It takes 9 months for dental appointment

A Goh Cher Choh waited for 9 months just to see his dentist for the chance of getting a subsidised denture. And he has resigned to this new normal of efficiency in this super efficient island. The normal time for waiting is 10 months for root canal treatment, 7 months for dentures, but his case must be an exception, and 5 months for crowns and bridges. Not forgetting a year or more for braces.

But what do they expect, 1 month, 2 weeks or 1 week? Just go to a private clinic and pay for it if one cannot bear to wait. You can choose world class clinics, neighbour clinic or polyclinic, no need to complain.

Looking down memory lane, the kind of free dental care we had in the 50s and 60s was world class, heavenly, actually out of this world. And it was a time when our country was really poor, and probably not enough dentists too. Imagine, every week without fail, the Institute of Health’s bus would be at the school to pick up the students for dental treatment, including free dentures. Where got such thing as waiting for 7 months or 9 months?

Then again, if one wants something that is subsidised, what is a little waiting? The good old days are gone and that kind of experience would never be repeated in this money minded world. Compare to those waiting 3 to 4 years for their housing flats, these dental patients must count themselves very lucky.

The applicants for public housing are paying good money, in the hundreds of thousands, and they too have to wait. And the mantra is that it is their problem caused they did not plan when to get married and when to buy a flat. In my dream I heard someone saying, ‘I build only if there is enough demand. And they just have to wait 3 to 4 years.’ Is this the mentality of serving the people or the other way, I master, you servant?

Thank God that Hsien Loong had reminded his politicians that they are the servants and not the master of the people. Really, why would Singaporeans elect politicians to be their masters and happily live with it as the normal state of affair?

Iskandar, you have a golden opportunity to bum up your dental industry and what are you waiting for?

The world’s most peace loving country

I can’t help it but to repeat this quote from dear Hilary.

‘…Washington is “very strongly against any nation using coercion or intimidation instead of using the law to try to resolve these issues.’

The US together with its peace loving friends in UK and Canada are imposing more sanctions against Iran for believing that Iran is building nuclear weapons which the US and UK have plenty of. And they are not using threats or intimidation against Iran. Just friendly sanctions.

And there is another level of peaceful means to resolve the issue. Both the US and Israel are openly telling the world that they are going to attack Iran’s nuclear plants. Now, please don’t get it wrong. This is a peaceful gesture to resolve the Iran nuclear issue. There is not a little hint of coercion or intimidation at all.

The Americans don’t believe in coercion or intimidation. They are so friendly and peaceful. The whole world knows about it. And they are begging the Americans to be the policeman and now the policeman is bringing in more soldiers and weapons to the Asia Pacific region to police the area for peace of course.

The weapons and soldiers are, incidentally, not to coerce or intimidate anyone. They are friendly soldiers and friendly weapons, for peace.

It is good that China is conducting a big scale naval exercise off its seas. China should conduct more of such exercises and make its stand clear about conduct in its surrounding seas, especially when other pesky countries think they can go around arresting Chinese fishermen with impunity. And also countries that happily shot at Chinese sailors and killing them.

China has to take a tough stand on such provocations or the provocations will continue to test its will. With so many provocations and if China continues to show them the other face, China will forever be slapped left and right and still be branded as an assertive and rogue nation by the rogue nations. I say wallop them when they do it.

All the pesky nations, including the rogue Americans, only understand the language of force. Obama is reminding the world that the Americans can still project its power. And it is up to China to say, hey, this is how far you can go. No more cruise missiles into Chinese Embassies or Chinese missiles can also make the same mistakes on American assets.

When dealing with thugs and gangsters, China needs to speak the same lingo and behave like them. No need to worry about the opinions of pesky nations. They have already taken sides. And the message will also get through to them.

A good cause to support PAP

It was so rare that I have to support a cause promoted by the PAP in recent years. Now there is really a good cause for all Singaporeans to support the PAP. Why is it good, it affects Singaporeans in general, some directly, some indirectly.

The PAP Youth Wing or Young PAP is going to the Speakers Corner this Saturday to speak up for lowering of transport fares for polytechnic and university students. These students, still not working and have no official income, are paying twice what college students are paying for MRT and SBS fares. They are still not financially independent and many would need support from their parents. Reducing their transport cost will help to alleviate the burden of their parents albeit in a small way. It still counts over the 3 to 4 years when they are studying.

It is good that the Young PAP is pushing for this cause. It is a cause that all Singaporeans regardless of their political inclination can share and support. Though the Young PAP has called for people turning up at Hong Lim to wear white, a symbol of cleanliness, incorruptibility and everything that is good, some have been peeved by this. I say never mind. The WP supporters can go there in their reds, some in blue, some in orange, some in pink, but all with a common goal, to fight for the lowering of fares for these students.

It will be an opportune time for all the parties to unite and tell the people that they can support a righteous and good cause no matter who raises the issue. And that all the parties will not bicker unnecessarily just because someone else and not themselves brought it up. It will show to the people that the politicians and their supporters are growing up.

I hope all the parties, PAP, NSP, SDP, WP, PKMS, SPP, SDA and any other party that I could not remember and mention, could go to Hong Lim Park this Saturday and make enough noise to support this good cause. It will be a moment when all Singaporeans are united, to stand as one.

Would that be nice?

The perplexing discovery of Sinda

Sinda did a review on the performance of Indian students in the PSLE examination. And horrors, the Indian students are underperforming in mathematics, achieving only 73% pass rate against a national average of above 80%. And many Indian students dropped out of secondary school for being unable to cope with mathematics.

This discovery is more startling given that Indians are well reputed to be maths wizards. Many of the American banks and Singapore’s financial institutions are headed by Indians, be they Singapore Indians or Indian Indians. They must be very very good in mathematics to get into those positions. Just depending on the gift of the gab would not get them that far. Their mathematical talents must have proven to be really good.

Now, what is this nonsense that Indian students are having serious problems coping with mathematics? I am scratching my head. Is our schools and teaching methodology for maths the reason for the Indian students poor grade? Cannot be, we have the best teaching methods for maths and our methods are being copied and adopted even by the Americans.

There cannot be any doubt in the genes of Indian students as there are many fine examples of top Indian finance professionals like Tharman, Gupta, and the MD of MAS just to mention a few.

What is happening man?

Communal living back in Singapore

The idea of communal living was thought to be dead since Singaporeans got richer over the years. Those hand to mouth years of living in cubicles or sharing a flat with several families, sharing kitchen, toilets and common facilities were just a bad dream best to be forgotten. Those were times when most Singaporeans were poor and they had to make do with strangers living within the same four walls.

With today’s affluence and with Singaporeans owning or leasing their own flats, it is like coming full circle to see more and more Singaporeans renting out and sharing their homes with strangers. And with flats that are built smaller and smaller, having more than one family inside a flat is like reliving the past once again.

With more retirees having to remortgage or sublet their flats, living with strangers is going to be more popular for the losers in life. But it should not affect the quality of their lives. Having more people in the flat means more company, more people to chit chat and to look after each other.

There must be some draw backs in communal living. I was reading the case of this Chinese national who killed three women and seriously injuring one in roughly one hour, in the same flat. I am not going to speculate how all the screaming and crying and shouting and banging could go on for so long without anyone barging in to stop the killing.

What I am going to say is that living with strangers can pose high risk, very high risk, for the weaker sex and the old. And the stranger could be very disarming with his friendly smile and pleasant disposition. Not to worry, this kind of things don’t happen too often. It is a risk worth taking. A few cases like this are quite normal as more and more people start to rent out their flats to strangers.

And there are many happy and warm stories to tell of communal living, of friendship built, of help and assistance given, and kindness and gratitude repaid. They get to know more people, make more friends, and help to show how friendly Singaporeans are. They will benefit from the richer experience in life.

Just a wonderful experience to many, except bad luck to a few losers. Forget to add, the quality of life will be so enriching.

East Asian stability at risk if US trashes its defence budget

The above is the title of Ng E Jay’s article in his blog. And I would like to say that I completely disagree with him. Come on E Jay, you are thinking like an American now.

‘Cuts to the US military budget on the magnitude projected if the Supercommitte’s political impasse fails to be resolved would inevitably results in a significant scaling down of US military commitments worldwide, include an enormous downsizing of its global naval capabilities. This would invariably lead to increased geopolitical tensions in the ASEAN region and beyond.’ Ng E Jay

‘US military commitments worldwide’ is an American terminology to mean conducting wars worldwide. East Asia and the world would be much safer than it is today. There will be little dictators trying to throw their weights around but these will be limited to local skirmishes and small warfare. Saddam Hussein and Gaddafi will still be running the shows. There will be no big scale wars like in Iraq and Afghanistan and in Libya. Don’t forget the Korean and Vietnam Wars. There will be smaller civil wars which dictators could easily suppress without the US and Nato interfering by supplying more arms and weapons.

And small pesky countries would not dare to agitate or provoke bigger countries to risk a war on themself. China, the non belligerent country that has been painted as the trigger happy one, will be even friendlier when no pests dare to irritate her.

The trigger happy Americans are able to conduct wars everywhere exactly because they have the money to do so. Without the military budget, the world would be much more peaceful and safer. The South Koreans would not dare to rattle their sabers daily at the North Koreans. Any Singaporean who thinks that the North Koreans are going to attack Singapore should go get admitted to IMH.

