India is a good role model for Singapore's future as a futuristic and modern country

E-Rickshaws to the rescue

Did you know that India boasts more electric rickshaws (e-rickshaws) than the total number of battery-powered passenger cars sold in China from 2011 to 2018?

Now the fourth-largest automobile market in the world², the South Asian nation is leading an electric rickshaw revolution that could help reduce congestion and traffic pollution in India — and serve as a model for countries where rickshaws are a landmark feature. According to Rahul Mishra, a principal at consulting firm AT Kearney, as many as 11,000 new e-rickshaws hit the street every month — and sales of these cleaner, quieter and faster vehicles show no signs of slowing down....

The above is reported in Yahoo News. India is the darling of Singapore. Many Singapore ministers, now and before, including Chok Tong and George Yeo, are fascinated by this great country that is going to be the Number One super power in the future. Everything India did is astonishing and mesmerising and worth imitating. Indian talents, even from broken down village universities or armed with fake degrees are in high demand in Singapore over graduates from our world renowned super expensive universities.Many are now in positions to manage and teach our daft but highly educated fools.

The huge influx of Indians into Singapore has turned Singapore into an Emerging India. Not only Little India is looking every inch a part of India, the East Coast area has also become an Indian enclave. The rich Indians have bought into many of the condominiums and forming the majority or a substantive majority in these choiced housing. There are many enclaves of Little India in the East Coast.

Oh, I got carried away with my admiration of the Indians' progress in Singapore. This E Richshaw thing is exactly what Singapore needs for the future with cars already beyond the reach of many Singaporeans. And daft Singaporeans are so slow in reinventing themselves and still peddling 19th century richshaws on the streets using leg power.

Here is India's innovation and contribution to the unthinking Singaporeans. Go and learn from India, rebuild a new E Rickshaw industry and flood the roads with clean energy using rickshaws as our means of transportation. It is cheap and good, cheap low class engineering for the good of Singapore and Singaporeans and for turning Singapore into an Emerging India.

One thing for sure, the cost of living will come down and many PMETs can turn to this profession, and can paste their degrees and qualifications on the rickshaws to impress the foreign 'talents' and maids they are fetching to redeem their egos and low self esteem. I am a graduate from world class universities, so don't look down on me.

DBS drops bombshell on remisiers

Yesterday Business Times asked DBS if it was planning to close down its stockbroking arm. DBS replied that it would hold a townhall meeting with the remisiers on its restructuring plan.

Last night the DBSVickers remisiers were told that they could not continue with their stockbroking business and the bank would explore ways to redeploy them based on their qualifications and experience as well as age, subject to the bank's policy on hiring older employees, market practices and MOM regulations on retirement age. Their businesses and clients will be taken over by the bank.

Many remisiers were in shock and disbelief with this bombshell coming immediately after the Chinese New Year festivities.  Many have spent 20 or more years with the DBSVickers. With many remisiers quite senior in age and having been in the stockbroking business most of their lives, it is unlikely that they could find suitable jobs with the bank with comparable income. The younger remisiers are very concerned as they have young children to feed and their livelihood is likely to be adversely affected, rice bowl broken.

The remisiers are now pondering over their next move over this financial crisis in their lives. With the difficulties in finding another job, the older remisiers can forget about this option and join the statistics as retirees and not add to the list of the unemployed. The situation for the younger remisiers is just as bleak unless the bank could find them alternative employment with equivalent income.

This is looking like a fire that has just started in the industry and the fear is that other banks or broking houses could follow suit and the problem could spiral into something beyond recognition. The coming GE could have another hot issue to blow hot and cold about.

Hard times are here for the stockbroking industry, the remisiers and supporting staff. How would this add to the pool of the unemployed PMETs in Singapore?

Wonder what is the position of MAS and the govt with this announcement?

