It's all your fault, Mr. Aedes!

The past month has seen an astonishing, meteoric rise in cases of dengue outbreaks in our garden city - an island reputed for its spectacular record of cleanliness and rigorous resilience to jeopardous diseases. Up till now, more than 150 people here have been diagnosed with dengue fever. The death toll has also ascended to 11, the latest casualty of the Aedes demon (see picture below) being of perfect health prior to his demise. For a list of dengue hotspots, click here. A peek at our neighbors up north revealed even more widespread destruction by this terrorizing species. The tragic news of a Malaysian woman, who had been expecting twins, conceding her life (and two more) to a sting sent a chill down my spine.



This saga brought back traumatic memories of the deadly SARS outbreak two years ago. Indeed, we can draw similarities between the two outbreaks: quarantine, containment, etc. But essentially, we need to ask ourselves if Singapore has an adequately robust contingency model to engage in such virus warfares. Does the existing health care infrastructure suffice in mitigating the medical and reputational risks besetting the nation? Do we need to improvise on certain areas? I think it's time we should come together as a nation to do whatever we can to support the families of the dengue victims and the Government in their relentless efforts to attempt to salvage the declining situation.

Last week, I was down with influenza. It was downright depressing for me, as I was inflicted with high fever that wouldn't seem to subside for a large part of the week. I really thank God that I was not diagnosed as a dengue victim. I also like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my family and June, for their care and prayers respectively during my illness.

On Building Romantic Relationships

I fully applaud Pastor Ben's statement on establishing a healthy romantic relationship in his blog. It can be referenced here. Just scroll down to the entry titled Enriched dated Sep 20, 2005, and it's there. :-) In his entry, Pastor Ben clarified that a romantic relationship should be acknowledged as long as it is a covenant with committment. He also declared that he wanted to argue neither for dating nor courtship. I am extremely ecstatic that he has made this very important clarification.

Over the years, the Hope church had seen many Christ-sincere and God-faithful couples either being pressured into breakup or driven to join other churches because of the obstinacy of some mid-level church leaders in drawing too many legalistic boundaries in their members' romantic relationships. These leaders may be well-versed in the word of God, but they do not exhibit grace, and assume that everything that are passed down from their higher-up leaders are divine words without seeking the Lord for verification. The excuses that these leaders use to break the couples up include:

- the couple are dating and not courting. (even Joshua Harris, in his book I Kissed Dating Goodbye, made a disclaimer that we should not be caught up over the subject of dating vs courting as it was not his motivation in the book)

- the couple are still new in the faith, they should postpone the relationship to a later time.

- the couple are of different spiritual age, so there is a disparity in maturity, and the less mature Christian will stumble the more mature one.

- the couple never account to their leaders adequately about the ongoing relationship, so this means that the relationship is stumbling their walk with God, and it should be terminated.

- The guy (or girl) is in the core teamship, but the girl (or guy) is only an ordinary member. Hence, we should disallow it as it is against propriety.


- The couple have not committed their service 100% yet, or have not reached a certain leadership position in church to be considered qualified for building a marital covenance.

Ironically, many of those leaders who were so cocksure of their judgment of the members' relationships have yet to be involved in a single romantic relationship themselves! Despite at an age as high as 33, for instance! :P

You know, when I reveal some of the above "policies" to fellow brothers and sisters from other churches (and I mean, BIG, well-established and biblical churches in Singapore), it really jolted thunderous bolts of mocking laughters from them! "Ha ha ha! What kind of ludicrous system is that? You sure it's really a church you're attending?"

Henceforth, the reputation and credibility of a church depends wholesomely on the leadership. If the intermediate leaders provide unsound advice to couples who are building what appears to be a perfectly normal Christian boy-girl relationship, and shamelessly attempt to disapprove of it or tell the couple to break up instead, then woe betide these leaders. And may these wayward leaders face God's wrath when they meet the Almighty Maker at the gates of Heaven. Remember Mark 10:9 - "Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate." If leaders wish their flock to multiply, they should examine their decisions, perspectives, as well as the repercussions of their reactions to members' relationships. Of course, unhealthy, gratification-oriented relationships should be prohibited, but proper, God-centred ones should be allowed, no matter what circumstances, because a relationship only comprises of three people: The Guy, Girl and most importantly, God.

