Singaporeans should stop uttering the phrase foreign talents

For so many years, the Sinkies have been conditioned to look at foreigners as talents and the Sinkies as daft. In reality, the foreigners have also gone through similar education systems in their respective countries as the Sinkies going through our own system. And many of the foreigners actually went through a poorer and less well equipped education system compares to the Sinkie system, which on paper is ranked among the world best. How did Sinkies become non talents when rubbish becomes more talented?

Why is a Sinkie with the same degree or degrees, be it a first degree or post graduate degree be non talent while a foreigner with the same degree/degrees becomes a talent? Why is a Sinkie with the same number of years of working experience be less able than a foreigner with the same number of years of experience? Why is a foreigner with lower qualifications, less distinguished qualifications, lesser number of years of experience be deemed better than a Sinkie and made to be heads of depts and institutions and the Sinkies be left in the cupboard?

Sinkies must take pride in themselves as the real talents. It must be. The Sinkies are schooled in one of the finest education system, one of the most expensive, and have proven their abilities to build a country from the Third World to the First World. In the case of the foreigners, many are schooled in ill equipped education system with poor facilities and inadequate teaching staff, in unranked universities, and came from Third world countries that they failed to turn them into First World, how on earth that they are now better talents than Sinkies, to help Sinkies, to create jobs for Sinkies when they could not help their own countries, could not find jobs in their own countries?

Who are the silly ones who are calling these Third World products as talents and rubbishing Sinkies as not talents, helpless, useless and daft?

All Singaporeans, especially the new media, the netizens, should henceforth refrain from the use of the phrase foreign talents or FTs. There are foreign talents but there are very few and only very exceptional ones. The more Singaporeans keep calling these foreigners as talents, the more Singaporeans unconsciously start to believe that they are when they are not and start to believe themselves as unworthy. Any Singaporean that spouts this phrase should be seen as betraying Singaporeans and deriding Singaporeans and should not deserve to be respected by Singaporeans, be they politicians or otherwise. Only real talents are deserving to be called talents.

Let’s do it together to say the right thing that favours Singaporeans and not the right thing that abuses and belittles Singaporeans. Let’s stop the crap that the lesser number of Singaporeans in the island is to strengthen the Singaporean core. It is a lie. The Singaporean core cannot be strengthened by having more foreigners to take over the rightful place of Singaporeans as citizens and in job opportunities.

Foreigners should just be referred to as foreigners, foreign workers, foreign white collar workers or at most foreign PMETs, ie foreign ‘pampered, mediocre, expensive thrash’.

Where is ownership of omission, negligent or fraud?

When the Subprime crisis and the American financial crisis hit, no one was found guilty of any crime or mistake or fraud. They only one punished was the institutions that were fined. This ultimately means that the main street, the minority shareholders had to pay for the crimes of the management.

When the Lehman bonds and toxic notes hit Singapore, something very similar happened. Only a few out of luck jokers down the line were dismissed to take the blame. The top management that allowed the farce and fraud to do damage to the investors continued to enjoy their big fat bonuses and pay. Whose money ultimately went to pay for the fines of these banks?

The NTUC’s My First Skool was issued with a warning and its licence shortened to 6 months pending probation. No one in management was held responsible. The teacher that committed the abuse was sacked and pending prosecution. If the Skool is closed, who suffers?

Think Mas Selamat and think the HDB fiasco. Think the state of health of the SMRT. Think the Sovereign Wealth Fund. Where is responsibility and where is accountability?

Black and White Matrix seriesAfrica

Africa

Tribal Dance

Party

Three black and white pieces of rar art of the Matrix series.

Beware of anonymous bloggers and websites

This is the main topic of discussion in the ST forum page on Saturday 20 Jul. Do not trust bloggers that post as anonymous, or blogs that are owned by anonymous owners. In other words trust only those you know who is behind the blogs or when the identity of the owner is known. Would this also apply to articles in the main media when the name of the writer is not stated, like from the Editor, from the PMO, from the Ministry of Dounce?  Some may not even say that it is from the editor.

Superficially it may sound true that an article or blog with the owner identified is likely to be more composed and less capricious in what is being posted. Then again, there are many blogs with owners living in no man’s land and letting everything flies, right or wrong, truths or untruths, blasphemy, defamation, scandals, anything goes. And on the other hand there are many very serious bloggers blogging under anonymity and making very good sense. Even using a nick is posting in anonymity if no one knows who is behind that nick.

I used to pose as redbean without identifying myself until I signed up as a writer with Asian Correspondents. I do not see any difference in what I posted then and now. The style and content are still the same. What I am trying to say is that it is the person and his intent and not whether the person is posting in his real self or incognito.

Another forumer in the ST forum by the name of Tan Ying San also warned of websites run by anonymous owners. Then he quoted, “there have been reports of foreign agencies setting up websites to promote certain causes and regularly editing entries in Wikipedia to favour certain viewpoints (CIA, Vatican and Howard’s office ‘edited Wikipedia’”. He went on to say that ‘Many less discerning Singaporeans believe whole articles on such websites simply because parts of them are true and the message resonates with them. They forget the best liars do not lie completely.’

Tan Ying San has an important point here. Many undiscerning readers are unwitting made to believe what they read, sometimes over an article, sometimes over a long period of time reading a certain viewpoint. A very good example is the anger and hatred for countries the Americans have painted as bad or evil, like North Korea, Iran, Myanmar, China, Russia and a whole lot of others. People are just reading the American slanted views from American and western media source, NYT, Washington Post, Guardian or Reuters, AP, Agencies, Fox, CNN etc etc and will eventually think like them without realising it. That is why China and North Korea are so hated by unthinking Sinkies till today. The mentioned of North Korea will send the blood pressure up as if they are enemies of Singapore and are about to launch a nuclear strike on the island. Daft can be acquired or programmed by others with the victim unknowing or did not understand what is happening.

It is thus very important to know the source of the information, who wrote it and what is his agenda and motive. Know the author or owners of blogs and websites helps and is better than not knowing who is behind them. The important thing is to be discriminating and thinking and questioning and don’t be a literate fool, being fooled all your life without knowing it. North Koreans bad, Americans good. North Koreans killer, Americans not killers. North Koreans for war, Americans for peace. You have been programmed and conned.

How many of you trust the main media or information coming from the govts or official sources?

More cases of teachers abusing children exposed

A primary 6 boy was allegedly pinned on a school desk by his neck. This was done by his teacher.The incident happened on Tuesday, July 2 at about 10am in an elite school in the east of Singapore.

He had gone for classes late as he was not feeling well, and his mother was shocked to see his teacher chase him into the classroom. She claims she saw the teacher pinning her son on a desk by his neck.
Tay Weiming's father, 63, and his mother made a police report, complained to the Ministry of Education and also alerted Lianhe Wanbao.

There was another case reported in Stomp I think, of a primary school boy being made to stand in a corner for 3 hours without food, drink or break to go to the toilet and with a paper bag on his head. Punishing a child for bad behaviour is acceptable but it must be reasonable and should not go over the limit especially for primary school children. Forbidding a child to go to the toilet, without food or water is cruel, wicked and inhuman. Unacceptable for adults to dish such punishment to children unless these adults are from some primitive tribes that have yet to be civilised.

Harsh punishment, roughing up children, yelling at young children, and handling them in a threatening manner not only frighten them, they instilled fear in them. What the shit are these adults thinking, that they can harass young children without harming them emotionally and psychologically? My impression is that these are not only insecure adults but likely to be mentally sick or just unfit to take care of children.

This is only the tip of the iceberg, a few cases that were reported after the My First Skool case was exposed. Today another mentally sick teacher abused a 5 year old girl by making her standing naked in front of her classmates in a PAP Community Foundation Centre. She even swung her against the white board. And she was given a 21 probation on the ground that she too was an abused child. What a sick joke! What a sick mitigation excuse!

Is our teaching profession going mad? Or is our society going sick? Don’t the principals or MOE put their ears on the ground to find out what is happening? Oh, the second case mentioned above was dealt by a principal. No wonder Singaporeans are so docile, so authority fearing. They must have been mentally castrated from young in our schools.

The MOE must take a stand on this and get rid of sadistic adults that are unsuitable to take care of children. They will do more harm than good and the earlier they are removed the safer it is for the children. There is an urgent need to do some spring cleaning for the well being and safety of young children. Stop wasting time on cleaning hawker centres.