Brochez given front page attention in the media

He is so cute, so famous and so clever. Now they are calling him a pathological liar. I disagree. I think he is a genius, at least in the land of the blind where the one eye jack shines. This half baked, unqualified, probably did not have any respectable qualifications, could easily cheat and con a nation of well educated first world daft administrators is a lesson to be discussed seriously, not just slamming him as a pathological liar and let the thing rest. Harvard should use this as a case study for stupidity in public administration.

I quote this from thenewpaper, ‘He used fake degrees to get teaching jobs in Singapore, cheated on blood tests to hide his HIV-positive status, and leaked the data of 14,200 people with HIV.’ And this did not  include his employment as lecturers in the polytechnics and he did so well, was so highly regarded that he was allowed a clinic to practice child psychology or something like that. How could he conned so many people in the polytechnics is beyond words.

Wait a minute, this is a genius that Singapore is looking for, someone without any degrees and can do the job. If not because of his HIV status, I would highly recommend him to be employed as a lecturer in the university, maybe a professorship to teach how to con the daft and get away with it.

Singapore does not believe in degrees but in ability. Brochez is exactly the kind of talent Singapore is looking for, and a foreigner, and an angmoh to make him more likeable, and so cute looking to and could be the darling of many women here, if not because of his HIV and biased for the males.

Did Singapore learn anything from this episode? Is the govt still very happy with the 2m foreigners that were tagged as foreign talents here? No need to verify their certificates? How many are like this Brochez, with

fake degrees but very clever and can do the job?

Is Singapore becoming a paradise for fakes and cheats? If only 20 percent of those employed here are using fake degrees, how many are out there? The probability is that at least 50 percent are fakes.

So what now, conduct COI or do nothing? I bet they will do nothing because the exposure of this scam can be so very embarrassing. And to expose all the fakes hired in high positions could be so embarrassing. So they will pretend that nothing is happening and all is well, and bring in more ‘foreign talents’ and also tell the people no need degrees, can do the job ok oredy.

Below is a comment by Cheryl Gupta posted in TRE about this so lovely Brochez.

This is a city in decline, degenerating and spiraling down the tunnel into the third world of fakes and cheats. All cheats and fakes please come. You are better than the daft Singaporeans with good and expensive degrees from out world class universities. I see so many of them in Raffles Place and Marina Financial Centre.

To be fair, while Brochez is probably not a saint (he faked his blood test and lied about his educational qualifications), it is quite another thing to accuse him of stealing the data (which he did not have direct access to) and leaking the data into the internet (evidences?), while calling him a pathological liar so as to discredit him.
To be clear, I am not saying that Brochev did or did not leak the data. However, I would like to see concrete evidences that he had leaked the data. I don’t think it is right that we conclude that Brochev leaked the data to be the Gospel Truth simply because our government said so. If we looked at the list at the beginning of this article, it is not altogether obvious that the government is always telling the truth.
At the end of the day, these events may merely be distractions to focus attention away from the incompetency and un-accountability of the government in failing to ensure proper security of medical records.

Cheryl Gupta

The whole world is paying trillions of dollars to US for the use of 4G

In the internet and telecommunication business the whole world has been paying trillions of dollars every year as copyright fees to the United States for the use of 4G which has been under the monopoly of four US companies viz AT&T, Verizo, T-Mobile and Sprint. In so far as the use of 4G under US control is within the auspices of the United Nations and agreement of all countries there is no problem for all countries in paying copyright fees to the aforementioned US companies.

The world countries pay more than 10,000 trillion Yuan in copyright fees to to the four US companies  . China's 4G pays US$100 million  in annual copyright fees to the US companies.

If the countries around the world switch to Huawei's 5G which now has the blessing of the United Nations to operate in the 'Internet of Things' in the next one hundred years, the US will lose more than 10,000 billion yuan of foreign exchange each year, which is set at 20% of the Annual GDP of the United States. Therefore the United States will not allow Huawei's 5G in the world as it is leading by a huge margin against all other western 5G aspirant companies.

The United States being a poor looser will use all kinds of underhand vile methods to  destroy Huawei in order to protect the interests of the US such as stopping the loss of at least 20% of USA's GDP. The United States is just a dishonourable big bully.

