Tuesday, November 29, 2016

华人

https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-hans/Talk:海外華人说 “儒家文化强调对尊长的服从,信仰对祖先的崇拜,由此产生了强烈地对故土的留恋感和民族自豪感,“忘了祖宗”成了最难听的骂人话,生儿子延续香火是最大的生活希望。儒家文化圈各民族的移民总是怀念故乡,很难和当地文化融合,自己人之间却有很强的互助性,在移民地形成自己的文化岛。新生一代的海外华人就是在这种强烈的 "你们不可忘了祖宗!" 的绝对服从下长大的,造成了新生一代的海外华人的国籍身份的矛盾和困境,而且大部份老一代的海外华人都对国籍身份有很大的不了解及误解。”

儒家文化说的没错但他只代表中国国民。为甚么这样说呢?就拿国籍身份说起。当你成为一个国家的公民你就要宣誓对这个国家忠诚。虽然祖宗是中国人,你的根就改变了。你就需把这个国家当成你的祖国你的家乡。中国有55个少数民族他们也成为中国国民难道你也说他们忘了祖宗把自己当成中国人吗?还是你不当少数民族为中国人吗?

中国人把移居外国的人还当中国人就是以为祖宗是中国人那他后代永远是中国人。美其名为“华侨”,“海外华人” (不包括华裔)。中国少数民族移居外国那他们就什么人都不是了。可以这样说吗?如果不可以那为甚么移居外国华族就这么特别呢?

说穿了就是把一个民族错当一个国的国民。中国不只是华夏民族而已。他已经与蛮夷族共存而成为一国。华夏民族后代也移居外国与其他种族共同创国而不当自己为中国人。我们是华族后代不过不是中国人。我们以自己是华族为荣而不是以中国人为荣。这中国籍贯的东西就成为前代的历史。当我们出生时我们的父辈就以经不是中国人了。说我们忘祖那还有理由吗?

清明节又名寒食节乃春秋战国时晋文公为记念介子推而创。后来才演变为祭祖。尊宗敬祖为儒家传统。祭奠就成为必做的事。祖坟在中国是世代的先人都埋葬的地方。那么祭祖就表示去祭拜所有先人。那么如果先人迂居后就地埋葬那么后人祭祖时就无法祭拜所有先人。这就表示后人没有尊宗敬祖? 中国人就从来没逃难过?逃难后无法回祖地埋先人不就另选葬地?说海外华族后代不回中国祭祖就无尊宗敬祖的说法也太勉强了吧。

中国已是一个马列主义国家。中共开始时还称自己为中华苏维埃共和国。当时儒学根本就是“封建思想”与马克斯思想格格不入。后来才演变为中国式马列主义而加入一些儒家思想。近来儒学才稍微提高。那么尊宗敬祖思想还在提倡吗?文革十年有何人敢祭奠?中共领导人在位时又有谁去祭祖? http://www.aboluowang.com/2015/0404/537931.html “维稳”行动说明并非开放。把政治放在儒学之上的情况下祭奠就式微了。中国人自己以经如此,外邦人又如何?

台湾人可能不同意我说法。可是在大陆还没开放的几十年你们又做到什么?近来又有什么大量的回中国祭奠动作呢?有多少台湾大陆后裔每年去中国祭祖?还是只需一生祭一次就够了? 在这情况下又何能讽刺数百年前已经离开中国的海外华族没到中国尊宗敬祖?

最后,家祭也是尊宗敬祖的方式之一。难道一定非墓祭或祠祭不可?

http://www.huayuqiao.org/articles/shcheong/shcheong02.htm 也有讲解。
李光耀一生都不敢回老家祭祖 原因曝光不就是对祭祖的不瞭解。




Tuesday, October 25, 2016

To be Right or to Win

To be right is a desire to get the correct facts. To win is a desire to be on top of others. These are two different things. However, people tends to confuse between the two.

A person who desires to be right is one that seeks the fact and dispels wrongs and myths. It is very different from self-righteousness which is an attitude that one thinks that he/she is the only one that is right.

A very good example of "to be right" is  "the earth is round" belief. In early days most people beliefs that the earth is flat and if one ventures beyond the edge, the person will fall over. A person who suggests that the earth is round is unthinkable. He will be considered mad or is branded "idiot". Pythagoras is the first Greek who suggests spherical earth. Magellan sailed round the earth to prove it. Space travel has already debunk the myth yet there are still groups who insists that the earth is flat (Flat Earth Society).

Why does Magellan waste so many years trying to prove the earth is round? Has he nothing better to do? He probably have the "wanting to prove what is right" attitude.

There is nothing wrong to want "to be right". Humanity progresses because of these people. They have a theory and they proves that they are right.

Mao ZeTong started the cultural revolution (文化大革命). Thousands if not millions were tortured and died because of his desire to keep himself at the top. Is cultural revolution the right thing to do? At that time the people simply idolize him and did not try to see for themselves whether it is right or wrong.

The above example is a typical "to win" attitude. A person who desires to win will do anything to win including wrongs and lies. They have no regard for others. They will do anything and everything to put down others and keep themselves at the top. Unfortunately, this is human nature. It is the survival of the fittest attitude. It does not matter what damages were made as long as they win.

Throughout history, this "to win" attitude caused untold misery to others especially by those who is in power. They are afraid of those "to do right" people so they suppress everyone and mercilessly purged them into submission.

These "to win" people will aim for the top. They back stab, they spread lies, they suppress truth, they kill just to climb to the top. These people are everywhere.

Would you rather be one that "aims to be right" and accept your mistake when you are proven wrong or simply insists that you are right and try to argue your way out just to win?

My motto is "If you insists that you are right, you stopped reasoning".


Monday, October 24, 2016

Typical Response of SMRT

The first time I entered this particular bus service 963, it smells of strong petroleum odor. I thought maybe it is a faulty one thus did not feedback.

On 29 Sept boarded a 963 SG5780L and it has the same smell. So I feedback to SMRT about it and it replied

"With the information you have provided, I have highlighted your feedback internally for necessary checks and action. At the same time, I have also informed our Maintenance Department to step up on the cleaning regime on our buses."


On 6th Oct boarded the same bus SG5780L the fume was choking. Feed back to SMRT again and the reply is

"Please allow me to share that during our inspection on 3 October 2016, the bus was free from petrol smell. Nevertheless, we will continue to remind our staff to ensure this bus is cleaned on daily basis to remove unwanted smell during journey."


On 10th Oct boarded the same bus SG5780L again. This time the fume is still strong but not as bad. Immediately feedback but probably forgot to tick "need a reply". There is no reply.

Today 24th Oct. Boarded the same bus the fifth time. It still smells. Had to drop off at Bukit Batok because it really gives me eye sore and headache.