The pesky countries of Asean would not dare capture Chinese sailors or make nonsensical claims against Chinese territories or ever raring to go to war with China. There will be a new balance of power and a new status quo. Peace will have a better chance when little pests know that they cannot stir trouble and think they can get away with it.

An aggressive evil power is the temptation for small countries to destabilize the region, with the evil power nudging them from behind. Fear not, for the evil power is behind them. It is a good thing if the defence budget of the US is slashed drastically. Then calm and peace shall return. They would not have the money to start wars everywhere.

All the wars are started by the Americans. Make no mistake about it. Remove the blinkers to see the truth. They create the tension, the instability, the suspicion, and then invited themselves in to be the policeman, the peacemaker, the leader. And of course, to sell more weapons.

Pension is 10% of annual salary at most

Hsien Loong has spoken on the impending findings of the Salary Review Committee, likely to be out in time for Christmas. He touched a bit on how the pension scheme works and that the max a minister will get is 10% of his annual salary. In his short revelation, everything is in percentages and nothing absolute was revealed.

What is 10% of annual salary? Or what is annual salary? Does this annual salary comprise the basic monthly salary, 13th month AWS, performance bonus and productivity bonus based on the GDP? If the annual total is $10m, 10% will be $1m, assuming that last year the bonus was really huge and the average was $10m per minister. And if the bonus was bigger, then the percentage will be smaller and vice versa.

If the pension is based on annual salary which includes many variable bonuses, presumably the pension should be variable over the years as well. But this is just too perplexing to compute. I would rather believe that the pension is based on the fixed monthly salary. Given a minister’s salary of say $3m a year, the pension of 10% should be about $300k. Right or not?

If the pension is computed using gross annual salary that includes bonuses, then something is not in order as the performance factor and GDP growth should no longer be applicable to a pensioner. As the pension is a monthly payment, even the 13th AWS should not be in the computation. It should be a simple computation based on the last drawn monthly salary and nothing else. Tiok boh? What about allowances?

The other problem about adding all the bonuses into the annual salary is that it is going to vary from year to year. So ministers retiring on a good year like George and his colleagues, the pension is going to be better than those who retire in a bad year. This doesn’t make sense.

So I would think the annual salary is based on 12 months or at most 13 months. And definitely all other allowances for all kinds of appointments other than the minister’s salary will be excluded. We will have to see what the final figure is, if it is not a state secret like the cost of building a HDB flat. If not at the very best, the figures given will be only a matter of percentages.

No self respecting human resource professionals will include performance bonuses and the country’s GDP performance as components in the computation of a person’s pension. Pension does not take into account individual or the country’s performance into the future.

TPP – The Poverty Pact

The Beggar’s Sect was a very big social gang in the fables and legends of the Chinese pugilistic literature. It was a big gang of beggars that boasted of great martial arts exponents to protect their turfs and areas of operation. They set up their own rules, collect protection fees from their members and would beat up challengers to their territories and their controlled businesses.

The thing is that the Beggar’s Sect was mainly for beggars, and the rich would keep themselves away from the Sect. The Sect continued their existence with members from the begging community.

There seems to be a revival of the Beggar’s Sect in the Pacific region, led by the Americans, the country that is deep in debt. It is roping in more indebted countries as members in a pact called the TPP, standing for the Trans Pacific Partnership, or is it The Poverty Pact? And it is beating all the drums to make it attractive and teasing China to join the pact. The thing is whether China, with all the money in its treasury, and being the biggest creditor of the US, would want to join the poor countries that could only shout but with nothing left in its treasury?

Would China be deceived into joining the TPP or The Poverty Pact? Anyway, with Asean as an established regional grouping of countries and linking up with the big economic countries of the world, is there a need for a new pact to be led by a poor country from the eastern Pacific coast that is many thousands of miles away? Why should these Asian and Southeast Asian countries be led by a country in America? Are they that helpless, and lack of leaders to need to be led by someone else who simply walked in and say I am your leader?

And there is also an APEC. So why dance to a new pact because the Americans say so? APEC and Asean are all redundant and there is a need for another new animal to get things done?

Apple polishing in the corporate world

The Tokyo and Osaka stock exchanges are in the final stages of a merger to reemerge as a bigger stock exchange. Merger and acquisition is the magic formula of advanced corporate and business management principals. Corporation seeks quick growth and profits by simply merging and acquiring other corporations. It is swift and instant growth.

When the time frame to show results by top management is reduced to a couple of years, M&A is the quick solution. And short term gain is matched by short term policies and management practices. Corporation intending to do M&A only needs to put its house in order, or appears to be in order. Patch up the leaking holes temporary with stop gap measures, giving it a new coat of paint and hope that the ship will reach the next port intact. The whole ship could be rotting, but as long as it looks good from the outside, and can sail for a while, that is good enough.

The next most important thing to do is to go out quickly to merge or acquire another healthy ship to boost its bottom line before it sinks. What the top honchos forget is that other corporations could also be indulging in the same apple polishing to look good on the outside and waiting for an unsuspecting suitor. The merger could be between two rotten apples hoping to turn into a shiny apple through the copulation.

The old concept of organic growth, which is slow, tedious and a lot of hard work, is shelved permanently by all the MBAs from the top business schools. There is no need to work so hard, the way to real growth. They have no time for such crappy business idea. Too slow and too difficult. Take the short cut, M&A and lo and behold, a bigger corporation with bigger net worth overnight. Everything becomes bigger, bigger risk, bigger problem, bigger cost, and bigger hole. Uh no, economies of scale man!

Do not be awed by the M&As that are going on in the corporate world. It may be the in thing today. It is not necessarily the right thing to do or a good thing. A rotten apple is a rotten apple. It is the equivalent of banks indulging in big time gambling for quick and easy profit. When the fundamentals are unsound, M&A is a short cut for destruction as the resources were assigned to do apple polishing instead of running and building a sound organization. Quickies are in favour just to look good on paper and in the eyes of the unsuspecting and gullible spectators.

Many young people are also looking for such M&As, to marry the scions of a rich family and lo behold, the merger will bring instant wealth, and recognition, to sit in big companies, to run big corporations.

The cost of returning home

Two young Singaporeans having settled down in America for a few years could have bought a decent landed property for $300k or $400k, driving around in a fairly big car for $30k, and have a decent savings of perhaps two or three hundred thousand bucks.

If they were to return to paradise, selling their home for about the same amount and with a net cash of three quarter of a million, they could at best buy a private condo and still having to take a few hundred thousand bucks in loan. Eventually the private flat is going to cost them perhaps $2m in total. And they need to buy a small car that is going to cost at least $100k.

Their net financial position is negative, with a big mortgage and hardly anything left in their savings. This is the price of returning home. And there is job hunting to do. It is like being robbed of a couple of million bucks on returning home to stay. Yes, they can go and rent a flat and live like FTs.

In the case of a foreign talent from the neighbouring countries, most of them would not have much of a property anyway. They came, got a job, rented a place and started savings. Few years down the road, placed all their savings for a public flat and service them with their CPF. The value of the flat can only go up, like a savings account with guaranteed 5% to 10% interest rate equivalent, maybe more. Then they start to count the days when they could cash out and return home to be a rich man, or in the US or Australia to start life with a reasonable good cash holding from the sale of their public flat.

The two tales tell of the comparative advantage of Singaporeans returning home to pay a huge ransom for something less and a foreigner who came with nothing much but leaving with a pretty nice cash hoard. And this is not far from the truth. The cost of living is a heavy price to pay. The only good option is to cash out and move out. But his option is not so attractive to Singaporeans who called this island home.

New trade war in the Pacific

The US is starting to relocate its military equipment and soldiers into the Pacific Rim countries, primarily Japan, S Korea and now Australia, with potential to locate in Vietnam and the Philippines as well. The stage is being set up for an arms confrontation with China. It is a move for war, not for peace.

American warships are sailing more frequently around the eastern Pacific as a show of force, that the number One marine super power is there and will be unchallenged. They sure look very formidable and impressive.
The question is whether these warships could sail so freely in the eastern Pacific Ocean when hostility is declared. The Chinese DF21D, its ASBM or anti ship ballistic missile, has a range of 3000 km from its coast, covering practically the whole of the eastern Pacific Ocean. This means that all big ships within the 3000 km radius could be hit. This would then become the No Sail Zone for American ships if war is declared.

The current show of force will no longer be possible and it is unlikely that the Americans would dare to risk their aircraft carriers, battleships, frigates or any big floating vessels within the DF21D strike range. The eastern Pacific Ocean will be a cemetery for China’s enemy ships.

Should China have full control of the seas around its coast, what can the Americans do? It will be a war whereby China will trade its ASBMs for aircraft carriers and battleships. The Americans will again suffer a huge trade deficit as the cost of each ASBM is negligible compares to the American ships.

The eastern Pacific Ocean will be the equivalent of a maritime Dien Bien Phu with the reach of the ASBMs. It is enter at your own risk. The missiles will come raining.

If the Americans are thinking of their bases in South Korea and Japan, forget it. They will be the first to be taken out of the equation. This is not the 1840s when the Chinese cannons could not hit the British and American ships while the latter could hit the Chinese mainland.

This new trading game is going to be very costly to the Americans and its allies for sure. It is so economical and efficient to keep the American carrier groups away from the eastern Pacific coast with just the deployment of ASBM batteries along the Chinese coast. This is the strangest development since the British and American wooden boats could attack China at will in the 1840s.