The world must know this is really the true and ulterior reason for USA's insistence on bringing down Huawei.

US is playing a very dangerous game. It is far more dangerous than a trade war. China is now trying to lower tension by lying low in self restrain. But it won't be long when China under the weight of the anger of the Chinese people is forced to take a tough policy against US and Canada. Let''s hope this will not lead to war between a peaceful China and Russia against the hostile savage warhawk United States, the Evil Empire.

Southernglory1

Tuesday, 19th February, 2019

Irresponsible retrenchment and irresponsible hiring

Irresponsible retrenchment of Singaporeans, especially the seniors and PMETs, has reached a crisis proportion.  It is a very serious affair for senior Singaporeans to be retrenched, dismissed or sacked under false excuses when finding another job at their age is almost impossible. The end result is financial difficulties and family hardship when there is no income and the paltry payout from CPF is unable to sustain a normal way of life in this most expensive city in the world.

Added to this is the irresponsible hiring of Indian nationals to replace the Singaporeans that were irresponsibly retrenched. Many Singaporean and non Singaporean CEOs have been adopting this foul practice to fire Singaporeans and replaced them with more Indian nationals.  I am not mincing my words.

The pervasive presence of Indian nationals in the ‘Chennai’ Business Park in Changi and ‘Mumbai’ Financial Centre in Marina Bay is a stark reminder of the pathetic state of affair affecting seniors and PMEs in Singapore. This reminds me of what an ex MP said about the blackout in Little India. Wonder what he would say if he visits the above two places and some corners of East Coast Park.

Let me first deal with the 62 year retirement age issue. Some Singaporeans are still thinking that 62 is the retirement age in Singapore. No, 62 is the minimum retirement age, something like the minimum sums in CPF savings, ie it is only a minimum and can be raised and raised. Here is a statement from MOM.

‘In accordance with the Retirement and Re-employment Act (RRA), the minimum retirement age is 62 years. Your company cannot ask you to retire before that age.

You have this protection if you:

 Are a Singapore citizen or Singapore permanent resident.

 Joined your employer before you turned 55.

Employees who turn 62 can continue to be employed in the organisation if they meet the eligibility criteria of re-employment.

Employers must offer re-employment to eligible employees who turn 62, up to age 67, to continue their employment in the organisation. The re-employment age was raised from 65 to 67 on 1 July 2017 to help older workers who wish to continue working as long as you are willing and able.’

Yes, employer cannot ask an employee to retire because of his age and must offer the employee post retirement employment up to 67, as in 2017. This age limit has actually been removed in practice and can be above 70 or more. In de facto, there is no retirement age in Singapore today.  Several politicians and govt appointees have worked way pass their 70s and still gainfully employed in govt services or GLCs.

To the many PMEs they may think this has nothing to do with them. The Employment Act protection is for the workers only. Not true. MOM has extended its services to PMETs who need assistance when they are

irresponsibly retrenched. The NTUC, the representative of workers, has also set up a unit called U PME Centre specifically to assist professionals, managers and executives that were irresponsibly retrenched.

The Govt and MOM did not go to sleep when this monumental problem is staring them straight in their faces.  As each day passes, more and more seniors and PMEs are losing their jobs and unemployed and in financial difficulties. They need help desperately and the Govt and MOM and the NTUC cannot look the other way. They are Singaporeans whose jobs have been taken over by the presence of hundreds of thousands of foreigners, particularly Indian nationals.

PMEs that are wrongly or irresponsibly retrenched or lost their jobs can go to U PME centre or the MOM to seek assistance. If these failed, they can petition the Prime Minister for help, to intervene into their plight when their rice bowls are affected. Seniors and PMEs have families to feed and dependents to take care of. If not manage properly this could turn into a political crisis for the govt.

What if all else fails? Well, the GE is around the corner. The elected Govt is supposed to take care of the people especially in providing good jobsfor them, not handouts and pittance subsidies that could not last the next day.