Do I feedback again. No. I never feedback beyond the third round. Why waste time? I feedback directly to LTA.


Now if LTA also behaves the same way as SMRT then perhaps I should go to Public Forum and vent my frustration.



Saturday, October 08, 2016

Example of Facebook Spam explained

"Bye bye, I deleted some so called friends over time, due to their way of doing things. Now I'm watching the one who will have the time to read this post until the end. This is a little test, just to see who reads and who shares without reading! If you have read everything, select "like" and then copy and paste this text on your profile, so i can put a thank u on ur profile,I know that 97% of you won't broadcast this, but my friends will be the 3% that do. In honor of someone who died, or is fighting cancer, or even had cancer, copy and paste. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.💕"

On and off you see spams like the above being posted on FB. A friend of my friend posted the above and I felt strongly that I should respond. That message was deleted later. But when I search FB for the first four words of the message, there are plenty of people ignorantly posted it in their profile the exact same message as above.


What make such spams work? It started with "I deleted some so called friends". It then followed by "I am watching the one..." then "my friends will be the 3% that do". It is a typical threat built on fear. The message threatened the 97% who are not "friends'.because they don't. 3% of them naturally just do it with out thinking which is contrary to the message.


Most friends will then be obliged to "do". It has nothing to do whether they "read" or not. The instruction is "Like" then "copy and paste." 


The message ended with "in honor of ... Cancer Awareness Month". in between "copy and paste" appears again. Just ask yourself. Do you threaten to remove your friends to promote Cancer Awareness?


By "copy and paste", it promotes the same idea to others thus forming a sort of chain mail scam. Look carefully, what is the instruction for "copy and paste". The first mention says "this text". The second mention simply says "copy and paste". Again the "reading" is meaningless as it does not specifically mention which sentence is important and should be "copied and paste". It end up people just copy the whole thing thereby continuing the chain mail spam. The Cancer Awareness Month is a real event but is used to validate the spam.


There are plenty of FB spams and plenty of ignorant people who just follow even though the message is as confusing as the above. 


It is ironic that  the message actually says "who read and who shares without reading'.





Wednesday, October 05, 2016

Travelling with a handicapped person

Travelling with a visual handicapped person could be quite an experience. Besides the visual assistance, there are a lot of areas where we take it for granted. Obviously, you will see other inexperienced people fumbles and fail in their effort to assist the handicapped. There are a lot of ways where people can fail in their efforts to help the handicapped. Here is one example of an industry that provides assistance service to facilitate travel for the handicapped and failed from time to time.

I used to travel with visual handicapped (VH). If it is one to one assistance, usually there will be no problem. However, if there are more than one VH with me, it will be a bit difficult to handle especially in a crowded area or space constrained area. In this case we usually ask for assistance from the transport provider if there is a service provided to assist.

Airlines usually provide such assistance to handicapped except budget airlines. Some budget airlines can provide the service with additional charges.

Through the years, there have been malfunctions in the service provided. For example they failed to provide their elbows to let the VH hold it. They can also forget that verbally telling VH to follow them is a big mistake.

Avoiding travelator and stairs is a bit controversial. It could be the service provider's concern that VH may be put in danger if they use the facility. It is still fine with VH in general.

Cathay Pacific goes a step further. They have a set of questionnaire to check with the handicapped. Unfortunately, they dump all the questions for handicaps into one single set. One of the funny question is "are you able to feed yourself?" For a quadriplegic, this question is absolutely necessary but for VH, it is kind of stupid. Obviously, if the VH is standing there and holding a cane, there will be no doubt that he/she could feed himself/herself. Cathay Pacific already stated in its web site the following statement.

"We are unable to provide passengers with any assistance for personal care needs inflight such as eating/drinking, administration of medications, elimination functions including assistance inside the lavatory, or other personal care needs. If you require assistance with any of these, we recommend that you travel with a personal care attendant or make alternative arrangements."

It is therefore quite puzzling why they need the questionnaire. They should remind passenger about their stated inability instead.

One other mundane practice is asking a VH if he/she needs a wheelchair when the VH is obviously standing there at the check in counter asking for assistance. How do they get to the check in counter in the first place?

Another funny thing airlines does is to issue a badge to indicate that the handicap is one who need assistance. Is it necessary at all since they already provide "meet and assist" service and the assistance already know who is the one that needs assistance. It is like Nazi tagging Jews.

From here on, I will mention one specific airline's practice specifically towards a recent trip I had with VH on Cathay flights. Below are some screen captures from Cathay Pacific web site.


The Introduction. Generally, this applies to all handicaps and people with special requirements. The disclaimer stated previously appears in all pages.

This page catered to the VH specifically. Notice that there is nothing mentioned about food or the preparation of it? Wheelchair is also not in the list.



This page is a bit peculiar. I will be mentioning about it below.

The trip we took is a flight with return tickets. The issue started with the flight from SGP to HKG. We checked in and asked for assistance. There is no issue right up to getting the VH seated. It is pretty strange that the check in counter staff put one VH on window seat and me and the other VH on the center seat. The plane is 3/4 empty. Why is it that we are seated separated by one seat and a walkway as a group not to mention that two of them are VH who needs me to help them from time to time? 

While waiting to depart, a ground staff came in and requested one of the VH to disembark and wait for the next available flight. The reason is that "Cathay Pacific regulation requires that a visual handicapped be attended to at all times and in case of emergencies."  They are currently not able to provide such service on this flight so the passenger has to be put on another flight.

Now I ask you to look at the three screen capture or go to the Cathay Website and search for this regulation. (https://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_HK/travel-information/special-assistance/disability-assistance/introduction.html). Which statement applies to a VH? The closest applicable statement is "Passenger needing Escorts" and the following excerpts from Mobility Assistance.

"In most cases, passengers with disabilities may travel on their own.  However, it is a requirement that you travel with a safety assistant if you are unable to physically assist in your own evacuation from the aircraft in event of an emergency."

Are Visual Handicapped not able to "assist in your own evacuation"? Some may be. But for this particular case, the VH have been able to move fine by himself. With a bit of instruction to guide them to move in which direction before hand, he should be able to get to the door and evacuate by himself. Therefore, the first statement cannot appliy. The conditions in "Passengers needing escorts" cannot apply as none of the conditions fits the description of the VH.

Is the airline overreacting? It is an insult by suggesting that able bodied VH cannot evacuate by themselves. How else could they live in this world? Every place they go there are possible emergencies including their own house.

The VH insist that he should not be removed and the ground staff let him be. Now that is another irregularity. Since you have already determined that the VH cannot evacuate by himself then how could you have relented and let him travel. The regulation can be bent?

