President Jokowi

I always find him a lighter version of Obama. Don’t you people think he looks like Obama? Now we have two presidents with Indonesian connections.
 
The election of Jokowi as the new President of Indonesia is the continuation of a winning streak for the country since Gus Dur. Indonesia has enjoyed the blessing of the last few presidents who were more progressive, economy driven and honourable. Yudhoyono has done very well to keep the Indonesia polity and economy on an even keel and growing in peace and stability. This election would be very different without Yudhoyono’s calming and firm hands to ensure that no dirty business was allowed to spoil the party. This is Yudhoyono’s greatest legacy in an election that started with a big dark cloud hanger in the air. Many bad and ugly things could happen and Jokowi would be in no position to do anything but to face defeat.
 
As I said earlier, when a country is blessed to do well, good men and women would step forward to lead the country. If Jokowi had lost, Indonesia would be in for a tough time, and so would be the stability of the region. Indonesia could see any term of progressive govt and policies instead of politicking and frauds.
 
Look at China and the USA. China too is blessed with a continuous string of good men and women at the helm and is growing richer by the days. China would be in deep shit if Bo Xi Lai and his gang would to be in charge today instead of Xi Jinping. On the other hand the USA is blessed with some clowns in the Presidency and teams of evil men and women till today. And the USA is going down, unstoppable. And looks like it is going to get worse with Hillary Clinton flirting to be the next President and the Americans love her. The USA deserves Hillary to bring an end to Pax Americana. That is the fate of the Americans.
 
When countries are to do well, good men and women would appear. On the contrary, when a country is on the decline, average men and women and rascals will take over the rein to hasten the fall.
 
Indonesia is lucky to have President Jokowi and a new team in charge, a clean slate not tarnish or implicated by historical baggages.

Kopi Level - Yellow

CPF savings backed by Govt’s substantial assets

This is what Tharman said about your CPF savings, ‘Singaporeans who wonder if their CPF monies are safe can rest assured, because their CPF savings are backed by a govt that has substantial assets in excess of its liabilities’. In the same line of thinking, the Americans need not worry about the debts they owed to the whole world as they are backed by substantial assets in excess of their liabilities, ie the land from LA to New York and Chicago to Houston.. When forced to pay up, they could sell their aircraft carriers and their nuclear arsenals. Or they could sell the Rocky Mountains as well. Similarly the Greece govt needs not file for bankruptcy. They could sell their islands, the ancient ruins and whatever.
 
Are we supposed to feel assured by this kind of statements and this kind of asset backings? Would we be comfortable if the CPF money is gone and the govt starts to patch up the holes by selling the power stations, the heritage sites, SIA, DBS etc etc if the Net Investment Returns Contribution(NIRC) is not enough. Oops, I forgot, we have many billions or trillions of reserves to take on the first charge.
 
OK, OK, now I am feeling quite assured. At worst, just sell a few islands or the whole island. But this is hardly possible as it is impossible to lose so much that we need to sell the whole country right? We have so many valuable assets to sell just in case. Our CPF have a lot of assets to back it up, very very safe.
 
What do you think? Safe or not?

Kopi Level - Yellow

CPF is not just a game

Chuan Jin used the analogy of a game to describe what is happening to the CPF scheme at the CPF Forum organized by the Institute of Public Policy. He was referring to the changing conditions and said that the rules of the game had changed, conditions had changed. The CPF scheme is not about a game but about the people’s life savings for retirement. The govt must get this straight and not to confuse with govt pension schemes where the fund comes from the public coffer. The govt can change all the rules of a pension scheme, no one will care or object to it. The money in the CPF scheme comes from the pocket of the people, saving for their retirement. Please don’t suka suka change the rules without the people’s consent.
 
The compulsion to save in the first part of the people’s life, up to 55 years old, is a necessary evil. The second part or the next phase must be the return of the money to the savers. It is as simple as that. The govt has no moral right to keep the people’s money at its own pleasure. Legislating it to be legal is still not right. Taking this further, the govt might as well legislate the savings of the people in the banks, like in Greece and take a portion of it?
 