We need to guard against pyschopaths walking around as teachers. A serious personality and pyschiatric assessment must be conducted on all teachers. Though this may not weed out all of them, at least a big chunk could be taken out early. It is better to be safe than sorry. Subsequently, schools and pre schools, nurseries, kindergartens must have a continuous programme to monitor the teachers to ensure that they are safe for the children. There is an honest and naïve assumption that teachers are all normal people, love children and can be trusted in their entirety with the children in their care. They could be monsters and little devils in disguise.

Wake up and stop being complacent and think that every human bean is ok if he or she calls herself a teacher. Even one in a robe is committing all kinds of crimes behind the robe. Our children need to be protected from their teachers. Our preschools, kindergartens and nurseries must not be turned into frightening places for our children.

The right COE Scheme

Please note that I used the word right and scheme. I could have said the best COE formula or the correct COE system. You see, the right scheme to different people means different things. The right scheme to a super talent is different from the right scheme of a layman or the right scheme of a crook. They are all right schemes to each one of them.

When a designer of a scheme starts from the point of a right scheme you can bet what are his objectives and goals. The current COE Scheme is the right scheme for the govt and for the rich buyers. It is the wrong scheme for the less well off buyers for sure, and for those who cannot do without a car, eg the invalids or handicaps, the families with dependent young and old that have to be ferried to and fro. That is the reason why so many people are so unhappy with the current right COE Scheme as it is not right to them. And that is also the reason why so many people have so many brilliant ideas to offer but will not be accepted or ignored. Cause those ideas are good, excellent but not right.

Anyone who wants to offer any good suggestions to modify the current COE Scheme must take note of who it shall benefit. Otherwise, no matter how good or brilliant the suggestion is, it will simply go into the waste bin, wasted time and effort.

Now did I get my right idea across? It is the goals and objectives of the COE Scheme that determine how it should be designed, what to consider and what not to consider. Get it?

Anyone still wants to offer the best formula, the correct solution or better please think what is the right scheme first?

How to get rich quick?

The whole world is entering a golden era when wealth of money is made so easily, so quickly and in such a sum that our forefathers would never have imagined. Many of the old rich made it after a life time of slogging and business acumen and hoping that all the decisions made were the right ones. In today’s context, the money made by the old ways was just too slow and too little. The internet age has made many very rich overnight, and many are very young. These are the true entrepreneurs that were there at the right time with the right products. They truly deserve every cent they made.

The money did not go to only the mavericks of the internet world. Money is everywhere, overflowing and it is up for everyone to grab in whatever ways they could. Ok, the internet whiz kids are just an exception. And making money the true honest way is still the way forward for many. But there are many that are taking the shortcut to instant wealth. They defy the old wisdom of making money slow and steady in all honesty. Instant wealth does not come easy for many.

In today’s world of high finance, many fortunes were made by many through other than by the honest, slow and steady way. The old ways cannot make people rich overnight. Only the crooked ways, by cheating, by gambling, by conning and deceiving, by robbing, can people make money so easily and so fast other than the few exceptions stated above. When people are making quick money without having to really sweat for it, the answers are all out there. Put one and one together and you will get two, but the instant wealth makers will get three or four. And remember that they are cheating and robbing others and many will be poorer because of them.

An example of how corrupt the financial system is and how the crooks are making tons of money is the trial of an ex Goldman Sachs trader now going on in New York. ‘The trial of former Goldman Sachs bond trader Fabrice Tourre was about "Wall Street greed," a lawyer for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission…’, reported Nate Raymond in a REUTER article on 15 Jul 13.

The gist of the case is as reported in the same article: ‘The SEC accuses Tourre of misleading investors in a mortgage investment called Abacus 2007-AC1 by not telling them that a hedge fund was involved in selecting the underlying assets and betting against it.

Matthew Martens, a lawyer for the SEC, told the jury the deal Tourre put together was "secretly designed to maximize the potential it would fail" to the benefit of the hedge fund, which made about $1 billion.

"In the end, Wall Street greed drove Mr. Tourre to lie and deceive," Martens said.’

The snake oil seller, Goldman Sachs trader, was selling some toxic product designed to fail and pushing it to his clients while knowing that another party was shorting it and with knowledge of how the CDO was structured, could actually cause it to fail. The result was expected, the clients of Tourre lost more than one billion and the hedge fund of John Paulson made the one billion. How convenient and how easy to make money in Wall Street and how easy to find innocent suckers? The formula is being repeated across the big financial centres of east and west.

Structured products, derivatives, CDOs (Collateral Default Obligations) and CDS (Credit Default Swap) are instruments that the designers had a handle to turn them to their advantage without the victims having a clue of what is going on. That is why they called them ‘sophisticated’ instruments for ‘sophisticated’ clients, with clients thinking that they are sophisticated and clever but in fact the definition means ‘thinking that they know and can afford to lose but cannot claim ignorance.’

And the selling of such snake oils is spreading across the world financial markets with the perpetrators of such products seen as financial geniuses and welcome by greedy govts everywhere. In the meantime the financial time bomb has been set clicking. When will it blow up?

It is just a poll

This latest poll was prompted by a very assertive statement from Hsien Loong arising from the hawker centre cleaning issue debated in Parliament. His statement, ‘Singapore has succeeded because we have honest, upright people in politics: people who can be trusted to uphold the public interest, to speak the truth even when it is inconvenient...’ And the poll is conducted to see whether the people agree or disagree with his statement. What do you think?

93% of the respondents disagree with Hsien Loong’s comment that Singapore has upright people in politics, people that can be trusted, to speak the inconvenient truths when needed. How come like that? Is this frightening, that the people don’t think we have upright and trustworthy people in politics?

The poll is just a poll and it is not conclusive to say that the people are right and we don’t have upright people in politics. We may have a lot of them, we may not. What the poll is saying is that they don’t believe, rightly or wrongly, that there are upright and trustworthy people in politics. This is bad enough. It is like an innocent guy in court while the jury insists he is guilty.

For the people to say so, alright, just the people who responded to the poll, it says something. What has the Govt done to deserve such mistrust from this group of people? Go do some soul searching ok?

The other point is for the Govt to do the right thing so that they can regain the trust and faith of the people, that they are good and upright and can be trusted to speak the truth. I think this is a trying task looking at the emotions today. Can the Govt change this negative perception?

What is bad is that if the perception of the people is true. In that case no medicine can cure this sickness. Habis lah.

Is this poll important to the Govt? It depends. It depends on whether they want to believe in it. It depends on how genuine or how close it is to the perception of the whole population. If this is a true representative of what the people perceived the Govt to be, it is definitely not pretty. The Govt and Hsien Loong can only hope that this poll is not representative, not real or biased, or only the views of a small group of anti PAP cynics.

What do you think?

Hawker centre cleaning, time to move on

As more things are revealed in this issue of great national importance, perhaps it is time to move on as the points in question could boil down to some misunderstanding in what were said and what were written or between annual cleaning and not annual cleaning.

Can we call it a stalemate, both sides never win or never lose, call it a truce and everyone gets back to work? Some overseas blogs are even laughing at us for creating such a hooha with ministers and PMs involved. But I must respect those who think this is indeed a very serious matter of integrity and honesty and needs to pursue until every stone is turned and every straight and honest face turns crooked and red.

Shall everyone say peace? I also feel very embarrass to post about it.

South Korea begging the US to take control of its armed forces

Though the South Koreans have been bragging about how able they are to invade and fight the North Koreans, they are so afraid of losing the backing of their colonial master. This semi American colony is begging the Americans to continue to be their supreme military commander in case a war breaks out with the North. The agreement means that the Americans will have full control of the South Korean armed forces in war. The whole of South Korean military will be under the control of the Americans.

The Americans were supposed to surrender this right to control the South Korean armed forces in 2012 but this was delayed because of the sinking of the Choenan. The handover was then scheduled to be in December 2015 but the South Koreans willingly wanted to submit their armed forces to the control of a foreign power, the USA and is asking for a delay in the handover of power back to the South Koreans. It is unbelieveable that a sovereign state would willingly beg another country to assume command of its military. Where is the pride of the Korean people? Is this not a sign of a semi colony?