Irresponsible CEOs causing Singaporeans to lose their jobs and to replace them with Indian nationals must be put on notice that they cannot get away with crimes against the seniors and PMEs. Such malpractices must be put to an end immediately.

PS. Heng Swee Kiat's budget speech spoke about more restrictions on S pass and dependent pass for foreigners to deal with this problem. Hope it is not just lip service.

American white lie on Huawei unproven

Beijing and Washington traded barbs over Huawei Technologies and the South China Sea at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, as both sides also sought to sell their vision for regional security.

In a speech lasting almost 30 minutes, US Vice-President Mike Pence urged political leaders at the conference to reject the Chinese telecoms giant.

The US has been “very clear with our security partners on the threats posed by Huawei and other Chinese telecom companies”, Pence said.

“Chinese law requires them to provide Beijing’s vast security apparatus with access to any data that touches their networks or equipment,” he said, adding America’s allies must protect critical telecoms infrastructure.

Speaking immediately after Pence, Chinese State Councillor Yang Jiechi said China rejected “technological hegemony”.

“We need to follow the new approach of win-win and all-win cooperation and abandon ideological prejudices and the outdated mentality of a zero-sum game, and a winner takes all,” Yang said.

In a question-and-answer session following his speech, Yang added that Huawei was cooperating closely with European countries on the fourth industrial revolution.

“Chinese law does not require companies to install a back door or collect intelligence,” he said.

Total ban on China’s Huawei may be a mistake and it’s ‘more complicated than in or out’, Britain’s MI6 chief Alex Younger suggests

The Five Eyes intelligence alliance – the US, Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand – as well as Japan have blocked or are planning to ban Huawei from taking part in building their 5G mobile network infrastructure, adding to pressure on the Chinese company. Other countries, such as Germany, are consulting telecoms operators before deciding whether to exclude the firm....

The above paragraphs were posted in Yahoo News.

The very fact that for so many years, and the recent spate of heightened investigation and scrutiny and intensive tests on Huawei equipment by many western countries, including the mischievous US putting Huawei under the microscope and still could not find any proof that Huawei's equipment are used to spy on other govt, this is the best proof that the Americans and 5 eyes accusation is a frivolous White Lie.  If Huawei is guilty, they would have lost not time to shown the evidence to the rest of the world with all the western media pasting them on their front pages. They could not as they could not find anything wrong with Huawei except making wild allegations and spreading lies.

The Huawei White Lie is about western hegemony and about economic dominance, about the fees that they would have lost to Huawei when fees from 4G becomes miniscule once 5G takes over the market. These are the real reasons, not spying or whatever mischievous allegations the Americans the the 5 eyes are telling the world.

The Americans and the whites are congenital liars. They cannot and have failed to prove their allegation is true.

Watch this short clip about American White Lie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UN3cUQ2LdhQ

US trying to sabotage Huawei, ZTE and Sino-5G. Too late. Game over. China

Rising Radio Sinoland

CECA - Unequal Treaty

Twelve years ago on 29 June 2005, PM Lee triumphantly went to India to sign the free trade agreement, the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement or CECA, with the Indian government. At the official dinner hosted by the Indian PM for him in New Delhi, PM Lee happily announced that a “New India” is emerging....
 
Cleverly hidden clauses

In the agreement, Chapter 9 provides for the movement of people between the 2 countries.
In particular, it provides very laxed rules for the so-called “intra-corporate transfer” of employees, encompassing some 127 different type of professionals described in Annex 9A: IT professionals, architects, civil engineers, electrical engineers, doctors, biochemists, pharmacists, lecturers, accountants, auditors, financial analysts, psychologists, career advisers, etc.
In Article 9.5, Clause 1, it talks about providing a “long-term temporary entry” to “intra-corporate transferees”. In fact the name itself should have raised a red flag to PM Lee. How can an entry be simultaneously “temporary” but yet “long-term”?