Another issue is that why let the VH board the plane and then ask him to disembark again? Should it not be done at the check in? Of course, the airline can say that it is an oversight by the ground staff. That points to the "introduction" page - "our employees are trained to assist our passengers". Trained and oversight is a very different thing. How often does a passenger request assistance? It is practically everyday business. How could they missed the necessary checks? In actual fact they have to ask the questionnaire when we are entering the holding area. Should not this be done at the check in counter again rather than inconveniencing the VH on the way?

On the return trip. There is yet another set of problems. Upon checking in, the staff ask us to wait at that corner (pointing to AHD) and wrote the time and location of the place. In all my travel with VH, the usual practice is to just sit around the place and the assistance will come to us.

In this particular trip, no assistance came. So after 20 minutes after the appointed time, I go to AHD to find out. The first staff sitting at one counter simply points to the other staff. Now is that a good service?

Never mind, I moved to the "designated" queue to find out. The first thing the staff said is "why are we not at the AHD at the appointed time? I told her that it is usual for us to just wait around the place. The staff defiantly say that we should wait at the designated place behind the counter. Now that is a bit strange. There is no verbal or written instruction for us to find the specific AHD designated waiting area. How in the world would we know the working procedure?

I did see some assistance came to the sitting area around the AHD looking for the person they are supposed to assist. On my previous trips, the assistance did came to find us at the sitting place. Why in this case we are at fault by not turning up at the AHD counter on time?

After a few calls, they managed to get a ground staff to assist us to the plane. That staff simply waits for me to assist the two VH. She did nothing to provide assistance.

The staff walked so fast that she is a good 20-30 meters from us and only waits for us when there is a change of direction or use of lifts and train. Is that a "trained staff" to assist people who need assistance?

Upon reaching the plane, the air crew already busy with the other passengers. Supposedly, we are the last 3 to enter the plane. One air crew SHOWED us to our seat. They are trained to "assist"?  Under normal circumstances, an elderly pulling two person who tagged to him with a number of bags does not require help? In this instanced the ground assistance should have already informed the air crew that we asked for assistance.

On reaching the seat, I have to arrange for the VH to get to their seat and single-handedly put all the bags into the overhead compartment. The air crew just stood there and watch.

This is the type of "training" the employee of the airline have gone through?

Obviously, I lodge two complains to Cathay Pacific on their web site.

On 24th Oct 2016 after more than the 14 days auto reply stated period, The reply come as below

I am sorry that you were disappointed by your recent experience with us. I can understand why you feel this way and hope you will accept my apologies for the inconvenience caused.

I would like to inform you that in the event of an emergency, it is imperative that each visually impaired passenger has their own assistant to assist them as per our guidelines. I understand that you and your travelling companions had already settled in your seats for your flight to Hong Kong. Since you were assisting both of your travel companions, after we recieved a further confirmation from the concerned team, you were allowed to take the flight provided that both your companions could verbally communicate with you in case of an emergency. 

Having said that, I fully understand your point of view and regret any miscommunication that may have occured due to the handling by our ground staff at Singapore and Hong Kong. I can imagine how inconvenient and distressing the situation might have been on both occasions for you and your companions and I sincerely apologise for any poor impression that may have been created due to the handling by our cabin crew. 

My reply is as below

Your "Passengers needing escorts" page laid down four conditions where an assistance is needed. My question is does any of the condition fits the description of an able bodied blind person that can argue with your ground crew? 

The closest regulation is "have severe hearing and vision impairments and cannot establish some means of communication with our cabin crew."  However, is that applicable? If that is applicable then you are in trouble. How could I be assisting two handicapped person who cannot establish meaningful communication with me? How could I verbally assist the other visual handicapped in such condition? You allow such a person to travel without "his own assistance"?

In the first place it is your crew's mistake for not knowing your company's regulations well. In the second place your explanation is absolutely flawed against your own regulation.

From your "Passengers needing escorts" page I established that an assistance is needed when the passenger is not capable of evacuating by himself/herself. A visual impaired person may not be able to evacuate if he/she have other disabilities like unable to move by himself/herself or unable to understand instructions. 

You company fails totally by making such uncalled for requests. It is done at the wrong time and place by your ground crew taking your regulation out of context (concentrating only on "visual impaired"). You as customer relation also fails to adequately understanding the regulation and thus showing me your incapability of understanding a normal Visual Handicapped and your lack of understanding of your own regulations thereby providing such flawed answers.

Your reply cause me to more deeply hurt by trying to wrongly explaining the situation and by implying that a normal visual impaired person is not able to evacuate himself/herself with prior instructions. It amounts to an insult to a visual handicapped person. I also feel insulted because you think that I do not know your regulation when I do a feedback.

I am not sure whether your reply covers my feedback on the return trip from HKG to SGP. If it is, then I would say your entire crew do not know how to handle a visual handicapped adequately. It is not an odd case situation. It is en-mass lack of understand of visual handicapped passengers. The result is that I had to do all the assistance by myself when we already requested for assistance.

My other two companions used to travel to HKG without any accompanying assistance. I am now worried what type of treatments they will get when they fly with your airline.

On 29 Nov, Cathay Pacific replied

I have taken the liberty to contact you following my colleague Sean D’Silva’s previous emails to you, about an incident which happened prior to departure of flight CX650 from Singapore on 2 October, and which has brought to my attention.

Let me begin by introducing myself.  My name is Henry Kam, a Customer Relations Executive from Cathay Pacific’s headquarter in Hong Kong.  I am sorry if Sean’s previous emails had upset you in any way – this was certainly not our intention if there were any confusions or misunderstanding created.  And I would like to take this opportunity to clarify some of the details regarding Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon’s policy of acceptance of passengers with disability.

I am extremely sorry to learn of the problems Mr Chew had encountered on that day.  On behalf of Cathay Pacific I must profusely apologise again for the distress, embarrassment and displeasure Mr Chew must have felt.

Cathay has no greater priority than the safety of our passengers and crew, therefore we have been applying relevant safety requirements and procedures to ensure safety of our passengers is never compromised.  In the event of an emergency, we expect our passengers to strictly follow our captain and cabin crew’s safety instructions, such as when to adopt the brace position, how to use life-sustaining tools or where to evacuate the aircraft.  For this reason, we always recommend passengers with hearing or visual impairment to travel with a companion who can attend to their personal needs during the flight and, if necessary, assist them during an emergency.