Put it simply, the money must be returned to the people at 55. Period. Given the changing circumstances and life expectancy, the younger generations may have to relook at what is a reasonable age to take back their savings. For those in their 50s and above, they should be taking back all their savings at 55. The good hearted govt can think of ways to design favourable and attractive schemes like annuity plans, or savings plans with higher interest rates to entice the people to leave their money in such schemes, VOLUNTARILY, after 55. The people must be allowed to exercise their choice on what they want to do with their money, NOT the govt’s money. This is basic human decency! Can the boys and girls understand this?
 
No more funny schemes to retain the money in the CPF compulsorily because the boys and girls said so. The govt can no longer treat the people as daft peasants of the 3rd world, unthinking, irresponsible with their money and helpless. The people are well educated, well informed and definitely not daft, definitely smarter than many of the policy makers.
 
And what is this thing that people must keep on contributing to their CPF regardless of how old they are when they have to apply or renew their licences? After certain age, it is time to take out the savings, time to stop savings for tomorrow that can really be the next day or the next hour. For those who have a lot of money, they can go on and on saving even if they are 100 years old. Those are different kind of people.
 
What say you, boys and girls?

Kopi Level - Green

SIA no longer the best airline

For so many years we have taken for granted that SIA was the best airline in the world. The latest result, SIA was not first, not second, but third best in the world. No panic, it is just one of those things. We cannot always be number One right?
 
We are slowly getting accustomed to the new normal, to be not the best, to accept errors, almost daily breakdowns of public transports as the new normal. No longer were the days when the CEOs would wet their pants when things went wrong. Would there be worrying faces among the top management in SIA or among the political leaders? Don’t think so.
 
I think there is no need to worry too. We just need to bring in more foreign talents into SIA and we will be back to number One spot soon. The problem with SIA now must be the lack of foreign talents and Singapore Girls no longer motivated to join SIA. Our Singapore Girls were once unbeatable in their graces and service. What is happening?
 
We need the foreign talents to uplift SIA and teach our local girls how to serve well and regain the top spot as the number One airline in the world. Maybe never mind, getting tired of being number One.

Kopi Leveln - Green

MH17 – A new twist

In a world dominated by big power politics and competition for control and supremacy, there is a new twist to the fate of MH17. Discussing this version of a conspiracy theory is not meant to be disrespectful to the victims and their families. It is just a theory that is making its round and with Putin making it official.

This centres around the possibility that MH17 was not shot down by a SAM but by the air to air missile of a fighter jet. Do not be surprised as this is that much more realistic and credible than a pilot wanting to fly an aircraft full of dead passengers to the Antarctic, or a commercial aircraft on its way to Beijing turned and flew on auto pilot towards the Antarctic. And the whole world is made to look like fools to believe in these stories.

What are the reasonings behind this new story of MH17? One, a SAM firing from the ground would be seen by many for miles away and must have a lot of eye witnesses to testify the sighting and possibly even with video evidence from handphones. The military would also have the missile tracked.

It was a good opportunity to fly a false flag and to make the Russians be blamed for it. And who is the expert in false flag incidents? The messages that were floated of conversations by the rebel forces admitting that they had shot down the civilian aircraft that came out immediately was too good a coincidence. And it is only proper to question why would the rebels want to admit such a grave mistake on air and easily available for all to see?

Other than pointing the finger at the Russians and leading to a world condemnation, the incident was timed so well to coincide with the Israeli attack on Gaza, a tactical move to divert media attention on the massacre of the Palestinians.

And did anyone notice that no Americans were on board that ill fated aircraft? And why is MAS a convenient sacrificial lamb? If this theory turns out to be true, Malaysia must know that it has friends at the wrong places, or enemies. There are many other claims of evidences pointing that it was indeed another conspiracy but were too Hollywood like and a challenge on the logical mind, good fictional stuff.

The most basic question, why would the Russians or rebels want to shoot down a civilian aircraft and take the blame for it. There were rumours that MH17 flew off course or were diverted away from the main air corridor.

Russia is demanding a fair and open investigation on the incident. The investigators must not be from only one camp like the investigators on the sinking of the Cheonan Incident when only the Americans and their allies were party to it and promptly accusing the North Koreans as the culprit. Could MAS/Malaysia be the target of two conspiracy attacks?