It's over! Phew ...

... and I'm talking about the interaction lunch I had with my MD and fellow 2003-returning MAS scholars. In anticipation of a mind-blowing intellectual convenance, I spent half the morning discussing with my bosses on handling possible political questions that he might lambast on me, queries on my department's major projects and outstanding issues, in particular. Thank God, MD appeared to be an extremely easy-going person and an avid listener. Over lunch at the MAS Penthouse, the 13 of us exchanged views on how to improve the corporate environment in the organization and how long we foresaw as the period in which we could fully leverage off our core competencies. The lunch turned out very well, and it was an overall pleasant experience.

S11

It's well over 4 years, and it all seems like everything happened yesterday. Reminiscing about the Sept 11 horror in the US is one of the most petrifying and painful activities, uprooting a cascaded mass of gloom and gory round the globe. Let's pray that such calculated deeds of violence may never ever surface on this earth again.

Retrospection of Thursday's CG

During my care group session on Thursday, someone (whose identity shall remain undisclosed) shared about a blessing that he felt God had endowed him with. This person revealed how delighted he was to have been exempted from a few training courses at work, and quipped that it was a form of blessing for him. He was pretty candid about it, even when the others in the group jokingly accused him of "siam-ing" the courses.

The first thought that came to my mind was: is this the kind of attitude that an earnest and faithful Christian should be adopting? Deliberate procrastination, unenthusiasm and passive apathy to one's work or opportunities to learn neither speaks well nor testifies positively about a true Christ-follower. We learn this from Proverbs 12:24, Proverbs 12:27 and Proverbs 13:4. This is compounded by the fact that the person who gave the sharing was a leader and a school teacher. In this perspect, he should be setting a role model of himself to others, especially to Christians who are supposedly spiritually less mature and to his students. Furthermore, on account of his stature, he should be careful of engaging in unwholesome talk (Ephesians 4:29-30).

Of course, I have learnt that no human is perfect. This is mentioned in the Bible too. The second undeniable fact is that we all sin, and it is not up to us to judge others, as God is the one and only judge of the eternal universe. Nevertheless, this incident has provided me with a stronger conviction that I must not adopt the negative traits at work. We should all represent Christ well at the workplace, not just by pretending to be diligent, but also by unleashing within us a fervent fire in our belly whenever we are tasked or sent for courses. Remember, every piece of work and every opportunity at training comes from God. He wants to develop us into the person we can be, only if we have the right attitude.

Rising Oil Prices

Just heard from the news that crude oil prices have surpassed US$70 per barrel, and analysts have reported it is not surprising that the confidence-rattling pivot of US$100 may be reached. When demand exceeds supply, prices surge and consumers are hit hard in their pockets. When the effects roll on, a recession is inevitable. I think it is impeccable during these times, we as consumers reflect upon our lifestyles and liberties. Praying hard for positive developments is most perennial.

Sidetrack:
1) Hmmm.. I realized the Sydney pictures didn't turn out too bad.
2) Also added a link to Peishan's (my colleague) blog down here.

Candid shots from Sydney trip

Finally! I've managed to allocate some of my intermittent periods of skiving to upload the pictures that I had taken during my Sydney conference trip in early June. First and foremost, apologies for the incredulous darkness of the images - this is what you get when you attempt to shoot in the southern hemisphere at 6pm in the winter. :-P


Me in my suit on my hotel bed. ^_^

Sydney's version of Hyde Park - the infamous, mysterious park located at Sydney's city centre.

Some eateries at Milson Point across the Sydney Harbor Bridge.

A typical Chinatown shop along George Street - Sydney's spinal street.

This is June's favorite, a backdrop of Darling Harbor with its breathtaking skyline.