Obama restores US influence in 8 days

The New York Times is gloating how successful Obama and his team was in becoming the leader of the eastern Pacific region. I quote, ‘The meeting, at the end of the summit, capped a week during which the US President moved quickly, and on several fronts, to restore the influence of the US in the Asia Pacific region after a decade of preoccupation in the Middle East…Obama announced that 2,500 Marines would be stationed in Australia, opened the door to restored ties with Myanmar, a Chinese ally, and gained support for a regional free trade bloc that so far omits Beijing.’

What did Asean achieve if any? Oh yes, they have accepted the leadership of the US and invited the US to back them up in their territorial dispute with China in the South China Sea. It is a great achievement for the small Asean states to install the world’s most powerful country as their leader. They can now start to pressurize China and even go to war with China with no fear.

Kuan Yew Lee’s struggle with the Chinese Language

His new book touches on a very controversial subject in the history of this little island. The use of the Chinese Language or Mandarin instead of Hokien, was a battle among the Chinese intellectuals, the literati and the hoi polloi, the majority Hokien speaking Chinese, and to an extend the other dialect groups. Mandarin was not their mother tongue, spoken by the northern Chinese and used as the potong hua of China, its national language. There must be tension with competitive chauvinism of the various dialect groups feeling that they have been short changed to be forced to learn a new language. The Ah Kongs and Ah Mahs were the primary victims.

Tension was also built up among the minority communities, the Malays, Indians and Eurasians. All the talks about Speak Mandarin Campaigns and the promotion of Mandarin did not come down easy on them. Some fear that Mandarin was going to replace English as the lingua franca of the country. Of course this was unfounded and for all practical purposes not workable.

Kuan Yew Lee’s struggle to learn the language transcended all of two generations of his life time. In the process, transforming a baba into a China man, to reclaim his Chinese heritage which I think he is proud of, but at the same time being the quintessential Singaporean that he represents. He has rediscovered his roots and himself through this journey of learning the language once again.

In my last few articles on the writing of Chinese names, I was being provocative and teasing at the lackadaisical approach of Singaporean Chinese in how they fool around with this fundamental pillar of a civilization. The language is one of the key foundation of a culture and embraces many tangible and intangible aspects of the people that use it as a communication tool. There are some logic, some structure and of course a lot of room to play with as it develops over time. There were many changes to this language since the time of the Qin Emperor. The simplified written form was a major departure from the past. But as a single unifying and common language, it still serves that purpose effectively and efficiently.

At this juncture I shall disband my cheeky editorial policy of writing Chinese name in the western format. It is nonsensical and silly to do so. It is not only rude and insulting to the individual, it is an affront to a well structured and developed ancient language and culture. Kuan Yew Lee shall be Lee Kuan Yew and so will Chok Tong Goh be Goh Chok Tong. This format of writing Chinese name is deep in culture, history and philosophy and must not be taken lightly and be dismissed by the duckweeds of the Chinese civilization, be they called themselves Singaporean Chinese or Chinese Singaporeans, Malaysian Chinese, American Chinese, Indonesian Chinese, Thai Chinese or whatever Chinese.

Chua is my family name dating back to the Zhou Dynasty, and Chin Leng in my individual name. Incidentally, the Goh, Chew, Chua,Ong, and Tsao were from the same family tree.

The Asean Summit coming to a close in Bali

The American South East Asian Nation (Asean) Summit has come to an end with the leader saying farewell and flying back to North America. But before he left, there was the courtesy photo taking session, a generous gesture for the South East Asian leaders to bring home a photo to show they had been with the Emperor of the Empire. And the host country Indonesia was given the honour of having its president standing on the left of Obama while the Chinese leader sharing the honour on his right.

Who is calling the shot at the Summit is without doubt. And Obama staked his claim to the throne with no reservations. He even despatched his top envoy to Myanmar to test the country’s political and economic reform. Failing the test will have dire consequences and could be booted out by the Empire from Asean.

The menu for the gala dinner for the leaders was all American except for soto ayam madura, to show some appreciation to Indonesia. The Asean Summit was a big success to the Americans to stamp their leadership of the regional group. They set all the agenda for the meeting and stating clearly their intent to show that they are the Number One military power, and will set the rules for arms conflicts as well policing the South China Sea. They are stationing their troops in Australia and, according to Kevin Rudd, it was not meant for China. Who is the target of the American troops’ presence in Australia if not China?

Hail the Emperor of the newly constituted Asean, the American South East Asian Nations regional grouping of countries led by America.

I am Chin Leng Chua

This is how PayPal addressed me in an email. So my shift in editorial policy is in a way forward looking, and accepting a new reality, that Chinese name should be written in the same format as western names. Maybe that’s how the word bastard comes about, bastardising. And so far no one seems to have any issue with it. The only little irritation is that for those westerners who have been to Asia and are familiar with the Chinese convention, they are going to address me as Mr Chin. On the other hand the ignorant country bumpkin westerners would now be happy and correctly addressing me as Mr Chua.

Some of our sophisticated western educated elite are more far sighted and have long given up the thousand years of tradition of writing their Chinese name the wrong way. Many are happily and proudly writing their family names on their backside. They are the trend setter of Singaporean Chinese or Chinese Singaporeans.

I think it is okay to write our names anyway we like, be flexible and even be regarded as modern, avant garde. I just thought of another way of writing Chinese name, not an original idea as I have seen some media doing it oledy. Okay I can write my name as Chua, Chin Leng. The comma will now denote that it is my family name or first name and people will know what it means.

Nevermind the intricacies. People will understand when they look at them. John Smith shall also be written as Smith, John, like the telephone directory. Clinton, Hilary, or Lee, Hsien Loong. This is getting interesting except for so many commas.

Let’s see how it goes. Maybe two weeks later I might come out with another foolish way of writing Chinese names. My main intention is to standardise the way names are written so that everyone can understand how to address the person correctly. My little blog is the least significant place to try to set an international convention in name writing. Perhaps Singapore, with our ability to punch above our weight, should be influential enough to do such a thing. Maybe one of our world renowned institutions can form a committee with a few prominent professoris, foreign talents better still, to formulate a new world order in how names, east and west, should be written. But a note of caution. Just make sure that their credentials are not fake.

The thousand years of civilisation and how names shall be written to be acceptable in this modern world must now give way because we Singaporeans are confusing the world with our frivolous ways of writing names to accommodate the English speaking world. Instead of making things better, more are getting confused. So we need to live to our name as a trend setter, not follower, to lead the world in name writing.

What other queer combinations can we come up with?

America is a Pacific power!

We are back! We have the most alliances and the most powerful military to set rules and police the Pacific region. We are here to contain the regional ambition of China.

While the Americans were thumping their chests and bosom, China continues to do what it knows best, as the factory of the world, buying and selling to the world. There is no need for China to claim to be a regional power or super power. Only those that are ambitious or losing it will have to keep screaming at the top of their voices that they are superpowers. China should continue to progress quietly and when it is successful, whatever recognition and trappings of power will just tag along. But it must maintain a powerful military to repel the rogue govts’ attempt to invade its territories.

In the meantime let the Americans do what they did best, in trying to be the leader of Asean, telling Asean what to do, leading Asean by the nose. And they can keep on trying to divide Asean countries by stirring up their differences, playing nice to some and thumping down those that would not go along. Yes, divide and rule, and the Asean countries are clearly breaking up with some willingly accepting the American leadership to confront China.

I think the days of Asean being an independent non aligned regional grouping of countries will be over soon. It will be Asean with the A in front representing America. It will become America South East Asian Nations. It will become the successor of the failed SEATO, a political military bloc that was designed by the Americans for confrontation and war with the Communist bloc during the Cold War era.

The truth is more frightening

I read about the posting by Jason Neo of YPAP yesterday. I saw the picture in the net. The offensive word or words were blanked out. I could only read, ‘Bus filled with young…’ I tried to guess and a few words came to my mine. They were quite innocent really. And I thought people were over reacting.

How could a young YPAP activist be so politically insensitive given the party and the country’s stand on extremist views and words that could stir up ugly emotions? How could political activists of any hue and colour, of any political party, be so ignorant and blatant to post hate mails in the net when several have been taken to task by the law.

I must say that I was taken aback when I read the missing words in the ST…’Bus filled with young terrorist trainees’. I could not believe my eyes. I was stunt. It was senseless. What is his motive for posting this?

Everyone is watching how this episode is going to develop. Hsien Loong Lee is in Jakarta. I think we will have to wait for his return to see what he will say or do. This incident should not have happened at all and must not happen again. The govt has to be very tough on such violations.

The myths of high speed trading

The current fear of high speed trading in the stock market is a repeat of the May 6 crash of 2010 that wiped out US$1 trillion in 30 minutes in New York. And there is genuine fear that there will be many repeats of the flash crash simply because high speed trading is primarily a machine based system. It is garbage in and garbage out. Human error or programme error will just trip the system and go quickly out of control.

The false sense of relief is that these were accidental errors, not by design or intention. Then there are also deliberate errors by rogue traders or funds trying to take advantage of the system. And there are the hackers who would want a share of the fun and the money by entering the system either for monetary benefits or to cause turmoil and a collapse of the system.

These are big issues that can ruin the stock market and cause big losses to investors and rightfully should warrant more serious attention. There are other worries that the administrators and regulators conveniently try to ignore, the interests of the genuine investors, the men in main street, who are investing their savings, the pension funds etc. Their interests need to be protected as well, not just the big funds and high frequency traders(HFT).

