sunday morning again

I like Sundays. On Sundays, I let my mind wanders to uncharted territories, toy with wild ideas and things that are unmentionable. Last Sunday I expressed how envious I was about young professionals making 3/4 of a million or more. Geez, was I envious? I have to harp on that theme after some sad experiences that happened to some earlier batches of high earners. The housing agents, insurance agents, stockbroking agents, the conveyancing agents or they also called them lawyers. They were the high flyers of a short era. It happened so fast and gone just as fast. I happened to meet up with a conveyancing agent, or lawyer, the other day. And he said he was just waiting to close shop. Huh, conveyancing agents or lawyers, closing shop? What happened to the good time? And what happened to the million dollar housing agents, the million dollar insurance agents, the million dollar stockbroking agents? They are all marking time. Some quit, some earning pittance, worst than a clerk. Some waiting to call it a day. The moral of the story is that when one is earning big bucks, shut up. You would not know what is coming next. Things may change so rapidly, by the act of god, that good time will be over in a matter of days. Maybe there is some hope today. Now the perception is different. If one can earn more, I can make sure that I can earn even more. So the bigger is the income of others, the better justification for me to earn more. I deserve to earn more than anyone. And I will find a way to do so. So please go and earn as much as you can. But just don't get carried away.

how wrong ntuc leaders were?

While the NTUC leaders were mulling over the increase in CPF contribution of employers, they are conscious of how any increase will affect our competitiveness and the concerns of employers. John De Payva commented that 'Employers have said the increase in CPF contibution may result in them lowering the annual wage increase...' Its a case of LPPL. You pay here you cut there. So more CPF, less increments. 'On the other hand Lim Swee Say noted that some employers did not want the rate to be raised.' How wrong can the two be. Consult the views of our foreign talents and they will get a surprisingly different picture. This is what Faruq Shadhili(foreign talent) said, 'Foreign companies are eager to raise the CPF contributions for employees.' Or maybe Fauq is referring only to foreign employers while the NTUC leaders were referring to local employers. And foreign employers like Singapore so much that they are willing to pay more to Singaporeans and will not relocate to China or India. The NTUC must engage some of these foreign talents to get a better feel of the real situation on the ground. And they are relatively cheaper to hire. Good value for money.

well done gerard ee

Gerard Ee and his team has done a good job at NKF. The cost of dialysis is coming down, the subsidies going up, the patients paying less. Imagine how much injustice to the poor patients if things were allowed to go on as before and the whole country being deceived that everything was done best for the benefits of the patients? And how many of them and their families will continue to suffer financial hardship while others are enjoying and having a great time at their expenses? And enjoying the glory of being idolised as the new age saviours of the sick, and honoured and feasted by the peers of supertalents. Well done Gerrard. But more can still be done.

myth 105

'The Foreign Myth' Lately the foreign talent debate has taken a higher profile with foreign talents openly calling local talents silly and shallow. If we may take a step back and ask ourselves, what we have today, are they the contribution of these new foreign talents? Technically we were all foreign talents once as we were all migrants. But these migrants have settled and sunk roots here, indigenised and formed our first and second generations of local talents. These are the talents that built what Singapore is today. And we have them to thank for, not these new upstart foreign talents who came here yesterday and trying to claim all the credits. If these foreign talents are that talented, they should have elevated the poverty in their home countries. But they are quitters of their own countries and coming here bragging how good they are. Just show us what they have achieved for their countries before they tell us we are silly and shallow. But sad to say, they are right in this last comment. We are indeed silly and shallow to bring them in to insult us. If this foreign talent madness is not straightened out, one of these days these foreign talents are going to line up the local talents and screw them nicely one by one, including those who idolised foreign talents.

