CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) -- The Internet provides farmers a wealth of information on crop marketing, financial management and dealing with crop diseases. But on a busy farm, it can be hard to find time to search the Web for useful information.

News @ AsiaOne The Straits Times The Business Times The New Paper Tech Dec 16, 5:08 AM EST   By JIM PAUL Associated Press Writer "We need someone to sort through some of this and put it in a nice logical manner where a farmer can look through it instead of looking all over the Web," said Chris Hausman, who runs a 1,300-acre farm near Champaign. University of Illinois Extension is taking on that challenge with a new blog for farmers. The Farm Gate began publishing earlier this fall at http://www.farmgate.uiuc.edu and was announced this month. It aims to be a place farmers can go to find information on agricultural topics, ranging from crop science to economics to veterinary medicine. "It's really nothing but the classic function of the extension service, which is to take research and interpret and apply it in the field," said Scott Irwin, a UI agriculture professor who helped develop the blog. "It's just using a new tool to do that - a virtual or digital county agent." Web sites for farmers are abundant and a Google search for agriculture-oriented blogs found several. But very few were dedicated to more than a single aspect of farming or farm policy. "We saw what was missing was the place that was summarizing, synthesizing, interpreting and suggesting new applications," said Irwin, a frequent contributor to Farm Decision Outreach Central, a UI Web site that helps farmers manage their operations. Each day, blogger Stu Ellis scours more than three dozen Web sites in search of information he summarizes and interprets for farmers. Those sites include agribusiness, industry and research from other universities. Buy AP Photo Reprints "Instead of farmers looking for all of those ideas, what I can do is go collect them, synthesize them and present a summary of what the viewpoints are," said Ellis, an extension agent in Macon County. Recent posts include advice for meeting nutritional needs of beef herds in the winter, battling yield-robbing soybean cyst nematodes and suggested holiday gifts for farmers. The blog also includes links to other university Web sites, extension services in other Midwest states and other selected agriculture Web pages. "I think farmers will really gain a lot from having a one-stop shop where you can go and get a variety of information. You name it and it will be there," said Hausman, who serves on an advisory committee for the Farmdoc Web site. There have been only a few online responses to blog postings because it is so new, but Irwin said early e-mail feedback has been positive. "We're hopeful that if this is successful, it will demonstrate an entirely new way for the extension system to meet the needs of our traditional and nontraditional clientele," he said. --- On the Net: The Farm Gate: http://www.farmgate.uiuc.edu University of Illinois Extension: http://web.extension.uiuc.edu/state Farm Decision Outreach Central: http://www.farmdoc.uiuc.edu

So Malaysia is going online all the way ???http://www.gov.my/MYGOV/BI/Directory/Citizen/Home.htm

The Star Online > Nation

Wednesday December 14, 2005

Government dealings just a click away

BY JANE RITIKOS

KUALA LUMPUR: Thinking of paying your utility bills and traffic summonses, or getting an application form for a passport? 

You need not drive to the post office or police station or Immigration Department to do these things anymore. 

Just log in to the myGovernment portal (at www.gov.my) and 325 types of online services offered by 844 government agencies and departments are at your fingertips. 

Among other things, the portal has news, a government calendar of events, information on job vacancies, tender notices, advertisements, announcements and public complaints. 

Businessmen can access it to register companies, conduct bankruptcy searches, and enquire and apply for licences. 

The portal allows the downloading of some 2,930 different forms. 

From February until Sept 30, the portal recorded 1.6 million visits with 17,535 forms of various types downloaded and 185,776 services transacted. 

Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Samsudin Osman launched the portal at the Public Sector Chief Information Officers 2005 Conference here yesterday. 

“ICT (information communications technology) is the enabler in enhancing our delivery system and this will help attract foreign investors.  

“We want the public service to be an administrative system that is transparent, efficient, hassle-free, customer-friendly and without hidden cost. Delay is one of the hidden costs,” he said.  

Samsudin said the Global IT Report 2004/2005 by the World Economic Forum placed Malaysia 27th out of 104 countries on e-readiness and internet literacy. 