Caught in between interstate rivalry, or a fight between the superpowers, the truth could be as unreal as fiction, or fiction could become the truth.

And Australian PM Abbott is again the spokesman for the western powers and seemed to know everything, just like the MH370 incident. It is scary when Abbott seems to appear in all the places, and acting like a smart alec.

Kopi Level - Green

A country gone money mad - $29b fine for lung cancer victim

A Florida court ordered RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company to pay compensation amounting to US$23.6b or S$29b to the wife of a smoker that died of lung cancer. What kind of judgement is that? How did the judges come to decide on such a huge sum of money as compensation? I know, life is priceless. No amount of money is good enough. The next case could be US$1 trillion!
 
I hope such madness would not be copied here. We are the wide eyed fans of the US system and many people would be rubbing their hands in glee, that such a sum of money as compensation can be used as a precedent, as a reference point for awards here. They would say the American courts have awarded S$29b, so awarding $1b or $500m would be peanuts.
 
We are excellent students of following the Americans. Whatever the Americans are doing, we will eagerly embrace with open arms as the right thing to do, the way forward.
 
Ok, lung cancer patients can now hope to strike it rich, by consuming more cigarettes. This is like a new way of striking it very very rich. Would it become the new normal here? This is definitely better than jumping into Bedok Reservoir or from a high rise flat to get their hands on their CPF savings.
 
What do you think?

Kopi Level - Green

Time to get rid of the prostitute mentality

Our immigration policy is not much different from what is happening in Geylang. Anyone can walk through the door, pay a fee, have fun and then walk away. And if one has a bit more money, can double his fun and stay longer. Anyone, regardless of nationality, can walk into a whore house and be treated very well, like a good customer, a value customer.
 
We have foreigners turning new citizens to be appointed in top jobs, in parliament as MPs and ministers. We have foreigners turning new citizens and instantly qualified to buy public flats at below market value, enjoyed medical and education subsidies, entitled to national bonuses etc etc.
 
Are we being generous, unthinking or being silly? We were once a country of immigrants, a colony of the British who did not care a damn what citizenship meant as long as it served their interests in the short term. Our forefathers were immigrants squatting in a country that was yet to be a nation, a colony actually.
 
We are now an independent state, a nation, NOT a city state still work in progress to be a nation. We cannot allow people to treat this as a non country or non nation. We are citizens of this country and we own this place as a collective people. The foreigners are outsiders. If they want to be one of us, they have to pay a price. A prostitute also demands a price. We don’t have to offer ourselves for free or worse, to give foreigners an incentive, subsidized housing, subsidies and bonuses to be one of us. Unless we are just a pariah state that no one wants to be here. Or simply a cheap prostitute.
 
Hey, we are first world, a country with a lot of jobs and well paying jobs that made many foreigners very rich. There is a long queue waiting to come in, some paying to snake heads to be smuggled in. Why are we so silly to pay them to come in, to beg them to be nice to our people, and even deprecating ourselves to tell the foreigners they are here to help us when many are shits or beggars begging for a job?
 
It is time that we put rules and regulations on foreigners wanting to be one of us. NS is a must, if we are good enough and they are desperate enough to want to come in. No subsidies for the first 5 years or so. No public office like MPs for new citizens, only for those born here. No sensitive appointments. No top jobs unless the person is so damn good that no daft Sinkie talent is good enough to fill the job. Are there really such people around that no Sinkie is better?
 
We have seen many fakes and mediocres everywhere being carried on the shoulders as talents. What a joke? Actually the joke is on ourselves for being so silly to praise the fakes and bow before them.
Maybe everything here is fake. We are a 3rd World city in a mess. Our people are all daft and need to be help. The foreigners are here to create jobs for us. We need to worship the foreigners like Gods.
 
Go watch the Patriot, Yue Fei showing in Channel 8. It is about an emperor that thought he was doing all for the good of the people, but actually to protect his self interest, his throne. And he was willing to kneel to the foreigners wanting to occupy his country to protect his rule.

Kopi - Level - Green