not a huge fan of the other more exotic stuff, e.g miscellaneous parts of the pig (I kid you not, that’s the literal translation working here). A single bowl of BKT comes with two moderately sized pieces and usually is enough for the average adult male’s appetite.

Expect to pay approx $9-$10 per person if eating in a group of four.

On to the next pork dish then..

Nirai Kanai Okinawan Restaurant at Liang Court’s Basement One is unique amongst most Japanese eating establishments in Singapore in that they have a largely Japanese staff and clientele, unlike those other restaurants which are usually run by locals and are overcommercialised.

Their signature dish is basically any variant of pork belly, be it fried, stewed, braised or with ramen. The pork belly is soft and yet one would not taste the disgusting nature of the fat, as it has been quite drizzled away during the initial deep-frying process, leaving it slightly crispy and fragrant.

Two dishes to try would be the Pork Belly Ramen or the Pork Belly Cutlet. On Mondays, they have special promotions for sake, if that’s your cuppa.

I guess the prices are moderate, expect to pay 14-16 per pax.

Beautiful isn’t she?

The Tesla Roadster. Perhaps she might cause your hair to stand like Nikola Tesla’s famous towers of crackling electricity.

Did I mention she goes to 100km/h in 4 seconds.

Wah piang, that’s phenomenal and worthy of removing the staid image of the electric automobile. She’s certainly no frumpy Prius.

(Apologies to the Prius drivers who’re reading this, but IMHO, the Prius is really frumpy :))

Well, this is a short little list of the common misconceptions that photographers in Singapore often have, or subconsciously attempt to foist on their peers or contemporaries.

They might apply to other photographers outside these borders, but that’s another story for another day.

From interacting and witnessing certain events, I’ve come to realise that these misconceptions transcend national boundaries, racial identity, religious convictions and general levels of wealth.

In no particular order of ranking..

1. The cost of one’s equipment is the sole determinant of image quality and photographic skill.
(Absolute bollocks. If you own a Hasselblad and you shoot like a drunk, it only reflects the lack of foresight the dealer had about you)

2. The range and/or variety (or lack thereof) of one’s equipment is the sole determinant of photographic success in assorted realms of participation, be it leisure shoots or amatuer competitions.
(Again, tough luck if you lose to a participant with equipment costing half of yours and showing more effort and conscientiousness than you)

3. Skills have a limit and you’ve reached the top of your game.
(If that were so, we’d have no need to hold ARPS/FRPS judging sessions)

4. Professional photographers create better works of art than hobbyists.
(Being professional merely means you do it for a living, to feed the cat and your mother-in-law’s oft-rabid passion for Coach handbags. It is by no means a fair representation of the quality of art produced, as your efforts are channeled into commercial client requests)

5. If you’re a full-time photographer, you are quite responsible in your workflow and you’re a paragon of good client relations and account management.
(Fair call, but one could get by with a competent assistant)

6. Rates are everything, much more than your relationship with your client.
(That’s fine if you’re alright with pulling the occasional fast one and losing a good long-term source of income. Be wise, not greedy.)

7. Your own career advancement is the only thing that matters.
(If you do not prosper your employer as an assistant, where’s your paycheck going to come from in the future? Whoops.)

8. Adobe Photoshop will take care of everything from loose hair to overexposed detail blooms.
(The basics of composition and lighting matter, no software will allow you to say “Let there be light” from a pitch dark image of a model whom you made to look like Eva Braun on an absinthe overdose)

9. Winning an award in a photographic competition means you are empirically better than your peers for life.
(Oh really? Wow. Shall we do away with the Pulitzers then?)

10. Film photographers are old fogeys and need to move on with life.
(Tell that to the filmmakers who still buy reel stock. They certainly have a good, enriching life right now, the last time I checked)

Somehow, I’m of the opinion that if one’s close-minded, or are unwilling to make the leap to look beyond and farther afield from the image candy, photography is not for you as well.

(Disclaimer : I don’t think I’m the final stop in terms of advice, but somehow I believe these are fairly valid to the best of my knowledge. But as a human being, and being human and bias, I must say that Jeremy Monteiro is still the best Singaporean jazz pianist.There you go, one indulgence for my very humanity. )

If you’re fans of Hatchan, here’s a new image.