However, the Global e-Government Survey 2004/2005 by Brown University in the United States, covering online information and services and access, ranked Malaysia 157th out of 198 countries. 

Samsudin said although the results of the studies varied, they should be considered as benchmarks, to improve weaknesses.  

有专家担心，久用电脑会造成“心理死亡”。何为“心理死亡”？长时间使用电脑是否会造成“心理死亡”？本报记者就此采访了北京军区总医院网络成瘾医学中心的陶然主任。用心理异化形容更合适

　　“不少长期面对电脑的人，尤其是中年知识分子和科技人员，呈现出一种心身的亚健康状态———早衰综合症。过早地出现生理上衰老、体质上衰退和心理上衰弱的现象。”

陶然主任建议，网络通讯办公时代久用电脑的人，确实需要防止心理早衰。首先就是要拥有一个良好的心态，保持适当的欲望，不过分执着过度痴迷虚拟的网络。

　　其次，多跟亲人、朋友联络，通过面对面的交流增进感情。

　　另外，积极参与体育运动能改善中枢神经系统的功能，提高大脑皮层神经过程的兴奋性、均衡性和灵活性。

“80一代”很关键的问题就是解决好心理落差的问题。

　　当然，单位也必须意识到“80一代”的特点，调整应对策略，毕竟以后“80后”员工会越来越多。但“80一代”也必须要知道自己根本问题所在。人生毕竟有两个坐标：一个是自己需要的，一个是社会需要的。这两点结合好了才能实现自我价值。

　　名词解释

　　皮格马利翁效应———皮格马利翁是古希腊神话中的塞浦路斯国王。他的热情感动了自己雕刻的少女像，少女变为真人，嫁给了他。

　　美国心理学家罗森塔尔通过测试看到，由于教师认为某个学生是天才，因而寄予他更大的期望，在上课时给予他更多的关注，通过各种方式向他传达“你很优秀”的信息，学生感受到教师的关注，因而产生一种激励作用，学习时加倍努力，因而取得了好成绩。

　　他就把这种现象称为“皮格马利翁效应”，在学术界也叫“罗森塔尔效应”。

　　11月底，某人力资源网公布的年度员工敬业调查显示，被认为最不敬业的是刚刚走上工作岗位的“80一代”。心理专家发现，“80一代”不敬业很多是由于心理上的“情感饥渴”所致。

So this is a famous and world rank university, read for yourself. How it can be ranked world class university when the students have the high copying rate. Hello Beijing University, you are doing the right thing.

林弘谕（文）

　　男性从18岁的年龄开始，便可能开始面对“M”脱发的问题，慢慢变成“地中海”，最后完全秃头。女性则不会出现“M”脱发，而是由头心位置开始脱发。除雄性荷尔蒙与遗传影响外，生活的转变、患病等，还有不当使用美发产品，也容易引发头皮敏感，导致脱发。

　　男性最怕头上长“M”——发线往后移，最后变成秃头。

治理毛囊发炎，对脱发是否有实际帮助？脱发者担心秃头，采用各种药物治疗，结果适得其反，让自己掉入“地中海”的深渊里。

　　有些人本身头皮无炎症，但因频频涂抹消炎药物和照紫外光线治疗，过量的刺激，最终造成头皮发炎，甚至长头疮。

不当染发引起发炎

　　大部分病理性脱发秃头者，跟毛囊发炎无直接关系，只是间接因素所引发的。毛囊发炎主要是头皮有损伤，如洗头水温太热灼伤、大力抓痒损伤、不当染发引起发炎现象等，症状都是头皮发红痕痒，而严重抓痒，可会导致头发连根拔起，形成脱发。不过，这些都是皮肤的问题，跟毛囊没多大关系。头发掉后，在正常情况下，毛囊会重新长出新发，发质在数量、密度、粗幼上，也不会有差别，不会引致永久性脱发。