Based on your booking record, Mr Chew and another visually impaired passenger were travelling together with you; in other words, three of you were flying together.  It was reported that our Singapore airport ground staff had followed the necessary procedures to complete a safety checklist for Mr Chew before boarding.  Unfortunately, due to verbal miscommunications and mishandling amongst our staff, Mr Chew was asked to disembark and thus exacerbated his dissatisfaction.  Due to sensitivity of such incident, we must admit that this is totally unacceptable.  Once again, we must genuinely apologise for the inconvenience we caused Mr Chew.

According to our current policies governing the carriage of passengers with disability, a safety assistant is required if the passenger:

1. is travelling in a stretcher or incubator or require medical attention;
2. is unable to understand or respond to safety instructions due to cognitive or developmental impairment;
3. is unable to assist in his/her own evacuation of the aircraft due to severe mobility impairment; and
4. has both serious visual and hearing impairments and cannot establish communication with cabin crew.

In most cases like Mr Chew, passengers who are visually impaired can communicate normally with others, therefore they should be allowed to travel alone.  A safety assistant is required only if the passenger claims that he/she is unable to physically assist in his/her own evacuation.  We currently do not have any limitation towards safety assistant, such as one assistant can only attend to one disabled passenger.  Mr Chew has visual impairment but is able to talk, and he was accompanied by a normal adult.  Based on the above guidelines, the incident should not have happened as he should be eligible to travel alone.  

In view of the incident, we have urged our Airport Headquarters Department to follow up with the Singapore local management team, to ensure their frontline team has learnt a lesson and to avoid this case from happening again.  The concerned department will also reinforce the current policies and procedures with the Singapore team to ensure proper, consistent service is rendered at all times.

We sincerely apologise once more for the inconvenience we caused you and Mr Chew.  I hope that you will view this as an isolated incident which will not deter you from choosing to fly with us again, and we look forward to an opportunity to restore your confidence in our service.

Friday, September 30, 2016

Keppel Hill Reservoir

National Heritage Board rediscovered Keppel Hill Reservoir not long ago. This reservoir was once used by Tanjong Pagar Dock Company (former PSA).

I was curious and wanted to see it thus go for the exploration trip. Since the place is pretty small and probably void of any features, the trip start at Alexandra Road. Below is the GPS recording.


As usual, I took the trail instead of the bridge at Forest Walk (Southern Ridges). Noticed some artwork near Lock Road. There are wire mess in the shape of butterflies. Here are two of them. Not very pretty and I most probably missed them in the past.



The Antidesma (no common name) is fruiting.


Have you seen a row of caterpillars gnawing on the leaves?


Never get tired of looking at a Lesser Dart butterfly.


Damaged but still elegant Felder's Royal.


The Orchid Tree is just before the Henderson Bridge. Its flower is beautiful even fallen already.



This Borneo Ru is nice but two efforts to take pictures of its fruit failed. Just look at the tag. Can you guess what it says? I only guess its name from the word Gymnostoma and Borneo. There is only one that has this combination.




To reach the trail, I had to open a steel gate at the small park. It is latched but unlocked. Beyond it is uncharted trail. There are maps showing the path but usually it won't be helpful as there is no marking. Luckily the foot paths are still visible and there are bricked step still showing.

It isn't far before I reached the reservoir. The first thing I noticed is a water pump still working. Its probably some one still using the water.


The reservoir looks run down but its brick wall, where I stood,  is still sturdy.



Here the foot path splits. Tried the left one and saw this tree fallen over the stream with narrow bricked wall. Turn back to the other one and find the path disappears after a while. No choice but to craw under the fallen tree. Took a picture after the ordeal.


The path is clear and easy after that. Took a final trail between Keppel Hill Rd and Telok Blangah Rd as indicated in the map. Mission accomplished. The total distance covered is 4 KM.

Here is the WikiLoc Map. No album as Google Photos is very unfriendly. It does not update the photos after uploading. I have yet to update all the tagging and naming so the pictures has not been uploaded yet.

Friday, September 09, 2016

Elected President by Shanmugam


The late Lee Kuan Yew take pains to set up the elected president before he left the PM office. His aim is to have a check on the future government using the reserves.

Today in "Today", Shanmugam says "S'poreans must decide...." What is he implying?  Asking the citizen to repeal what Lee KW has done to protect the country? He was in the parliament when Lee KW proposed and passed the bill.Now after Goh CT handed over to Lee junior he is suggesting otherwise. Since he is a Minister, I belief he is speaking on behalf of the government. I must ask what his intention is. Is he considering the Constitutional Commission report already suggesting to have a separate "appointed body" to have the custodial role.

Raising the financial management threshold, Suggesting minority race President. Suggesting repealing of President power. Is the government going some direction?

Any effort to dilute or impede the President's custodial role is a sign of going against Lee KW's idea of protecting the country.

Monday, September 05, 2016

Elected President Singapore

There are ample talks about EP. While the panel's article has not been published, PM and others already gone online about it. There are a few points which I think it may not be fair.

1. Group representation. One term is 6 years. Assuming each person takes one year. There should be 6 person. Are they going to be 3 Chinese, 1 Malay, 1 Indian and 1 other minority? In any configuration, there will be a majority. In any event, will the other 5 influence the presiding president? Can the reining president then be considered independent minded?

2. The word "from time to time" and "4, 5 or 6 terms" by PM is disturbing. Who is supposed to determine when to have a minority president? The government? Will it be used as a tool to bypass certain candidate (as some suggested)?

3. The qualifying criteria has been raised. How many minority race CEO are there in Singapore that meets the criteria except appointed government ministers? How many minority race CEO actually wants to be president? How many minority race actually submits a nomination form in the previous elections?

4. Will it still be democratic if the government decides which minority race will be next president?

5. The first president is Yusuf Ishak (1959-1970). Benjamin Shears took over (1971-1981). Devan Nair is the thard (1981-1985). They are all appointed president and are all minority president. Some alluded that a Malay should be the next elected minority president. The 4th president Wee Kim Wee (1985-1993) was the last appointed president cum first "elected" president.  The fifth Ong Teng Cheong (1993-1999) is Chinese. SR Nathan (1999-2011) is actually a un-opposed minority race President. Current president Tony Tan is also Chinese. Therefore, it is probably true that the election is race based. Open election on race basis is possibly biased. We are simply not that open minded yet. America took few hundred years to have a first minority race president (John Hanson was arguably the first black president).

Looking at the situation above, There are a few options available so that it will be all fair. I can only think of two.

1. A cyclic selection of 4 races regardless of majority or minor race. It will be flawed if there is no nomination for the particular minority race term. Who then should the next president? An open election will probably be race based again.

2. Only minority race could be president.  After all Chinese have been holding PM post since independence. I really don't see a PM of other race in the foreseeable future (based on the race based bias). Even if a minority race PM is elected due to overwhelming popularity, the parliament is still filled with majority race MPs. This is the fairest option at the moment.



