20110430 #2 : GE 2011 & Bali's apes and baboons @ Uluwatu

John's specs with that silly monkey!



While in Bali during 30/4/2011 - 3/5/2011, we missed the highly charged rallies in GE2011 Singapore. On the first day of arrival, we went to Uluwatu. It turned out to be a BIG scare for us. We did not expect those monkeys or little apes were thieves and they grabbed whatever they could lay hands on - our specs, necklaces, scarves or even hand-hel wallets of cameras! We were warned by the tour guide to remove our specs before entering the premises. Well, one little ape did steal my hubby's specs. It was swift, agile and in a twinkle of an eye! We had to pay the retrieval lady to get the specs back later in a hostile negotiation deal by the exchange of fruits. Phew!!

^{1Kings 10: 22}The king had a fleet of trading ships^]at sea along with the ships of Hiram. Once every three years it returned, carrying gold, silver and ivory,and apes and baboons.

I was wondering why King Solomon mentioned about his ship returning not just with the gold and silver etc but also included the apes and baboons??!!! well maybe King Solomon wanted to train them to dance to his tune. He must have offered peanuts!

In 2000, an astute academic asked civil servant Ngiam Tong Dow : 'Tong Dow, what's your greatest problem at HDB?' Then he diagnosed it himself: 'Initially, you gave peanuts to monkeys so they would dance to your tune. Now you've given them so much by way of peanuts that the monkey has become a gorilla and you have to dance to its tune. That's your greatest problem.'

How true indeed! Those apes were ferocious. You gave in to them an inch and they became your ruler! Sounds familiar in today's context too.

Reflections of GE2011:

Like King Solomon, he had his splendor in the earlier days of his rule. But what happens? He had 700 wives and 300 concubines and his wives led him astray. As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord. And in 1 Kings 11:11. The LORD tore his kingdom away and gave it to one of his subordinates. Nevertheless for the sake of David his father, God did not do it during his lifetime. But he would tear it out of the hand of his son. Yet he would not tear the whole kingdom from him but will give him one tribe for the sake of David his servant and for the sake of Jerusalem which he had chosen.

GE2011 in Spore was a watershed one. For the first time, a GRC was captured by the opposition party. King Solomon sounds like a minister in our nation of today? The generation to come does not forget the goodness the earlier forefathers had done. But change seems to be for the interest of this little precious red dot.

At date of this blog, the great Mississipi River is overflowing its banks in unprecedented history. All the 12+ casinos along the riverside had to be closed. This meant loss of USD12mio to the govt monthly!

Here in S'pore, we had 2 new casinos and an unprecedented highest record dry temperature of 35 degrees on Sun. It was scotching hot. Spain had an earthquake this morning too. Well, the whole earth is in distress. We pray for His grace and mercy in preserving our little dot despite the sins of what she had committed. No flooding of our little S'pore River or the Marina Bay. Man is forgetful - yes. But Yeshua remembers.