雄性秃头特征

　　而“不正常”的情况，则在于脱发者是否有雄性秃头的特征：一是遗传基因，二是雄性荷尔蒙越多越活跃，毛囊就越萎缩，提早出现头发脱落的问题。

　　脱发是自然的生理现象，每人每天平均掉50至100根头发，由新发取代。但是由于某些外在原因（如头皮发炎抓痒），会使头发过量脱落，导致新生发的生长速度无法配合，又或新生发较幼小稀疏，就会构成秃头问题。

　　除遗传外，情绪压力、烟酒过量，对雄性荷尔蒙也会产生影响作用，使脱发加剧。此症多突然在一两年内发病，多与生活转变有关，例如频换工作、刚踏入社会工作、感情问题、家庭问题、患病等。

　　男性从18岁的年龄开始，便可能开始面对“M”脱发的问题，慢慢变成“地中海”，最后完全秃头。雄性秃头进程由浅入深分几个阶段，当头顶开始出现轻微见秃的情况，仍可使用口服药物，配合外敷生发药物加以救治，回复原貌的几率七八成。

细胞新陈代谢

　　女性不会出现“M”脱发，而是由头心位置开始脱发，渐次头发越见稀疏。女性即使头顶变疏，病因不一定是雄性秃发，有可能是铁质不足所引起的。如果验证是雄性秃发，因口服药物会压抑男性荷尔蒙，女性患者服用后会增加患卵巢癌、子宫癌的几率，因此专家不建议服用。

　　治疗女性脱发，主要以外用生发水护理，作用在于刺激皮头皮，改善毛囊的血液循环和细胞的新陈代谢，从而促进头发生长，唯成功率只有5至10%。

"Traditional" and "modern": the favorite words of the presenter who lives in the box known as the “television.”

Tawada Yoko (from KJ #61)

I have several boxes in my flat. One is known as fridge. It hums day and night but says nothing. Another box is called washing machine and often goes round the bend. Nevertheless, the language coming out of the television is much crazier.

The name of one of the biggest Japanese producers of appliances is “National.” An odd name for a company, isn’t it? Yet it is perhaps very fitting because it so perfectly embodied the growing national mood in the 1920s when the company was founded. Later it came to express the pride in industrial production that replaced the shattered pride in the nation after the Second World War.
The end of the War didn’t lead to the dissolution of the national identity. In the name of the nation everyone was pressed to rebuild the country and to generate wealth. Later, nation came to mean something else; it became the community that was responsible for history. As the crime, i.e. the War, had been conducted in the name of the nation, the nation after the War being responsible for that War, had to continue to exist, even if liberty from the concept of the nation was universally desired.

I bought my television in Germany. The company that made it is called “Grundig,” not “abgrundig” (a German pun: Grundig suggesting thoroughness, and abgrundig meaning deep as an abyss....). In Germany there isn’t a company called “National.” The name wouldn’t make a good impression on the customers.

Just like the word “nation,” the word “German” is used with caution, or even avoided. Nevertheless, there are two subjects where pride in the nation is allowed and both are areas of life in which men are passionately involved: cars and football.

Even a self-critical German intellectual who constantly criticized his own country would be insulted if you said to him that German cars were very poor quality.

It is easier to insult the Japanese. not only are they proud of Japanese cars, they are proud of the Walkman or even the Japanese washing machine sometimes. Even I, who have no desire at all to be nationalistic, and have no idea about housework, am insulted if someone criticizes Japanese washing machines. I prefer the washing machines made by the German company Bosch because they have a trust fund that among other things, subsidizes contemporary literature. Even so there is no washing machine that can remove the greasy stain left triggered by the idea of nation.

In Germany people are proud of German cars although a majority of Germans cannot afford either a BMW or a Mercedes. A little national flag is affordable to everyone, however. One can even buy one in a five and dime store. There are unemployed youths for whom the old form of nationalism can be better symbolized by more obvious symbols than the pride that the upper classes find in luxurious German brands which are too expensive for everyone to buy. These youths realize that they are excluded from the wealth that is organized and can only be reached on a national level.

