Let me
repeat the familiar story of the islander in an island far, far away. When the
rich tourist on vacation in the island saw him wasting his time under the
coconut tree having his siesta, he offered him his advice on how to grow rich
and to retire happily with a lot of money and not having to work again. The
islander asked the tourist for his age. The tourist was 65. The islanders told
him at best he had 15 years to enjoy his life while the islander who was 30 and
had 50 years to enjoy life under the clear blue sky, turquoise water and
without a worry.
Why are Singaporeans
working so hard for, to be rich, to have a good life, to enjoy life? Our parents relatively were rich in their own
ways, earning a couple of thousand dollars a month and living in semi Ds that
cost maybe two years of income and a car to drive the family around to eat air.
The children could happily hop on the family car and go dating with their
friends. They had so much free space and free time then.
Today, a
semi D would probably cost more than 30 years of a $100k annual income and a
car would cost a hand or a leg. But the people are rich and happy and are told
to aspire for better things in life. A 800 sq ft pigeon hole in the sky is very
good living, quality living. And they should aspire to take public transport,
to cycle or to walk, to adopt a healthy lifestyle while the multimillionaire
would drive their limousines around expressways and the average Singaporeans
should get use to taking public transport and get squeezed.
The govt is
also helping and making life without cars easier with no car days in the city
and building more bicycle lanes for the new and rich lifestyle of future
Singaporeans.
Is this what
is called progress? Are these the aspirations of our young? What would be the
next phase of progress after acquiring all the good degrees when all the jobs
are either taken over by foreigners or by robots and machine? A life of leisure
in a tropical island without stress and wants, no job, no home and no income and
no car? How to survive then? Got govt subsidies I think.
Let's celebrate car free day. And better get used to the idea that owning a car is at best a wet dream in the future for the average Singaporeans.
Let's celebrate car free day. And better get used to the idea that owning a car is at best a wet dream in the future for the average Singaporeans.
Good morning RB ..progress is a funny word..means different things to different people. To many of our people Singapore has progressed with its structured skyline n expensive, glitzy nightlife n restaurants. But how many of us can actually afford going to these places even twice a year. So many of these places lay empty except during the festive or the occasional celebrations. It actually becomes a question of affordability. Can we afford our politicians with their insane salary levels n perks? Maybe if we add or imagine a few more zeros to our GDP... At the same time..add a few more zeros to our mrt rail tracks..n perhaps add a few more zeros to our planned visitor arrivals to justify T4 n T5 n justify another Garden by the Bay...now I know..it's a zero sum game...
ReplyDelete
ReplyDelete我问天! 我问天! 我问天!
what can we do lah.......
life in this very very crowded tiny city state in like that loh........
no choice no choice........
hey! hey! hey! 70% said ok leh........
it is very very simple.......
are we "live to work" or "work to live"........
please remember....life is indeed very very short 人生无长!........
我问天! 我问天! 我问天!
hahaha..................
/// Why are Singaporeans working so hard for, to be rich, to have a good life, to enjoy life? ///
ReplyDelete- Is it because our Founding Grandfather say so?
"Hard Truths"
- is it the longest and most difficult way to be rich and happy?
Greed. Power. Sex.
DeleteThe ( repeated ) sins of human beans.
Fame. Face. Farce ....?
Scams?
DeleteScandals?
Satanic?
Yes jjgg, soon Sinkies would not be able to afford to pay for the politicians. Actually Sinkies already unable to afford this luxury of paying politicians in the millions today. We could only by sacrificing in giving up our luxury of car ownership to pay for their millions and to take public transport.
ReplyDeleteNext time can't even pay for public transport, then cycle or walk.
Yes, life is short. Thought of yesterday when we were young men. Today many of us are counting how many days left to live.
人生无常是好事。
ReplyDelete如果象母鸡一樣
关在鸡笼
生蛋睡觉
睡觉生蛋
正常得很。
你要吗?