And now we know the reason why the Choenan was sunk in October 2010. The real reason, the South Koreans would be assuming control of their own military by December 2012. And there must be a strong reason to frighten the South Koreans to want to continue with the Americans as their military commander and colonial master. Who then has an interest to sink the Choenan to keep this status quo?

The North Koreans, the South Koreans or the Americans? Who sank the Choenan and the reason for its sinking is now clear as day light.

Malaysian University admission standard very high

It is reprinted in My Paper of a report in The Star/Asia News Network of a number of top Malaysian students with perfect scores for the STPM but either failed to get a place in Malaysian Universities or being given a course not of their choice, or courses that are unpopular or of lower economic values.

Chai Yee Lin obtained a perfect 4.0 CGPA score, applied for medicine, dentistry, pharmacy and bio medical courses but was given a veterinary science course in Kelatan University. Another student, Chong Yong Sheng, also with perfect score was not even good enough for a place in the universities. And another girl, Deveshini Uthani was devastated as well for not given a place. Her score was poorer, 3.96. She thought it was good enough and that she had done her family proud.

What all these students failed to understand is that there must be many many students with perfect scores, probably 10,000 or 20,000 or more. Thus, their perfect scores were actually average or below average. And the standard for admission must also be very high.

These students should work harder if they want to get admitted to Malaysian universities. On the other hand they may try their luck in Singapore Universities. Here the entry requirements would not be that high and they may even be good enough for an Asean or a Singapore Govt scholarship with food and lodging thrown in. And if they did well on graduation, they may even be given citizenship.

The competition of the local students is not so fierce as the local talents are deemed daft and would not have that kind of scintillating results. It has been proven that many third world students have done much better than the locals and even in employment. Even a youtube porn star was once a scholar in a Singapore university.

I will encourage these top Malaysian students to come down south. Oops, they are not tops in Malaysia but tops in Singapore, I think. They will be received with open arms.

MOM charged 25 FTs for forging certificates

25 fake FTs, 21 from Myanmar, 3 from India and 1 from the Philippines have been charged for forging certificates to get employment passes and very likely all will be jailed as none will be able to pay the $5000 fine. The jail sentence is for 4 weeks while those unable to pay their fines will be jailed for 20 days. The difference in the days for the jail sentence could be due to the cases being different.

These FTs were caught after being employed for less than a year. They are new applicants. Many enraged Sinkies are calling for tougher measures as the sentences were just too insignificant for the risk and reward considerations. It is a good start for the MOM and people are expecting more to come as this is only skimming the surface of a problem of several hundred thousands of FTs here.

To mean business, MOM should go after the employers and the recruiting agencies as well. They have to go for the source of the problem and not the foreigners that are trying their luck. And worse, they are not going to pay the fine and the govt would still have to feed and house them for the duration in jail.

Go for the jugular, and employers and recruiting agencies that failed to do the due diligence or actually in cahoot with the job applicants should be severely punished. And the employers and recruiting agencies are likely to have the finances to pay up and would avoid repeating the act.

Hope this is not just a show and the reaches of the MOM should extend to all the existing EP holders under employed and eventually even to new citizens who have gotten away. It is a long and tedious process and it is best that MOM signals its intention and how far it will go to nab the culprits and the cheats. MOM must issued a stern warning to all employers and recruiting agencies. In that way it could be seen as giving them a chance to get out while they can and for employers to clean their own houses before the net closes in on them.

By placing the responsibilities on the back of the employers and recruiting agencies will shift the burden to them as well. MOM just does not have the manpower and resources to deal with the few hundred thousand FTs here. Leave it to the employers and recruiting agencies to do the vetting and checking. MOM should just take on one company at a time starting from the big ones to send the message across that it means business.

The citizens are demanding that the govt must act thoroughly and seriously on such violations of the employment law and cheating the deserving citizens of their right to employment. Also it will save the embarrassment of being seen as a silly govt that claimed to be intelligent and sophisticated first world talents but got cheated easily by third world half baked non talents and fraudsters.

The Sinkies are not daft and are watching carefully to see how real is the effort of the MOM. There are many fakes hiding deeply in the banks and financial institutions and some may be holding very senior positions for many years here. It is also good that MOM has asked the public to whistle blow, to feed back on suspected cases to their hotlines.

MOM said it will not condone such acts of false declaration, and will take severe actions against offenders.

Members of the public who have information of persons or employers who contravene the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act should report the matter to MOM at Tel: (65) 6438 5122 or email mom_fmmd@mom.gov.sg. All information will be kept strictly confidential.

Foreign visitors to mysingaporenews.blogspot.sg

I just did an analysis of the origins of bloggers visiting mysingaporenews and it is a pleasant surprise that nearly all the English speaking countries are here, from the US, UK, Australia and Asean countries. What is surprising too is that the biggest English speaking country inside the Commonwealth, India, is not one of them. But from previous posts they have been shown to be here before. Perhaps they are using URLs from other Commonwealth countries.

The other notable countries with a big presence here are some non English speaking countries like Russia, Ukraine, France, China and Germany. And France and Ukraine are among the top 5 visitors that include US, UK and Australia.

The US at one time overtook Singapore with the top number of visitors but this has been halved since the verification facility was added. This is a clear indication that the number of spammers coming from the US and trying to mess around is pretty big.

Nice to know that this blog is quite well received internationally.

Redbean

White Robert Zimmerman acquitted of slaying black Trayvon Martin

This case has dragged on for more than a year. Trayvon Martin, a 17 year old black boy living in the same neighborhood as the burly 29 year old white man Zimmerman. On a night out to buy some food, he was racially profiled as a bad guy by Zimmerman. Martin was unarmed, Zimmerman armed with a gun. Zimmerman set upon Martin and in the struggle, neighbours heard the voice of the young black boy calling for help. But he was shot dead by Zimmerman claiming self defence. A jury of 5 white females and a black female found Zimmerman not guilty.
 
The blacks and Martin’s family are crying foul. Rioting has started in the district and several American cities in protest against the not guilty verdict.
 
In the past, many blacks were found guilty when innocent and hanged or lynched by white mobs and white courst. In the past, many white murderers and nigger killers were set free even with unquestionable evidence of guilt.
 
Now we are in the 21st Century and such racial and hate crimes against the blacks are still happening, and the white men who did the killing are acquitted. And the black leaders are calling for calm and peaceful demonstration like they used to do in the past when they became victims of such racial injustice.
 
Zimmerman may be free but admitted that he would have to look over his shoulder for the rest of his life. Some day, some guy may just pull the trigger on him to settle the score. Of course the guy will surely be found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment or death in some states.
 
How many think that Zimmerman is not guilty? How many believe that Zimmerman killed the boy in self defence? How many think this is not a racial profiling hate crime? How many believe the Martin family had the fair share of the law on their side or was it just another kangaroo court? How many think that racism is a thing of the past in the USA?

Moody downgrades our local banks

‘International credit rating agency Moody’s has downgraded the outlook for three Singapore banks – DBS, OCBC and UOB – to “negative” from “stable” for the next 12-18 months.’ Quoted from TRE.
 
Big, strong and friendly banks with triple A ratings are now rated as negative? What does it mean? How is this equated to the A, B and C rating scale? Are our banks now in the B grade or C grade? Getting a negative rating is no joke for sure.
 
Taking a peep into Moody’s full report on Stand alone Credit Strength, DBS is now rated as B/aa3 and Neg, OCBC is B/aa3, Stable, and UOB has the same rating as OCBC. Bank of Singapore, BOS is rated C-/baa1 and Stable as well. The overall average rating of Singapore banks is B/aa3. The Long Term Bank Deposit ratings for all the local banks are Aa1/Stable except for DBS with a Negative rating.
 
One of the main reasons given by Moody for this downgrading is the banks exposure to housing loans which stands at 77% of household debt. Moody also mentioned that ‘77% of Singapore banks’ non-performing loans (NPLs) were related to loans made by borrowers outside Singapore in 2012, compared to 65% in 2008.
 
With the uncertainties in the world economy and the risk of higher interest rates, the impact of a tightening of monetary policy in the US could trigger big movements in the flow of funds in and out of emerging countries and the local market. A big outflow could have adverse effect liquidity and interest rates and the housing market.
 
