The serious
Credit card 'online' worries
Two ST Forum writers were recently unsettled by unauthorised attempted/approved online transactions involving their credit card numbers. In her letter on Monday ("Disturbed by credit card security breach," ST, 27 June, page A21), Ms Gan Siew Lian recounted how she had received in one day two text messages with the Verified by Visa One-Time Password (OTP). She alerted her bank, DBS, and told the customer service officer she had not made any online purchases.
She was assured that there were no records of purchases.
But two evenings later, she received another OTP text message. DBS then called and she insisted she had made no purchase. She then asked to have her DBS Visa card cancelled. She later called DBS again and found out that three unauthorised online transactions had been made during the week! She asked: How did DBS approve the purchases when the OTP should not have been known to the purchaser?
On Wednesday, Madam Khong Wai Fong related a similar [scarier, actually] experience ("Multiple fraudulent card transactions within minutes", ST Forum, 29 June, page A30).
She said that within the space of 16 minutes, she had received nine OTP messages in relation to her OCBC Visa credit card. Upon her call to the bank, she was advised to cancel her card at once, which she did. Eleven days later, the monthly statement she received showed not nine but 15 fradulent purchases totalling $4,470.79. She has since made a police report. She is also still waiting for the bank to refund the sum which she said had been deducted via Giro.
ST should have run a news story today about these unnerving episodes! It's a matter of public interest.
Realpolitik -- in the words of Nixon and Kissinger
Analysts are already debating the likely outcome of the US drawdown of its military forces from Afghanistan. Gideon Rose's article today ("Lessons from Vietnam for Afghanistan", ST, 29 June, page A29), trenchantly explains big power "cover their backsides" actions at the expense of buggered allies:
"In late 1969, faced with increasing domestic pressure to end the [Vietnam] war, Nixon and Dr Kissinger settled on a strategy to reduce the American role in ground combat while fending off a South Vietnamese collapse. They sought to walk away from the war, get American prisoners back and avoid formally betraying an ally -- something they believed would damage America's reputation. They recognised that their approach would leave the South Vietnamese vulnerable after the American withdrawal, but considered [it] an acceptable price to pay for getting out.
"They never said this last bit publicly, of course. But in private, they were more candid, as the White House tapes showed. During an August 1972 Oval Office chat, Nixon told Dr Kissinger:
'Let's be perfectly cold-blooded about it... I look at the tide of history out there. South Vietnam probably is never going to survive anyway... Can we have a viable foreign policy if, a year from now or two years from now, North Vietnam gobbles up South Vietnam?'
"Dr Kissinger replied that US policy could remain viable if Saigon's collapse 'looks as if it's the result of South Vietnamese incompetence. If we now sell out in such a way that, say, in a three- to four-month period, we have pushed President (Nguyen Van) Thieu over the brink... it will worry everybody... So we've got to find some formula that holds the thing together a year or two, after which... no one will give a damn.' "
Wen Jiabao -- is he a spin-doctor after all?
In my posting yesterday, the Chinese social critic Yu Hua made this remark: "In China, we can't curse our premier but we're free to curse the guy next door." Was his singling out Prime Minister Wen Jiabao intentional, considering that the Chinese premier has a public image of caring for the common people?
A Reuters article in today's ST muddies the water. Headlined "Wen Jiabao: 'Screen idol' or prophet of change?" (ST, 29 June, page A23) it noted that, on one hand, as Wen prepares to retire, his call for political reform, made many times in recent years, seems to have grown more forthright.
But for sceptics, his "hazy" words are a pre-retirement vanity project, burnishing his own reputation without venturing to achieve real change.
"This was screen idol Wen staging a performance in London [where he has been visiting]," said Mr Chen Yongmiao, a Beijing-based lawyer and online commentator.
But Mr Qiu Feng, another Beijing-based lawyer and commentator, said: "I think he [Wen] should be applauded. The Chinese political scene is very delicate right now. Different people want to take China in different directions, and Wen is the one (leader) who points in the direction I think we should take."
The offbeat
Toe-wrestling? You're pulling my leg!
ST ("Toe to toe action", 29 June, page A27) has this story from British newspaper The Daily Telegraph about hundreds of competitors headed to Derbyshire for the 35th annual Toe Wrestling Championship this week. The sport was invented in a Derbyshire pub in 1976.
As described, toe wrestling is similar to arm-wrestling [really??]. Contestants begin by locking right toes, then left, then right again. To admit defeat (de-feet?), a contestant has to call out, "Toe much!"
This year saw an epic battle between arch rivals "Predatoe" (Paul Beech) and "Nasty Nash" (Alan Nash). Beech won. Defending champ Lisa "Twinkle Toes" Shenton won the women's title. No small feat for these two winners, I'm sure. The contests were held in a custom-built arena called the "toedium". But of course. Here's a pic:
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