News this week:

1. Israel pounce on aid ship bound for Gaza. So this whole mess has taken an interesting turn for the better and worse. Better in the sense that the world has come to realise and better appreciate the plight of Gazans. Even almost all of the UN Security Council and the Sec-Gen had harsh words for Israel and their combative tactics against civilians. What made the difference was these civilians were not Palestinians. Individuals from other nationalities got hurt and their governments had to come forward to address the situation. People also protested all over the world, even in Tel Aviv.

This solidarity of support for Gazans and Palestine can only serve to grease the gears of change. It's about time these warring folks seek to find a permanent, viable solution for each other. Yes, many Arabs want Israel's anihilation but seriously, it ain't right. At the same time, Israel's heavy hand has slapped around the Palestinians way too hard and way too often. I have generally been upset that Israel has almost never given the Palestinians a chance to be a nation. So many UN resolutions, so many violations. How can we not expect the Palestinians to be angry and react with violence? It takes a strong, strong man not to lift his hand. The worse bit is that people died. It's unfortunate but not in vain. There's another boat that's been boarded, this time amicably and the Israelis are searching it for weapons. Ok, compromise. Gaza gets aid, just no arms.

2. BP oil spill gets worse. The spill's showing up in Florida and today's news suspects it might latch on to the Gulf Stream and even make it up to New York, Nova Scotia and the North Atlantic. How bad can this get? Well it seems very. The oil might meet up with the puffing Iceland volcano with the tough name, a meeting of the natural whammies. The Americans affected by this are damn pissed. All the fisherman who rely on catch from the Gulf of Mexico want compensation, and unfortunately, New Orleans is now plagued with another disaster. Here's one website that plots the spill over any Google map to give people an idea of the extent of the problem - http://www.ifitwasmyhome.com Cool and shockingly scary. Singapore is slicked out.


Should we stop looking for oil? Some smart people are lobbying for better resources for non-carbon based energy solutions. You know, wind, water, solar, geothermal and nuclear - the Fab Five of clean energy. It's a good point. The more we rely on oil, the more likely accidents like this could happen, and mess up the world around us.

I also got to thinking about why don't nations share electricity generation capabilities. Perhaps neighbouring countries could get their currents from a shared, clean energy resource. Take Asean for example. Could we set up a set of nuclear power stations or geothermal stations somewhere and split the transmissions? Does every country need its own power stations? I don't think so. We could easily share. Engineers gotta figure out to reduce transmission losses though.

3. SG won a world table tennis title. Whooppee some might go but there are many Singaporeans who can't feel any pride at this victory. Locals have a big problem with foreign talent winning sports events in Singapore's name. I generally also feel the same way. Here's why. We've never really had a local-born person in the team and with the team being totally 'imported', it's hard to feel like it's a Singaporean win. Unlike other sports like swimming and football, we have locals and foreign talents competing in the country's name and it seems like a fair representation. We're also a young country and this youth makes the contrast in 'Singaporeanness' more apparent and perhaps severely recognizable. I've never the tennis table team champions speak English. It's a problem. The local TV folks have also been criticised for not transmitting the finals against China live. If Mediacrap can't be bothered, should the population?

Someone I follow on Twitter posted this - ultra_slacker: I don't get this sg ping pong thing. I don't choose not to feel proud; I couldn't even if I wanted to. #somethingsmoneycantbuy

It sums up the sentiments of many Singaporeans. We need a change. Something to wrest this apathy from sinking in and signal the end of local sports representation. But then so many people seem to be running in marathons these days. Why haven't we groomed any local champs yet?