How serious would this be is still a grey area. The consequences of the US subprime crisis is still vivid to many and something that no one wants to see here and no one would believe such a scenario will happen. There is American exceptionalism and there is also Singapore exceptionalism. We are exceptional and we will not be in the same plight as the Americans and no subprime crisis will be allowed to happen here. Our situation is well under controlled by the most expensive talents available managing it. No worry, the Moody downgrade is just a paper downgrade and nothing untowards will happen and there is no need for fear mongering.
 
There will be no housing crisis here and those who think that people will be jumping from the flats are just talking nonsense. Our property prices will continue to go up as usual.

Scrap university education

What is education for? Is education for the sake of education? Or is education about equipping the student to participate fully in life, in the economy, simply about getting a job to earn some money to provide for himself and his family should he decide to have one? For the elite and the gentry class, the royalties and aristocracies, education is just for education, to learn to read and write. The need to get a job or the need for an education to equip the student to be gainfully employed is not necessary in the lives of such privilege classes of people. Contrast this to those who need to work for a living, an education is seen primarily as a means to a job. Of course one does not need an education to get a job. A fisherman, a butcher, a boxer or a golfer or a tennis player, they don’t need an education to earn a living.
 
Putting aside those that don’t need to work, and those jobs that don’t need an education, education is the acquisition of a piece of certificate, diploma or degree or the acquiring of a passpost to a job. Several of our wise leaders have spoken many times to encourage the young to get a good education and advocating how important education is to a good job and a good life. Education is the leveller for all to compete on equal grounds to material success. And the Govt spent hundreds of millions annually to provide an excellent and world class education system for the population. And the universities and colleges all strived to be the best, to produce the best students for society and the economy.
 
Then out of the blue we heard two ministers in a matter of days said these. Khaw Boon Wan: “You own a degree, but so what? You can’t eat it. If that cannot give you a good life, a good job, it is meaningless”. He later went on to encourage people to become crane drivers when there is a great demand for it and the pay is good. Then Heng Swee Keat followed up a few days later by saying that ‘beyond providing students with a good education, he wasn’t sure or neither would he be responsible if these students could not find good jobs after graduating.’
 
Could you believe it, that two ministers in the same breath told the people that our world class education could not guarantee them a good job and maybe they should consider becoming crane drivers or take on other jobs that don’t require a good formal education? What the hell the Govt set up all the good schools, colleges and universities for? The students in these institutions are mostly from the working class that need to work for a living. They are not children of royalties or aristocrats or the super rich when working is an unnecessary chore, and if they choose to work, it is to kill their boredom. Why encourage the parents to send their children through the system, invested time and resources when it can be all for nothing?
 
Does anyone think that this is strange? Would the NTUC, the super advocates of training and the organisation that has been sending hundreds of thousands of workers for training, tell the workers that the training would not guarantee them a job? Then why waste their time and money?
 
The sick part of this conversation is that the country can provide a few hundred thousand jobs to foreigners who came from less prestigious or even doubtful institutions of learning with great jobs and good paying jobs. And we are telling our children that despite the fact that they have gone through one of the best education system, they may not get a good job here.
 
I think this must be the joke of the century. Now who started this joke and set the whole world laughing? Education, and expensive education, stressful education, is not ‘main main’ ya. Who in his right mind would tell the parents that this gonna be the case, that their children with good grades from this expensive and world class education system may not find a good job while the questionable students with questionable grades from questionable education institutions could be in a better position to get good jobs? Is there someone suffering from bipolar sickness but is not detected? Did someone say bird talk?
 
And there is the acting Minister of Manpower, Tan Chuan Jin, scurrying around like a bull arse fly shouting discrimination by employers, both locals and foreigners, against Singaporeans in employment. Now, what is that all about? Maybe have to wait for people to clean the hawker centre first before they have time to explain what is going on.

Internet: WYSIWYG

Calvin Cheng, the ex NMP, wrote to the ST forum today with the title, ‘Seeking clarifications on line a disturbing trend’. This is one of his statement referring to Ravi Philemon’s internet comments on the haze and N95 mask problems, ‘That said, his actions were part of a rather bewildering and disturbing trend: that of questioning the veracity of govt statements during a national crisis, and the belief that it is better to clarify uncertainties over the Internet rather than with govt agencies.’
 
Calvin Cheng’s argument is not about questioning the govt but about using the internet to do so. His assumptions are that the internet is full of nonsense from unqualified and unreliable people. Only the govt and the respective official agencies will have the expertise and to tell the truth. He even asserted, ‘In a crisis, our Govt has never been known to lie. It is ridiculous to think it would start now.’
 
Ahem, I am sure all of you reading the above are raring to say your piece about how ridiculous and flawed his assertions are. All I can say is that the internet is WYSIWYG, minus the biases of the editor and whoever that thinks that the right answer should be what they think is best to be printed. In the internet, everything you see is what the bloggers want to say, minus those with a hidden agenda which can be quite easily to fish out. Many bloggers are genuine and simply expressed what are in their minds, untainted by political considerations and the need to say the right thing.
 
The reasons why people are seeking the internet to express their views speak for themselves, and why they are not going to the main media or the agencies concerned. Other than not having faith in getting a reasonable reply, what they sent in may not see daylight and could end up in the waste bins. The internet is also a very convenient and efficient means for circulation of information, instant and immediate, no need to wait for the sun to rise. And it is the platform for everyone with no one thinking that he is the lord and his views prevails.
 
Step aside main media. You are history, partly of your own doing, partly due to the advancement in technology. The internet is now a platform of choice of the people to air their views and grievances. And there is nothing bewildering or disturbing about this trend.

How to fix the COE system?

On the covering page of Today paper is a full page on the COE system with the question ‘How do you fix the COE system? There are three more questions following this, ‘Why not make car buyers pay what they bid for their COE? Or should COE just be balloted? What should COE categories be based on?
 
The unhappiness over the COE system has been on going for many years. Occasionally people would raise their grievances for a while but soon forgotten. The Govt knows best and this is the best system they could come up with. The fact that this system is coming up for criticism year in and year out and for Today to put it in an exclusive page and a TV programme dedicated to it speak a lot about how good or shitty the system is.
 
Why is this system allowed to go on for so long? The answer is obvious. Or maybe everyone can see the problem but our super talents could not. Their thoughts are more intelligent and they could see all the merits of the system but the farmers could not. So, like the clever deaf frogs, they knew that this is the best way to go and no time to waste listening to the daft.
 
Everyone in the street can see the flaws of this system, how is it that the Govt thinks that this is the best and is willing to overlook the flaws? Now I am being silly. Where got flaws? Let me tell you the merits of this system. If I am very rich, I can guarantee myself getting the COE and paying the least despite bidding for $1m. See, the system is so good to me, the rich man. And who is the one suggesting that I should pay the $1m that I bidded? Don’t be stupid can. How can you make me pay $1m for a COE? I only bid to make sure that I got the certificate with no intent to pay the million dollar lah. Siao.
 
As for the Govt, it is so generous to make sure that everyone pays the lowest successful bid. How can anyone blame the Govt for being so kind? Imagine paying $1m for a COE and another bidder pays $50 for it? Such injustice cannot be allowed. The Govt must be fair to all the bidders. Everyone pays one price, the lowest price. See, fair or not? The people must be very grateful to such a considerate Govt that thinks for their own good.
 
And if everyone were to pay what he bids, it is so complicated and messy. It will drive everyone nuts to compute the exact amount for every car during transfer or rebates or whatever. With one price, so easy to calculate, use fingers also can.
 
Doesn’t the system encourage everyone to bid as high as possible knowing that they need only pay the lowest? Doesn’t this in a way lead to the price to be artificially higher than it should be? Really ah, cannot be lah. Buyers still only pay for the lowest bid so even if the price is unusually higher it is okay what. Good for Govt revenue and money can be used to improve public transportation and roads better. It is a good thing.
 
Shouldn’t the bidders pay for the price they bidded since it is their own free will to bid high? Cannot, not fair for the rich to pay higher COE and the poorer buyers pay lower COE. The Govt must ensure that there is fair play for everyone. Have you heard of leveling the playing field?
 
This COE system is about as good as it gets. Now who thinks he is smarter than the super talents and wants to change the system? Every good idea has been thought through and found to have other problems and not workable in the long run. Let’s stick to this present system and move on. No need to waste more time on it. But if it is just to allow the people to let off some steam, then it is ok to talk about it and let the people think, for once, that they are smarter than the super talents and have cleverer ideas to contribute. There is a saying that the fools may have something wise to learn from ya? Swee boh?