Friday, August 19, 2016

Sports in Singapore

Recent Olympic Gold Medal by Joseph Schooling renewed a flurry of words on Sports in Singapore. Many again brought up the issue of Foreign Talent Scheme while some others simply point out the fact that there are more Chinese players than the Chinese (Country) players.

It has been an issue to some in Singapore about bringing in foreign sports person to represent Singapore. They keep hurling insults to these players who pledged their loyalty to Singapore so that they can represent Singapore in its Olympic medal dream. J.Schooling is the only local Gold medalist since Ang Peng Siong time in 1982.

I am surprised that many say that they are not "true blue" and that Government should spend the money to train locals instead. Others nationals also openly say that Singapore "bought" the medals.

I must say that it is totally biased. We did not have a single medal since 1982. Our locals have plenty of time to prove themselves capable for the last 30 years. None is able to produce any. When the government brings in FT (foreign talent) they start to say that government is wasting money.

Did J.Schooling and Ang PS get a lot of money and support from the government? They even have to struggle to get NS exemption to train. What are they talking about spending money to train locals?

If you are good enough to beat the FT then do you think government would not be interested in you. If you can't even beat the FT then why would government consider you? FTs already have the skill enough to earn the government interest before they come to Singapore. If you have that skill comparable to FTs and yet being neglected then I would say that the government is not looking at the locals.

For those who are biased on FT, I would sincerely ask you this question. How many foreigners have been given citizenship? I have mentioned the figures in Facebook before. It is up to you to find out. I only want to point out that these FTs are just like any professionals who are given citizenship. They are contributors to Singapore in their own specialty and skill. If you can't beat them in their own game, then ask yourself whether you are just whining because of your incapability and jealousy.

One final fact that I would like to point out. There are plenty of foreign corporate companies in Singapore. They are foreign owned and have not pledge loyalty to Singapore. Many of the so call "true blue" are employed by them. They get government grants too you know? Local companies have no chance to compete against them. Why is it that nobody ever complain? I am not saying that you should. Its just for comparison purpose.



Friday, August 05, 2016

1 Cor 2:15

Tichendorf 8th Edition reads  δὲ πνευματικὸς ἀνακρίνει πάντα, αὐτὸς δὲ ὑπ’ οὐδενὸς ἀνακρίνεται. 
KJV reads "But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man."
NASB reads "But he who is spiritual appraises all things yet he himself is appraised by no one."
NET reads "The one who is spiritual discerns all things, yet he himself is understood by no one." 

"He that is spiritual judges all things." is easily understood. "Yet he himself is judged by no one" is a bit hard to grasp.  Clarke's Commentary uses "convict". Barnes' Notes uses "discern". Wesley's Notes also uses "discern".

I personally liked the NET version. However, I am also convinced that using the word "judge" is still valid. Matt 7:1 specifically speaks of a person judging against other people judging him. Luke 6:37 also says the same thing. Rom 2:1 also refers to the same sense. All the three verses talks about judging others in the wrong way. Paul in 1 Cor 4:5 also says "judge nothing". Obviously, it is a different things that 1 Cor 2:15 is referring to.

Paul in 1 Cor 6:1-5 says that we "shall judge the world". Rom 16:17-18, 2 Cor 6:17, 2 Tim 3:5-6, 1 John 4:1 also refers to judging.

I am convinced that "we should judge" but we also must "judge ourselves" so that we will not be judged by others (1 Cor 11:27-31). Zech 3:7 "If you walk in my ways, and if you will keep my command, then you shall also judge my house".



Monday, May 30, 2016

Obama's visit to Hiroshima

On 27th May 2016, Obama visited Hiroshima and made a speech there. There are two groups that are opposed to his visit. The first is those who think that Obama should not show sign of acceptance of Japanese war aggression/atrocities. The other one is those who will loose if Obama's real objective is achieved.

Let's look at those who think that visiting Hiroshima is a sign of accepting Japanese war aggression/atrocities. During WW2, Japanese embark on war aggression, by invading Korea and China then declare war on the Americans. In the process, millions of people are killed, many as a result of Japanese brutality.

There are a lot of Japanese atrocities that was committed during the war. The following are just some of the notorious ones.

1. The rape of Nanking.
2. The Bataan Death March.
3. The Sandakan Death March.
4. Death Railway
5. Laha Massacre
6. Banka Island Massacre
7. Palawan Massacre
8. Wake Island Massacre
9. Tina Massacre
10. Sulug Island Massacre

In Singapore, they committed the Alexandra Hospital Massacre and  Sok Ching Massacre. Those whose family are affected will have hard time coming to terms with their losses.

Hundreds of thousands of American soldier died during the war with Japanese notably in Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Some were captured and then murdered. It is no wonder some Americans are totally again the reconciliation act of Obama.

Japanese government did issue apologies a number of times. However, it is generally accepted that the apologies are not enough or have been overturned by later government. The following are signs that Japanese government did not really mean what they say.

1. The total denial of Nanking Massacre.
2. The continuous visit to Yasukuni Shrine by Prime ministers and cabinet members.
3. The denial of Comfort women.
4. The whitewashing of History books.
5. The lack of visit to the site of atrocities.
6. The total silence of unit 731 experiment apparent with American immunity grant.

The American support of Japan during the Cold war and current Chinese assertion emboldens the Japanese's attitude against a total unreserved apology. Germany have done it long ago.

It is understandable that any sign of conciliatory acts by American president is a tabloo. Obama is the first one after 71 years of silence.

After noting the points of those against, there is a need to look at the opposite camp (those who accept Obama's visit).

Obama's visit aims at the total elimination of Nuclear weapons. He want to use the occasion to  drive home the message. His aim is not to show apology to the Japanese about the bombing. Many understood his intention. Even the Chinese and South Korea government (the two countries who suffered the most) have a muted objection.

Anyhow, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is one act of mass murder by American. They can't deny the fact. Whether it is right or wrong is still under ongoing debate. At least American President did acknowledge the fact and pay respect to those who died as a result of the act (without being apologetic). Will Japanese prime minister ever do that?




Sunday, May 15, 2016

Self-esteem or Approval-Seeking

Self-esteem according to Merriam Webster is "a feeling of respect of yourself and your ability". Approval seeking is a child's behavior to look toward parents' approval.

There have been numerous people who encourages self-esteem. Without self-esteem you cannot be yourself. You end up being just living on peoples' view instead of being yourself.

We were brought up by our parents. Often we look for the approval of our parents when we do something. Our acts were built entirely on this relationship. When we grow up, we tends to bring this behavior with us. We surround ourselves with people who approves us and we get upset when people disagrees with us. There are even people who thinks that they are nothing without other's approval.