Daft Singaporeans Joke
ReplyDelete-------------------------
Q: Is Singapore the most progressive country in the world?
A: Of course! The life was already better yesterday than it's going to be tomorrow!
At the last National Day Parade, redbean carried a slogan that said, "Thank you, PM LHL for my happy childhood!"
The PAP grassroots leader approached old Mr redbean and said. "Why are you lying? Everybody can see, when you were a child, PM Lee was not yet born!"
"And that's precisely what I'm grateful to him for!" said redbean.
Two Singaporeans meet.
“How’s life?” says the first.
“Fantastic.” says the second.
“Do you read the Straits Times?”
“Of course! How else would I know that my life is fantastic?”
The real hardtruths?
ReplyDeleteTo play the game of life?
With rules made not by sanity of virtues but by the insanity of no virtue?
YEW came with nothing and leave with nothing?
The scam of life?
Everyone is a slave in the end?
To this cycle called life?
Just like the lions Kingdom?
To reign for a few years?
And then die a cruel death?
So that the cycle continues?
What is the end game?
And the purpose?
To rob?
To steal?
To be unscrupulous?
To stay alive?
And to die some years later?
With 1 million mourners?
How different it is from 1 mourner or no mourner?
Practically?
So it has to be more than survival for the sake of survival?
For humanity?
But what is humanity for animals which also fight for survival?
For dignity?
And love?
And peace?
And less suffering?
And happiness ( while alive )?
And cowardice too?
Otherwise why are there so many traitors?
So there is much more to just mere chasing of GDP?
DeleteProgress cannot be just about one more Geylang, one more Casino, one for GBB, one more sparkling shopping mall?
But now a game of "kongcum" leaving tens of thousands saddled with negative equity and deeper under water ( with no end in sight and another miserable 2016 New Year with deeper submersion? Whose fault? Greed? )?
Anon 10:09,
ReplyDelete'At the last National Day Parade, redbean carried a slogan that said, "Thank you, PM LHL for my happy childhood!"
The PAP grassroots leader approached old Mr redbean and said. "Why are you lying? Everybody can see, when you were a child, PM Lee was not yet born!"
"And that's precisely what I'm grateful to him for!" said redbean.'
What have you been smoking? Or you just escaped from IMH?
Rb //Is this what is called progress? //
ReplyDeleteTo have any answer, the word needs to be defined?
"What is progress"?
Power, Fame, Wealth, Sex ....?
Let's start from the bottom?
DeleteSex ......
If progress is defined in terms of sex, then what to quantify it?
How to quantify it?
DeleteBy quality?
DeleteOr quantity?
DeleteIf by quantity, then kongcumkia and mati win hands down?
DeleteOr the sex workers in Geylang?
DeleteOr the "illegal sex workers" prowling around a ( integrated ) tourist resort?
DeleteBut rb tawk in terms of a cuntry?
DeleteNow, what is the metrics?
In terms of the babies made?
DeleteThen sinkieland's progress arguably is first from bottom?
But sinkieland always view for first ...... from the top?
DeleteSo progress in terms of babies is .......
Legs open big, bigger, biggest?
# 1 GLOBALLY?
DeleteIn terms of the number and growth of "instant trees"?
DeleteBest in progress?
DeleteThe cuntry that "opens her legs widest for all sizes"?
Delete"Tua Kee, suay kee, Pui kee, San kee, cang kuey kee, or kee, pey kee, qiah kee......"?
Many Singaporeans are wealthy enough, or in fortuitous circumstances to "downshift". I'm met an increasing number of professionals---lawyers, doctors, bankers, remisers, business owners, architects etc---who now do something else for a living...something for themselves, driven by their passion desire to create. The journey is the objective, rather than a fat corporate paycheck with bonues, jet-setting, sex and expensive drugs.