When the police cannot protect the citizen, who will?

‘The police came down took our statements separately and this is what Officer Lynkamillah told me:
 
1. They cannot arrest Sonuvabitch because it's not in the rulebooks, despite having assaulted a girl.
2. They issued me a medical form to go to the hospital for check ups. Best part? I HAVE TO PAY THE BILL! No compensation whatsoever.
3. I have to go down to the central police station to speak to whoever I need to speak to in order to pursue the case IF I wanted to. Which means at the moment there are no investigations whatsoever and they cannot charge Sonuvabitch for anything.
4. Since Sonuvabitch holds a pink IC, the case would take about a year before anything is done.
 
Excuse me?
That is the biggest insult I've heard all night. I was assaulted and nothing can be done. I put my trust in the police because I thought they would protect a normal citizen like me. Never have I been more wrong. The way Officer Lynkamillah was so apathetic and not the least bit apologetic, about not being able to haul Sonuvabitch's ass to lock up, really disappoints me.
And I quote them, "You will not be arrested if you or your friends punch Sonuvabitch back."
 
The above is posted by a Etterorua Red in The Real Singapore in her post, ‘I was punched twice by some guy and police said they can’t arrest him.’ The two girls were insulted by a stranger who made them up to be prostituted and insulted them by taunting them for $20. She slapped him and got punched twice. Called the police and regretted for wasting her time.
 
If the police are not there to protect innocent citizens from being beaten up, who is there to protect the citizens? Is it now a sport to beat up Singaporeans and walk away? Just make sure it is not grievous hurt and it will be fair game. The police will come if summoned, take down the statements and you got to say thank you to them. You have to pay for justice by engaging a lawyer to sue the attacker, provided you have his particulars and the money to pursue the case. For the not so rich Sinkies, tough.
 
What is happening to this City? Can the citizens feel safe any more? Can anyone blame her for saying, ‘I have lost complete faith in humanity and in the police?’ What do you think? Should the citizens be protected from assault, from being beaten up?

Would we be facing a situation when the bullies would say, 'I beat so what? Sue me lah, sue me lah!'

You can play the game, so can I

WASHINGTON: The United States told China in talks on Thursday it was "very disappointed" that Beijing did not hand over US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden when he fled to Hong Kong. (Quoted from CNA)And elsewhere around the world people are standing up to defend Snowden. In Germany, the Germans too are calling to defend and protect this man. ‘Demonstrators stand in front of Berlin's Brandenburg Gate to show their support for US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden. (AFP/Ole Spata)
 
The Americans were furious. This is how it feels when another country harbours or protects your dissidents. China has been furious for too long and for too many times when the Americans snubbed them in their face by protecting and even smuggling Chinese dissidents out of China and hosting them in big publicity events in the US to embarrass China. Of course the Americans could not remember how many times they did this to China and other countries. And now they are furious over Snowden, they are feeling hurt!
 
This is the beginning of a game that if the Americans can play, others too can play. If the Americans can spy and snoop at other countries, conduct cyber espionage and attacking other countries computer systems, other countries too can do the same to them. American exceptionalism is now international exceptionalism. Everyone has the right to play the same game. And there will be more Snowdens and Assanges coming out of America.
 
America must get use to being on the receiving end from now and going forward. Just like cyber hacking, the US can hack China and China can hack at the US. It is two way traffic. The days when American can do anything to any country as it liked is over. America can no longer fly U2 spy planes over the territories of other countries to photograph whatever they fancied freely. They may be tempted to fly drones instead. But be warned that other countries can do likewise.
 
The world has changed and America no longer can dominate and dictate to the whole world. So, would America now hand over Chinese dissidents to China?

Vivian Balakrishnan: Help hold down health costs

Vivian spoke to a batch of graduating medical students about the higher callings of medicine and the need to hold down medical costs. Though the call is genuine it is only going to be another vain effort just like the rising cost of properties and the general high cost of everything.
 
The high medical cost is something that the new graduates cannot do anything about. They are like someone caught in a high speed treadmill and unable to stop running. The high cost is partly contributed by their seniors in the profession who more or less set the standard for pricing their expertise. But they too are victims of a vicious cycle of high inflation.
 
Who is the culprit for high and ridiculous medical cost? The medical professionals have to foot the bills for their practices and also to earn enough to live well and with dignity. A large portion of their cost is property cost either in rentals or in acquiring the property for the practice. And property is also needed for the medical professionals to live well. In other words, the main culprit is high property prices. Who is the bugger causing high property prices?
 
And there is a whole lot of other prices and costs going up and passed to the consumers. The high cost of owning a few luxury cars, the expensive lifestyle and holidays etc etc will be borne by the consumers for sure. The sad part is that many consumers of medical services are the average Sinkies that barely have $10k in their savings and medical bills can come to tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands.
 
How can medical cost be brought down? How can young medical graduates help to bring down medical cost when they have to quickly earn enough to cover their investments in the medical education and the overheads, properties for practice and living, and all the trimmings of a good life they are looking forward to? We cannot expect the doctors to live poorly can we?
 
What has happened to this noble profession that was once so highly regarded to one that is no different from another money making profession? Who contributed to this devious state of affair? It is easy to make such a call to keep medical cost down, or any cost down. Does the high inflationary system allow it to happen? Who is responsible for the high inflationary system?

Setting the agenda, calling the shot and making monkeys running around

Just when the cleaning of the hawker centre dispute was fading away, Vivian Balakrishnan threw down the gauntlet in Parliament, calling Sylvia Lim and Pritam Singh and the WP names and challenging them to sue him in court. Initially some might have thought that this was the position of a minister trying to make his mark. Then the PMO issued one statement after another to support the stand of Vivian and confirmed that it was the stand of the Govt to hold the WP to account for what they said and done in the hawker centre cleaning issue. The Govt is questioning the integrity, honesty and trustworthiness of the WP. The Govt is taking the fight to the WP and demanding the latter to pick up the gauntlet and do battle.

Low Thia Khiang has replied that he would not pursue this matter and have a run in with the PAP that would be time consuming, energy sapping and financially draining on the limited finance of his party. A drawn out battle is something that the WP would not want to be dragged into. They would rather continue with what they have to do to serve their constituencies and not politicking to win a battle with the time and place and agenda set by the PAP. They would want to leave the matter as it is and let the people decide whether they have done wrong or whether they are worthy to be voted in again.

The PAP has in a way decided that the WP is guilty and wanted this to be confirmed in this chosen battle, preferably in court, to be judged by the court. They are taking on the roles of judge and executioner. The WP chose to have the issue be judged by the people like in Hougang and Punggol East. Let the people be the final arbiter of who is right or wrong, or who is good or bad.

The question is how important is this issue over the other major issues that are left in the air and the many national issues that the people are unhappy about? Obviously the PAP would think that this is of paramount importance and needs to be settled. The WP may disagree and want to move on to deal with other more pressing and important matters, and would see this as simply politicking and bickering for votes.

At the recent DBS Insights Asia Conference, Hsien Loong was quoted to advise whoever governs Singapore to ‘try very hard to keep the politics clean and straight, constructive,’ and, ‘where you’re solving problems and not just slogging it out, fighting with one another’. There are two points here, keep politics clean and straight, and avoid bickering and politicking to score political points. How would these points measure up with the PAP upping the temperature on the hawker centre cleaning issue and not to let it pass and not to move on?

Politics is about power

In PS 101 the wet behind the ear political science students will be going everywhere talking about power in politics. Power is everything in politics. First year students will be made to think so as that was the first book on politics that they would be reading. And that would probably be their first assignment to submit.

As one progresses through the course, he would find that politics is about power but also about many other things. Any political leader that believes only in power will end up as a dictator, often a ruthless one who only thinks of himself and the power he wields. Familiar names like Marcos, Hitler, Mussolini, kings and military junta everywhere, all ruled for power and for their self preservation. The people are secondary or far down the line of importance.

Politics is about the well being of the people, the citizens of the country, not just about power and non citizens, not about the well beings of foreigners, not just about the existence of a state at the expense of its citizens.