Several years ago a new law was passed in Japan decreeing that the Japanese flag was to be raised at every ceremony taking place at schools and universities in the country. It determined the exact size of the flag. Otherwise, some people could decide to raise a flag that was smaller than a postage stamp. The law insisted that the flag was to be raised in the middle of the stage where it could be seen by everyone. At each of the ceremonies the national anthem in its original form was to be sung. Indeed there had been one incident where a music teacher had interpreted the anthem as a jazz number and had sung it in that style. This law triggered an “Ikkyu-san” competition. (Ikkyu-san is a Japanese Till Eulenspiegel). The Academy of Foreign Languages in Tokyo, for example, raised the national flag as instructed by the law, with one small difference: it also raised a further hundred and ten flags from other countries. That could only work once. A new “improved” law stipulated that no additional flags may be raised.

Old-style nationalism, like the national flag, has probably made a comeback in the last few years because the alternative form of nationalism based on industrial products no longer functions. People are no longer proud of companies that like to merge with foreign firms and lay off their employees. Moreover, most companies no longer belong to one country alone.

In the last while, the word “European” has become more and more prevalent. If I turn on the radio, I hear it every ten minutes or so. There is a European law to protect monuments, a European pop music competition, and there are European novels.

When compared to the word “German,” the two adjectives “European” and “Western” are always considered to be positive. The word “German” is no longer needed. Even right-wing radicals don’t need it. They refer to the “whites,” an inappropriate term, because they often attack ethnic German Russian immigrants although they never talk badly of Afro-American pop stars. They would love to be racists, but in reality they violently attack those they accuse of being poor.

The Japanese do not like to talk about one “Asia.” It sounds like Japanese imperialism. Asia is not one, and it is good that it isn’t. There is neither a common religion nor is there a common political system, not even one common kind of rice. Thais would be very sad if they had to eat Japanese rice, and vice versa. The term “Asian” is a child of colonialism; born in Europe and adopted and abused by the Japanese, who abandoned it after the Second World War.

In Europe people like to talk of Asian cuisine, Asian medicine, or of Asian philosophy, because they would like there to be some sort of unified Asian culture. If they didn’t, the existence of a European culture would be in doubt .In Asia, however, for a variety of reasons one is happy that there is no Asian culture.

I can’t speak about an “Eastern world” either. The concept “Eastern” is very west-European. This word is used to refer to the Near East, China and Japan, sometimes Russia, and quite often even middle European countries or the former GDR. This idea of the “East” has always been necessary to make the image of the “West” appear concrete. Research into Orientalism revealed this a long time ago. Anyone who assumes the Orient is a fiction must be aware of the fictional character of Europe.

Recently in a radio program about Islam in Germany the presenter said the politics of Islamic fundamentalism did not deserve to be recognized as another culture because the fundamentalists had imported their ideology and strategy from Europe. In fact, from Stalin and Hitler. Later, the presenter spoke about a “Western” political tradition of democracy as if totalitarianism was not part of that tradition. In between, she did say that the West had not always behaved Western, although she failed to define the term “Western,” and insisted on using it. On the contrary, the word “Western” seemed to provide a secure base for her argumentation. She didn’t use any other terms, for example, “European-American,” probably because she wanted to exclude South America. Furthermore, the term “Western” can be used to exclude the countries of Eastern Europe, especially Russia.

I often wonder why I can’t easily get my tongue around the words “Western” and “Eastern.” I have nothing against the word “European,” even if I seldom use it because at times it does not say very much. Is there any such thing as European food? Spaghetti? Have the Europeans, for example, the Norwegians, contributed more to the tradition of Italian pasta than the Chinese? I do say “European” literature, if I am too lazy to list off the individual countries. The word “German” also doesn’t correspond to reality. Is it possible today to talk about German literature? And what about German cuisine? Didn’t the potato come from South America? Nevertheless, I like the words “German” and “European” better than “Western” because they force me to think more concretely. The term “Western” on the other hand contains an insidious concept. It tries to wrap up an ideology in a geographic packaging: whoever is in favor of democracy, freedom and individualism is considered Western in their orientation. And, if that person originates from the geographic west then they belong to their own tradition. If not, they have left their own tradition. They may well be modern but they are not completely themselves.