The supporters of high speed trading, the system developers, the big funds, HFTs and the regulators, have all been singing the same chorus so far. High speed trading has many benefits, or the benefits outweigh the cons. High speed trading increases liquidity, reduces trading cost, high volatility and high efficiency which are good. Bids can be very small and stocks becoming very liquid, which will facilitate entry and exit from the market.

Not much was really said of the cons and the ills of high speed trading. Not that there were none. They were either not spoken or swept under the carpet, just like all the derivatives and toxic notes and bonds. Everyone benefitting from high speed trading is crying ‘Hallelujah!’ It is a flawless system, it is godsend, something made in heaven for the stock market industry. It is unavoidable, like the tide coming in. Really? Is the spread of drugs unavoidable and states should give in to the drug lords?

Can it really be that wonderful, all goodness and no evil? All the goodness is actually a myth. The small teeny weeny bids, the high speed, high volatility, and lower cost, and high efficiency, only benefits the HFTs. The small investors, the men in main streets, are all losers for they cannot take advantage of any of these great stuffs. High speed trading is their Waterloo. All the great stuffs are actually working against them.

They have higher trading costs versus the funds and HFTs who trade practically at no cost, except for minimal clearing fees, and could make profits from one or two bids against the average traders that need 5 or 10 bids just to get even. The smaller bids are actually designed in this way to favour the funds and HFTs, yes, and against the small investors. They would not say so. Just do the arithmetic of a small trade and the disadvantage is glaring.

The act of allowing high speed computers to plug into the stock market system is itself a violation of stock market regulations. For it allows the HFTs to have access to real time information of buy and sell, and for their algos to work and decide what, when and how much to buy/sell with a clear win advantage. How can that be allowed? They could arbitrage with such information, not much different from insider trading, they could be front running, all because of electronic access to the system which other small traders did not have. And those are only the things that the public knows. Could they be in a privileged position to take advantage of what they know to do more harm to the innocent investors? Could they be cornering a stock, or even the whole stock market if it is small enough relative to their trading limits, or operating in concert with a few big boys?

The stock market regulators have a duty to provide a level playing field for all. It is a key condition embedded in their constitution and rules and regulations. And they are violating this very fundamental rule, giving the HFTs an unfair and absolute advantage over small investors.

Who is to regulate the regulators to stop them from breaking their own rules and regulations? It is fairly acceptable for big funds to hire the best talents and use the best computers and algos to analyse their positions and trading. But they must not be allowed to plug into the stockmarket system to take advantage of their superior technology that is not available to the small investors. Let them play with their own high speed and sophisticated hardware and software, in the privacy of their own establishments, but NOT plugged into the stock market system.

Allowing this to happen is nothing but FOUL. It is a grave violation of stock market practices and rules and regulations, against fair play, inequitable, and even criminal.

High speed trading, high speed traders and algos are not angels playing with their golden harps. They are more like devils and demons with their wicked contraptions cheating the innocents. The small investors have been suffering huge losses, hundreds of times more than the Lehman crisis. Does anyone even bother to ask or to want to protect the small investors? Would anyone be pricked by their conscience to try to protect the small guys? No, it is a stupid thing to do. Be on the winning side. Look after the big business and big boys and make sure they can make more money from the losers.

There are agencies existing with the primary objective of protecting small investors? Are they doing anything about it? The brokerages and remisiers too have a responsibility to protect the small investors, to ensure that the playing is level and fair to all parties. The small investors are their customers. With no customers there would not be any business to do anyway.

The failure of the American and European regulators to provide a fair playing field, to allow corporate greed to cannibalise from the average workers, is the main reason for Occupy Wall Street Movement. The Movement will continue to spread until irresponsible greed and corporate corruption are arrested, and good governance be restored in the right places. Moral righteousness has gone to sleep.

The fakes look better

This statement is often made by owners of fake branded goods. The real McCoys often have little glitches that came with hand crafted goods. And the fakes look so good and cheap, machine made, printed from a computer, like fake degrees.

Buying fakes and hiring fakes are two different things altogether. I was reading a post in 3in1kopitiam where one guy was relating his experience of a friend hiring a FT with fake qualifications. The friend ended up in financial woes as the insurance company refused to honour its obligation because the FT professional was a fake.

Just wondering how many fakes are there in the market. And they look real damn good than the real stuff, the Sinkies from NUS, NTU and SMU. The Sinkies somehow don’t look too impressive or suave as the fakes, and cost more as they are genuine stuff.

White woman speaks in forked tongue

‘…Washington is “very strongly against any nation using coercion or intimidation instead of using the law to try to resolve these issues.’

This is what Hilary Clinton said on board the USS Fitzgerald in Manila after announcing that it will fight along the side of the Philippines on its territorial dispute with China. For the believers, the US is such a peace loving country that never uses coercion or intimidation against other countries. It only uses force or war. Coercion and intimidation are child play. This is the western truth.

And why is she in a US warship saying such words. And why are the Americans moving it personnel and military hardware to Australia and Asia, possibly the Philippines? She is visiting Thailand and as a gesture of helping with the big flood, she is sending a warship to Thailand as well, for peace.

Asia is going to re experience another era of gunboat diplomacy from the West. Was it diplomacy or gunboat aggression? To me it is naked aggression by the aid of the gun. When the West colonized the world, Africa, Asia and America, it was never about diplomacy but conquest. But that was the only language that silly Asian and African countries could understand. And today you can see them reminiscing about those great colonial days with their white masters. It was great romance of a golden era of masters, subjects and slaves.

There is no need to regret the loss of those happy days. The West is about to reconquer Asia and they are bringing all their big guns back to Asia. And the Asians, especially India, Vietnam and the Philippines, countries that have lived a long and glorious relationship with their colonial masters, are cherishing every moment of it. Let’s welcome the great white gods back to rule over Asia.

But first they must prepare for war and bloodshed, and more destruction. They said destruction is the mother of creation, of a new world under a new colonial master. That would be nice, and a small price to pay.
Asean too has forgotten about how well they lived under the concept of Zopfan. They are aligning themselves with the great powers to fight for a better tomorrow.

Is it all about managing the internet?

There were several articles in the media on the impact of internet on institutions and govt, including those in China. How relevant or important is internet and its impact on society is still controversial and developing. Some believe that it has in some way impacted the views of people. Some may see it just as a venting of frustration and after the letting off of some steam, things will return to normal.

For those thinking in such a way, internet is positive and good as a temporary panacea, like panadol, for instant but temporary pain relief. And what govt and corporate leaders need to do is to manage the internet, harness its power, spin the right story and all will be well. Never mind if the real cause of the disease is not treated.

Today the media is printing all the glowing reports about first timers and second timers getting their HDB flats and they are so happy with their new flats. In other words the housing problem is solved and people are happy with the new policies and the policy makers. Hopefully this is real and the problem will go away with this spin.

Has anything been done to tackle the real cause and source of the housing problem? What about those who were booted out of the public housing scheme over the last decade because of the brilliant policies introduced? Have their problems gone away as well? Or would there be an amnesty of sort to redress the sins of the previous policies for its victims?

The internet, unfortunately, will not let a problem go away. Unlike the main media, after letting the aggrieved parties vent their frustrations, after a cooling off period, and not reporting about the problems anymore, hopefully people will forget and think that the problem is no more. See, no more complaints, no problem liao.

The internet has this nasty habit of revisiting, repeating and harping on an issue or problem, for days, months, or years. The problem will not be allowed to die through intentional neglect or silence. The key issue is not just about managing the internet or spinning more positive stories, but about solving the problem at its source. People who think that they can get away with major problems by allowing people to air them and spin some good stories around the problem to will it away will be very disappointed with the internet.

POSB and Singapost remarry

DBS deal to bring banking back to Singapore post offices
Tuesday, November 15th, 2011

Singapore Post has formed a major partnership with the largest bank in south-east Asia, which will see basic banking services offered at all Singapore post offices from January.
The alliance with DBS Bank is the first ever tie-up between SingPost and a bank, and will see the bank’s retail outreach within the city-state expanding from 80 branches to 140….

If I can remember, POSB was part of Singpost which was then known as Singapore Post Office. And the Post Office Savings Bank was then providing some banking services to the people, for the convenience of the people before it was divorced and subsequently become the mistress of DBS. Now Singpost is getting engaged with POSB one more time to serve the customers better.

Will the $2 banking charges be discontinued with this second marriage?

The endless and futile debate

Yesterday was Jessica Cheam I think. Today Esther Teo added another half page article in the ST on the rising property prices and how to protect Singaporeans from the speculators. Just ask a simple question, what is the main objective of these foreign speculators? To make profit. Period. And where does the profit come from? If they make profits, who is losing their money?

This is like inviting the big and sophisticated funds to play in our stock market with their high speed computers. They are here for one simple reason, profit. And the Singaporeans are paying for their profits.

So, what is the discussion all about? Jessica was suggesting more controls, cannot buy, cannot sell, with more regulations. Esther was trying to say it is ok and it is not ok for the speculators to buy our properties.

My position in protecting Singaporeans is fairly straight forward. Keep public housing to Singaporeans and build as many as long as there are Singaporeans who need the flats. No need to have all the cumbersome and ridiculous rules and regulations. The private property sector can be less regulated, to let those who have the money to speculate to their hearts content. But the primary aim of building for every Singaporean without all the silly restrictions must be observed and practiced. Also be careful about being Singaporeans as tomorrow all the foreigners can become Singaporeans. In fact all the screwed up statistics on citizens and foreigners buying properties are deceiving in this aspect. Quite a number are new citizens, which means foreigners yesterday.

