US Primaries

I've been absorbing the Iowa results. Really fascinating. We get Fox News, CBS, CNN, BBC, CNBC as well as local terrestrial news channels and the online versions of every newspaper on earth so we're pretty well informed.

Huckabee is dangerously likeable. He sounds so reasonable and sensible, it's hard to remember that he is on the lunatic fringe of religion.

Romney - I wish he wasn't being judged on his Mormonism. His religion may or may be invented, but every Mormon I've met has impressed me with their honesty, decency, dedication to family values and hard work. Their community support for one another seems admirable. Romney himself, however, looks like an adult version of Barbie's Ken. He's just too good-looking and well-groomed. Dilbert maintains that tall people with great hair have an unfair advantage in reaching top corporate positions, which Mitt (what a stupid name) has done. But should these be desirable characteristics for a President? Why doesn't someone run an historical survey of Presidential looks mapped against performance? Abraham Lincoln did pretty well, and he was ugly, man, ugly.

On the other side - can Obama really get to the White House? He has fantastic charisma and vision, and he makes the other contenders look old, tired, nasty, self-centred, power-mad. Note how all the others focus their speeches on "I", wheras Obama talks about "we" and "you". Hilary is already widely disliked and she's coming across now even more as cold, calculating, bitchy. I believe whatever attacks she mounts on Obama from here on in will rebound on her.

Question is - if Obama was President, how well could he deal with the Pakistans, Chinas, Irans of this world? Would Hilary's calculating approach be more effective? Possibly it would, but I don't think we'll get the chance to find out. Obama's building a new constituency of young and undecided voters who are electrified by his Kennedy-esque, inclusive, visionary message. He will get out a whole block of voters who have never voted before and wouldn't bother this time if the choice was Hilary v Giuliani.

The others keep talking about experience - why don't they realize that "Washington experience" to the average middle American means policy failure, corruption, collusion with big business, and a "don't know, don't care" attitude to everywhere outside the beltway (except for their favorite pork projects of course).

So, my prediction as of today is Obama wins the White House. And offers Hilary the position of Secretary of State. Now that would work - think about it - good cop, bad cop! Velvet oratory and an iron fist of realpolitik.
Trouble is, she'd never accept the job.

Back on the diet

Over 9 months last year, Dr Atkins caused me to lose around 28 lbs and four inches off my waist.

In Denver, a major switch of diet to Drs Krispy Kreme, Mountain Dew, Quizno and Heidi's Brooklyn Kitchen didn't seem to make much difference - until last week when the accumulated carbs decided overnight to transform into FAT. Why the delay, I wonder? Why doesn't it creep up, ounce by ounce and millimeter by millimeter?

Anyway, I'm back to my romance with Dr Atkins. Evil breath, constipation, but I know from experience that those symptoms pass and the weight and inches drop off, to the point where I can sneer at the rapidly obesifying Singaporeans. Mind you, the sight of me without clothes is pretty ghastly. The wrinkles are like a rhinoceros' ass. Don't care - nobody gets to see ME nekkid!

TV Show of the decade - SpongeBob. Favorite character - Patrick.

Back to School

My 8 year old, Sara, has started back at Mayflower Primary. 45 kids in the class. The teachers demand unthinking obedience, total silence in class, and are not to be questioned. They typically yell and "teach" the students by humiliating and insulting them when they give a wrong answer. Sometimes they resport to physical violence. Like her classmates, Sara carries a schoolbag that weighs enough to give her curvature of the spine. An hour a day (at least) of school homework, plus extra tuition for 2 or 3 hours, 3 times a week. This is necessary if the kids are to pass the exams that get them into a decent academic stream at the next age level.

What a contrast with Ms Zeek's class at Village East Elementary in Cherry Creek School District, Denver! www.vil.ccsd.k12.co.us/

That was such a great school. Sara loved - and learned - every minute. Today, the joy has left her. For a short while, she got her childhood back, now it has been stolen from her again. The US and other countries that are considering copying the Singapore system and curriculum should seriously think again. I'm not saying the US or UK systems are perfect, but the way to fix whatever is wrong is most definitely NOT to follow Singapore. Unless of course you want an adult workforce of left-brained, inarticulate, immature robots who know everything, understand nothing, and cannot figure out the solution to a problem if it isn't already in a text book.

Ms Zeek, we miss you!

The end of 2007 - sad farewell to Denver

Will I be sorry to say goodbye to 2007? Yes and no - it's another year closer to whatever awaits on the other side, but I avoided the major health issues I suffered in recent years and I am now blindly confident that my total lack of exercise, my 20-a-day habit, my fondness for saturated fat and my stressful work and home life will not prevent me living another 20 years at least.

After spending the last 6 years in Singapore, the longest I've lived in one country since 1968, the-grass-is-greener syndrome struck again. My family and I spent five months in Denver, Colorado. What a wonderful state! What a wonderful city!

Singapore's highest point is 164 metres above sea level - less than 500 feet. What a contrast with the Mile-High City. We took a long time to acclimate to the thin air. Water boils below 100 degrees C, so tea tastes lousy. We all had constant sinus congestion. My wife got altitude sickness and threw up when we drove up Lookout Mountain to Buffalo Bill's Grave.

But these were small irritants, compared to the breathtaking beauty of the Rockies. And there are so many more positives about Denver, like for example the architecture. The city has preserved its Victorian architectural heritage downtown whereas Singapore has stupidly torn down or Disney-fied pretty much all the areas that had character. (I'll post some pictures when I figure out how to do it).

There are a million things to do in Colorado, both out in the countryside, where you can rock-climb, ski, hunt, camp, fish, find dinosaur bones or just hike for miles in untouched wilderness, or indoors with a fantastic arts, music, theatre and club scene.

In Singapore - well, I guess it's livelier than it used to be but the main pastimes are still shopping and eating. And let's be honest - the Orchard Road shopping scene is crap compared to Hong Kong, London, New York, Paris, Rome - almost any major city. Luxury goods are no longer much cheaper than elsewhere, and you have to fight your way through huge crowds who can't walk in a straight line, close your ears to incessant competing noise from every store as well as promo booths along the street, just to deal with sales staff who must be the rudest and most ignorant on the planet. And while Singapore's tame press constantly congratulates itself on the country being a food paradise, the truth is most of the local dishes you buy at the food centres are garbage. More on these topics in subsequent posts.

In contrast, Singapore's physical infrastructure and bureaucratic systems are light years beyond the US. Getting a social security card or a driver's licence is an unbelievable ordeal. The US mobile phone service is a joke. The highways, bridges and surface streets are crumbling. And the airlines! United continues to vie with Northwest for the title of Worst Major Airline in the World - more on these to come, too.

For now, let me give you my author of the month - Lee Child. Movie of the Month - I am Legend.

Time to smoke a Marlboro Light and eat butter.

Byeee