Traditional “Western” culture is often presented as a single line of development. That line, however, is a carefully cultivated fiction. For example ancient Greek culture is viewed as being an important part of that cultural lineage while the influence of Arab mathematics and natural sciences is excluded. In Hamburg, however, I have not found any trace of ancient Greek culture. In contrast, in a temple in the Japanese city of Nara, at the end of the Silk Road, one can see an ornament of grapes which originated in Greece. This stone fruit still hasn’t rotted although it is over a thousand years old and was around for a thousand years before that. The cultures of this earth have always formed a network and not several parallel lines.

I can’t use expressions like “our culture” anymore because I don’t know who is supposed to belong to this “our culture” and who not. I would never dream of describing No or Butoh theater traditions as belonging to “our” culture. When I use such names I don’t mean the Japanese but the people who participate in such theaters.

The television presenter goes through the same scenario today as every day before, it doesn’t matter which “foreign” culture he is showing us. If a girl in a country that the presenter regards as foreign has no boyfriend and lives with a family in which the mother is loving, it is said that she lives according to tradition. If she falls in love with a boyfriend, falls out with her family and leaves home, it is said that she has been influenced by Western modernity and has left home to lead her own life.

When the Americans came to Japan at the end of the 19th century new laws were passed in Japan designed to modernize the country. For example, uni-sex public baths, public nudity and homosexuality were all banned for the first time in Japanese history. This modernization had nothing to do with freedom or individualism but had more to do with attempts at Puritan industrialization and militarization of the country. Thereafter, when the Japanese chose Prussia as their model for continued modernization, that typical Japanese mentality emerged that was so typically Japanese it had to be imported from Prussia. In other words, certain characteristics already existed in Japanese culture, such as the ethic of the samurai, the rice farmers’ collective way of working, the belief in authority or hierarchical thinking, were chosen as suitable elements for the modern world and given a Prussian processing.

The presenter screamed out of the box that Latin America was a contradiction, East Asia was a contradiction, Saudi Arabia was a contradiction, because the modern and the traditional exist side by side there. Yet, it is normal that a country should industrialize without completely destroying its pre-industrial culture. Even in England, where the process of industrialization began very early, some ghosts, horror stories and magic still exist. Yet, since the modern age is Western, the presenter never says that England is a country of contradictions.

Perhaps Europe suffered the most under industrialism or the enlightenment. In order to relieve the pain Western and modern are seen as synonymous.

It may be good that Germans use the word “Western.” As a result, they don't have to get unnecessarily annoyed about the USA’s influence. Otherwise the presenter would have to report about his own culture in the same way that he reported recently about a country in the so-called third world: “How sad it is that for financial reasons Germany’s wonderful traditional university system has had to adopt the modern American system. It is indeed sad but the freedom of the individual on the open market is much more important than one’s own tradition. The same can be said of the laws governing shop opening hours. It is better if everyone can buy whenever they want. Until recently this freedom didn’t exist in Germany as the religious establishment forbade it. According to the Bible, God didn’t work on the seventh day so humans should not work then either. Nevertheless they are gradually freeing themselves from the traditional idea of Sunday and are enjoying the freedom to consume without a bad conscience. Some citizens will continue, however, to suffer from the gap between traditional and modern.” That is the only scenario used by the presenter when he is reporting about non-Western countries.

There are different forms of modern. There are different kinds of television apparatus. It is possible to talk about Japanese technology, which is different to Chinese or US American technology. For example, there is an apparent principle in Japanese technology that says the smaller something is, the more beautiful it is. Consequently, the transistor radio, Walkman, and other small appliances were invented and produced in Japan. Yet, Japanese technology is as easy to adapt as European technology. Nowadays the smallest cars in the world are not Japanese but European. Moreover the largest computer in the world is Japanese and Japanese technologists are not ashamed of it. There seems, therefore, no point in talking of national technology.

