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Editing Area 51..see history sOURCES: Area 51 The odds of intelligent life arising on another Earth-like planet are low, a British scientist has calculated. THE BBC[[1]]

[edit] What's this man here doing?

make-believe

He's a news vendor on AMK Street? A houseowner holding a garage sale on Sunday? Or waht's it?

answer make-believe as in movie making for local Media..

[edit] Aliens on Earth?

Area 51, also known as Groom Lake, is a secret military facility about 90 miles north of Las Vegas. The number refers to a 6-by-10-mile block of land, at the center of which is a large air base the government will not discuss. The site was selected in the mid-1950s for testing of the U-2 spy plane, due to its remoteness, proximity to existing facilities and presence of a dry lakebed for landings. Groom Lake is America's traditional testing ground for "black budget" aircraft before they are publicly acknowledged. The facility and surrounding areas are also associated -- with varying levels of credibility -- with UFO and conspiracy stories. In 1989, Bob Lazar claimed on a Las Vegas television station that he had worked with alien spacecraft at Papoose Lake, south of Area 51. Since then, "Area 51" has become a popular symbol for the alleged U.S. Government UFO cover-up. [GC 8/96]

[edit] A cover-up story here!

sOURCES: Area 51 The odds of intelligent life arising on another Earth-like planet are low, a British scientist has calculated. THE BBC[[9]]

[edit] What's this man here doing?

make-believe

He's a news vendor on AMK Street? A houseowner holding a garage sale on Sunday? Or waht's it?

answer make-believe as in movie making for local Media..

[edit] Aliens on Earth?

Area 51, also known as Groom Lake, is a secret military facility about 90 miles north of Las Vegas. The number refers to a 6-by-10-mile block of land, at the center of which is a large air base the government will not discuss. The site was selected in the mid-1950s for testing of the U-2 spy plane, due to its remoteness, proximity to existing facilities and presence of a dry lakebed for landings. Groom Lake is America's traditional testing ground for "black budget" aircraft before they are publicly acknowledged. The facility and surrounding areas are also associated -- with varying levels of credibility -- with UFO and conspiracy stories. In 1989, Bob Lazar claimed on a Las Vegas television station that he had worked with alien spacecraft at Papoose Lake, south of Area 51. Since then, "Area 51" has become a popular symbol for the alleged U.S. Government UFO cover-up. [GC 8/96]

Here's my brief memoirs: My name is Norman Oh. My original given name was Oh Eng Yok. Eng Yok meaning "Translucent Jade". Obviously, I was a pretty baby and the joy of my Grandmother and my family. It was kind of a girlie name. Later my Grandmother renamed me as Aw Cheng Siong. The "Oh and Aw" were actually the same in the Chinese script but only differently pronounced according with the first or second part accentuated such" Oh!" (1st part emphasis on the front), and Aw (emphasis on the second part of the word such as "aw-ful". When I was born, my Father was away from Singapore (away in China), obviously he was a filial son-of-China; the wars has destroyed many families, lives, properties and probably many cherished hopes to build dreamed homes, he went back to save his family from starvation; to them he became a savior, he has, of course, the China bride and his parents and other closed members of his family but he neglected my mother and her newborn son...He cannot be two person in two distant places. My childhood: I don't remembered much except that those days I spent my time with the kampong playmates with fun in games, playing with fighting fishes and insects (spiders) , fishing in the ponds and wandering around the neighborhood. My Grandmother was de facto head of the family as Grandfather was only an absent figure head who cloistered himself in the temple away from the problems of life. My Mother had to work in the field with Grandmother to grow the long beans and other more easily to cultivate plants which would not take as much time as the other vegetables like “Chai-sim” and other intensive green veggie which took the farmers all their times. Later they find odd jobs working as rubber factory hands and coolies involved in the post war building bloom. My father seldom comes home as he was busy with his business (shop keeping) and was successful as a shopkeeper or " tow Kay" and comes home only when he can. Mother never complained as a good wife and he always came back with some money to help in the family. My younger sister (Cheng Tuan) was two years my junior, besides three other brothers (Cheng Tiok, Ser Hua and Siow See). Obviously, my father cannot fully afford to support us though he was considered successful. For him success means remitting money home to buy cheap lands in China to setup his dream to be a landlord and a home (for everybody). Twice our family plan to return to China but both times did not work out accordingly. There were always reasons that had held us back, and we were never considering having our homes permanently in the Nanyang. China was probably a better place if not for the changing political reformations (communists appropriated all lands to the states, had it to be redistributed to the poor landless peasants) in his homeland. My father and his family become victims of his times. His hopes was shattered but he was a resourceful man and began to rethink of ways to bring his wife to Nanyang where he can have establish his other home. It was to take all his energy and money to carry out his second chance, and my other China mother "Ah Chim” came to unite with my father in the sixties.