These two views are totally on opposite ends. It is bad if you end up in either extreme. It is, therefore, important to know how to balance between the two ends. On the one hand you should not be governed by other's view. On the other hand, without others' feedback, you won't know whether you are too cocky or arrogant. The difference is whether you value yourselves better than others' valuation.

My personal view is that you should be yourself first then gauge whether you have gone overboard in being yourself. For example, there are some trending going on. Do you follow the trends so as to be on line with others or you based on your judgement that the trending does not suits you thus does not follow. Just because others do it does not means that you should do it. Obviously, you won't get to be inline with others but at least you can be yourself. You may even lost friends who insists you follow the trend.

When you do things differently, others will start to oppose you. You will have to first examine your acts to see whether the thing you do is right. Self-examination is the first step to prevent yourself being in the wrong. Often it is just gray area which it is not wrong either way. There are areas which is difficult to say whether it is right or wrong especially when it deals with somebody with authority.

In conclusion, do not be just followers. Have a mind of your own if you have already examined yourself whether you are right in doing so. Obviously, you could be wrong.

Don't just based on the opinion of others around you. Seek opinion from knowledgeable people/source who are known to be doing the right thing. If you have done your homework and still thinks that it is right then by all means stick to it till someone proves you wrong.








Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Kindness?

Two consecutive days I saw kindness.sg promoting "kindness".  The Singapore Kindness Movement was formed in 1997. Its aim is "to encourage Singaporeans to make a positive commitment to gracious living through simple acts of kindness."

The aim is nothing but perfect. So it seems. Look at the whole page ads below.


What has it to do with kindness? The picture practically say that you are not kind to snap a photo of people misbehaving. Insteads you should confront the person. The real kindness is to show a photo of people giving up their seats to the needy.


This photo portrays the same message. You should not take photo. Instead you should confront the angry man. A show of empathy to who? The waitress or the angry man? The wordings in the photo says you can "stand by", "watch", "take a video" or "step in and try". Which action shows empathy? The last one? It is practically asking people to confront the angry man. Should this photo be showing empathy towards the server and not to scold her?

It keeps saying "Kindness" yet it points to bystanders and say that they should act. By acting it is equal to "kindness"?  I don't know what's wrong with the mind of the organization. It is advocating everyone to act in confronting wrong doers as if bystanders are experts in that area while it by itself says nothing about themselves telling the wrong doers that they should be gracious and do what is right.

The two photos actually show the adverse message. It is saying you should not take photos/videos neither should you do nothing. Is it wrong to do what they try to dissuade? Are we a confrontational society? If it is not handled properly it may well hurt the peace maker's feeling or make the situation worse. Is it not better to educate the wrong doers rather than the bystanders?

Taking a photo and post online is a bad thing? It is not graceful? Many people do not want to directly confront others. They try to vent their dislike by posting such bad activity online. The action by itself is not really a correct thing to do but it could be the only way many people try to show their dislike.

By posting online, the public will be aware of such event and thus avoid being the center of attention. This is far better than trying to talk to individuals to solve the issue. Would you want to do bad things in public knowing that your bad act may be shown to the whole world? I do agree that it damages the wrong doers image. A graceful/kind person should not have done that in public in the first place.

Most public figures faced the same issue. They have to ensure that they do not do wrong in public otherwise the whole world will knows about it. Why then should individuals be exempted. You did it in public and people capture/record and show it in public. There is nothing wrong to that. The only thing I strongly disagree is to have paparazzi style of stalking people to capture their embarrassing moments. That is totally evil.

EU has passed a law to have "rights to  be forgotten". That is a good thing. At least it gives people who did wrong in ignorance/rage to be given a chance to be forgotten. That is what I called "graceful society". Maybe kindness.sg should advocate this act to be passed by parliament instead.

Saturday, April 23, 2016

Pain in the Ass

Decades ago while I was studying in Baptist Seminary, a Professor said that I have a gift of teaching. I did not have tertiary education neither did I complete the Seminary course. So am I still qualified to be a teacher? Most Christians will says that it does not matter whether I got a paper qualification. But I have a strong feeling that the "teaching" may be a non academic one.

As life goes along, I slowly realized that I have a knack of finding fault with everything. Take the example of my former church. The group was led by a missionary pastor. They need to have a place to worship so they joined one of the member's church. Since it is a Chinese speaking community. The English speaking group have no problem remaining a closed group. As time goes, the group did not really become big enough to expand out but the missionary pastor wanted to "plant" a church and move on so he encourages the group to split from the mother church to become an independent church. Obviously, the whole group thinks it is alright except myself. Ultimately, they moved on. My name was removed from the mother church registry but I did not actually join the new church thus becomes a wondering Christian.

I joined a group but find the organization lacking in its activity. They seems to treat the activity as a duty so only builds close relationship with the pioneers. New comers were left with having to join them or fend for themselves. I pointed out some oraganization event issues in my post a few times and was brushed off.

In FB, I used to point out that some of the posts were inappropriate. At times I even have a long "conversation" with individual. Most of them just suggest that I take it as is. however, I don't think that a wrong should be accepted. The most prominent "conversation" is about PCN. There are so many discrepancies yet there are people who just tell others to shut up and live with it.

In the internet there are so many posts that did injustice. Take for example. there was a comment that "a woman should wake up a sleeping man sitting on a priority seat so that he could give up the seat for a pregnant lady instead of posting a picture shaming him".  There are a few things that weren't right.

1. The author did not take into consideration that the lady may not be the assertive/confrontational type. 

2. He also did not take into account that by taking the picture of the lady taking the picture, He also failed to do what he said she should do.

3. By saying that Singapore is a "Civilized country" bring us to laughter. If it is true then there will not be opportunity of people taking pictures to shame individuals. There is even a dedicated site "Stomp" to show them. 

4. He should rally the community to be more caring rather than shaming her trying to get things right.

5. What he did is to shut the mouth of those who point out wrong. It is like asking the prople to close their eyes and say that the world is beautiful.

News about a woman who sexually abused an underaged were not charged with the appropriate law. It is understood that the law should be impartial to both male and female offenders. However, if the law somehow become partial due to the language it uses, then it cannot be applied to another sex. Some netizen insists that the judge is wrong. These people judge the judge on moral issues. However, the judge must not be influenced by citizen's moral value otherwise how could the judge be impartial. It is up to the judicial department to work it out.

Advertisements are every where. Do you notice that some advertisements are not correct?

I have started a FB page "Windows into Life". It is a page where I voice out things that are not correct. I do include things that are nice and good to make it a more balanced page. Obviously, it will be "stomping" people.