what FT said of local talents

What Faruq Shadhili(foreign talent) said of Singapore talents 1. Foreign companies are eager to raise the CPF contributions for employees. 2. Most foreign companies would like to put a local to take charge, BUT... 3. Singaporeans(with MBAs) are industrious and can be entrusted to carry out routine management duties,...do it by the book, ...lack the independent mind to take matters to the next level. In short, unthinking but hardworking, good as production line operators. 4. Singapore talents are egoistic and worked for their personal interests instead of company's long term interests. 5. Singaporean talents 'had the gall' to disagree with European directors just to look good to his local subordinates. Would unthinking and mindless Singaporeans dare to disagree with their bosses, just my view. 6. The first contradiction to 5, local talents would cut salary of staff to please foreign bosses. I thought they would talk back? 7. Local talents would fly first class but cut cost of other departments. I only knew of one such talents that appeared in the big news that travelled first class. And this practice is rampant here according to Faruq. 8. Local talents think that foreign bosses are daft. 9. Curry favours is commonplace and employees got rewarded for that. 10. Local talents hired employees and demanded that they speak mandarin which actually is unnecessary. And foreign bosses disagreed but got along to please local talents. 11. Local talents demand workers to have proper qualifications. Foreign talents can perform without proper qualifications. Faruq quoted an example of an O level engineers training new aeronautical engineers. Phew, which part of the world could this happened? And Faruq commented the CEO of the airline for doing just that. I will fire the CEO first. 12. He concluded that not all Singaporean bosses are that shallow. So many must be shallow. Before any shallow Singaporean bosses reading this article and start to sack all the local talents and replace them with foreign talents, and before they start to hire O level 'engineers' to train qualified aeronautical engineers, they better examine this concept of foreign talent is better than local talent before they be called silly and shallow by foreign talents in their employ.

Corporate governance and ethics not necessary.

Corporate governance and ethics not necessary. Acra and Icpas have withdrawn recognition of the NUS BBA(Accountancy) degree. They wanted accountants to be taught courses that are related to accounting and auditing the traditional way. But NUS thought the emphasis on corporate governance, ethics, risk management, internal control and business acumen are more important and relevant in view of all the big time corporate frauds. 'Even ACCA, the international body representing the profession, had launched a new qualification this year to focus on "professional values, ethics and governance", in line with the "industry demands and expectations", the Association's Singapore head Penelope Phoon told Today.' It is indeed a strange development. Or is it that corporate governance is not important in Singapore? How could taking a few electives in these courses undermine an accountant in his accounting and auditing skills? I think it is the former. Singapore's corporate world is filled with men of high integrity. No problem with corporate governance and ethics.

the other govt

The Other Govt A young boy asked me in my blog yesterday whether I am pro govt or anti govt. It is a profound question to come from a boy who does not know what constitutes a govt. So I told him that I would toss a coin and see which side it landed. I am not going to discuss about the three arms of the govt or the complex machinery of the whole govt. To that boy, what is govt to him is pretty obvious. Actually in his thuggish behaviour, he is asking me whether I am for his party or gang? This prompted me to the other govt that is running parallel to the legal govt that we have today. This other govt runs a gamut of businesses ranging from spas, entertainments, security and money lending. The most prominent and explosive arm of this other govt is of course money lending. They charged exhorbitant interest rates. And failure to pay will subject the borrower to threats of violence, something like the young boy was trying to do in my blog. But violence or personal harm was more of an intimidating tactic. What they would normally do is to lock up the borrower's flat, and with thick strong chain by their bailiff. Instead of posting the Notice of Seizure, they will just paint it on the adjacent walls or in the lift to make sure the borrower did not miss it. More efficient that way. And if this failed, they will burn the door to the flat. They might place a pig head for decorative purposes. Now they have taken it further by demanding the neigbours to pay or they will burn the neighbour's flat as well. And they do it in broad daylight, walking freely everywhere. Now that is truly another form of govt. We have parallel imports of cars. Now we are having a parallel govt. Am I talking about JB or Hatyai?