[edit] Early schooling:

Almost all my playmates enrolled in the local Chinese school (Sin Khiaw Primary School) which originally was started as a small school alongside the temple7. Of course my Grandfather was the pioneer first Teacher who started it. However my Grandmother wanted me to have a western education, and so I enrolled in a small English Grammar school two and a half miles away from our village. At Braddell Rise Primary School, we were taught the first book about the farmer who called himself "Old Lob". I had no idea about what was like a small animal farm in England but I enjoyed looking at the colorful farm animals Miss Tibs (the cat), Moo-moo the cow and other animals. School was not that boring and there were new things to learn every day. I was good at Arithmetic, Spelling and a keen learner. My position in class was around third or fourth and usually within the ten in class. I seldom had to spend more time to go over my lessons because I usually asked questions, and learned more than others because I had a ready and open mind, and picked most of what was taught without much difficulty as compared with others who were too timid to question what they don't understand.

old Primary school Leaving Certificate with my name written and spelt wrong!

My other schoolmates were more diligent at learning but except for a few smarter ones, they don't to have sharp minds to grasp what the teachers were teaching. I was never first in class because I was just not as diligent. In addition, when we set the entrance exams to go to the Upper or secondary school there were two passes in our class. I was one of the two. I could not understand why those who applied themselves so "hard" did not even get to pass. Perhaps it was true that "all work and no play make Jack a dull boy" . Well, I remembered that much for my early lessons in learning. However in my secondary school days, I had to struggle through much at school and did not do as well as I could because our home was never the same after my Mother quarreled with my Father about the fact that he neglected our family. My Grandmother came hard on my Mother as she was usually bullied and treated badly. To leave the house for a break was what I always do in order to escape from the problems at home. Nevertheless, my study was not doing well enough even though I was an avid reader. Then my grandfather died when I was in my secondary two and it was a tragedy which left was a void in my emotions as I loved my grandfather and looked up to him for a moral example. I failed my first try at Cambridge exams and managed a second chance with a poor pass on my second try. I was disappointed with my exams results and had a poor choice with what I can do with my life, as there was hardly any meaning to more purposeful life unless I did well in my studies. I tried to look for jobs but I had no adequate qualifications to enable me to secure any, as there’s no taker for those with bad results.

[edit] As A Young Adult:

I had hardly any recollections as a young man and don't even remembered when I passed my twenty-first birthday. There was an experience when I reached my eighteen. I was qualified to apply for a provisional driving license. I asked my Father for $120.00 to pay for a course in driving. I paid the instructor a small (twenty dollars) down payment to learn how to drive. I had no knowledge of what were the controls for driving a car. My instructor called me "stupid" for not knowing what the brakes are, the gearshift for, the pedal for releasing the clutch and engaging the drive but I picked all these from my instructor in a few lessons. Then I took my written test for the Highway Code and passed the first time. My instructor was surprised. I could hardly consider myself ready as a candidate for the harder test but after a few more lessons, I tried for my driving test. I knew if I hard to do my reverse parking I will never pass since I never quite made it. My tester tried me with the braking on an incline next to a "T" junction (at Telok Ayer Street) and then told me to drive around for a while. I tried to engage him in conversation and drive, hoping to make him feel confident that I can drive, he probably took my hint and told me to park alongside a parallel parking near the police station at Maxwell Road, asked me to follow him into his office. He pointed out to my slight mistakes such as be more careful with looking to the left and right when turning, and then told me to wait outside. I almost never believe myself to have pass the test until I I saw the papers given me the right to apply for my licence to drive a car (third class driving). My instructor was shocked, and I believed he never again called another learner stupid for asking what he didn't know. He was lucky to get the rest of the hundred and twenty which I handled to him immediately after I passed. Well, actually there were many failures as most learners had not the confidence when going for the tests, and my uncle who not educated could not pass the test until after many tries, and considered me as a real smart person to have done it just in one time.