ReplyDeleteThese "solo" operators benefit most from the emerging DISRUPTIVE tech. These are the people engaging in stuff like:
1. Desktop Manufacturing, which includes 3D scanning and printing
2. BitCoin mining
3. Personal Robotics. For e.g.: The Baxter robot costs just over $20k---less than 6 months salary of one of your workers. It learns as you teach it by guiding it, like a child.
4. More e.g.: Immersive VR like Oculus Rift (market opportunity), algo trading, writing apps for mobile devices,
...and so on.
Add to that the ability of savvy operators to operate ACROSS THE GLOBE, from their home cuntries, and a very different world starts to emerge.
I am one of those pain-in-the-ass optimists who believe the world is getting more awesome...provided you go along with the changes and rock along!
Radical, culture-shifting, violently upsetting social chage is afoot!
Fun lah! Goodbye to the BAD OLD DAYS pui pui pui!
Isn't RB doing exactly what you described above? You failed to see what you are saying. Too much drinking or smoking?
ReplyDeleteRb // We are progressing, tomorrow will be better //
ReplyDeleteHow about measuring progress in terms of political speeches, aka, TKSS?
TKSS not TLLM .....
Dun mix up .....
The 3rd metrics maybe ......
Delete...... in terms of conversation?
Aka "inter-con-s- versation"?
DeleteAlso number 1 Progress globally?
Delete"At the end of each session, "organism" all round. ...."?
Noble Group cut to junk status by Moody’s; company shares tumble
ReplyDelete-------------------------------------------------------------------
In response, the Singapore-listed company called the rating agency's move "unfortunate", arguing that the pending sale of its US$750 million stake in Noble Agri would "substantially" improve its rating metrics.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/business/noble-group-cut-to-junk/2386112.html
============================================
Moody's Downgrades Glencore To Lowest Investment Grade Rating As CDS Trade A Multi-Year Highs
-------------------
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-12-18/moodys-downgrades-glencore-lowest-investment-grade-rating-cds-trade-multi-year-highs
Noble and Glencore.
I feel very "TummySick"
The opposition parties must work hard from now, not during the few days before the GE. There is a need for a dynamic change and a new paradigm in the way they want to politic and to win the hearts and minds of the people. Running away and hiding in the caves are not an option. Stand up, speak out to be counted. You need to make yourself a familiar face with the people, to be easily recognizable, to be assessed and to prove yourself that you are able to form the next govt. You have 4 years to establish a credential of credibility.
ReplyDelete---------------------------------------
both Lee Li Lian and Gerald Giam turned down the chance to be NCMP after the 2015 election, because the parliament sessions demand too much time in return for just a small salary; people need to make a living, and can spare only so much time for walkabouts; further, most opposition candidate did not know which constituency they will be nominated for until very close to the election: opposition parties first need to get together and agree on which party gets which district, and then each party decides who stands where; it is hard for people with full time jobs to go talk to voters not knowing whether they are the ones whose votes they need later
redbean can of course talk a lot of nice theory; maybe he/she should try to run in the next election with an opposition party and experience the practical difficulties
"The opposition parties must work hard from now, not during the few days before the GE."
ReplyDeleteBut why must the Opposition work so hard?
- If 70% of Singaporeans say in 2016 that they will vote Opposition
- then it will be the PAP Government who has to work hard for the next 4 years
Which scenario will benefit Singaporeans more?
- making the Opposition work harder
OR
- making the PAP government work harder?
With Stock At 15-Year Low, Freeport Co-Founder Walks Away With $80 Million Golden Parachute
ReplyDelete--------------------------------
Did Freeport's Founding Executive Chairman just retired with an $80 Million dollar Golden parachute?
- do you think he will still need his cpf at age 65?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-12-29/stock-15-year-low-freeport-co-founder-walks-away-80-million-golden-parachute
Rb // Why are Singaporeans working so hard for, to be rich, to have a good life, to enjoy life? //
ReplyDeleteOK ok ......
Use international conventional metrics ....?
Those recognise by world international organisations like IMF, World Bank etc?