On the other hand, just sell everything as I have suggested earlier. Sell the whole island for money and divide them among the Singaporeans. Then everyone will have all the money and can decide to stay or to go somewhere else. Everything that has a price can be sold. Everything is just a gambling chip. Forget about the angst about nationhood, loyalty, citizens first craps. Commercialise everything and put everything up for sale. The best!

Discrimination in Singapore is no laughing matter

In every country, there is always some discrimination, and Singapore is not spared from this disease. The discrimination is so serious in Singapore that ministers have come out to make a stand, that discrimination must be stopped.

The joke is that in every country, the discrimination is always against foreigners in matters between citizens and non citizens. In Singapore, it is discrimination against Singaporeans practised by foreigners in the country. If this is not nauseating, just listen to the govt’s plea with the foreigners not to discriminate against the locals.

Where on earth can one find the citizens being discriminated by guests who were in the country with the blessings and consent of the citizens? Now, what is going on? The foreigners are acting like masters of the island and the victims are the meek citizens who are at the mercy of foreigners. I can’t believe it but it is true. And the best the govt could do is to make a plea to the foreigners to be nicer to the citizens. Contrast to many countries whereby foreigners tremble at the sight of the locals. It is now a common occurrence that foreigners will beat up locals or talk down to the locals.

This is what is happening when the citizens did not know of their rights to the country and by default allowed foreigners to think the citizens owed the foreigners a living. Is this the new variation of modern day colonialism, when the colonised gave up their rights to their country without fighting, and in a silver platter to the foreigners? If this is going to be the norm, then Singaporeans should prepare themselves to call the foreigners masters. The picture will be complete when the foreigners have bought up everything in the island.

When interest rate for savings was 6%

Could that be true or just my imagination? If I remember it correctly, it was the prevailing interest rate that banks used to pay many eons ago. The banks were rich and able to pay savers good returns. And they must have reinvested them wisely to be able to afford that kind of interest rate.

Today the banks are big time in gambling. They called it investments and tradings or fund management. They manage a great lot more money than before and took greater risks for greater returns. They even charge small savers a $2 fee and pay them negligible interests. The banks must be grotesquely profitable and rich.

Why can’t they pay higher interest rate? One major reason is that the whole financial system is flooded with banana currencies, and plenty of them. But that should not be that difficult to pay a bit more as the banks will simply transfer whatever is their cost to the borrowers. And the big gambling, sorry, mis statement, the great investments in all the great funds with all the great fund managers and private client managers, the banks must be making more money than the old conservative banks by unimaginable amount.

Now where did all the big incomes go to? Or the banks are losing money all the way? The American banks are losing big time and needed bailouts. They are now claiming to be making big times and paying themselves crazy like before. Are the gains real or more cook book fairy tales? Asians banks are steadier, and making profits after profits. Making a few hundred million lesser is a crime and the analysts will instantly recommend a sell on their stocks.

Where have all the profits gone? They can’t be paying themselves all the big salaries and unable to pay a little more to the savers?

PS. Britain is going to curb all the excessive compensation for the robbers in top management. The legislation is coming to end the looting.

Angry to be spoken to in Mandarin

I read the discussion about a Daniel Chua posting his encounter with a Chinese waiter at Harbour Front. He was unhappy to be taken for granted, that a waiter had the audacity to choose to speak to him in Mandarin. He snapped back at the waiter with the ‘Do I look like a Chinaman’ act. To add insults to injury, the waiter replied that he should be proud of China as his ancestor also came from China too. And this talented Sinkie replied smugly that his ancestors came from Singapore.

Many China Chinese have this wrong imprssion of Sinkie Chinese. They did not know that the ancestors of Sinkie Chinese did not come from China, maybe from Europe or even America, anywhere else but definitely not from China. Singapore is the perfect answer. And it is rude to assume that they can speak Mandarin. Their mother tongue is English.

Now, why should the waiter want to speak to him in Mandarin? This really beats me. How could a China Chinese mistook a Sinkie Chinese as Chinese from his appearance? So ridiculous! I also fuming.

From the appearance one can easily tell that a Sinkie Chinese is likely to be of non Chinese origin. Look at his slant eyes, flat nose, high cheek bones, and the colour of his skin and hair, every inch is so non Chinese, but Sinkie. Absolutely no doubt about it.

To make things easier for the China Chinese, Sinkies should wear a tag on their chest with the Chinese characters, ‘wo bu shi zhong guo ren.’ See , look at me, I am Daniel, my name is Daniel, not ‘da niau’.

The Big War coming to Asia

The Americans are winding down their wars in the Middle East and shifting everything, lock, stock and barrel to the Asia Pacific Region. For a start, the western country of Australia that could only see itself as a western nation, would be the first to host more American bases and soldiers. More bases would likely to pop up in Vietnam and the Phillipines. The Americans can now officially be back in Vietnam without having to fight the Vietnamese anymore.

And an article in the ST today by a David Gordon of Los Angeles Times and Washinton Post is claiming that Asian countries are panicking and are willing to pay the Americans to base troops in their country, to protect against an embolden China.

Is it an embolden China or embolden American crony states with the Americans behind them, that Vietnam and the Phillipines are buying more naval craft to fight China, and India is extending her naval activities to the East and South China seas? Whatever, the American war industries will be getting more orders from these silly Asian pests.

The US on itself is rattling its sabre. It told China that it is getting frustrated and impatient with China for having such a huge trade surplus and it is having difficulties coping with the big American debt to China in the hundreds of billions, actually US$1.1 trillion. So what now America, borrow money pay money, or borrow money don’t pay and start a war?

Can you believe it, the debtor is complaining and whining against its main creditor and wanting to start a war with China?

The extraordinary water solution

This is another excellent example of how Singapore tackled its problems in its uniquely Singaporean way. Another classic case study for the top management schools around the world.

Singapore with its limited land has a perennial water shortage problem and has to import water from Malaysia. It was never to be self sufficient in water. But this was a major challenge it faced and it was pushed to a corner when the sale of water was used as a hostage by Malaysia to make life very difficult and may even derail its development plans. Singapore is now self sufficient in water by maximizing its water catchment area, reservoirs and technology in water treatment, and the rest is history.

Many people forgot that other than the above, there is another element contributing to the success in water management. We may have enough water, but enough is relative. If the people carelessly misuse this precious resource, we will need more reservoirs and never provide enough water for the island. And there is the economic growth factor that would continue to raise the demand for water.

Here is the brilliant solution. Impresse and educate the people on the importance of water and water conservation. Water is a precious item and should not be wasted by careless and inconsiderate usage. But all these are talks and would only be partially effective on people who are already conscious and responsible. The irresponsible and reckless tiada apa type will continue to waste water no matter how often they are told not to do so. Yes, the solution is to hurt them where it hurts most. Tax on their pockets.

There is a surtax charged on the use of water in addition to the high fees and other taxes. This Water Conservation Tax stands at 30-45% of water used. The reckless and irresponsible can waste water at their convenience, but their pockets will be hurt and emptied by 30-45% more. The additional tax is to teach the people the importance of water conservation.

This is so brilliant that it solved the water management problem and adds into the public coffer. Another brilliant Singapore solution to be taught in Schools of Public Administration. Make them pay and they will heel.

The same theory can be applied to other goods. The high rate of changing mobile phones, and many in good working order is a big waste on natural resources. If govt is serious in conservation of mother earth, they can apply the same principle to prevent wastage of mobile phones. Make additional purchase of mobile phones be subject to 30% tax. Similarly there should be a Car Conservation Tax for anyone buying more than one car. And Petrol Conservation Tax, ….

Change in editorial policy

I was watching Channel 5 coverage on the SEA Games. Tao Li won 4 gold and going for the 5th. And a games sticker came out at the end of the event. Li Tao first. Is her name Tao Li or Li Tao? Is our shooter Zhang Jin or Jin Zhang? The other shooter was Ong Jun Hong though the TV sticker came out as Jun Hong Ong. Then there were several swimmers, Jia Hao Ng must be Ng Jia Hao. This non standard format of writing of Chinese names also affected the Vietnamese with Nguyen sometimes in front and sometimes behind the names. Actually Singaporean Chinese names were also reported either ways.

If I can be confused, so would other nationalities. As they said, let’s just follow the majority as the majority seems to be always right, or at least it is more practical to do so. In this case we have the western format as the dominant and familiar way, and easier to understand. So with immediate effect the editorial policy of this blog will adopt the western format when names are concerned. The family name or surname will henceforth be written behind the individual’s name. This should standardise everything and no one will be confused anymore. It will make us to be more westernised or international. No more guessing game.

For a start we will have to get use to Kuan Yew Lee, Chok Tong Goh, Boon Wan Khaw, Eng Hen Ng. Luckily still can address our President as Tony Tan unless he prefers people to call him Keng Yam Tan.

That’s it. This is the way forward. Follow the prevailing trend, and the western style. We will set the standard for countries with Chinese to follow suit. I hope the Govt will make it official for Mediacorp and SPH to do the same. In the interim, while the world gets use to this standardisation, just bear with Mr Kuan instead of Mr Lee, Mr Chok instead of Mr Goh....