The clause stated that “each party shall grant temporary entry to an intra-corporate transferee of the other party, who otherwise meets its criteria for the grant of an immigration visa, for an initial period of up to two years or the period of the contract, whichever is less. The period of stay may be extended for period of up to three years at a time for a total term not exceeding eight years”.

Bottom line is an “intra-corporate transferee” can stay up to 8 years before he is “rotated” out of the country.
And the person shall be exempted from any labour market testing or economic needs testing, as specified in Article 9.3:

“Neither Party shall require labour market testing, economic needs testing or other procedures of similar effects as a condition for temporary entry, in respect of natural persons upon whom the benefits of this Chapter are conferred.”

That is to say, economic needs testing like Singapore’s fair consideration framework which ensures fair hiring of Singaporeans cannot be applied to “intra-corporate transferees”.

To top it all, CECA Article 9.6 even allows the “intra-corporate transferees” to bring in their spouses or dependents to work too:

“A Party shall, upon application, grant the accompanying spouses or dependents of the other Party the right to work as managers, executives or specialists, subject to its relevant licensing, administrative and registration requirements.”

In cases where their spouses or dependents are not professionals, they shall be allowed to work in other areas:
“Such spouses or dependents can apply independently in their own capacity (and not necessarily as accompanying spouses or dependents) and shall not be barred by the Party granting them the right to work from taking up employment in a category other than that of managers, executives, or specialists solely on the ground that they as the accompanying spouses or dependents are already employed in its territory as managers, executives or specialists.”

India IT companies exploiting the “intra-corporate transfer” loophole

Hence with CECA, Indian IT companies like Wipro or Infosys can exploit the “intra-corporate transfer” loophole, to move large number of Indian IT workers into Singapore since CECA does not set any quotas.

They do not have to hire a single Singaporean in their Singapore-based subsidiaries.

Before the PAP govt notices, tens of thousands of Indian IT workers have already quietly entered Singapore with many of them working and settling in the East side of Singapore, creating their own enclaves.

In recent months, driven by higher unemployment among Singaporean PMETs as well as discriminatory hiring complaints from Singaporean workers, the PAP govt started to slow down the approvals of Indian IT professionals to work here....



The above is part of an article posted in theindependent.sg on 4 May 2017 by a Voltaire.

The most dangerous and most unequal part of this Agreement is Chapter 9 on the Movement of people between the two countries. 127 professions were highlighted, now 128 with the recognition of Indian nursing degrees in the upgraded CECA in 2018. See Annex 9 below for the list. The free movement of people apparently looks so innocuous and fair on paper. But in practice and in reality it is something else.

Millions and millions of Indians would be moving into Singapore to work freely. On the other hand, NOT a single Singaporean would want to work in India. OK I might have exaggerated, maybe 1 or 2 Singaporeans would want to work in India and be paid in rupees. What, for earning rupees and in jobs that paid 10% of what it would be paying in Singapore?

Look at the picture above of the Indian masses in Singapore's Chennai Business Park in Changi, oops I mean Changi Business Park. It is the same in MBFC aka Mumbai Financial Centre in Marina Bay.

From the pictures you will know how serious CECA has turned jobs in Singapore into jobs for Indians from India, not for our PMETs.  Who are the big employers of Indian nationals? GLCs? Are GLCs giving good jobs to Indian nationals and sacking Singaporeans in the process, causing undue financial hardship to Singaporean and their families?

A picture tells a thousand words.

 When Tan Chuan-Jin was still Manpower Minister, he said this in parliament: (He is no longer a minister)

“We have also heard of situations where Singaporeans were retrenched or made to resign in the name of down-sizing, only to realise later that their positions were given to foreigners, who were coincidentally from the same countries as the business heads.”

“Let me be quite blunt. Would these practices not sound discriminatory? Would any respectable progressive company endorse these practices? If this hiring is indeed because they care only about choosing familiar candidates and not about hiring the ‘best man for the job’, then such practices have no place in Singapore’s workplaces. Discrimination will not and cannot be tolerated.”

