Everyone at home is fussing over Jed so much in the evening after they get off work / school that I’m positive he’s getting too much stimuli, so much so that it makes it difficult for him to get to sleep at night. 

I am so so pissed with all of them. 

I’m sure Jed is too.  Recently he’s taken to peeing on some of them, when they over-enthusiastically volunteer to change his diapers.  I say they deserve it.

Wait till they experience his projectile poop …

… just times of feeding and non-feeding (Joyce).

Somewhat disappointingly, the reply issued in response to the letter "Why Feature Arafat among terrorists ?" avoided stating unpleasant facts and instead fudged the issue by claiming that the "faces [ including Arafat's ] displayed were open to many different interpretations", and that a decision was made to take Arafat’s face down to avoid misinterpretation.  Well, at least it wasn’t said that Arafat’s face was taken down because he had not employed terrorist tactics before.

From the ST Forum, 16 November 2005 :

Montage Featuring Arafat Removed

I refer to the letter "Why Feature Arafat Among Terrorists ?" (ST, Nov 15) …

The key objective of the NLB Terrorism Exhibition is to raise the public’s awareness and understanding of the issues involved in terrorism.

The exhibition had a decorative backdrop which featured eight panels with a montage of 24 faces each.  The late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was one of the faces featured.  There was no text in the panels.  The purpose of the montage was to attract visitors to the exhibits.

We received feedback from visitors that if one looked at the montage without looking at the exhibition in its totality, the faces displayed were open to many different interpretations.

In view of the possible misinterpretation, the organisers had removed the montage on Nov 14.

Today’s ST Forum featured a letter "Why Feature Arafat Among Terrorists ?" :

The Ministry of Information, Communication and the Arts and the Defence Ministry currently have an exhibition on terrorism at the National Library.

One of the terrorists’ portraits on the exhibit is that of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

This contradicts the fact that Singapore’s Speaker of Parliament, Mr Abdullah Turmugi, visited his shrine in the Palestine recently.

Why was the late Arafat featured in the exhibition ?

In Japan, history textbooks still describe its World War II aggression as a war of liberation, and deny the Nanjing Massacre and widespread use of "comfort" women by Japanese soldiers for sexual gratification.  I wonder if the letter writer was reading from the same textbook.

An example of Arafat’s terrorist past : At the 1972 Munich Olympics, the Black September, a PLO faction controlled by the Arafat, attacked and killed 11 Israeli atheletes.  (And we wonder why the Israelis don’t find Arafat endearing).

Furthermore, Arafat himself did not deny that he had employed terrorist tactics in his struggle against Israel.  As part of the Oslo Peace Accords, Arafat declared in a 9 September 1993 letter that the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO), which he had founded in and led since the 1960s (or thereabouts), would renounce "the use of terrorism and other acts of violence". 

So the fact is, regardless of whether we think the Palestinian cause is fair or just, and regardless of whether we think Arafat had a choice in his tactics, Arafat was, until 1993, a terrorist.

There are elements about the World War II Japanese army, such as their discipline and patriotism, that should be admired and emulated; but their cruelty is a historical fact we should not glorify by denying or forgeting.

Similarly, there are probably some elements about Arafat that may be admired, the fact that he was awarded the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize (together with then Israeli Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres) possibly being one of them.  Perhaps that explains why the Speaker of Parliament visited his shrine (I don’t know whether this really took place). 

However, Arafat’s terrorist past is not something we should glorify by denying, forgeting or worse, approving of.  Otherwise, future generations may be tempted to emulate not just the postive aspects of Arafat’s career, but his deplorable acts of terrorism.

… is like trying to drop an atomic bomb and hoping that it won’t detonate.

Today is day 2 of baby Jed’s existence and I think I am finally getting the hang of carrying him (picture on right).

I even changed his diapers for the first (and unfortunately, not the last for many months to come) time today.  The ungrateful creature however took the opportunity to pee on me, and all over his sheets, at that time.

Don’t be deceived by my innocent demeanour - I pee and poop ! (above)

The sad thing about being a newborn is not only the fact that you are totally useless (except where it comes to suckling, crying and pooping), but that everyone else who is able to walk will mercilessly want to play with you - nevermind that you want to rest - and you, are helpless to retaliate (except maybe to pee or poop on them).

Vicious grandmother putting me through sleep deprivation treatment (above, left)
Other adults bribe my parents with flowers so that they can torture me (above, right)

Parenthood came upon us a little earlier than expected (Jed was actually due on 19th November).  At about 4 am on Wednesday morning, Joyce started feeling some labour contractions.  By 4 pm, amazingly and with much less pain than expected, Jed was born.

We are so blessed.

I have to confess that when Jed first came out, I wasn’t very impressed.  He was kind of blue all over - I thought he looked kind of gollum-ish.  Good thing they cleaned him up very soon after that !  Needless to say, I’m only going to post the better-looking pictures here.

Joyce started experiencing regular contractions - possibly labour contractions - at about 0400 hours today.  We didn’t rush to hospital because there’s no risk of Jed popping out anytime soon.  And as I drifted in and out of sleep between the contractions (ie. sleep interrupted by Joyce), I had one of strangest dreams ever.

First, I dreamt that Joyce and I were walking at the void deck of a HDB deck when she suddenly squatted down and gave birth to Jed.  I recall not seeing an umbilical cord in the dream, and thinking that this was rather strange.  Yet it never crossed my mind that I was dreaming.