I don't really care what people think about myself. If they don't like me let it be so. I am a loaner. I do not need people to support me so that I can feel good. I my end up dying alone. Well, I rather be at peace with God than at peace with men.

Well, do I insist that I am right and harassed people to change? No. That is not what I am aiming for. I did not insist that they amend their ways. My duty is to point out not to guide. 

My motto is "If you insists that you are right, you stopped reasoning". If some one is able to point out that I am wrong and have the correct reason, I will apologize and retract my words. In this world there is no absolute right or wrong. In that case I am merely stating my point. It is up to you to accept or reject.

Some may say that I am judgemental. No. I do not judge. Only God judges (Matt 7:1-3). I point out the facts and state it. You judge for yourselves. There is nothing personal against the person or things.

Nobody likes to be told that they are wrong. That includes myself. So a person who goes everywhere and start correcting people, that person is really a pain in the ass. That's me. I point out because I care. Would you?


Thursday, April 21, 2016

Web Based JS Charts again.

Constricting web based charts is quite a simple job. Using SQL statement to pull a summary of the data, structure it according to the requirements of the JS Chart and there is the charts. On the previous post, I have mentioned the use of Rgraph (http://jnhiew.blogspot.sg/2016/04/javascript-charts.html) to achieve the purpose. This post is to show how it could be done.

First lets start with constructing the data. The format of the data is [0,1,2,3,4,5,6].

The SQL to get the data will be

SELECT SUM([yourvaluecolumn]) AS mysum,[yourfield] FROM mytable WHERE [yourcondition] GROUP BY [yourfield] ORDER BY [yourfield]

The PHP code to extract sqlite data is as follows

$db= new SQLITEDatabase('sqlitedb');
$query = $db->query('[your query statement]');

The result will be an array something like below

123, 'abc'
456, 'def'
789, 'ghi'
1012, 'klm'

To extract the array, use the following
$csv = "[";
$csvkey="[";
while ($data = $query->fetchArray(SQLITE_NUM){
   $csv.=$data[0].",";
   $csvkey .= "'". $data[1]."',";
}
$csv = rtrim($csv,",")."]";
$csvkey = rtrim($csvkey,",")."]";

The RTRIM command is to remove the last comma.

In the javascript replace  the "data:" and the "labels;" line with

data:<?php echo $csv; >,
labels::<?php echo $csvkey; >,

The above is only for simple charts with one set of data. If the data is required for multiple bar or multiple line chart like showing the set of data in groups by month, then the format is different for "data". The "labels" will remain the same. The format of the data is like

[[1,2,3],[4,5,6],[7,8,9]]

Before you do anything, you must extract the labels from the database. The reason is that there will not be a data result if the field value does not exist for a particular month causing the number of columns become variable. Furthermore, it is impossible to predict the labels without first extracting it before hand. Therefore, the first thing to do is to extract a label list and an 0 initiated associative array that includes all the labels.

$csvkey="[";
$csvary=array();
$qlabel = $db->query('SELECT DISTINCT [yourfield] from mytable order by [yourfield]');
while ($data = $qlabel->fetchArray(SQLITE_NUM){
   $csvkey.="'".$qlabel[0]."',";
   $csvary[$data[0]]=>0;
}
$csvkey = rtrim($csvkey,",")."]";

The SQL will be

SELECT SUM([yourvaluecolumn]) AS mysum,[yourmonth],[yourfield] FROM mytable WHERE [yourcondition] GROUP BY [yourmonth],[yourfield] ORDER BY [yourmonth],[yourfield]

The format of the result will be

123,  'March', 'abc'

PHP code will be as follow

$dta=array();
while ($data = $query->fetch(SQLITE_NUM){
   if (!isset($dta[$data[$data[1]])){
      $dta[$data[1]=$csvary;
   }
   $dta[$data[1]][$data[2]]=$data[0];
}
$data2="[";
$key2="";
foreach ($dta as $key=>$value){
   $data2.="[";
   $key2.="'".$key."',";
   foreach($value as $k2=>$v2){
       $data2.=$v2.",";
   }
   $data2=rtrim($data2,",");
   $data2.="],";
}
$data2=rtrim($data2,",")."]";
$key2=rtrim($key2.",");

Replace the two JS as before.

data::<?php echo $data2; >,
labels::<?php echo $key2; >,

Add an extra option to the option in JS. It will be shown as legends.

key::<?php echo $csvkey; >,

Obviously, there are times when there is a need to do multiple stacked bar group by month. I will leave it to you to figure out. Hint:- Third level array.


Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Javascript Charts

After playing with Filemaker charts and found it limiting in its use, I decided to change to Web based charts. The first concern is what language to use. PHP has been used to do a lot of things for me thus it is the only choice.

The idea is not to create graphics charts from PHP. It will take considerable processing and data transfer size. Therefore, client side charting is the choice. Javascript is the only scripting language on a browser that does not require plugin so it will do.

The last thing to consider is what type of graphics to use to draw the chart. I have used SVG before to create charts. It is nice but I would like to make use of HTML5 canvas element to do it instead. So I finally settled with canvas graphics.

PHP can talk to javascript via AJAX. I too have done it before but the chart I am doing is not real time dynamic data. Thus, PHP is used to create javascript code. There isn't much javascript code to generate to create a chart if you use a javascript chart module that is easily available.

There are plenty of Javascript charts available. Some offer 90 plus type of charts. Since the requirement is probably just Line, Bar, and Pie, The consideration is to get the smallest size module to do the simple work.

Most popular Javascript charts is actually using HTML although the name is Javascript Chart. They even use ".js" as file name. I find it troubling as they actually requires access to the remote site to get the JS source. It also uses "crossorigin" links to JS source. The worst of all is that even the JS file cannot be downloaded locally. Three of the most popular JS chart module I tried cannot even be run on local directory.

I did a considerable search around internet and finally settled with Rgraph. It is a true JS library module and can be downloaded to run locally. The graphic is simple and not as elegant but it works.

The user JS to generate a charts is very simple. You can see it as below


    var pie = new RGraph.Pie({
        id: 'cvs3',
        data: [4,8,6,3,5,2],
        options: {
            shadow: true,
            shadowOffsety: 7,
            shadowBlur: 25,
            strokestyle: 'rgba(0,0,0,0)',
            labels: ['Henning','Louis','John','Pete','Lucy','Fred'],
            clearto: 'white',
            variant: 'donut3d',
            labelsSticks: true,
            labelsSticksLength:25,
            radius: 100
        }
    }).draw();

All you need to do is change the "data" and the "labels" option. Getting PHP to generate the two parameter is very easy.

Construct the data in the appropriate format in php and use the following line to replace the data line in JS.

data:<?php echo $data; ?>,

The other change is the Labels line

labels:<?php echo $label; ?>,

That's all. The chart will come out beautifully.

