Sri Lanka 0508 斯里兰卡

Arrival at the airport


Beach behind the hotel


Vesak day Decoration


Elephant Orphanage


Spa


Botanic Garden


Botanic Garden


A temple


Vesak Day Decoration at Hotel


Roadside Museum


This building purposely built like this ?


Tea Plantation


Building


Tea Factory Hotel which is built like a Tea Factory


Grand Hotel


Plucking Tea leaves


Niagara Falls of Sri Lanka


Independent Monument


Parliament House





夕阳无限好，只是近黄昏。


Vesak Day Ceremony


Departure

Corruption and Democracy Ranking 贪污及民主指数排名

The 2007 corruption rankings and World Democracy Audit are listed below.

Country, Corruption Rank, Democracy Rank, GDP (Nominal) Per Capita Rank
Finland 1, 1 , 9
Denmark 1, 2, 7
New Zealand 1, 4, 26
Singapore 4, 74, 21
Sweden 4, 3, 8
Switzerland 6, 5, 6
Netherlands 6, 6, 10
Norway 8, 7, 2
Canada 8, 8, 14
Australia 10, 9, 15
United Kingdom 11, 9
Austria 12, 12, 12
Germany 13, 11, 13
Japan 14, 31, 22
Ireland 14, 14, 5
France 16, 16, 18
United States 17,15, 11

Korea, South 32, 32, 34
Malaysia 32, 82, 63
Taiwan26, 38, ?
China 57, 121, 105
India 57, 47, 131
Thailand 67, 88, 89
Indonesia 115, 71, 115

塑胶袋, Plastic Bags

很久以前，没有塑胶袋。上巴杀要拿个大篮子。 菜和肉都用报纸来包。买汤类熟食的话，还要自己带容器去装。好麻烦。
自从有了塑胶袋之后，塑胶袋又轻又耐，冷的热的，干的湿的都能够装，给生活带来了许多方便。
可是现在政府说要环保，要大家少用塑胶袋。好些商店都不发塑胶袋了。这使到生活又回到了古早时期。
环境局说塑胶袋是用石油做的，少用塑胶袋就等于减少石油的耗费。还有当塑胶袋被丢弃成为垃圾时，燃烧垃圾所产生的碳气又会破坏大气层。
但生产塑胶袋所用的石油会多吗？会的话塑胶袋就不可能那么便宜了。
要减少石油的耗费的话，为什么新加坡车辆的数量每年都在增加呢？
为什么中央快速公路的塞车问题不赶快解决，而让汽车堵在那里一直在烧掉燃油，排出碳气？
我不支持少用塑胶袋运动的原因有二，一是对象问题，二是效率问题。
上巴杀的多数是婆婆妈妈。为什么我们要给婆婆妈妈辛苦？而有钱人就可以驾大车？为什么不减少车辆的数量？为什么不鼓励大车换小车？
少用塑胶袋和减少车辆的数量，那一个比较省油？
为什么政策总是从低层做起，让上巴杀的婆婆妈妈辛苦，让有车阶级族享受？

In the old days, when there was no plastic bag, people needed to bring along a basket to buy things at market. Vegetables and meat were wrapped in newspaper. Buying soup needed to bring along your own container, troublesome.
After the invention of plastic bag, it brought along a lot of convenient. Plastic bag is light and durable. it could contain cold and hot, dry and wet goods.
But now government wants us to use less plastic bags, some shops do not give out free plastic bags anymore. It brings us back to the old days again?
Environment Ministry says that plastic bag is made of fuel, if we could reduce the use of plastic bag it could help to save fuel. Moreover when plastic bag becomes trash, burning of trash will create carbon and will damage the atmosphere.
Will producing plastic bags consume a lot of fuel ? if so, plastic bags cannot be so cheap.
To reduce the use of fuel, why Singapore keeps increasing its car population every year ? why don't they solve the traffic jam problem at Central Expressway ? instead of allowing cars jammed at the expressway burning away fuel and emitting carbon.
I do not support the campaign to use less plastic bags for 2 reasons.
First is the target group. Second is the effectiveness.
Majority of the people who go to markets are housewives and elderly. Why create inconvenient to them ? But allow the rich to drive big cars ?
Why don't we reduce the car population ? why don't we set a policy to discourage use of big cars ?
Why target group of government campaign is always the weak lower group of people ? but allowing the rich car owners to continue enjoying themselves?

Singapore's GDP per capita 平均每人國內生產總值

When Singapore became independent in 1965, our GDP (nominal) per capita was US$512. In 2007, it grew to US$35,163.

Singapore is ranked number 21 by IMF , 22 by World Bank and 25 by CIA of highest GDP(nominal) per capita country in the world in 2007.

Singapore is ranked number 4 by World Bank and ranked number 6 by IMF and CIA of highest GDP(PPP) per capita country in the world in 2007. On top of US, Switzerland and UK.

GDP(PPP) means Gross Domestic Product at Purchasing Power Parity.

言论自由 Freedom of Speech

好多人说新加坡没有言论自由。

新加坡是个多元种族，多元宗教的社会。我们要各种族各宗教和平相处，就必须要互相了解，互相尊重。我们不能像西方社会那样，以言论自由为籍口而随便侮辱别人的宗教，别人的行为。

但话又说回来，在其他非种族和非宗教的议题上，我觉得政府还有很多空间给于人民更多的言论自由。

Singapore has been criticised for lack of freedom of speech.

Singapore is a multi-racial, multi-religious society. We need to have mutual understandings and respects by different races and religions in order to live peacefully and harmoniously together. We can't act like the western countries, using freedom of speech as an excuse to insult others' religions and behaviours.

On the other hand, on matters which do not concern religious or racial, I feel our government could let us have more space and more freedom of speech.

自由 Freedom

美国人说新加坡不自由，不能吃他们生产的口香糖。
我在美国的大街上不能喝酒，那就有自由吗？
在美国，有好多州在大街上喝酒是违法的。
喝酒不能驾车，我了解。喝酒不能走路, 神经病！

美国人说新加坡没有自由，但我们的女孩，可以半夜安全的在街上走。
而在美国好多地方，连男人在大白天都不能安全的在街上走。

谁比谁自由？

Americans criticise Singapore of not having freedom. People can't chew gums produced by them.
But in America, I was not able to drink a can of beer in the street as in America, most states ban drinking alcoholic beverages in public.
And you call this a free country ?
I can understand one should not drink and drive, but I can't understand why one can't drink and walk ? Mad !

Americans criticise Singapore of not having freedom. But our girls can walk in the street freely and safely at night.
However in America, even man can't walk freely in some streets during daytime.

Who has got more freedom than who ?

新加坡人的民主 Singapore's Democracy

好多人认为新加坡一党专政，没有民主。

虽然没有强大的反对党，但新加坡政府是由新加坡人民所选出来的，这也就是民主。是新加坡人民的选择是新加坡人的民主。

如果有一天，执政党做的不好，人民是会选出更多的反对党议员的，甚致选出新的执政党来成立政府。但那不是我们所希望的, 我们希望的是拥有一个好的政府，继续为新加坡人民带来更好的生活。

不一定要跟西方一样的民主才是民主。

Many people think Singapore ruled mainly by one party and has no democracy.

Al thought Singapore does not have strong opposition parties, the government is elected by the people, this is democracy. This is Singapore people's choice, Singapore people's democracy.

If one day the ruling party continues to do badly, the people of Singapore will elect more opposition MPs into the parliament, or even to form a new government. But this is not what Singapore people hope for, what we hope for is to have a good government continues to do well and continue to bring us a better life.

Not necessary need to follow what the western world is doing, we can have our own democracy.