 Annex 9A LIST OF PROFESSIONALS  
1 System Designer & Analyst 2 Network System & Data Communication Analyst 3 Software Engineer 4 Computer and Information Systems Manager 5 Computer Operations and Network Manager 6 Application Programmer 7 Systems Programmer 8 Multi-media Programmer 9 Network System & Database Administrator 10 Database Administrator 11 Information Technology Auditor 12 Information Technology Security Specialist 13 Information Technology Quality Assurance Specialist 14 Building Architect 15 Interior Architect 16 Landscape Architect 17 Town Planner 18 Civil Engineer (General) 19 Dredging Engineer 20 Dock and Harbour Construction Engineer 21 Structural Engineer (General) 22 Building Construction Engineer 23 Sewerage & Sanitary Engineer 24 Soil Mechanic & Piling Engineer 25 Trenchless Technology Engineer 26 Quantity Surveying Engineer 27 Transportation and Highways Engineer 28 Electrical Engineer (General) 29 Electromechanical Equipment Engineer 30 Electrical Traction Engineer 31 Power Generation & Distribution Engineer 32 Lift Engineer 33 Electronics Engineer (General) 34 Telecommunications Engineer 35 Computer Engineer 36 Computer Systems Engineer 37 Computer Applications Engineer 38 Computer Hardware Design Engineer 39 Semi-conductor Engineer 40 Audio & Video Equipment Engineer 41 Instrumentation Engineer 42 Mechanical Engineer (General) 43 Industrial Machinery & Tools Engineer 44 Marine Engineer 45 Ship Construction Engineer 46 Naval Architect 47 Aeronautical Engineer 48 Automotive Engineer 49 Air-conditioning & Refrigeration Engineer 50 Chemical Engineer (General) 51 Chemical Engineer (Petroleum) 52 Chemical Engineer (Petrochemicals) 53 Manufacturing Engineer (General) 54 Production Engineer 55 Automation Engineer 56 Robotic Engineer 57 Biomedical Engineer 58 Biochemical Engineer 59 Biotechnology Engineer 60 Materials Engineer 61 Industrial Health, Safety & Environment Engineer 62 Petroleum & Natural Gas Engineer 63 Metallurgist 64 Quantity Surveyor 65 Ceramics and Glass Technologist 66 Food and Drink Technologist 67 Dairy Technologist 68 Leather Technologist 69 Textile Technologist 70 Oil Technologist 71 Pulp, Paper, Paint and Plastics Technologist 72 Biologist (General) 73 Botanist 74 Zoologist 75 Anatomist 76 Biochemist 77 Physiologist 78 Neurologist 79 Medical Pathologist 80 Clinical Pathologist 81 Veterinary Pathologist 82 Pharmacologist 83 Animal Scientist 84 Microbiologist 85 Bacteriologist 86 Immunologist 87 General Physician 88 General Surgeon 89 Specialised Surgeon 90 Anaesthetist 91 Psychiatrist 92 Obstetrician & Gynaecologist 93 Paediatrician 94 Endocrinologist 95 Dermatologist 96 Ophthalmologist 97 Cardiologist 98 Radiologist 99 Industrial Physician 100 Medical Service Physician (School) 101 Public Health Physician 102 Dentist (General) 103 Specialised Dentist 104 Veterinarian 105 Veterinary Epidemiologist 106 Pharmacist (Dispensing) 107 Other Pharmacists 108 University Lecturer 109 Polytechnic Lecturer 110 Accountant 111 Cost Accountant 112 Company Secretaries (who are Accountants) 113 Taxation Professionals (who are Accountants) 114 Auditor (Accounting) 115 Career Adviser 116 Financial Analyst 117 Credit Analyst 118 Fund Manager 119 Treasury Manager 120 Market Research Analyst 121 Advertising Account Executive 122 Economist 123 Sociologist 124 Anthropologist 125 Historian 126 Political Scientist 127 Psychologist