Zapalang post

Happy birthday to Edwin! 8/8/2008

Yesterday went for my 2nd 16KM run. Yeah, again...
I ran much more slower than the 1st attempt, because there was no medal given out when you completed your run in under 2 hours. LOL~

Ran with Jansen, slow pace but jogged leisurely. Even Leonard and Weilong were in front.

Shortly after Jansen and me made (Oops, I mis-typed into maked) a U-turn, Joseph and Yun Zhen caught up. Then we 6 people jogged back to the starting point.

About half way back, Leonard mischeivously played prank on me in front of a group of sec sch girls by shouting 'good morning sir!' The girls looked at me. I kena stunned. Joseph, Yun Zhen and Leonard laughed... =.= Then he and Yun Zhen bullied those primary sch kids by racing with them. When the kids realised that they can't keep up with their da-kor-kor counterparts, Leonard and Yun Zhen said back 'you can't beat me~~'... I Lol-ed...

That's the end of the run. Also saw 40SAR running and GUARDS doing marching there.

Then had Katong Laksa at East Coast Road there. Seriously I feel that the laksa is very normal and overpriced. $3.50 for like half a bowl. WTF?!! The cup of drinks, priced $1.30, was made up mostly ice. What the hell la~ Definitely can find something that's more delicious and fulfilling than this lor.

Heng ah I didn't drive that day... Was hoping that I could borrow the Honda. But after the whole series of events, I was glad I no need to drive. Hohoho, imagine 4 cars just ferry 9 people. Very unefficient and polluting the environment by releasing more CO2 and NOx into the atmosphere. *Yeah, stop making excuses for youself. But I'm serious lor!

Watched the 2008 Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony live telecast @ Channel 5 at night. They had chose the most auspicious time ever. 08年8月8日8点08分... Written it as 08/08/08 8.08pm... And somemore yesterday was 初八 (8th day) of the lunar calendar!!! 真巧！

The feeling was great. The performance managed to bring out the ancient and the modern China. 五千年历史的中国就在此刻展现出来. 四大发明, i.e. 造纸、印刷、指南针 and 火药 were shown to the world. Even 太极 was included in the show. A pity that 杂技 was not included. I liked 杂技 lor. The visual effects, i.e. the globe, bird nest lighting and the 画卷 were just too 精彩了.

All thanks to Zhang Yimou, who was in charge of the opening ceremony performance. No wonder some put this as the most spectacular Olympics opening ceremony ever.

Catch the video (part of the ceremony - 画卷) here:



Followed the performance was the parade of each country's athletes. China and USA had the greatest number of athletes competing in this game, with 639 and 595 respectively. 是在场的‘拉拉队’起初超high的，又摇又跳，yeng下……后来就好像跳到很累了，就没什么跳。嘿嘿，只是蓄势待发罢料 rfrf 直到东道主的队伍入场，她们又high去！

最好笑的是有些国家的一些选手真够胆！敢敢在星光大道游走时，明目张胆猛拍那些拉拉队的mm！喂，全世界都在看你啦！够力到~

Then towards the end, that was the most 厉害的地方. A man was running round the stadium in mid-air, then he lit up the torch. Nice~ The ceremony ended.

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Woke up this morning and surprised to see this:

Phasing out conscription readies army for new era

Publication Date：08/07/2008 Section：Commentary

The ROC National Defense Minister Chen Chao-min announced at the end of last month that Taiwan would move toward establishing an all-volunteer military by 2013. This signals the end of the island's decades-old tradition of conscription.

A revamp of the military was part of President Ma Ying-jeou's election campaign platform, which advocated the creation of a smaller, better-trained and better-equipped professional fighting force. Despite the change being expected to cost the taxpayer more, as a result of offering better pay and benefits to attract qualified recruits, the public's response toward the plan has largely been positive.

By doing away with conscription, Taiwan's military will be on a par with other fully-industrialized nations such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan, which have adopted all-volunteer militaries as a means to further improve their national forces' combat readiness and efficiency in the post-Cold War era.

The demise of conventional warfare, and the use of new technology to increase combat effectiveness, has eliminated the need for nations to maintain large-scale standing militaries. But as the United States discovered when it ended conscription in 1973, the benefits of shifting to an all-volunteer force do not materialize immediately, and the period of transition can be more costly and difficult than anticipated.

In Taiwan there was debate over whether to switch from compulsory service to an all-volunteer military. However, in 2005 the Cabinet passed a directive aimed at transforming the military into a professional, knowledge-based and technology-driven force. To this end, the ROC would employ a mixture of conscription and enlistment, with an emphasis on the latter. From 2008, the military had more recruits than conscripts (now at a 60-40 ratio).

Meanwhile, the armed forces have also sought to reduce the conscription term from 16 months to 12 months and have introduced substitute service, allowing conscripts to apply for non-military duties. Critics have argued that these alternative arrangements may help relieve short-term manpower shortages in public and private sectors, but in fact, military resources will continue to be strained as considerable time and money must still be dedicated to training the conscripts.

While establishing an all-volunteer military in the short term may require increased spending, in the long term, the additional expense would be offset by a reduced turnover of military personnel and the freeing up of would-be conscripts, who otherwise would be lost to the workforce after graduating from high school or university. By ending conscription, Taiwan will not only be more productive, but will be better protected by a fully professional, all-volunteer military.

http://taiwanjournal.nat.gov.tw/ct.asp?CtNode=122&xItem=44713