PS. Let's not confused the world. Or shall I say let's confuse the world more?

The brilliant $2 solution

Not many people can remember what this $2 solution was/is all about. Many have accepted it as a way of life and the new normal. It happened nearly 20 years ago, but I still remember. Just to refresh the memory, two decades ago computer technology was not that advance and computer memory was quite small and expensive. I am not sure if this was the main problem, but some banks found that having too many accounts was not only troublesome for their computerized system, but also costly. Computer memory cost money.

What to do? And to ridicule the problem, many accounts were either inactive or have very small deposits in them, some from children’s saving accounts. It was not profitable or meaningful to have these teeny weeny accounts. The only way to get rid of these accounts was simply to charge them a $2 monthly fee if the clients want to continue to keep the accounts. The logic was simple, it cost manpower and resources to service these accounts, and computer memory space.

As a result, all the banks started to impose a $2 fee on accounts with less than $500 or $1000 deposit. I was a victim of this brilliant solution. I totally forgotten about a gold savings account with a local bank. There were a couple of hundred dollars left in them after I sold off my investment. One day I received a note from the bank that it was closing this account of mine as there was no money left. My few hundred bucks gone like that!

I was furious. How could a bank eat up my money which I thought would grow as the interest was quite high then. What I did was normally expected of an unhappy customer. I closed down all my accounts with the bank. Till today, I have no accounts with the bank, not even its credit cards. I was not the only victim. Many victims also suffered in silence as it was their fault for not closing the accounts. It was the fault of the customers to leave their accounts open. The banks happily kept deducting the money and did not bother to remind the clients to close the accounts.

The $2 was a brilliant solution to save money and unnecessary work for the banks. The one who came out with the solution must be a brilliant super talent.

I think NUS School of Management should use this as a compulsory case study in its management courses. It will be a shining example of how effective a $2 solution can be in cost cutting and getting rid of undesirable customers. Harvard may also want to incorporate this into their courses, as a brilliant Singapore solution.

Posts disappearing after posting

Several bloggers have encountered this problem since yesterday that their posts were disappearing. Is this a bug in Blogger or is it something more sinister?

Whatever, people will put one and one together and look at the direction which they think is the likely source of such strange things. America did it many times. Create a problem and point the finger at whoever they want to target. It is called false flag incidents.

Now some bloggers may think that I am deleting the disappearing posts. No way that I am doing it. I hope it is such a bug. There is no reason for me to delete any post. In fact I welcome more bloggers to post in my blog. The more the merrier. That is why my posts often are provocative and take on pretty strong and controversial views.

I hope this problem will go away. If it persists, as it has never happened before, you can make your wild guess. A point to note, as it made me wondering, was the exceptionally high traffic on Thursday morning. It more than double the normal volume. Could that be the indicator of someone breaking into this blog?

Redbean.

All the signs of the world economy going down

The crisis in Europe is just opening up. How serious it will become is still anyone’s guess. Europe is going down, and so is the US. Foreign banks here are starting to retrench some of their staff, in small numbers. The cause, financial deals are drying up. The financial industry will be the first to be hit this time as investment banks are losing credibility with their huge appetite for gambling.
High net worth clients who are smart enough would be getting cold feet with banks gambling with their money. Yes, it is big time gambling, not playing jackpot machines in the casinos. Many high net worth clients must be losing huge sums of money with stock markets going down in a spiral. And with cash is king, some may be tempted to just sit on it.

The retrenchment of investment bank staff is likely to affect the finance talents whose incomes are pretty substantial. And if these people are committed to multi million dollar properties and expensive cars, it is going to hit them in some ways. The big mortgages are not going to go away. They need two big incomes to service.

Then people will be pointing naughty fingers at them. Why take such big loans and big risk? Why buy properties beyond their means. The thing is that they were not given a chance. They were not eligible to buy properties within their means, to eligible to buy more affordable public housing. Hope it is not going to be the case, or some will be strangling themselves. Those in MF Global are likely to be seeking new jobs too.

When the bubble bursts, those who put these people at unnecessary high risk must touch their hearts and ask themselves if they have done wrong.

The world watches in silence

After Iraq and Libya, the next target of the Empire is Iran. They are preparing the grounds for it. They have spoken openly of the impending attack to gauge world reactions. Silence. The muslim world is headless and too deep in their own trouble to worry about anything else. Some may be afraid that their country will be next to be invaded and regime changed. Better to dig the head deeper into the sand for safety.

The rest of the world also remains silent as if nothing is happening. Like the proverbial 4 monkeys, see nothing, hear nothing, say nothing and do nothing. Don’t count on the western media or the white men’s conscience to denounce the premeditated murder of the Iranians.

Can any country stop this evil Empire from its murderous intent? If the rest of the world is willing to stand behind China or Russia to challenge the evil Empire from committing more genocide, there may be some hope. You need the rest of the world and the two nuclear power countries to keep the evil Empire at bay.

But why should China do anything? The rest of the world believes that China is the evil one, the aggressive one, their enemy, though China has not even lift a little finger to attack any country. It is best for China to stay out of the killing and destruction and let the evil Empire go on to take out one country after another in the name of peace. Any attempt for China to stand up for the weak nations will be immediately condemned by the western media. That is understandable. But the attacks by the western media will be joined by more attacks by the weak nations of Asia and Africa on China. They will immediately point the finger at China as a country willing to use military power to bully smaller nations. They could not see the Americans are doing exactly that.

It is best for China to stay out of the impending nuking of Iran. It is best for China just to look after its own territorial integrity and make sure that no little pesky country would dare to encroach on its territories and make spurious claims on them.

Let the evil Empire teach the weak nations a lesson on goodness and who to trust. It is now fabricating more evidences, like WMD against Saddam Hussein, to attack Iran. It is forcing China to join them against Iran, to impose more sanctions and even support the strike against Iran.

What a peace loving Empire.

MAS is starting to show interests

The MF Global sham must have triggered MAS into action. Or is it Paul Volcker’s recommendation for more regulation than deregulation? Well, MAS is introducing more regulations to prevent more lemons appearing in our financial market, to protect the average investors. Sophisticated instruments, derivatives etc will now be subject to more regulations to prevent innocent, ignorant and unsophisticated investors from being sucked into the quagmire and lose their life savings.

It is a good start, albeit a little too late and a bit too little. The measures taken are still too inadequate to prevent the loss of billions to the big funds which is happening daily. It is not just the derivatives and sophisticated products that are at fault. There are system faults that cannot go on like this.

The derivatives are now seen as dangerous, if not toxic. If they are dangerous, shouldn’t they be taken out of the system completely? Or it is okay to sell poison as long as the buyer knows that it is poison? This is a philosophical question. It can be a matter of right and wrong, a moral issue.

Derivatives are not only dangerous by themselves. The fact that they are derived from the major stocks in the market will also put these stocks at risk to grave manipulations. The intrinsic values of these component stocks will be of no bearing to the speculators whose only interest is profit by pushing the stocks up and down, at high speed.

The more dangerous development is to allow funds to hook up their computers to the stock market system. This is unfair in many counts. They could trade at high speed with the advantage of high speed computers and with the information provided by the system that the average investors are not accessible to. And they could use big muscles, with practically unlimited trading limits to corner stocks, to move stocks at will.

Cornering of stocks, buying and selling without change of ownership are all against the rules and regulations of the stock market. Are the funds doing it, or allow to do it?

For several years, the investors have been brought to the cleaners by the big funds. A report on who are the main winners and who are the losers would tell the story much clearer on how the system is disadvantaging the average investors.

MAS could have done more to ensure that the stock market is a level playing field to all investors, big or small. Funds can play with their sophisticated computers, algos, big war chests, but must not be allowed to hook their computers to the exchange. This is the least that MAS has to do.

Smaller flats do not compromise on quality of life

This is another political truth that Singaporeans are going to make to believe in. Drinking shit water is good. No car will not affect the quality of life. Two working parents too will not affect family life as quality time is more important. HDB flats are affordable, are affordable and stop complaining that it is not.

Singaporeans are not gullible. They are only easily made to believe whatever political truths they are made to believe. Foreign talents are here to help them and not competing with them for jobs or facilities. Foreign talents are better than local talents.

As far as living in small flats or mickey mouse flats are concerned, just compared with Hongkong and Japan and we will feel so blessed. In Hongkong a designer can even turn a 300 sq ft unit into a lifestyle statement. On entering the unit, he says, welcome to my living room. Then he pull down a shelf, without moving from the spot he is standing, he will say, welcome to my kitchen, next by moving a panel, he says, this is my toilet. Then pushing another panel and pulling out a sofa bed, he says here is my bedroom.

All high tech staff, futuristic, with expensively designed furniture and fittings. His life style is definitely not affected. In fact he will show off his cleverly designed flat as a statement of style.

Seriously, what kind of flats, what size is needed for a decent flat to raise a family with two children? Have we forgotten about family and children? Maybe we have accepted that the family shall be small, with one or two children or no children at all. Get use to the smaller flats. There is no contradiction or conflict in policies, definitely.

But having two children still needs a lot of space for growing up, for grandparents or a maid. Oh, we used to have many bodies in a cubicle. Two on the beds, two under the beds, one on the table, one under the table, one in the kitchen and a few more in every corner of the room. How can we complain about smaller flats? We have progressed, like back to the future.