How about Gini Coefficient?
DeleteFair metrics?
Not using sex quantification or TKSS or inter-con-s - versation?
Yew see ....?
DeleteLooking at the statistics from 1965 to 2012, they are correlated?
The higher the TKSS etc, the higher the GC?
Hi Yuen, welcome to the blog. Agree with what you said. Opposition party politicians need to be seen and to be heard all the time not during election time.
ReplyDeleteThose who only "appear" just before election are party-poopers?
DeleteThe people's hope ( in life ) are lost bcos of them?
DeleteThis 李SIAO龙 is really SIAO?
ReplyDeleteGetting his priorities all WRONG?
DeleteBeside his wife, he had several mistresses?
DeleteWhatever he did were UNSUSTAINABLE?
DeleteIt is rumoured he even took drugs ( from Tibet ) to enhance his sex life?
DeleteDo you not think he is a villain than a hero?
Delete李SIAO龙's secrets?
Deletehttps://youtu.be/U-2KeSjy-wo
According to some (documented) rumours, his (outrageous) pursuit to be exceptional made him many ( powerful and formidable ) enemies?
DeleteHis eventual fate was to be expected ( one way or another )?
DeleteThere is a (heavy) price ( to pay ) for his "short-lived success"?
DeleteSinkies shall enjoy all things
ReplyDeletefelicitous in Sincity.
Much thanks and appreciations
to the Capable Leaders who are
talented and work hard for the
People.
Let's give them a big clap.
Cheer!!!
Redbean is never satisfied. The PAP has over the 50+ years given Singaporeans all the good things that life can offer. Good schools, good hospitals, good food courts and best of all peace and safety. What more do you want? I guess if Redbean had been given a post in the PAP government and earning his million dollar salary, he will be singing a different tune.
ReplyDeleteHa ha ha
DeleteVery "true" .....
Great things "galore" .....
For examples ......
Delete$60,000 to $90,000 COEs
Which alone is enough to buy at least 3 to 4 brand new cars ..... else where?
Not mentioning the 100 to 120% excise duty already slapped on cars upon reaching custom?
DeleteHow about NS for sinkies .....
DeleteUni vacancies .....
And jobs for FTs?
How about .....
DeleteErmmmmmmmm. ......
"What's wrong "extracting every ounce of flesh" ( from sinkies)?"?
Is collecting cardboards under hot sun "good things in life"?
DeleteHow come the parents of papigs not fighting head over heels to fight for cardboards under the hot sun?
When the parents of a "viled ministar" collect cardboards under the hot sun day in day out and sometimes into the wee hours of the early morning to eke out a living, then rb will change his tune? Meanwhile, the tune is ho ho ho ho ho ...... rb already so old liao ..... does he need another 25 million per 5-year term to live out his life on top of his (smart) investments all these years that generate passive income ....?
A moral question in life?
DeleteIs it smarter or more stupid to "amass tons of sins that YEW will bring with YEW after death" ( "and be accountable for")?
While "amassing tons of riches that YEW can bring nothing, ZERO along when YEW died"?
How much is enough?
DeleteHow much can YEW eat ( each meal )?
How big a space can YEW sleep on every night even if YEW own a castle?
Does it make YEW a better person if YEW drive a big car?
DeleteOr does YEW need a big car to be a better person?
Is the person behind the wheel of a big, branded car an inferior person or a superior bean?
What is the purpose of a car?
DeleteTo get from point A to B efficiently?
Or to show off to the whole world YEW are filthy rich ( and had amassed a lot of $$$ )?
Or to tell the whole world YEW have an inflated ( super ) ego?
DeleteOr to act rich when YEW are not?
DeleteWhat is the difference between a leech and a buffalo?
DeleteOne that sucks blood and has no (useful) contribution to this world .....
DeleteVs
One that tills the land before day break and provides the harvest to put food on the table for mankind?
What is so good when the entire meaning of life is to be an economic slave revolving around chasing GDP growth?
