Coming out from the pigeon hole

Both my Human Resource Management and Organisation Theory lecturers share something interesting in common – both are confident and assured that whatever our local government has been doing over the past few years, isn’t turning out horribly wrong. Occasionally, while in the process of lecturing, I’d notice they’d painstakingly point out that Singapore is more of a democracy compared to its ASEAN neighbours, which is a refreshing view vis-a-vis our local blogsphere.

From time to time, I think it’s useful to remind ourselves that things in Singapore could be subjected to a lot worse than higher taxi-fares, higher ERP rates and higher pay-checks of our widely-adored ministers. Take for instance, Zimbabwe’s economy. According to Wikipedia,

“The economy of Zimbabwe is collapsing under the weight of economic mismanagement, resulting in 85% unemployment and the highest rate of inflation in the world. The economy poorly transitioned after Mugabe’s leadership, deteriorating from one of Africa’s strongest economies to the world’s worst. Inflation has surpassed that of all other nations at 11,000%, with the next highest in Burma at 40%. The government has attributed the economy’s poor performance to international sanctions.”

This essentially translates into a chaotic marketplace where bananas cost more than a house, and despite the fact that everyone’s a millionaire due to hyper-inflation, everyone’s exceedingly poor too. And the economy is but just one facet of the crisis going on there.

More recently, Pakistan has deployed paramilitary troops to guard over its wheat supplies amid fears of a massive shortfall. This is wheat we’re talking about! Rice is the staple food through most,if not all, of Asia. Something so crucial yet something so often taking for granted everyday, 3 times a day, right here in Singapore. And it’s not just Pakistan – there was a poor wheat harvest which led to shortfall all around the world, which I’m guessing was partly due to environmental issues.

If you’ve been following the U.S. presidential elections, you’d be familiar with Mike Huckabee, one of the front runners of the Republican Party. As far as I can tell, his strategy involves marketing his evangelical position as a fundamental Christian, which proved effective in deeply-religious Iowa. But I’d bet the majority of political spectators did not see this coming :

Changing the constitution to fit God’s standards? Is this guy running for president, or running for Jesus? Has he not heard of the separation of church and state?

“In the United States, separation of church and state is often identified with the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which states that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof… The phrase building a wall of separation between church and state was written by Thomas Jefferson in a January 1, 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptist Association.”

The implications, if this were to happen, could be ridiculous. Homosexuals would be hunted down and jailed as if homosexuality were a crime, atheists would be tied to wooden stakes and burnt like how witches were treated in Europe during the 13th-16th century, the list goes on.