littleworkpage

In this post, I have decided to address something personal instead of the usual socio-political and legal stuff.  But, I guess in a way the personal is political. Levy Amongst the sugary stuff that is being thrown at us peasants (so that the real details of government expenditure can continue to enjoy opacity) is a reduction in the levy payable for the employment of Foreign Domestic Workers in households that have young children or elderly dependants.  I have a young child and an elderly dependant.  I am currently paying $170 for the levy.  From 1st March 2013, this amount will be reduced to $120.  The Straits Times dutifully reports that this represents savings of $600 a year.  Let's see... The street bully has been extorting $100 a month and now he has decided to take $50 a month.  I am supposed to be happy that I am enjoying a saving of $600 a year.  What I want to know is why has the street bully been extorting all along? Why do we have a maid...

The two nouns in the title sometimes thread through fractious discussions. Both terms are rather slippery, and depend in turn on notions like Meaning, Language and Understanding, discussion of which can easily hijack the debate. Also once failure of communication becomes an issue so does blame, arrogance, incompetence, and fraudulence. Here I'm going to restrict myself to mentioning just a few points, some borrowed from my other articles. Language Language is used for many purposes other than information transfer. It's sometimes a replacement for pictures in order to record. People talk to themselves, cry out in pain, pray, chant, seduce, and tell jokes. Language can perform the role that nit-picking performs in a troop of apes. It can establish and reinforce power hierarchies. Does poetry have as wide a range? I don't see why not. For instance, it's used to help people remember how many days are in each month, and to release emotion when a princess dies. Much of the ...