DeleteWhen even a baby buffalo ( apparently ) has a closer bonding with his/ her mother than a sinkie child with his/ her parents?
DeleteThe value ( and meaning ) of being a ( sinkie ) human bean has ( totally ) collapsed?
Should a "living (sinkie) corpse" be grateful to live a life of "meaningless existence" ( and be so shallow ) to be grateful for one more ( families breaking ) Casino built, one more (useless) garden built, "one more ( vice-laced ) lane gazetted ( in Geylang ) for expansion of the flesh ( leg open big big ) trade"?
Life is Great in Singapore - A Joke
ReplyDelete---------------------------------
A new PAP Minister discretely visits a doctor in a HDB estate with an embarrassing problem.
"Listen doctor, ever since I got elected, I developed a problem.
I eat caviar, and I crap caviar.
I eat salmon, I crap salmon.
I eat steak, I crap steak.
Can you help me?"
The doctor says, "Well, have you tried eating what everyone else in Singapore eats?"
Some Stinkies do not like caviar even if it comes from Iran and is the best cos they claim it's too fishy smelling. Heard taxi drivers claimed that even 勿忘我 Fish Dish at over $2k is no big deal.
Delete$50 a plate horfun aka known as quaytiao and prawn mee aka haemee.
Yes, be thankful and grateful that taxi driver aside, there are many cleaners travelling oversea for holidays and sone went Europe, Australia and even US.
Do we not see students using latest Iphone, Samsung and other expensive mobile phones and other electronic gadgets?
What about our roads pack and jam with high cc and branded sports cars? Then the ubiquitous
long queues at restaurants, even the blind can hear the queues.
Let's give another round of applause to our leaders, they deserve the respect and isolation from the people.
"Well" said .....
DeleteTq for dragging out the "evidences" and "admitting" the decadence and decayed lives of even the "planted" papigs "taxi drivers and cleaners " in the midst ......
YEW think rb and the oldies in MSN are all "kongcums" and dunno many "taxi drivers, cleaners, supermarkets cashiers" are "planted ( papigs ) moles" to "spy on" the "daft ( economic ) slaves" in the city of (abundant) sins?
https://youtu.be/-t02JUNZ4iE
DeleteThe "queues, noises and sweats".....
Even the blind can hear and smell ....?
Do YEW know who is the BIGGEST "mole"?
Delete说出来吓死李?
DeleteThe biggest mole "unmasked"?
Deletehttps://youtu.be/ZWEqxIUiUDE
'isolation' to be corrected to idolization.
ReplyDeleteApology.
"Yes" .....
DeleteLet's "applaud" the fact that despite their "idle-lization", the "leeches" are paid "millions" ......
Rb, dun be LAYZEE, pls put your hands together and "applaud" our dear "leeches" for "collecting" millions despite their "idle-lization" ......
Actress Zhang Ziyi, 36, and her husband Wang Feng, 44 welcomed their new baby daughter on December 27, after months of keeping her pregnancy under wraps.
ReplyDeleteAccording to The Straits Times, the actress gave birth in Los Angeles, US, on December 27, 2015.
------------------
Real foreign talents go to USA.
They don't go to China or Singapore to give birth.
They want their children to have a "freedom passport".
Not a "Chinese slave passport".
Good idea?
Delete"When next child due ......"
Delete..... this life or next .....?
"Slave or freedom " ..... YEW decide?
Rb // Today, a semi D would probably cost more than 30 years of a $100k annual income and a car would cost a hand or a leg. //
ReplyDeleteUncle rb, semi d in Bt Timah rd easily $6 million? Assuming $4 million loan and 25-year mortgage @ 2.8% that is roughly about $20,000?
$100,000 salary per annum only about $8,000 monthly? Max buy 99-year leasehold mass market condo can lah? Buy semi d probably only enough to buy the backyard, kitchen, maid's utility rm and toilet?