[edit] Hard times:

During the early sixties, those were the very hard times. Unemployment was on the rise. The government was changing all the time with all the political campaigns to oust one another. I remembered the referendum that calls for the people to participate in voting for merger with the Malaya federation to form Malaysia. I was not old enough to vote but there were many anti-government and anti-PAP activities. I was not interested or would want to get involved with politics, but there were lots of fervor and activities going on. I had no job. When Singapore became part of Malaysia I decided to try venture out of country with my luck. I applied and got my provisional passport to travel. Those were the days when the Malaysian Passport office issues passports in the form a double sheet of thicker A4 papers. It was a restricted form for travel. They did not have booklets and I used those papers to get to Kuching, capital of Sarawak. I traveled on the deck class as a paying passenger on the strait steamship, "M.V. Perlis", and it took us about three days to get there. The Immigrations were strict and even though I was a fellow Malaysian, I was made to understand that I had to leave after two weeks. Well I asked for another two weeks after the period lapsed and was given another two weeks but was informed that I must leave after that. So I returned back to Singapore with my pockets empty but a little more rich in experience but still jobless. Therefore, one day I decided to join the “VSC” or the Volunteers Special Constabulary. I went for the recruit training in the Police Training School in the evenings, and passed with a first for my general law and PGO (or police general orders), and for the prize, I rewarded a fountain pen. I remembered I was called to go on "standby duties" during the many occasions when riot police were dealing marching processions and large gatherings. I was given a small token allowance of sixty or seventy cents for every hour of duty. There wasn't much but it was something for spending. Then I decided to go for my try with the British base in “Seletar” for RAF recruitment of local young men into different trades related to aircraft servicing and maintenance. I was selected for training and passed after a six-month stint. When I completed the training, I asked for a compassionate release. I was surprised that they would let me go. I supposed they were involved in plans for eventual retrenchment, and can afford to let me go free.

[edit] Next Fulltime Job:

In addition, I became unemployed again but only for a little while. There was an advertisement for the posts of civilian instructors with the Ministry of Defense (MID) and I applied and was selected for training at a Palau Ubin where I received my "merits". So again, I was selected to join batch new trainees for a whole year in training to be an instructor. We were taught marching, judo, and all kind of sports and out doors activities, first aid and life saving and then we were not paid the money all through our training for a whole year. Well that was not exactly fair as some probably would have resigned sooner if we could collect all our pay. The government probably spent a lot of money on our training and it was understandable, but it was a “kiasu” administration. Imagine our hopes and reassurances from our commanding squad leader. There was not even a single cent for allowance. Perhaps I think their coffer was quite empty or just that it was to keep us from getting out of the tough program. We were paid a lump sum upon our signing a contract to serve a full five years. Then the government implemented the compulsory scheme to register all young men for national service. When we completed our training, we were posted to become instructors for the new recruits in the “Vigilante Corps”. After working for a full two and a half years, I decided to resign. I had not completed the full contact of five years at the job, and I eventually had to pay about a thousand and four hundred to get the full release. Wow! That was a real “kiasu” government and never again, I take on another job with the government.

[edit] An Insult to Injury

Exemption from National Service..2 old 4 them to catch me in!

And perhaps to add insult to an old injury, I received a letter to go for enlistment under Compulsory enlistment Act for the civil servant clause in which certain people in the administration could be called up even though they had resign their jobs! Well with the Singapore Government, there was no way to get out when they wanted us in. I finally was able to stay out and get my final exemption when I became too old (in 1979) Obviously, they could not have wanted me in then. How I managed to stay out of the army was another story, which I will tell, in another part. related articles which I help contributed along with others at wikipedia on Ang Mo Kio

[[17]]

my old bachelor of religious education here