If you want to get the chart to be much more interactive and vibrant, the Rgraph documentation will show you very much more options to set the graphs. Below is a picture of a donut pie chart from the Rgraph examples above.




Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Filemaker Chart vs Web Javascript chart

Recently have issues with Filemaker chart thus have to switch to web based charts. There are quite a number of similarities and oddities. The following is the comparison.

FilemakerWeb
Uses tablesUses variables
Forms data from table with data pre fetched from SQL resultForms data direct from SQL result
Charts PreformedCharts can be defined at run time
Number of legends fixedNumber of legends determined from runtime
Max number of legend fixedNo Max number of legend 
Max number of data rows not fixedMax number of rows not fixed
Titles, X,Y labels prefixedDetermined during runtime although can be prefixed
Chart type prefixedChart type can be changed runtime
Interactive chartInteractive chart
Data values can be displayedData values can be displayed
Number of chart types limitedNumber of chart types depends on the module writer. Some can have 90 plus chart types
No time lapse display of chart dataHave time lapse display of data
Charts module fixedCan practically create the chart from scratch.
Not resizable during run timeCan auto resize or changed during runtime
Color prefixedColor changeable during runtime if needed
Options setting prefixedOptions totally changeable runtime.
Events trigger not availableEvents trigger available depends on module writer.
Chart data can be added/removed runtimeChart data can be added/removed runtime
Must use Filemaker to view chartCharts can be rendered in any web programming language that can work with javascript and have a graphics display capability.
Expensive.Can be totally free.
Charts formed by fix app settingPlain javascript text setting.
Easy to do even with novicesA big learning curve especially when you create chart from scratch
StandardizedWay too flexible until it is scary

You can see that Filemaker charts are for easy creation but is fixed in most features. It is not flexible at all compared to Web Javascript charts. Both caters to specific group of people and interest.


Monday, April 18, 2016

Web Site Database browsing in pages

On a web page, the displaying of large quantities of data takes a lot of time for the server to deliver. It is therefore usual for web masters to show the data in pages where at any one time there is a limited number of records shown.

SQL has such a thing called LIMIT or ROWNUM. It basically limits the number of records retrieved from the database. Obviously to get the next page you need to know what is the last record retrieved. This means that you need to define OFFSET after the LIMIT.

This way of paging works quite well. The only problem is that every request means the database has to retrieve the SQL request again then go down to the OFFSET record then show the number of records set by LIMIT. If you have millions of records retrieved in this way then it is obviously process wasting.

There are some who advocate using a sequential incremented unique field as the offset instead. It will be something like this

SELECT * from table where uniquefield > xxx LIMIT 100

It has to remember the last record retrieved and replace the value xxx on the next page. However, this will work only for paging forward. Normally paging will allow forward, backward or start from a specific page. This can only be done with OFFSET.


Monday, April 04, 2016

How to use a script to create data for a Filemaker Chart

In my previous post on Filemaker Charts, I touched on how to create a table and use it to create charts. In daily operation, the data are actually daily transactions. it is never meant for charts. How then could we transform the data into charts. It is easily done in Excel where user can create summaries to be used in charts. There is a summary in Filemaker too but it cannot be used for charts.

Here I propose using scripts to populate a summary table from a details table. The example code will use Filemaker Charts as an example.

The first thing to fill is "Months" field. Create a calculated text field in the main table and call it "YearMonth". It is necessary to add year as the data may span a number of years. Use the formula below as calculation assuming the field that shows the date of record creation is called CreateDate.

Year(CreateDate) & Case(Month(CreateDate) < 10;"0" & Month(CreateDate); Month(CreateDate)

The above will generate a text like "201604" for current month. It is necessary to insert "0" for single digit month so that the sequence of the data created will be correctly done.

Create the summary table and chart according to examples shown in Filemaker Charts. Create a script called "Summary".

Usually a summary table will pull the data for the entire last year. So the script will start with getting the year.

Set Variable($year;Year(Get(CurrentDate)-1

With the year, append the month value in a loop like below

Set Variable($mth;1)
Loop
   If($mth < 10)
      Set Variable($ym; $year & "0" & $mth)
   else
      Set Variable($ym; $year & $mth)
   End If
New Record/Request
...
Set Variable($mth;$mth+1)
Exit Loop If($mth>12)
End Loop

The above script only set the loop to get the correct YearMonth value in 12 loops. We need to fill the "Month" field in the summary table. The following script assume you are already in the summary table layout using summary table as database. The subsequent scripts are to be inserted in the line before "Set Variable($mth;$mth+1)" represented by "..."

Set Field(Summary::Month;$ym)

The next task is to fill SiteA, SiteB, and SiteC with the correct summary data from the sales data field "TotalSales". Well, you guess it right, we will use ExecuteSQL function.

Set Field(Summary::SiteA; ExecuteSQL("SELECT Sum(TotalSales) FROM MainTable WHERE SiteLocation = 'SiteA' AND YearMonth=?";"";"";$ym)

Repeat it for SiteB and SiteC.

Run the script and you will get 12 records with the completed sales figure for last year. Your chart will then be able to show the yearly sales figure for the three sites.

A reminder: You need to delete all records of previous data in summary table. Filemaker Charts does not have the facility to define which data to use in the table.  Its useless to set a filter as it only applies while the table is in view.

A suggestion is to copy the data into a history record of the yearly performance table. Extract the necessary data back into summary table to show the yearly figure for the year you want to see the chart.

One last thing, The SQL is a very simple one. You could extract the whole year data for all three sites in just one ExecuteSQL

Set Variable($data; ExecuteSQL("SELECT YearMonth,SiteLocation,Sum(TotalSales) FROM MainTable WHERE YearMonth LIKE '" & $year & "*' GROUP BY YearMonth, SiteLocation" ;"";",";)

Use a loop to extract the various rows using GetValue($data;$loop) then extract each item by replacing "," with "¶" then use GetValue to extract the items.

The complex SQL method only useful if you extract just the sales figure. In many situations you need to get more result than that. Usually they use different criteria like TotalSales > 1000000, Total Sales >100000000. One SQL will not be able to extract such criteria and it will be difficult to update the table if you use more than one SQL. Since the first SQL will fill all the 12 records already. You will then have to use filter to choose the right record then add the subsequent SQL result into the correct record.

It is impossible to use ExecuteSQL to update the records. ExecuteSQL does not allow Insert or Update (3rd party SQL plugin does have this capability).  It is easier to use simple SQL and then create a record to fill the appropriate fields with the correct SQL result with the resultant multiple SQL that loads the system runtime. The choice is up to you.