Buy semi-d easily needs 4 times salary @ $400,000 per annum salary?
Can guarantee job would be safe for next 25 years under current leg open big big very very loose mentality?
DeleteAlso with rising interest rate and/ or falling ( property ) prices, there is no guarantee the monthly mortgage will not go up a few more thousand ......
Delete..... and the markert value to dip into negative equity territory and under water in the coming years given the "half-dead" export sector due to years of cheap imported labour causing declining productivity, low value-add, low product innovation, cascading into ever-falling export competitiveness?
Getting into some of the low value-add labour-intensive service industries where sinkieland lacks abundant resources and comparative advantage during lao goa's era had been the most silly and kongcum economics policies leading to sinkieland's current economic doldrum? Lao goa's first class economics degree can throw away liao? "Water goes inside his brain already"? ( Tao Nao Jeep Chui? )
Sinkieland's economic multiplier size is "very low" at below 2?
DeleteFocusing on labour-intensive low value add service industries strains local infrastructure such as public transport in mrt ( causing massive overcrowding and breakdown ) over the years but contributes "very little" to the GDP?
A double whammy comes in the form of inflated land cost due to "artificially created shortages" in the 2000s?
The inflated ( land ) costs fed into the export sector further aggravating falling export competitiveness and blunting sinkieland's export competitiveness in the international market?
Marshall Lerner's condition of depreciating currency exchange rate to boost exports cannot work for sinkieland in the long term so there is nothing much the elites can do now except long term supply-side policies and economic restructuring which will take at least 10 to 15 years to kick in and ( there is ) no guarantee of success?
In the meantime, real per capita private consumption spending has been declining in recent years and IT IS REFLECTIVE of the transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in terms of high rental costs created by ( past ) economic policies follies ( "intentionally or unintentionally" ) to "benefit the elites themselves who own a lot of properties ( in the 2000s) "?
DeleteWith an export sector that might take decades to become competitive again ( and provided only with the right restructured supply-side policies and ( there is ) no guarantee the elites would get it right given their ( lousy ) record since lao goa's times ) and a sagging shipping sector ( most epitomised in the sale of sinkieland iconic PG-built GLC --- NOL? ), $$$-bleeding O & G ( Oil & Gas ) sector with ( most likely ) no light at the end of the tunnel in 2016? , "steriod-overpumped" construction sector that likely looks set to suffer the "ill-side effects" in the coming years of "such artificial build, build, build doping"?, which other ("locomotive") engine can pull this (chuck-along tu-tu) economic train ( with wheels, spokes and parts coming off along the way )?
DeleteIs sinkieland ( and sinkies ) going to pay ( a very HEAVY ) price for "appointing" a ( "more than hopeless" ) engineer ( who is "more than kong cum in terms of economics"? ) in MTI?
Whatever ( or most of the ) good work ( if any ) done in other ministries such as health, transport, environment, defence, home affairs, law, foreign affairs etc "WILL MOST LIKELY GO TO NAUGHT" if those managing the economic and trade sectors are "JLB"?
The international market is the best barometer?
DeleteWhy some international media "put" sinkieland stock market in the same league as Greece this year as the "best" from the bottom?
Perhaps this summarised the "progress" sinkieland has made ......?
And "explains" why the (daft) 70% sinkies voted the way they did?
Delete"Eyes paste stamps"?
In local dialect ( Hokkien ) they called it "Mak Jui Tuck Stamp" .....?
Will they keep "Limp Chow Khiang" and "shelter him till 2020"?
DeleteOr "remove/ replace him before" all hopes are lost?
Either way ( HUGE ) damage already done but he can retire ( anytime ) with tens of millions ( safely in his bank accounts ) and enough for his next 5 generations?
Btw, it will soon be "Bye Bye" 2015 and "Halo" 2016 ......
DeleteHappy New Year to RB and all the oldies and readers in MSN .....
May 2016 be prosperous, happy and peaceful for all.