After Jed was born, we decided that we had to go down to the gynecologist to let him take a look at Joyce.  Jed peed, and I cleaned him up.  Catherine, who for some strange reason was with us at the clinic, was suitably impressed.  I recall, when cleaning Jed up, not seeing his penis, and again thinking that it was rather strange.  Yet again it did not cross my mind that I was dreaming.

And finally, Jed could talk.  Or at least I thought I heard Jed talking.  In my dream, Joyce thought I was delusional when I told her about it.   But when I asked Jed to say a few words to convince mummy, the little twerp kept quiet.

Then I woke up and realised it was just a dream.

Oh, the mucus plug (?) just detached itself.  Jed is going to be born.

I received another one of those Hurricane-Katrina-is-divine-judgement-on-US-for-failing-to-look-after-Israel e-mails today (see my previous post on a previous similar e-mail).  I didn’t know whether to laugh or weep at the absurdity of some the flawed arguments employed in the message.  Some excerpts include :

… pointing out that Ariel Sharon’s then-pending unilateral evacuation of  Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria was a direct result of intense pressure from American and European leaders, I ended … with this warning: "If it’s true that nations, like individuals, reap what they sow, then folks all over the Western world better get ready for even more difficult days ahead" …

… I first noticed this apparent correlation when the "Perfect Storm" … struck the Atlantic Ocean as the US-promoted International Mideast Peace Conference was taking place in Madrid in late October 1991. At that  parlay, George Bush I, whose summer home in Maine was seriously damaged by the raging storm, was joined by European and other world leaders in demanding that intensely-reluctant Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir begin a withdrawal process designed to eventually create a Palestinian state alongside of tiny Israel …

As a result of that conference, direct Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations were convened under US auspices for the first time ever.  They began nearly one year later at the State Department in Washington DC. The date was August 24, 1992-the very day that Hurricane Andrew swept ashore and devastated southern Florida …

Several months later, the controversial Oslo Accord was signed on the White House lawn, sealed by a historic handshake between Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin, at the benevolent urging of Bill Clinton. Just over one year later, his administration had to deal with the deadliest domestic terrorist attack ever when the Murrah Federal Building was blasted to bits in Oklahoma City …

Bin Laden’s 9/11 Muslim assaults occurred just two days shy of the eighth anniversary of the Oslo Accord White House signing ceremony, held just up the road from the Pentagon. … scholars point out that eight is the biblical number signifying completion of a cycle.  Was it a cycle of divine judgment due to America’s relentless promotion of a "peace" plan that would prove deadly and devastating to its small Mideast ally?

As Aaron Klein pointed out exactly two months after the July 7th London bombings, many … believe that Katrina’s wrath was Divine Retribution for America’s pivotal role in the Gaza and northern Samaria forced evacuations, which were completed just two days before the powerful hurricane made landfall between Miami and  Fort Lauderdale and five days before it ripped apart much of America’s Gulf coast. Mere coincidence?

And as far as absurdity goes, this paragraph really takes the cake …

It is interesting to note that the name Katrina begins and ends with the vowel "a", as does Gaza. If you take out the middle part, "tri," which means three, you get Kana, which is the name of the Galilee town in Samaria where Jesus did his first public miracle, turning water into wine. If you add a final "n" to that you get Kanan-the original biblical name of the Holy Land.

After reading the message, I couldn’t help but compose a reply to say that I found its reasoning questionable (I was trying to be polite).

While it is not beyond God’s power to bring judgement upon the US and other nations for their "failure" to show greater affection for Israel, I question if the reasoning in the message below is Biblical and sound.

Is the writer simply picking and choosing whatever facts support his theory of divine judgement, while ignoring facts that may contradict his theory ? I observe that there is inconsistency in how "judgement" sometimes takes place on the day that a wrongful act is allegedly carried out (eg. Hurricane Andrew), and at other times a few days later or even as late as one year after the wrongful act (eg. Oklahoma bombings). By this method, you can connect almost any disaster to a wrongful national act, and claim that God is executing some form of dramatic divine judgement.

In this connection, isn’t it just as possible to extrapolate that the terrorist attacks and natural disasters on the US are divine judgement for staunchly supporting Israel ? I believe that is certainly what is on bin Laden’s mind !

Like the writer, I believe that God has created a world that operates according a general rule that people will reap what they sow. However, unlike the writer, I do not think "reaping" always means God going out of His way, intruding into the order of His Creation, to execute judgement in some dramatic way. Rather "reaping" is, most of the time, the natural outcome of a wrong or sinful decision (eg. if I live promicuously, I may get a sexually transmitted disease; if I steal, I may go to jail). So in regard to this matter :

1. Is the devastation caused by Katrina and the other hurricanes a dramatic form of divine judgement, or the US simply reaping what it has sowed as a poor steward of the environment which God has entrusted to it ?

2. Is the tragedy and chaos in the wake of the natural disasters another case of dramatic divine judgement, or the US simply reaping what it has sowed in its failure to implement and execute sound civil emergency plans, and in its neglect of the largely African-American / Hispanic minorities in New Orleans ?

3. Are the terrorist attacks on the US and UK yet another case of divine judgment executed in a dramatic fashion, or a case of richer, developed nations reaping what they have sowed in their oppression of lesser developed nations, whether through colonialism or support of the subsequent corrupt, wicked governments or otherwise, creating a generation of youths who have little hope for the future, but great hatred for the powers that they see as the oppressors responsible for their current plight ?