It is also possible to speak of a Japanese form of democracy or freedom if they are not seen as building plans but rather as real houses made of wood, straw or stone to be built at a specific place. To speak about differences is not the same as insisting on the existence of national character.

The same is true of the theater. Modern Japanese theater is not only Japanese. It is not true that only theater companies coming from Japan are Japanese. Non-Japanese actors have the same opportunities to work with Japanese tradition. National borders are only the edge of the lenses on the microscope that is used to study particular phenonema in more detail.

To free oneself of the concept of national culture one could focus on regions. “We don’t want German literature anymore, we only want Bavarian literature.” Most people would not find this statement creative or interesting. Why then do the same people find it attractive to hear that a “traditional” theater company from one of the so-called minorities in the so-called third world is performing? One allows oneself to speak of the “genuine” tradition of a culture if one excludes this culture from the modern world.

In today's world, however, each culture has its own modern. No culture is completely isolated. Every culture reacts — directly or indirectly, consciously or sub-consciously — to the phenomena taking place outside it.

Oddly, I encountered more regionalism than globalism in the USA. With that I don’t mean minorities like the Amish people who have remained “genuinely” European, but rather normal students at provincial universities. They are living outside globalization at the very same time as we are blaming Americans for the destruction of the diversity of culture. In Missoula, a student of the University of Montana proudly answered “No!” when I asked him if there was a Starbuck’s café in the town. Apparently not all of the United States has been Americanized. In Tokyo there are 141 Starbuck’s cafés, in California 1414, in Berlin 8, and in Missoula none. That student was born in Montana, studies there and would like to work there when he finishes studying. He had already been to a small town in Japan, but he had never been to New York. He doesn’t live in the USA; he lives in Montana. He is preoccupied by the clash between the culture of the city and that of the province. Urbanites despise provinces like Montana, but he would like to stay true to his traditions.

I had to smile when he spoke about tradition in Montana but actually what he said was not funny. Tradition is a fiction. It is always produced in hindsight. If it isn’t manufactured, it is not there. The Japanese tradition is no less fictive than that of Montana. When the Japanese government at the end of the 19th century opened the country to the outside world, it quickly re-activated ancient Shinto traditions that had not been practiced in over three hundred years. The cultural tradition was needed in order to form a national identity. It had not been necessary so long as the country had not had direct contact with the outside world.

Since tradition is fictive, there is no reason to feel genetically allied to a tradition. Everyone can freely choose the fictive tradition they wish to work with. Every artist may work with any of the elements found on the planet. Whether an artist can produce something new and exciting from that depends on not the origin of the artist but the artist’s ability.

Tawada Yoko, born in Tokyo in 1960, has resided in Hamburg, Germany since 1982, where she received her Ph.D. in German literature. Tawada made her debut with Missing Heels, which was awarded the Gunzo Prize for New Literature in 1991. In 1993 she received the prestigious Akutagawa Prize – equivalent to a Booker or a Pulitzer – for The Bridegroom was a Dog (published in English by Kodansha International in 1998). Ms Tawada writes in both German and Japanese, and in 1996 she won the Adalbert von Chamisso Prize, a German award recognizing foreign writers for their contributions to German culture.www.tawada.com

Translation by David Duke; illustrations for Kyoto Journal by Tierry Le...

Copyright held by the author

A Maori performer taking part in a traditional welcoming ceremony last month has admitted head butting a tourist and fracturing his nose.

The welcome ceremony is an important part of Maori culture Richard Minarapa Mitai-Ngatai told a court in Rotorua, New Zealand, that he thought the man was laughing at him. Dutch tourist Johannes Scheffers and others visiting Tamaki Maori Village had been warned laughing was disrespectful. A police sergeant said Mr Scheffers accidentally gave a "nervous grin". Mr Scheffers had been chosen as one of the tourist representatives at a welcome ceremony held at Tamaki Maori Village in Rotorua on North Island on 24 November. He was told he would have to lift a peace token placed at his feet. During the final part of the ceremony, Mr Scheffers "gave a nervous grin with no intention to be disrespectful", said police sergeant Jim Broom, according to the New Zealand Press Association. Mr Mitai-Ngatai then stepped forward and head butted Mr Scheffers, causing him to fall backwards with blood pouring from his nose. "His intention was to nudge him back into the line with the main group of visitors," Mr Brooom told the court. "However, the force he used was well in excess of his intention." Mr Mitai-Ngatai will be sentenced next month.