(image copyrighted to Hatchan-nikki)

Check out more of this talking cat here

Romanian videographer captures Chinese soldiers killing Tibeten pilgrims in cold blood on the Himalayas mountain range.

I’m just sick of the whole saga. Very sick.

Don’t try to convince me otherwise. I have no appetite to see millionaires buggering up and taking the population as farking idiots.

Be honest. Don’t play spin doctor anymore. This is insulting to the people.

What a waste of time. Get. Lost.

Read this AP article - Myanmar rejects UN calls to amend draft constitution

©AFP

Just some thoughts.

Those wankers that call themselves the leaders of Burma are on the loose again, making a mockery of Ibrahim Gambari’s efforts of mediation and common sense and further weakening the reputation of ASEAN as a whole.

If this is not a regional insecurity complex waiting to happen, I wonder what is. This new Constitution will not enhance Burmese stability, nor does it involve every group in Burma, much less allow them an actual say in the progress of their nation.

It’s sad really. Burma was one of the most post-WW2 progressive nations in SEA, not to mention one of the more prosperous ones.

Let it be a lesson that deluded fools not be allowed in power. This is a good example of what happens when you let the military run a state.

ASEAN has a fine line to tread, unlike us laymen who can comment without the straitjacket of strategic imperatives on their shoulders. It’ll be interesting to see if they ratchet the pressure up a notch. Burma is not an infalliable dictatorship, it has weaknesses and the sooner the international community hit those soft spots, the easier those wankers in uniform will be to work with.

From the lovely descriptions of the Hongbao Budget(clearly meant to excite the laypeople) and the less cheery and more realistic reports from Reuters; to this report by Citigroup’s Chief Economist for Singapore and Malaysia.

What does it bode for us all? So many other bloggers have made their point on this, and I don’t think I want to waste my time flogging a dead horse.

Somehow, the truth is in between the cracks of those three reports on our budget and economic prospects this year.

Make merry now, perhaps the worst of the fallout has not arrived yet. Surely as oranges hint at the calm before the storm in every Godfather movie, CNY spending and feel-good drama always masks what could come later on in the year.

The Budget is either here or there. Pick your side. Meanwhile, here’s a third side.

Hope you all had a smashing Lunar New Year.

Citigroup Says Singapore `Fairy Tale’ Reaches End: Chart of Day

By Lee J. Miller

Feb. 18 (Bloomberg) — Singapore’s budget targets lower- and middle-income households — and disappoints on income tax — as the government grapples with rising prices and the U.S. economy slows, Citigroup Inc. said in a report.

“The fairy tale economy of high growth and low inflation of the past two years has come to an end,” Kit Wei Zheng, chief economist for Singapore and Malaysia, wrote in the report today.

The chart of the day shows Singapore’s economic growth (in red) against the cost of food (in white). Gross domestic product in the October-December period contracted for the first time in 18 quarters. The city-state of 4.6 million people imports about 90 percent of its food, according to the government.

The budget also provides “massive increases” in spending on subway and road projects, helping construction companies, the report said. A “key disappointment was the lack of a cut in personal income taxes,” with a one-time 20 percent tax rebate, the report said.

Still, the government will provide “generous handouts,” including rebates, payments to the national pension fund, and subsidies for adult education.

Singapore’s Finance Ministry unveiled the estimated S$37.5 billion ($26.6 billion) budget on Feb. 15. The day before, the growth forecast was lowered by half a percentage point, to a range of 4 percent to 6 percent for 2008. The outlook for inflation was raised by a full point, to between 4.5 percent and 5.5 percent. The government singled out higher costs as a concern.

“There was still a little of something for everyone,” the Citigroup report said. “Perhaps more could have been done to help businesses to deal with rising costs.”

Much of the increased spending for businesses was in the form of tax incentives on research and development investment in Singapore, the report said. The budget is “fairly generous and expansionary.”

Singapore will boost spending 12.5 percent in the financial year starting April 1.

Link

By the way, Reuters interviewed some economists here, and one of them, Selena Ling of OCBC; had this to say.

“I don’t think it actually deals with the short-term cost problems in Singapore. They will effectively accommodate the increase in inflation by providing the budget give-aways, but not the short-term cyclical issues.

“In other words it effectively throws the inflation ball back in to the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s court.”

Read more from the Guardian’s reproduction of the Reuters article here.