Dressed in your Sunday Finest?

St Anthony's Church at Woodlands dropped its controversial dress code last week.

Cool heads have prevailed and I think that’s the wisest move at this time.

The idea of a dress code is acceptable. After all,  there are dress codes for temples, mosques, social functions, even for business. A proper dress code ensure propriety for that particular place or event. 

It's just the enforcement that I object to. 

The thing I personally dislike is that some wardens have become the morality police. 

Aren’t they infringing my rights as a catholic to receive communion. 

Are they sure they wish to take the responsibility of denying me the sacraments just because I may be in shorts or wearing sandals?

Dress codes are a guide and should never be a deterrent especially in a church.

 It’s not going to help if there’s no accepted standard definition, and rules are unilaterally laid down according a particularly perceived idea of decency. Ultimately the loser will be the church when parishioners stop attending simply because their dress styles or values differ slightly from the rules defined by the local parish.

What would St Francis at his tiny church on the plains of Assisi have said?

Don’t come in! You smell of sheep, your feet are covered with mud from the fields,

or would he have said Come and share in the Lord’s table?

Most Catholics know the boundaries of being dressed properly for church. 

Some do test the limits, but while most may not be in their Sunday best , they do try to maintain an  acceptable level of decency in today’s societal norm.

Of course, it helps if the pastor comes out once in a while to remind everyone. 

Keeping silent too long may simply compound the issue.

Sunday Rantings. 19 Feb 2012.

I got a buzz from my sis yesterday,"Hey tomorrow's Sunday. Where's your Sunday Ranting? It's been awhile!"
I'd been focusing my energies on my heritage blog lately that's why!
Some friends even 'pushing' me to compile it into a book. You kidding me, who's gonna do the work?
But I did put up a post just last Friday on the stuff from the week's papers, didn't you read it? Click here if you didn't.

Anyway, just to keep my baby sis off my back for a while here's something from today's paper.

HOME: PAGE 14 NIGHTMARE AFTER D&D NIGHTS

All in fun and jest. Nothing in black & white so now all red-faced after colorful event. Another non-apology apology from UOB (hmm. seems to be the trend nowadays, I mean the non-apology apologies).
Nothing much from Yen Feng's generic column about company D&Ds but what was more interesting relating to this event is found on Page 42:think.

There were 5 letters today on this UOB mis-event. Some on the offense and some defensive.
I liked the  how would you feel if Indians came painted yellow for a shaolin theme party ...with scotch taped slit eyes...You decide.


Page 43:think  IN SEARCH OF OLD ROCHORE
Toh Yong Chuan went in search of the missing 'e' in Rochore, his old neighbourhood now spelt Rochor.
Nice article. I didn't know the cess pits were where Albert Complex now shits, i mean sits.

Hey, that reminds me. My heritage blog is missing a Park as well ! I am not joking. I gotta blog about this later today! Besides having an entire house going missing, Princess Elizabeth Estate also lost a whole park and nobody knows why. When I say lost, I mean disappeared, gone, missing!

(Okay, ok, I admit i am unabashedly just trying to get you all to browse my heritage blog....hee hee.. hey, it's good ok... here it is... click here or here or here.)


WHOA! NEW ORTHODOX BISHOP FOR SINGAPORE
Gotta send him a note before he goes visiting some sister Catholic churches.
Got to remind him to make sure his vestments are of correct length or he may not be admitted.
Some of the 'wardens' are empowered like prison wardens. What they say goes! Don't f*** around with them! Pardon my Latin.
What happened to the days when 'wardens' were 'welcome ministers'?

Click here and see what happens.

Better behaviour for pleasant journey

LTA (Land Transport Authority) is studying better design features to encourage commuters to move inside the MRT cabins, according to a report in the TODAY broadsheet, 17 Feb 2011.

I commute on the trains almost daily so I wish to put in my 2 cents.

I must have put in almost a few dollars already on this topic but I still see no improvements on the trains on the issue of overcrowding at the doors.

I must admit though there is a marked alleviation of the general overcrowding problem on the return journey in the evenings at Jurong East Station. This is due to the separation of the incoming passengers from Boon Lay side to platform A, while the incoming passengers from the city are directed to platform D.
Thank SMRT for little mercies.

I am not sure of the situation at other stations.

