9/28/2015

PSI and employment data

Has this country degenerated into a 3rd World country that information for public consumption has to be massaged to send a feel good message instead of letting the people know what they really wanted to know and to act on for their own good? The employment data of lumping citizens and PRs together has been a bugbear for a long time and people reading the data are getting very frustrated and suspicious of the intent and purpose of such data and the need to hide citizens together with PRs. The people are not that daft to know what is happening. You can cheat some people all the time but not all the people all the time, so they said. When would the govt think it is time to clear this misinformation or muddy information about employment statistics? Or is it another case of it is better that the people do not know?

Now the most important data in the mind of the people must be the PSI. Why is the govt so stubborn to stick to 24 hr average and 3 hr average when what the people need is the latest PSI reading? What the people want to know is the latest to plan their activities, to go out or stay home, for those organizations that have to conduct outdoor activities like field training, sports, etc, to continue or to cancel the event? What good are 24 hr and 3 hr average but just for the record and for the academics and statisticians to use for record purposes? The averaging of the data over 24 hr and 3 hr would deceive the people that it is safe to go out when the condition could be adverse and hazardous. Is this a responsible thing to do, telling history to the people when it is dangerous to go out?

What is the purpose of providing PSI data if the people cannot make full use of them as a guide for their safety? And why is the govt so adamant not to provide the current level of pollution to the people? The data are available and with computerization there is no great effort and stress to make the data public to the people.

Or it is another case of better that the people not know the truth?

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Or it is another case of better that the people not know the truth?
RB

Not really lah. Even if know the truth, still have to breathe in the haze what. U know how uncomfortable it is to wear a proper and effective mask or not? Also still have to work what, if boss say must, tio bo?

So if 24 hr average and 3 hr average is the lesser of 2 evils, then better tell the people lor. After all, if people choose the lesser of 2 evils in an election, they will also want to hear the lesser of 2 evils during a haze, tio bo?

Anonymous said...

Why should the statistics be a case of lesser evils? The stats are just stats. It is the intent of people feeding the people with good or bad stats, useful or redundant or irrelevant stats or misinformation.

Anonymous said...


The real-time PSI reading is easy to settle.

What is most important to the people is what they MUST do indoor
if the PSI readings exceed say 200, 300, 500 or higher.

Is staying indoor with all doors and windows shut enough?

Is air-con rooms enough?

Air purifiers necessary?

What are the health risks?

Don't play play

Anonymous said...

Plse do not panick.
If You see many joggers without
masks doing their exercises, rest
assured that the Haze is not as
hazardous and dangerous.

There has been no report of casualty
and fatality due to the current haze which is not the worst. There were worse hazes in the past.

The said...

I wasted a lot of time emailing NEA last year about showing the spot PSI reading, but it fell on deaf ears. As satirized by New Nation, maybe we should also give the Traffic Police the 24-hour alcohol reading when stopped for drunk driving, instead of current reading. After all, as NEA claimed, the 24-hour reading is the more relevant.

Anonymous said...

Dear Redbean, thank you for writing on this issue.

Many Singaporeans, even bloggers, do not understand that the hourly data is already collected, but not made available to the public. I see IB making comments meant to confuse readers by saying more money is required to give hourly readings. This is logically absurd! To release 3-hourly data every hourly, you need to get each of the hourly data and then averaging them into 3 hours. That means they already have hourly data - no additional expenditure is needed to collect more data!!!!!

So you see how the authorities go to great lengths to withhold haze data from the public.

In addition, I would like to tell you that Singapore psi data are officially published in 5 regions - East, West, North, South and Central. So what, you may think? Well, the West data is collected at Lim Chu Kang, which is forested and airy, they do not release data from Tuas, which is more West than West, and you know that most of our population works at Tuas more so than at Lim Chu Kang. That tells us a lot, doesn't it?

Known unknowns and unknown unknowns. If the govt goes to such lengths to deceive us, you have to wonder what else they have done to give us the wrong information on psi?

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

@ wrong numbers, redbean:

>> The employment data of lumping citizens and PRs together has been a bugbear for a long time and people reading the data are getting very frustrated and suspicious of the intent and purpose of such data and the need to hide citizens together with PRs. <<

Why "bugbear"? There is NO REASON whay they shouldn't be aggregated together. If you separate them (OBJECTIVELY there's no reason to) you just add fuel to those assholes who shout xenophobic and racist slogans.

A job is done by A human being. A chap from India, one from Pinoyland and one local are all HUMAN BEINGS.

The idea is to get people COMING INTO SINGAPORE TO WORK, to grow the economy and population.

That's the fucking idea. The govt should not allow themselves to be side tracked by nonsense which has no empirical proof of having a MEASURABLE positive effect.