When naïve political leaders got the formula wrong, thinking that politics is about power, about self preservation, about vested interests, about the well beings of foreigners, it is about time the people abandon ship and start to think of their own interest and own good.

Political leaders are like a ship and the people the water that keeps it afloat. The water can support the ship and sink the ship if they wanted to. Make no mistake about it. Political leaders that think they are there for the power to rule the people are in the wrong place and for the wrong reasons. Western democracy is afraid of the politics of power and has built in mechanisms to prevent the domination, control and abuse of power by political rulers.

One man one vote, 4 or 5 year term of office, limitation of tenure of the Chief Executive to two terms in office, separation of power, rule of law, the constitution etc etc, are all created to curb the power of power crazy politicians whose main interest is political power and monopoly of power.

PS101 and the politics of power is only a small part of politics. The political science students will go on to learn about different political philosophies, about govt, public administration, national interests, development economics, about benevolent leadership, about the well being of the people, about distribution of wealth, about jobs and the economy and a whole lot of other things. By the end of the course, a political science student would have all but forgotten about the politics of power unless his ambition is to be a dictator. And there will still be those who are obsessed with power and power is their only reason to be in politics.

No, politics is about people. No it is not about the people but about the citizens, the well being of its citizens. I must admit that this assertion about what is politics is youthful idealism bordering on being naive.

Vivian is right. In realpolitik, it is about power, about the contest for power and nothing else.

Sinkies now allowed to let go some steam

Did anyone remember that there were two protests regarding the 6.9m population held at Hong Lim Park? Briefly I could still recall being there and taking some photographs and mingling with other Sinkies that made it a point to be there, to protest. Ok, the Sinkies had their chances, two in fact, to say their piece about the population issue. Now everyone back to work, case closed.

Sinkies should be grateful that today they are given a chance at least to let go some steam. And they too went to Hong Lim one more time to release another fart on the MDA regulation to license websites reporting on Singapore affairs.

With the protests out of the way, with the issues of foreigners discriminating against Sinkies and Sinkie PMETs having difficulties finding appropriate employment forgotten, life goes on as normal. Nothing really changed, nothing.

The 6.9m population will be a reality. The MDA licensing means those affected will have to apply for a licence. The discrimination against Sinkies and PMET unemployment issue, … never mind, never mind, no more issues already. No one is talking about them anymore. Let’s move on.

Does anyone remember about HDB’s affordable pricing and not disclosing the cost of building a flat? Does anyone remember about all the HDB policies discriminating Singaporeans and disqualified Singaporeans from buying HDB flats but allowing new citizens to do so? Does anyone remember that their CPF savings, their hard earned savings, are locked up because some jokers decided to do so? The list can go on and on.

Singaporeans should called themselves lucky and be very grateful that they are now allowed to complain, to kpkb for a while. And the Govt is listening, but nothing will change. The Govt will do what it thinks is good for the Singaporeans, including not selling them HDB flats and keeping their hard earned savings by all kinds of schemings.

Poll results as an indicator of public opinion

The result of the earlier poll on whether the govt is a proactive one or just merely reacting to the haze problem is obvious. And the perception of the public across cyberspace is equally unanimous and there is no need to belabour the point.

This new poll has just started and 95 people have read and the perception is unanimous as well. One may claim that this is only the views of a small segment of the population that is highly critical of the govt and will see it this way. But if this is translated to 60% of the overall population's view, the govt is going to be in for a rough ride. And the harder the govt is pushing for this thing called 'integrity and trust' the more ridiculous it will look.

When a govt has lost the trust of the voters, no matter what it says or does, it is not going to be believed or accepted by the people. It will backfire if the heart of the people is no longer with the govt.

Unlike in the past when the people were fully behind the govt, anything the govt said will be accepted, even reluctantly. The people would just go along even if the policies were tough.

This is the stark and unpleasant difference between the current govt and the govt of yesterday. Perhaps the govt may want to hold a similar poll in reach and find 95% giving the exact opposite result and can feel good about it.

The PMO has spoken on the hawker centre issue

Today, 12 Jul, the PMO has issued a 9 point justification on why Vivian Balakrishnan had to take the WP to task on the issue of integrity in Parliament. I just quote the second point here and to use it for a poll I set up on the top right of this page.

‘Good politics is first and foremost about integrity. Singapore has succeeded because we have honest, upright people in politics: people who can be trusted to uphold the public interest, to speak the truth even when it is inconvenient, and to admit mistakes when things go wrong. This is how we have built trust between Singaporeans and their leaders, worked together to build the nation and improved everyone’s lives.’

How many people believe that we have honest and upright people that can be trusted to do the right thing? Please indicate your take in the poll on the right.

I want to clarify here that whatever a person votes, it may be right or wrong, but it is definitely what the person perceives or thinks so. For example if everyone thinks that the govt does have honest and upright people, it can be a statement of truth. And that is good. On the other hand, the majority may not think so, and this can also be a statement of truth, which then is bad. But if this is false, and if the govt has honest and upright people but the people do not believe so, this in itself is another problem. It simply means that the people do not trust the govt and have a very bad impression of the govt. And the govt really needs to conduct an investigation as to why it is like dat.

The best result is for the majority of the people to think that the govt has honest and upright people that can be trusted to do the right thing for the people, and that this is also the truth.

So please vote accordingly on what you perceive or think.

Cheers.

Let me add further that this cleaning of hawker centre thing is really a very small issue. It is nothing compares to the AIM issue and was best put away and moves on.

And I think it is a horrible mistake for Vivian to thrash it out in Parliament thinking that he can score a winning goal against the WP. More horrible is for the whole cabinet to think that this was a good idea to throw at the WP.

What is going to happen now is that this supposedly minor issue is going to open the Pandora Box and allow the critics of the govt to dig into a can full of worms and that may become quite embarrassing and difficult to put away. It is like the proverbial saying that people living in glass houses should not throw stones. Unfortunately things are heading in the wrong direction now. Unfortunately the emperor did not know that he is not wearing any clothes and is strutting around very confidently in his new clothes.

How would this minor issue (of course some people think it is damn big issue) end eventually and who would land with more mud on the face?

Obama, please step aside

All our ministers are earning more than Barack Obama, the President of the USA. They are all carefully talent scouted, men and women of great abilities. It is a waste that they should be made to deal with petty problems like cleaning hawker centres, haze, dengue, public transportation, primary school education, problems with childcare abuses, and what else.
 
We are not making full use of our talented ministers and insulting them with such menial tasks. They are made for bigger things. If we keep asking them to solve mundane daily chores don’t be surprised that they will lose interest soon. 大才小 用。It is like putting a gifted child in primary one when he should be in the university. That was the same problem Einstein faced when he was in school and was thrown out. Boredom trying to do simple things when his intellect was meant for bigger stuff like understanding the universe.
 
I think our ministers should easily fit into the seat in the White House. Obama, please step aside. I am sure they will shine in the right environment and the right challenge. The tougher or more challenging the situation or problem, the more they will excel. In a way we are abusing our multi talented ministers.
 
There is a problem though. The Americans would not be able to pay them. What a pity.

Did anyone say the WP was sleeping and not doing anything?

The hottest issue in cyberspace these few days is not the haze or the near epidemic dengue situation with record numbers of people having dengue. The hottest issue is who should pay for the cleaning of a hawker centre’s high ceiling. And this has led to the WP being grilled by the PAP and how hard they had to work to defend themselves. And mind you, they had to work very hard and very smart and had to be very careful as the debate in Parliament would be in the air after the 9.30pm news. Can’t imagine what would be shown if the WP made a mess of it and could not defend themselves effectively.
 
For the few hours in Parliament, I believe both parties would have spent a lot of time and resources preparing their positions, how to attack or defend the points raised. For the amount of money they are getting, it is really hard work. It is a tough battle with 7 fairly new WP MPs other than Low Thia Khiang, against the full force of the PAP MPs and the veteran ministers. And the last session on the cleaning of the hawker centre must be so important that it was nearly full house in Parliament. This is quite a rare experience.
 
Let’s put our hands together for the parliamentarians on both sides for working so hard to debate on these national issues for the good of the residents.
Did anyone say that the WP MPs are not working, or the PAP MPs are not working? To be a WP MP means a lot of pressure. Doing too little for the people sure kena walloped. Saying too much of the wrong thing lagi chiat lat. Go to Parliament means one month cannot sleep, got to prepare to ward off attacks from all corners. Must wear protective gears just in case.