However, the problem of the squeeze near the doors during peak hours still persists.

My suggestion is controversial but I feel it merits some consideration.

Make the exits and entrance ONE WAY ONLY.

There are 4 doors to each cabin. Alternately, make each door an ENTRANCE or EXIT only, not both ways, as is the current practice.

This will surely make the commuters move further in on entry knowing that they must reach the exit farther in sooner or later.

Currently, there is no compulsion to move in as staying near the door makes it easier to exit on arrival.

My other suggestion is to remove the vertical grab poles in the center of the cars. They actually obstruct the passageway and is not conducive to proper spread of passengers standing in the cabin.

DO place more overhead handhold, even near the doors, for SAFETY reasons.

There will be passengers who are unable to move in during peak hours but SMRT still have to bear in mind their safety during the ride.

The reason of NOT placing more handholds at the doors to encourage movement inside does not hold up to reason, as passengers are not motivated to move in anyway. Their safety is compromised without any means of support if they are caught unwittingly on their part being squashed at the door areas.

The news this week

WHY MAN STILL BEHAVE LIKE SCUM.
The German Osnabruck University this week confirmed Charles Darwin's comment to his friend Dr Joseph Hooker 140 years ago that life most probably originated from a tepid pond and not from the ocean as commonly believed.
Conditions in the primitive oceans were not conducive for life to evolve from its primordial soup but the scum in warm tepid ponds were ideal for it.

I guess this explains why some people still behave like the scum of the earth. It's genetic. Mystery solved.

http://www.todayonline.com/World/EDC120215-0000023/Darwin-was-right-on-origin-of-life-on-Earth---in-a-warm-little-pond

MAN HAS HEART ATTACK AFTER EATING TRIPLE BYPASS BURGER.

The Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas offers a 1.5 lbs burger free to anyone weighing over 159kg. One customer was hospitalized on Wednesday after the massive meal.

The irony of this excess gluttony is an article directly below this report: 1 in 4 children worldwide are malnourished.

I am sure it's for us to take note of the social ills and imbalances that still pervades our societies.

kawaii ! (I mean the girl on the right)

SLOW WALKING LEADS TO DEMENTIA.

American Academy of Neurology will publish new research data this coming April to show that slow walking leads to a greater chance (1.5x) of getting dementia.

I hope I can remember that in future.

But another Swedish research from Linkoping University found that curry, esp the spice tumeric, decreases by 75% the chance of dementia in fruit flies. Good news for curry eating fruit flies!
But it also did say that there are fewer demented old folks in India than in European countries.

Get my running shoes out, I am going for fish head curry today!

SINGAPORE FLOPS ON SEXUAL SURVEY

A global survey on sexual satisfaction by Durex found that Singapore rated only 58% in satisfaction in the bedroom. This is just ahead of Japan at 34%.

 Just ahead? What happened between 34 and 58%?

Bukit Batok's 'Mt Fuji'

For many visitors, Bukit Batok still remains a very confusing area to navigate. That's probably because Bukit Batok is divided into 2 separate 'zones' - Bukit Batok and Bukit Gombak. The town is divided by a small hilly ridge which completely separates the town into two distinct precincts.Today , the 2 zones are connected by roads skirting both ends of the ridge as well as the MRT track that tunnels through the ridge itself.

When I was asked which part of Bukit Batok I live in, my reply would be 'across from the MRT station'. But in the past, I would say 'next to the Fuji Hill'.

Yes, there was (is?) an officially named "Fuji Hill' located at Bukit Batok.
Though today most residents do not call it by this name, it was a landmark in the early 1990s.
I guess it's a bit of an embarrassment to call it" Fuji'

Here is an old picture of the hill without its covering of trees found today. It's easy to see why people called it such in the earlier days.
The road in front of this hill (in the picture below) is Bukit Batok St 21. The wayang stage on the right stands across where the chinese temples are located today.

Fuji Hill around 1980, before someone went berserk with tree planting

Today, Fuji Hill is covered by trees and looks like any other park. It was my neighbourhood park.

This how 'Fuji Hill' looks now.

Bukit Batok New Town was built upon a hilly area and one of those hills left remaining where it stood was commonly referred to as the Fuji Hill due to its conical shape.


Related blogs:
My neighbourhood park
Bukit Batok, my neigbourhood