LINDA LIM says that though many people enjoy their golden years, some suffer what she terms ‘sunset misery’.

The Star Online > Lifefocus

Monday December 12, 2005

SUNSET serenity or sunset bliss – as opposed to sunset sorrow (where male chauvinistic attitudes can take the lustre off one’s golden years) – must be the dream and hope of every senior or retiree. 

But, alas, not everyone experiences retirement bliss. 

Last week’s newspaper reported the case of a 39-year-old jobless man who stabbed his 67-year-old hapless mother to death. The police are investigating the motive for the murder.  

I think of an old aunt of mine who recently passed away. She was a successful businesswoman in her younger days and yearned for a family. But Cupid never found her a soul mate and she decided to adopt a pair of twin girls.  

She lavished love and care on them and saw to their education. But when she retired, the girls never repaid the kindness she gave them. Before she passed away, she was staying all alone in the family house. Her neighbours were kind enough to take her to the hospital and to get her basic necessities.  

For this couple, the twilight years are among the best years of their lives.

Then there is a colleague of mine who was looking forward to retirement and sharing time with her husband. Both were government servants and their pensions would be more than sufficient for them to get by. It was a rude shock for her (and us, too) when her husband of three decades suddenly told her that he had found a new love and asked for a divorce. The other woman was, needless to say, a younger, single woman.  

Today my colleague is picking up the tattered pieces of her life. She finds solace in being with her children and grandchildren and keeps herself busy with various activities, but her heart is broken, and she wonders why this had to happen to her. 

Fate also dealt a cruel blow to my neighbour. Her husband, a successful businessman, recently told her that he wanted time out. The new love in his life was a Chinese businesswoman from Shanghai. Their adult children pleaded with their father not to do anything stupid, but to no avail. He told them that he was going to sell their two shop lots and the family business and retire in China. He did that and gave the money to the Shanghai woman who then ran away and now is untraceable.  

My neighbour’s husband has since returned to his wife. All their savings have gone down the drain. They have to start afresh but what a price to pay! My neighbour had dreams to go on holiday when her husband retired and enjoy the fruits of their labour. This is not possible as they are now penniless and have to struggle to make ends meet all over again. 

The other day there was a picture of a despondent 72-year-old man and his wife walking out of the High court. They were sued by one of their sons. Luckily the judge threw out the case as there was insufficient evidence against the father and the judge also chided the son in public and told him that he ought to be ashamed of what he had done. To quote the judge, “What happened to filial piety? You have not worked a day in your life and have depended on your father for income, and now you have the audacity to sue your father.” 

Above are some horrendous incidents that mar the lives of retirees and seniors who dream of retirement bliss. 

But all is not lost. There are warm stories of how children who are grateful to their parents buy them tickets to go on a holiday. One of my friends was even given a supplementary credit card by her son so that she and her husband would not run out of cash during their trips overseas. How thoughtful of the giver! On their wedding anniversary my neighbour and his wife were pleasantly surprised when their children chipped in and bought them a new car. The children told their parents that they could keep their old jalopy (which they refused to part with) for sentimental reasons.  

But the happiest retirees must be my uncle and aunt who, this Christmas, will move into their new home. Their son had built a one-room dwelling for them, which is an annexe to his house This way, my nephew and his family have their privacy and so will his parents.  

On certain days the two families have meals together. The grandparents are there to help baby-sit the children if necessary, and can have their friends over whenever they want. What a neat arrangement! Also there is no way the maid can get involved in any hanky-panky as grandpa and grandma are nearby to keep an eye on things. 

And so as life goes on, all retirees fervently hope for sunset bliss and pray that they are not subjected to sunset misery.