The thing is that why are we squeezing our people into smaller spaces. Or is it to make room for more foreigners, for 10m population? Is a bigger population indispensable, which our progress depends on it and is the quality of our life? If the quality of life is living in smaller and smaller flats that are going to cost more and more, I think this kind of progress can be done without.

Are we serious in wanting parents to have children, to have three tiered families? Sure, it only depends on whether you can afford it. Having more children and three tiered families in a 10,000 sq ft or 20,000 sq ft property should be no problem. When you can’t afford that, live within your means and try clever redesigning, clever use of space like squeezing the maids with the grands or the children or in the store room.

The quality of our life style will definitely not be affected. It is only an issue of affordability and living within your means.

A specialist hospital across the causeway

Peter Lim and the Sultan of Johore are building a specialist hospital just across the causeway to cater for Johoreans and Singaporeans. This is the best joint venture to date coming from Johore. And the involvement of the Sultan will eradicate a lot of petty problems that could be conceived from petty minds.

When I wrote about such an option, my main worry is the use of CPF for medical treatment in the Iskander. You know, it can be something like the ¾ tank rule all over again. Then it is as good as a no go. With the Sultan’s stake in the hospital, we can be sure that this is not going to happen. It will definitely give the hospital a big boost in drawing more Singaporeans over.

On the Malaysian side, the Sultan’s presence can ease many unnecessary troubles. The most obvious is to ensure that crime against Singaporeans using the hospital is not an issue and the police would have to work harder on this. Then without Mahathir in the kitchen, hopefully no UMNO leaders will agitate against Singaporeans using their facilities or jamming their roads, raising cost of living.

I am really looking forward to a successful symbiotic relationship between the two sides that improves the lives of both people. The Johoreans will benefit from a world class hospital and its supporting industries. Singaporeans will not be squeezed by the local hospitals and have a meaningful alternative across the causeway.

It can be a real win win situation and not mere lip service.

Notable quote from LKY

"If you don't include your women graduates in your breeding pool and leave
them on the shelf, you would end up a more stupid society...So what happens?
There will be less bright people to support dumb people in the next
generation. That's a problem." - MM Lee in 1983

Someone sent me this quote and after reading it I was a bit puzzle. I can’t figure out ‘less bright people to support dumb people in the next generation.’ I think I got a mental block here. I am intrigue by this quote. Please read it carefully and find the intricate truth it is revealing.

Selling junks is a crime!

The scavenger went to the junk yard to hunt for usable parts, took them home, sieved out the usable parts, repaired or refurbished them and sold them in the market. Is that a crime? Definitely not. What if they are military parts, is it a crime?

According to two hawks in the US Senate, Carl Levin and John McCain, it is a crime against the US. Selling them is like selling counterfeit parts. Are they counterfeits? They are genuine parts! The only thing is that they are discarded junks and the junk scavenger took the initiative to find them and rework them into working parts. If this is not allowable, then all the junk yard operators should close down.

So what if they are military parts when there are willing buyer and seller. And these are not really arms parts but electronic parts from old circuit boards which can be used for anything, not necessarily weapons. And there are millions of them floating around. How could there be millions of them be floating around when they are parts of weapons? But that was what the American Defence Department claimed.

The two senators are using this accusation as an excuse to create problems for Chinese electronic parts entering the US. They wanted to use it to justify inspecting all Chinese shipments to the US. Basically these jokers are sick, running out of ideas. They still think that it is a one way affair, that they can make life difficult for China, bully China. The game can be played both ways and many American goods going to China would likewise be subject to the same courtesy.

A frightening discovery

Maybe it is not, just a confirmation that it is real. After a few days of discussion on the housing issues, it comes out very clearly that the average Singaporeans either refuse to think, or simply cannot think, or too frighten to think.

When faced with problems, they said, look at the third world countries, we are so much better. Or, it could be worst. They would not compare with the best or would not think that it can be better. The status quo is the best and the only way. Even after May 6, with a trickle of change coming up, they are still not convinced that they could make the change for the better in a bigger way.

They simply accept the raison d’tre of the authority. If people don’t sign up to buy flats, the govt will not build. The govt will only build when there is solid demand with applicants putting their money out front and signing on the dotted line. So what if it takes 3 to 4 years to build a flat? Even if it is 10 years, that’s the way it should be. They should be grateful that they got such a good flat. Other countries, many do not have such good housing.

May 6 did change a little on this great thinking and policy. Without May 6, the housing programme still will be as before, build only when there is demand and be grateful to get a flat in 3 or 4 years. That was the normal and the best thing can be.

The other great logic, the higher income Singaporeans are competing with the lower income Singaporeans for public flats. And if they are allowed to buy public flats, they will deprive the chances of lower income applicants. What a great logic. So it is ok for the slightly higher income citizens to compete with the richer foreigners in buying private flats and emptying their savings plus a big big mortgage.

No, the average Singaporeans could not see the flaw in this logic. They could not see anything further than their noses. I am too tired to repeat the explanation on how nonsensical is this reasoning. For those who can understand, good, for those who can’t, good.

And many Singaporeans are barred from buying a public flat for all kinds of reasons while foreigners/new citizens who did not contribute anything to the country, not even defending the country, are allowed to buy public flats. I just saw this quote in the Today paper and I just modify the last word from bonus to housing. ‘Consider that we trust military and homeland security personnel with our lives, yet we don’t’ give them lavish ‘homes’. The author Nassim Nicholas Taleb was referring to the lavish bonuses of the bankers in America.

There are many weird logics and reasonings that the average Singaporeans will just accept blindly. Cheng Hu kong so must believe, must follow, must accept, cannot argue. Would they ever believe that an alternative govt of better people can be better than the present govt? No, it could be worst. This is the best. There are no better people than those already in the govt.

It is quite frightening really, to think of a people raised in the best education system and failed badly in trying to use their brains to think deeper and not accepting superficial explanations. It would not hurt the brain to make it work a little bit more. Keeping it in pristine condition is a bad thing. The more one works the brain, the shinier it will be.

I may be wrong. And there is still hope that those who are not thinking and see this place as a Shangrila, flawless, are new citizens or PRs who came from a lower base. That could also be the reason why they are asking critical and cynical Singaporeans to get lost so that they can bring in their families here. This is indeed a place made in heaven if you know where they are coming from.

How to solve the hungry ghosts issue?

On the positive side, the Tourist Board can capitalize on it and coin a new slogan to attract more tourists here. I can think of one immediately, come and see ‘Beauty and the beasts in paradise island’, or ‘First and third world cohabitation at Sentosa’. Singapore could then become another exciting exotic and erotic destination unlike the dull first world image of being squeaky clean like Europe.

Another possible solution is to educate the ladies to be more tolerant, be friendly or even party with the hungry ghosts. They will be most happy to be friendly with them instead of just ogling or gawking at them. They would not look hostile or intimidating any more.

A third option is to ban bikinis and swimming suits or scantily dressed girls in Sentosa beach. They are the main cause of all the problems. Remove them and it will remove all the problems of hungry ghosts.

One standard solution that is always in the lips of Singaporeans when such problems arise is to erect barriers to keep the beasts away. And, yes, oh yes, levy a fee for going to the beach protected by the barriers, like ERPs. How come it takes me so long to think of this marvelous idea?

See, problem solved, Singapore uniquely.

The changing balance of power in the Pacific

At its weakest, China was still a country to be conquered and colonized. Unlike India, there was a central govt for many centuries under different empires, including the Mongols and the Manchurians. The vastness of China, its relatively homogenous population and centuries of cultivated civilization, science and technology, arts and literature, social system, history and a sophisticated written language, gave it a special advantage over the Mongols and the Manchus. Both conquerors and rulers of China became absorbed by the Chinese civilization and were sinicised in the process. Instead of China becoming Mongolia or Manchuria, both states became China.

China came under the concerted attacks of the Western powers in the 19th Century. Despite its relative strength in numbers, though inferior in technology, it was no match to the technologically superior foreign forces. They applied strength in concentration of fire power and mobility to decisively defeat the Chinese by piece meal. They could mobilize and move their troops at will and at great speed and to choose their battle fields. A few British ships could hit port cities after cities, though numerically small, but superior in a localized context, and triumphed over the less mobile and scattered forces of the Chinese troops.

The European powers controlled the sea with their powerful naval power till today, with the Americans and their aircraft carriers and strike groups. The Americans were superior in nuclear weapons and delivery system. The Americans were also superior in the sea and have control of the air space as well. And they also have military bases at China’s front yard, in South Korea and Japan.

The balance of power was overwhelmingly in favour of the Americans in all areas of warfare. The Americans could even conduct a conventional land battle in Chinese soil by landing American infantry divisions there.
This American superiority and dominance over the Chinese faded overnight at a speed that has taken the Americans by surprise. The equation has changed dramatically and it is no longer feasible for the Americans to a fight land warfare in China. Neither do the Americans have control of the sea or air superiority in the seas surrounding China any more. The Americans could still be very superior in nuclear warfare with their arsenal of ICBMs and nuclear warheads. The problem is that nuclear warfare is no longer an option between the two powers and superiority in this theatre is as good as academic.

What is left of the equation? With air superiority and control of the seas thrown out of the window, American aircraft carriers can no longer be the launching pads for its fighter bombers to attack China. Neither can they ferry the troops to land in Chinese soils. The Chinese are capable of taking out the aircraft carriers should they dare to venture within their strike range.