Japan, the international thug shouting ‘robbery!’

Japan is accusing China of not playing by international law and becoming more aggressive in its actions in the Diaoyu Islands dispute. The Japanese Defence Ministry said, ‘China has attempted to change the status quo by force based on its own assertion, which is incompatible with the existing order of international law.’ The Japanese are also infuriating the Koreans by blaming them for heighten tension in the Korean Peninsula.
 
How far from the truth is this Japanese lie? In the first place China has not resorted to force to retake the islands seized by Japan in violation of international law in the late 19th Century. They took the islands from China by force. China could retake the islands by force too but refused to do so and sought to settle the issue by diplomatic means. It is the Japanese that have been resorting to the use of force, ramming Chinese civilian ships, arresting Chinese fishing boats and scrambling fighter aircraft against Chinese surveillance ships and aircraft in the area. More than 300 such missions were flown against 41 times when Chinese surveillance ships were in the area, including Chinese aircraft. Such acts of provocation could easily lead to a breakout of warfare.
The Japanese even mocked the Chinese by enacting a bogus sale of the islands from one Japanese to another when the the islands are Chinese territory. The provocations and aggressive show of force by the Japanese were hostile in all counts and they are blaming the Chinese for raising tension in the area.
 
Did the Japanese obey international law and international norms when it aggressively took advantage of Korea and China in the 19th and 20th Centuries leading to its seizure of the Chinese islands? After it has violated Chinese territories, taken Chinese islands, it is demanding that the Chinese must accept the fait accompli and observe international norms.
 
And it is rattling its sabre daily, even siding with the Philippines in the latter’s dispute with China, promising military assistance against China. It is rearming itself by increasing its military expenditure using the Chinese as the strawman.
Who is the aggressive country and who is not following international laws and norms in international relations? The Japanese under PM Abe is on a war path, raising tensions and provoking the Chinese to retaliate militarily.
 
Japan is following the path of the Americans. After seizing the North American continent from the Red Indians and committing the biggest genocide in the history of human kind, it preaches human rights and rule of law. Not forgetting the scale of slavery against the African blacks, it called itself the protector of human rights.
 
Japan had violated all the international laws and human rights against Asians and Southeast Asians but is accusing the Chinese and Koreans for not observing international law. Why should they when their territories are still in the hands of the Japanese. But the Japanese and the Americans will keep shouting China is bad, Korea is bad. And you have unthinking media willingly printing such news on the front page, to support the claim, to make the unthinking readers to believe a white lie.

Hawker centre cleaning – The mysterious quotation

In Parliament, Vivian referred to a quotation by the AHPETC’s contractor, ATL Maintenance Pte Ltd to the market association as evidence that the Town Council is asking for double payment for the cleaning of the ceiling of the hawker centre.


 “The first irregular event is ATL’s quotation delivered by hand on the 19th of February 2013… the hawkers have never asked for a quotation. Mr Low (WP’s chief, Low Thia Kiang) has met with the hawkers. They have told him the same thing. Secondly ATL is your own private contractor. When your own contractor issues a quotation for $7,200 to the hawkers asking for payment for work which you say is already covered by your contract – that amounts to a demand for double payment for the same quantity of work.,” Balakrishnan said, adding that he also had witnesses from meetings who could verify events. Quoted from YahooNews Online

Sylvia Lim said the quotation was requested by the market association:
“This quotation was requested by the market association and does not coincide with their annual obligation to clean the high areas under the town council contract.” Quoted from YahooNews Online.
What is the main issue here? A quotation by AHPETC’s contractor, ATL Maintenance Pte Ltd delivered by hand to the market association. Why did ATL send a quotation to the market association? Was it a request for quotes by the association or ATL voluntarily sent them a quotation? Sylvia Lim said the quotation was requested by the market association.
What is the truth? Is this so difficult to prove? Did or did not the market association asked for the quotation? If yes, why? If not, why should ATL send them a quotation? Who instructed the ATL to send an unsolicited quotation?

Could someone provide the answers to solve the mystery of this red hot quotation? Who asked for it or who instructed for it to be sent to the market association?

One possibility, ATL sent it under instruction from AHPETC which could lead to the assumption that AHPETC is expecting the hawkers to pay for it. And this is likely to be Vivian’s position.
The second possibility is that the market association asked for it. This will mean that ATL just responded to a request for quotes and this has nothing to do with the AHPETC’s intent to demand for payment unless they have already told the market association and this gave them the reason so ask for a quote. One point to ponder, the market association can ask for quotes from other maintenance company as well. Is this the only quote they asked for and received?

A third possibility, nobody asked or instructed ATL to send the quotation to the market association. They just sent the quotation without knowing why? And they know who to send the quotation to. This will be another mystery to solve.

The above questions would be an interesting puzzle for Sherlock Holmes to solve. Let’s see who is the first to come up with the full answers to complete the puzzle.

Another job offer – Sales Manager

[Company – European but told not to reveal name.
Salary – 18k to 20K rmb + sales commission
To setup new sales department
Accommodation + home trips given
Requirements
Must have solid sales track record (preference given to those with China sales experience)
Technical and Product training will be provided.
Future potential – to handle Asia Pacific sales (means more money)
Anybody interested – ask them to write to me at:-
steven.sum@hotmail.com) and I’ll provide the link.
 
This post is open to Taiwanese, Malaysians and Singaporeans. (Expat position).
I know the Taiwanese won’t be interested because usually they get 4 home trips and they like to work for Taiwanese company.
Singaporeans and Malaysians will be able to compete on equal terms.
The company is looking for someone who has solid selling skills + China experience rather than looking for a cheap salesman.]
 
The above is put up by the same Steven that offered a job of Lab Assistant in his company. He said that job was given to a Malaysian whose qualifications are more suited for the job. Only one Singaporean applied but not only qualifications do not matched, the applicant already had a job paying much more in Sin. He has to reject him.
 
It seems that Steven must be talking to his contacts to help Singaporeans and is offering any job from another company. Overseas Singaporeans helping Singaporeans here. If only more Singaporeans can do that then things can be better for the PMETs here. The drawback is that more FTs will keep coming in to replace Singaporeans who have to find greener pastures overseas.

The stock market – from a child to a Frankenstein

Not too long ago, there was this official wisdom floating in the air. Invest your money in stocks, in the long term, do not speculate, and your money will grow faster than any kind of investments. It will definitely be better than keeping it under the pillow or in the banks earning a small interest.
 

Stock market volatility is scorned upon. So were syndicates ramming the market up and down. Stock market was not meant to be traded in that way, in a frenzy. Investors are there for the long term. Syndicates were seen as robbers and criminals and were watched under the microscope for any wrong doings. In double quick time they were got rid off, or many were gotten rid off for creating too much volatility in the market.
 
And their absence left a void to be filled by hedge funds and other bigger fund managers to trade the market in greater ferocity. The market mechanism was redesigned to allow the big boys to trade in greater volumes, to scalp the market, through mini bid size, for intraday trades, for fast trades by the minutes and by the seconds. High volatility is now welcomed because the snake oil sellers and conmen said it is good for the market. High turnovers, small bids, churning big volumes are good. Scrip lending facilities were created for the big boys to trade even more madly. What happens to the old wisdom of long term investment?
 
The health of the stock market today is as sick as a dying patient in the ICU. But no one wants to acknowledge this sad state of affair. Everyone is pretending that it is very healthy. Just encourage more retail investors to come in and trade. Create more products, more derivatives, cut the commissions to make it cheaper. Where got white elephant in the room. The stock market is so healthy!
 
The volumes are definitely much higher, always in the billions. There was a time when hitting a billion shares in a day was a rare phenomenon. Now hitting 3b, 5b is no problem. Anything less than 3b shares daily is bad, too small. And funny thing, where are the investors. No need investors. Just let the computers to do the trading and generate clearing fees for the exchange.
 
The brokerage are encouraged to under cut one another with lower and lower commissions to force the competitors out of business. In the meantime, in their childlike innocence, they are wiping themselves out of the business too when the commission is so low and unable to sustain the operation and pay for the overheads. And they are still scheming to reduce the commissions to even the bare minimum. Are they nuts?
 