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

P.S. YOU DON'T NEED PSI

By now if you are unaware of the haze in Singapore and Malaysia from motherfuckers in Indonesia who don't give a fuck about your life, then you deserve to die from respiratory complications. EVERYONE is aware of the haze. EVERYONE is aware that when it gets bad, you put on your N95 mask and go about your day, getting your shit done, or if you're elderly and sick, stay indoors, lock up and hope you have bought air purifiers

Do you need to know the PSI reading to the 0.0000001% accuracy. NO, motherfucker, you don't.

The quick day-to-day solution for the haze: If you can smell it, or the sky looks greyish or the buildings/ trees/ road you can normally see is visible through a "translucent" barrier:

PUT ON YOUR FUCKING MASK! No, you don't need to know about PSI. If it is bad ~400+ you will KNOW about it.

Goh said...

I think only 4D or Toto better will be interested in PSI.
Go put on a mask if one has difficulty with haze.Nothing to be shameful to put on mask.
No need to know the PSI to see whether one need to put on mask.Put on mask oso must see PSI.I really salute Sinkies.Bo yiuk kew.

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

I dun smoke, I've cut down drinking to about once every 2 months, and I definitely do not gamble.

"Gambling is a TAX on the mathematically challenged"

Hope to see a fatal accident? Good. Use the number plate of the deceased's vehicle to buy 4D. Dun worry, sure touch one. Guarantee. Borrow from Ah Loong. Pump everything in. Sure win!

Whahahahaha....

Anonymous said...

What to do? If the 70% thinks it is acceptable, we the minority have to live with it. KPKB also no use one.

Anonymous said...

Asshole matilah. You can keep your opinion on bringing in more foreigners to yourself. Tell your Aussie PM to let in more foreigners. For a person with no country, you can say what you like about being stateless. We have a country that belongs to us and we want to keep it that way. That is why we have a strong military and NS.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
Plse do not panick.
If You see many joggers without
masks doing their exercises, rest
assured that the Haze is not as
hazardous and dangerous.

This chap very clever. If he sees a lot of people drinking poison, he will tell you the poison is safe to drink. I salute his intelligence.

Anonymous said...

Salute those who exercise

without.masks.

They are living heroes
and
heroines

Anonymous said...

During the last days of the Qin Dynasty, the eunuch Premier 赵高 brought a deer during a imperial court meeting and said the deer is a horse. Those who insisted the deer is a deer and not a horse were beheaded. The Qin Dynasty collapsed a few years later. This episode in history was the (in)famous "指鹿为马" hilarious and tragic event in the short-lived tyrannical Qin regime with typical plp donkeys and parrots nodding their heads to whatever decreed from the top.

Anonymous said...

After GE 2015, sinkies voting pattern can only probably mean one thing: either up or down with the current regime and highly unlikely any role for alternatives to effect any significant influence.

It is either up or implosion with no plan B or safety net ......

It is probably no coincidence the top 1,000+ sinkies each year or top 3-5% choose to leave each year. After GE 2015, sinkies and Sinkieland probably lost the last opportunity for a political plan b or safety net.

There is no effective alternative after GE 2015.

It means sinkies and Sinkieland can only hope PAP WILL NEVER FAIL.

Otherwise it implies IMPLOSION.

There is no other outcome given the way majority of sinkies voted.

Thus if the exodus of the top 5- 10% intensify over the next 5 years, it will probably come as no surprise.

Any thinking individual logically would only choose to be in a situation there is plan B or safety net.

Even an acrobat will have a safety net below him or her when walking a tight rope.

What more a nation......

Sinkies have chosen to put all eggs in one basket.......

Anonymous said...

After seeing the new cabinet lineup, the exodus of top sinkies may triple and even quadruple.

The top 3% may be joined by the top 30%.

The top 300,000 who had left all these years speak volume and louder than anything else what they think .......

Looks like the (FURTHER) hollowing out looks inevitable.

Without its top talents, any country would be doomed.

The late Professor Samuel Huntington vs old man debate outcome ULTIMATELY seems is long sealed.

Huntington looks likely to have the last laugh. .......

Ha ha ha

Can throw some ( self glorifying hard truths ) books INTO the rubbish chute and INCINERATOR liao. Could be worst than rubbish .....

There is one reaction after seeing the cabinet lineup ......

Endless FACEPALMS ........

Anonymous said...

When you have more of the same, inbreeding will ensure that downhill is inevitable. That is the law of nature no matter how humans may tinker with the system.

In Sinkieland, there is nothing to stop it and there is no way to stop it. A revolution is impossible. It is either leave it or live with it.