The military bases in South Korea and Japan still offer such advantages but will be top priority targets to be knocked out in the early stages of hostility. In fact all the military bases in South Korea and Japan, including Korean and Japanese bases with be taken out of the equation the moment hostility is declared. China cannot afford any bases to be operational for the Americans to launch their attacks into Chinese territories. A thousand missiles were aimed at Taiwan when Chen Shui Bian and Lee Teng Hui attempted to break away from China. The number of missiles aiming at South Korea and Japan could be many times more to ensure nothing is left standing. South Korea and Japan better pray that there is no war between the two giants. They will be targets number One.

They cannot believe that China will let the Americans used their bases to attack her. It used to be a very safe game to play when China could not even hit a target a hundred meters from its own shores. It is a new China that has the ability to take out anything in South Korea and Japan.

Without Japan and South Korea to launch their attacks, can America really conduct a war with China from the eastern front, from the seas? In all circumstances, China has more or less neutralized and secured its eastern front. The other possible battle fronts will be Vietnam, India and Chinas’ south western corner. This could be the reasons why there were so many ongoings between the Americans and these countries. The question is whether these countries would think they could get away with a war on the side of the US. Assuming the leaders of these countries are not fools, there is no reason to turn their countries into battle zones for the two super powers.

When the Chinese are capable of hitting their enemies across all their borders, war between China and the US is increasingly more difficult. The balance of power has been leveled between the two superpowers. Both are no longer comfortable to fight a war with superior advantage. America can still claim overall superiority in many areas. But no one will emerge the winner in a war between the two superpowers.

It was a totally different ball game when the Americans could strike China from their aircraft carriers with impunity. This option is closed. Any reckless attempts could see the aircraft carriers and the whole battle group sink into the East and South China Seas like the Prince of Wales and the Repulse in the Second World War. Gone were the days when the American naval task force could sail up and down the China Seas to threaten China and the Chinese could not do anything about it.

The new balance will prevent the adventurous from embarking on their crazy adventures of assured self destruction. It is also game over for little pesky countries.

Internet saboteurs

My blog is again experiencing the presence of an internet brigade bent on attacking everything I posted without offering any ounce of sensible reply. The behavior is crude, rude and downright disgusting. It also reflects on their low intellect and foul upbringing.

What is bad about this development is that, no matter what is their motive or motivation, like it or not, the finger will be pointing at one party. It may be a false assumption to put the blame on the innocent party. But can’t be helped. It is the expectation and perception that the party will stoop to such low level tactics to achieve its aim.

The perception of people is strange and quite predictable. One does not need to be the guilty party to be blamed for things that one did not commit. Just like the bugger in the centre that went frolicking but the two balls got hung for not doing anything.

The nonsensical attacks on bloggers in cyberspace by unknowns are a poor reflection of whoever that is behind it. I feel sorry for the party that is going to be blamed for such nonsense when in fact it is innocent. The more frequent the attack, the more angry will be the people against the party they think is behind it.

Well, it happened. Let’s move on.

A new kind of hungry ghost festival

Paradise should not be like this. In paradise, one can expect everything to be nice and beautiful, with beautiful people, well dressed, affluent, well mannered, cultured, and full of social graces. No one would expect to step into paradise and be hounded everywhere by hungry ghosts.

The hungry ghost festival is no longer in the 7th moon of the lunar calendar but every weekend or public holiday. And the ghosts were hungry but not just for food. They were hungry for the fairer sex. I saw some of the photos posted in the net of the hungry ghosts in Sentosa Island and I am dismayed.

My beautiful island in the sun, the paradise on earth, the peace and tranquility, are shattered by rude and brazen male specimens of the human kind, intruding into the privacy of the holiday makers. They do not respect any rights of privacy to be left alone to enjoy the sun, sea and sand. They just plonked themselves in close quarters to the ladies in their bikinis and swimming suits. Their eyes zeroed into the semi naked bodies, salivating and mentally raping every female in sight. Are such harassment tolerable? The ladies may think they have came to paradise but hades is what they found.

Maybe it is the fault of the ladies. They should not be dressed that way to tempt the hungry ghosts. And if these specimens lose their senses and go wild, with mass rape in the heat of the moment, they should not be held responsible. The temptation of the apple in close range, so tantalizing, is just too irresistible. Mob behavior is unpredictable.

What is happening to my island paradise? A nightmare is waiting to happen. It is so menacing to see the females being surrounded by hoards of hungry male specimens with their animal urges ready to explode at any moment. It was only last year when a female dancer on stage was physically groped by the hungry ghosts for several minutes and all those presence just watched in bewilderment.

Heard they are stepping up patrols to guard against people committing suicide in Bedok Reservoir. Would they be increasing patrols or do something to prevent mob rioting for sex? It would not happen. Ok, but what about our tourist image as a paradise on earth, to bath and sun in peace and with a little privacy instead of being hounded by hungry ghosts? Are we turning our squeaky clean garden city image into a third world slum with the accompanying inhabitants and foul social norms? Tourists who enjoy visiting slums will choose countries where they can find slums. When they came to Singapore, the first world garden city, they don't expect to be greeted or swarmed by third world inhabitants and their nauseating and disgusting habits. It will be a shocking disappointment. Who would want to visit Europe to just see the slums of Asia and mingled with the hungry Asian hordes?

Reckless Meritocracy

‘In meritocracies, though, it’s the very intelligence of our leaders that creates the worst disasters. Convinced that their own skills are equal to any task or challenge, meritocrats take risks that lower wattage elites would never even contemplate, embark on more hubristic projects, and become infatuated with statistical models that hold out the promise of a perfectly rational and frictionless world.

Inevitably, pride goeth before a fall….It will do (the country) no good to replace the arrogant with the ignorant, the overconfident with the incompetent.

In place of reckless meritocrats, we don’t need feckless know nothings. We need intelligent leaders with a sense of their own limits, experienced people whose lives have taught them caution. We still need the best and brightest, but we need them to have somehow learnt humility along the way.’


Come come, I know what you are thinking. No. Not what you are thinking.

This is an extract of an article in mypaper today by an American called Ross Douthat and reprinted from The New York Times. The author was referring to Jon Corzine, who grew up in rural Singapore, oops, I mean Illinois, a farmer’s grandson, made it good in his studies and rose to become a politician. In his egoistic grandeur, he took big bets on other people’s money and hoping to make a killing and be celebrated as the new financial whiz kid. He failed and lost billions of his clients’ money in MF Global. The story is just beginning. How big is the hole is still unknown.

When God is not willing, no amount of talent or presumed talent can save the day. He was just a gambler. He dug his own hole and is falling into it.

CFDs are for sophisticated clients

With the MF Global bankruptcy turning into another lemon juice, more questions are being raised on CFDs in the media in the Sunday Times. When all the toxic notes and bonds were introduced to the market, they too were listed as sophisticated products, complex products for sophisticated clients. When the Lehman bonds have gone one step further and have been condemned as a con job in the US, when high risks housing mortgages were packaged and given triple AAA ratings to be sold to sophisticated investors, they also found the issuers betting against the failure of the bonds. The issuers thus made both ways, selling junks and if junks failed they would be paid by their insurers.

CFDs, like many derivatives, are highly geared instruments for trading in the market. And everyone knows that it is high risk and high return. Not only the sophisticated investors know of this risk, even the unsophisticated layman will know what they will be dabbling in.

For the less sophisticated investors, who are more prudent in their investment outlook, more are turning to the mundane and traditional stocks where the risk is lower. Simply, when one buys a stock, it is unlikely to lose everything unless the company goes bust or the management ran away. In trading derivatives, the margin is the capital in play and it is quite easy to lose everything in a short time.

Then again, lately stocks too have a very high tendency to go bust or with management running away and investors losing everything. Stocks too are not as safe as before the advent of derivatives. Many derivatives are stock based. What could happen is that the trading and fluctuating of stock prices are now tightly knitted with the prices of derivatives. Stock prices can also go on a wild ride when big derivative players have to cover their positions by manipulating stock prices. Though price manipulation is a breach of stock trading regulation, often it is very difficult to prove and to apprehend the manipulators. The latter have many sophisticated and complex ways of covering their tracks.

The seemingly innocent stocks are not that docile and safe anymore.

Does anyone spend a moment to think of what the word ‘sophisticated’ means in derivatives and stock trading? It is a sophisticated way to describe high risk gambling in the stock market. A sophisticated client is a client willing to take high risk, like a gambler. A sophisticated product or derivative is a high risk gambling product. Period.

High risk gambling belongs to the casino and not the stock market where the dynamics and conduct of business are different. Gambling is just gambling, take a bet, be fast, no need to worry about fundamentals, or no fundamentals at work. Buy white or red does not need analysts and their back breaking reports. Pressing the button of a jackpot machine only needs to look at the probability of winnings. A computer that can be attached to the machine will definitely increase the odds.
There is such a thing called blue chips in the stock market where the business and bottom line of the companies are more important in determining the price of the stocks than simply betting it up and down by algos in split seconds. Is the stock market turning into a casino or is it a mixture of both?

Perhaps the high risk derivatives should be assigned to a different platform, something like casino counters, and govern by the Casino Regulatory Authority. High risk gambling must be controlled under more stringent rules and regulations. Better still that they be delinked from the primary stock market. They can create derivatives from anything, not necessarily stocks in the stock markets, and this will spare the blue chips and good stocks from being murdered by the big derivative speculators.

And the word ‘sophisticated’ should be cast to the world of gambling and casinos.