But computer trading is not fast enough. The volumes are too small. The next big thing is to bring in High Frequency Trading where a trade can be executed in micro seconds without anyone knowing that millions of trade were done with the blink of an eye. And this is good.
 
What happens to long term investment? Long term investment is no longer about buy and hold for ten or twenty years. Long term is now measured by the seconds. Anything more than a second could be long term.
 
So what is going to happen to the stock market? If it survives in the long term, ie, more than 6 months, with HFT, it would have serve its purpose. Can anyone expect the market to be around in 3 years, 5 years or 10 years? Yes it will still be around, but no more retail investors.

Giving a helping hand

How many Sinkies need a helping hand from the more successful Sinkies? Count the Govt out as they don’t believe in a welfare state. So charity to the less able Singaporeans should be left to the Singaporeans, to NGOs and charitable organizations to do the necessary. And there are many kind souls among the Sinkies who are willing to do their parts to share with the other half of the Sinkies that find it tough to get by. Some do it quietly, some with aplomb, some with great fanfare like on TV. Nonetheless, the objective is commendable.
 
Over the weekend I was involved in one of these big hearted event to share a little of material needs with those who really needed them. The list for the recipients came to more than a hundred families. Everyone was so enthusiastic to help, to give and to share, including the primary school children. The intent is genuine. And everyone felt good too, to be able to do their little bit even for a small amount and a little relief for a few days.
 
The desire to give, especially for those who know that they have done well, or at least are more fortunate than others that are not doing well, is a common feeling among many Sinkies. And this has helped to keep many charitable events going and helped many in the process.
By the end of the programme over the weekend, we were saddled with a bigger task. More than half of the goodie bags were not claimed. More than half of the recipients did not turn up for their goodies. And it was not that they did not need them or did not want them. The programme for the morning were like a little neighbourhood party with performances from the school children to entertain the invited guests, live shows, for free, and with lunch provided.
 
Now we were humbled by our thoughtlessness, by our callousness. We thought by telling the needies to come and collect their little goodie bags they will come forward. There must be many more sensitive ways to help the people in need. In our eagerness and enthusiasm to share, we forgot to put ourselves in their shoes. We forgot what it would be like to be on the receiving end. Mind you, it is no fun for sure. We trampled through the different floors on a door to door delivery mission to distribute the lunch boxes to everyone willing to open the door. Not many did and even for some who did, they declined our gesture and our lunch boxes. We were left with a lot of lunch boxes, decent food, with no takers and a used by date.
 
There must be better ways to reach out to the other section of the community. There must be. While we want to reach out, and knowing that they needed a little assistance, a little kind gesture, we must find a way to bridge the wide gap between the two parties. We fail to see the elephant that was keeping us wide apart. Never shalt the Twains met.
 
Could this be the reason why Rebecca Loh and Gabriel were alone in their struggle to live a normal existence?

Stylo mylo Vivian in Parliament

The most impressive part of the 10 minutes broadcast on Parliament after the news last night was all about Vivian. At least that was the only thing I could remember. He was a class of his own. He dressed very well, dressed to kill, looked very good and spoke damn well. Indeed he was a very polished debater. He peppered his lecture in Parliament with well measured tone and body language. This is fine art. Great stuff. I gave him full marks for presentation.
 
When he was speaking the floor listened intently in silence. No one moved. Hsien Loong and all the ministers were there, in deep thoughts, listening or maybe thinking very hard about something else more important, that I am not sure.
 
It would be nice to know what were in their minds. Were they so impressed and overawed by the articulate performance of Vivian, the smooth talking minister? Or were they thinking that he should cut it off as such matters of ‘I said this, he said that, I am more honourable, he is not, he is lying, she is untruthful’, though well executed, should be said somewhere else and not in Parliament?
 
It is really interesting to know what were in the minds of the ministers and MPs then. Unfortunately there will be no answers to this. But overall it was a great performance by Vivian. In oratory skills, none in Parliament could come close to him. His parting shot to Low Thia Khiang was superb one upmanship, a little patronizing, but he got away with it.

Dependency Syndrome in Sin City

Sinkies have often and regularly been bashed for having a Dependency Syndrome, always depending on the Govt to do the right thing or to offer a little charity.
 
This sickness is deep and widespread, from the bottom to the top. The worst affected are those right at the top, thinking and living dependency instead of being self reliant.
No, don’t get me wrong. The people in general are very hardworking and are depending on themselves to make a living or to eke a living. Look at the oldies parading the roads and those in the foodcourts? They know that they have to depend on themselves, not the Govt. Some even got their savings ‘gantong’ or confiscated in the name of ‘for their own good’. So they continue to struggle to live on. Self reliant, though they could live a bit better if their CPF can be released to them and not held at ransom by all the minimum sum schemes just in case they need to use them.
 
Yes, the sickness is affecting the people right at the top. Still don’t get it? They want sports talents, where do you think they are looking? Of course they are looking elsewhere for foreigners to bring us the medals. Is this not dependency on foreigners?
And sports is only a very small part of this Dependency Syndrome. The whole economy is dependent on foreigners. Our population growth is also dependent on foreigners. We cannot reproduce, so bring in the foreigners to make up the numbers. 6.9m to be made up for by bringing in more foreigners.
 
Now we can’t even create jobs for ourselves. We need the foreigners to be here to create jobs for us. We tempt and invite millionaires and billionaires to be here and hopefully they can drop a few morsels from their tables for us. We hope that they can create jobs and opportunities for our people, open doors for us.
 
Is this not Dependency Syndrome then what is? Why are we so dependent on foreigners for everything? Why can’t we be self reliant and do things for ourselves, create jobs for our own people by ourselves?
 
Coveting thy neighbour’s wife and talent and belongings? We do not want to work anymore if we can bring in foreign talents to work for us. The Govt has shifted from having go getters going out there to fight for jobs to one that is praying that foreigners will be here to help us. It openly said so. We need foreigners to create jobs for us.

Crocodile population increasing

There used to be one, and then two crocodiles in Sungei Buloh Wetland. Last Sunday I was there and I counted 6, two adults, two young adults and two baby crocodiles. The river is rich in fish and is a very safe and fertile sanctuary for the crocodiles to breed. At the rate the crocodiles are breeding, soon there will be a football team and then many football teams.
 
At the moment things are pretty quite, a lull before the storm. The crocodiles are free swimmers and could get out of the wetland into the surrounding areas when children and beach goers frequented. The closest is the mouth of the embanked Kranji River where there is a popular beach for picnickers. And if there is some nasty incidents waiting to happen, this must be the first spot to happen.
 
I hope the Parks and Recreation Dept is watching this development and has put in place some monitoring and control measures to check on the crocodiles before they snap their jaws on some children or human beans.
 
This is clear and present danger. Let’s hope a committee is formed now to tackle this potential threat and not after someone lost a leg or his life. Crocodiles are nice to watch from the comfort of elevated bridges or ground. But they can turn very nasty and the damage is beyond just regrettable.
 
Immediate action is needed from the ministry in charge. Maybe no ministry is in charge. Or maybe there are more immediate problems to tackle and this has yet to be a problem. No one got bitten by a crocodile yet. Would those in charge of catching pythons and wild boars be the best to take care of this problem akan datang? Maybe someone can give them a call. Maybe better to wait until the haze and dengue problems are solved before bringing this matter up.

Hawker Centre cleaning – Politics is about scoring political points

It is amazing but not surprising that the cleaning of a hawker centre and who should pay for it could drag on for months and wasting so much of Parliament’s time and the time of Ministers and MPs.
 
Should not this be a simple case of administrative procedures? The cleaning of a hawker centre is not something new and has been going on for years. All the precedents are there as to whether the hawkers should pay or it is part of the cost that the hawkers have been paying monthly.
 
is this dragging on and on, and after yesterday’s Parliament session it does not seem to end and many more months of scratching at each other will go on. Is this an in thing, to bitch over such issues in Parliament when it should have been settled over a few meetings in the Minister’s office or in the Town Council?
 
But of course, this is all about politics, about scoring political points, about integrity, about being honourable, about bitching in Parliament over an administrative and procedural matter, and about everything and about nothing.
 
Should the Speaker of Parliament tell the contending parties to sort it out over a meeting outside Parliament? Or should the issue continue to be aired in Parliament to see who is the more honourable one or who has more integrity over this matter? Or is Parliament a venue to see who is better in debating?