Amazing Singapore

Amazing Singapore Below is a quote from an ex Malaysian that I plucked from littlespeck.com. ExMalaysian wrote: By my own experience I can tell you that it's great being a new citizen in Singapore. You are judged by what you can contribute and not but some NEP policies. The education in Singapore is also about the best in the world. Yes, even the educators from the native English-speaking countries adopt how Mathematics and Science are taught here Best of all, every time you cross the causeway to visit Malaysia you are rewarded by at least 2.3 times in your spending capability. What are you waiting for? Singaporeans are lucky.

cyber pests and bounty hunters

Cyber Pests in my blog There are a few cyberspace pests helping me to generate traffic into mysingaporenews blog. I am not sure whether to thank them or to curse them. Their presence has definitely raise the ratings of my blog, except that their intent was just to disrupt and hurl abuses. The age of professional thugs in cyberspace has arrived. Elfred has a new opening now, to be paid to disrupt blogs and forums. Another business that may sprout out from this is bounty hunters. These will be hunters out there hunting down such pests and bring them to court for a reward.

myth 104

'Meritocracy Myth' Thomas Koshy added to the meritocracy myth in his article in the Today paper today. What is meritocratic, as he has reaffirmed our views discussed in cyberspace, is not really that meritocratic in the true sense or ideal sense. There cannot be true meritocracy when there are differences arising from 'race, sex, age sexual orientation, physical disability, region, religion and physical appearance.' One could add inheritance, in wealth and genes. In society, superior ability, as Koshy termed it, may not be given a chance because of unequal access to resources and opportunities. But what is dangerous is that a state that is based on the philosophy of meritocracy will have the same ending as any state based on any other political philosophies. The elite will become arrogant and be disconnected with the people and will eventually be overthrown by the people, according to Michael Young's fictional book, The Rise of Meritocracy. One could read it like The Animal Farm. Is there hope for meritocracy to survive in this island state? The writings are ominous.

Who needs Blogger's Code of Ethics?

Below is an article calling for a code of ethics for bloggers, posted in Singapore Patriots, assuming that bloggers are the culprits for some of the mess in blogosphere. However, in my blog, which I do not attack anyone in particular, nor do I use vulgarities, maybe some exceptions, there are a few pests that have obviously been sent there to disrupt my blog with their personal attacks. Now who needs a Code of Ethics? Who are behind these pests? In support of a Singaporean bloggers' Code of Ethics - Part 2 Dharmendra Yadav's TODAY article calling on bloggers to self-regulate continues to draw mixed reactions from local blogosphere. Aaron, Yuhui and I generally support the suggestion. BL agrees that blogs should self-regulate, but doubts the feasibility of implementing the idea. Other bloggers, including Dr Huang, Cowboy Caleb and Elia Diodati feel that it is unnecessary and impossible. I don't think Dharmendra and Aaron were calling for a formal blogger's association which will censor or censure its members who do not toe the line. That is not only undesirable but also impractical—bloggers simply won't join the association. There is also no intention to muzzle the "last bastion of truly free expression", as Dr Huang colourfully describes blogosphere. "Censorship" is as much a bad word to bloggers, as "welfare" is to the Singapore government. Rather than any type of association, whether formal or informal, I would prefer a Code of Ethics that the majority of law-abiding bloggers would willingly agree to. This Code should be concise, localised to the Singapore context, simple to understand, easy to adhere to, and non-binding. Its function would be symbolic rather than regulatory. It would be somewhat like the our National Pledge. The Pledge, penned by our first foreign minister S Rajaratnam, is a short and straightforward, yet deeply meaningful statement. Almost all Singaporeans from all walks of life and political persuasions agree with it. The Pledge itself has no legally binding requirements, but those who choose not to adhere to the statements set forth in the Pledge are likely to find themselves contravening some laws of our land.

To raise CPF or not not to raise CPF

The trade union leaders have called for some restoration of the CPF. Good times are here, it is time to bring out the champagne and have a party. Surprisingly several analysts were out in arms against such an idea. Obviously the memories of hard times and bad times were forgotten. During those dark hours, many lamented and regretted the high CPF and the rigidities of our wage system. There were calls for CPF cuts and flexible wage systems. The decisions were tough and hard to make but were made. CPF were cut, flexible wages were introduced. All to make our system less rigid and competitive. The wage system needs to be flexible to change with the highs and lows of the economic cycles. We have done well and live with an increasing portion of flexi wage components. Do we want to go back to cast more increases into stone again and have the same problems of breaking them when the hard times are back? Or do we want to continue to input further increases into the flexi portion of the wage to allow companies and organisations to vary them according to their performances and the economic trend? And there were talks that we can manage international forces, have no fear of competition from low wage countries, and can create high value jobs again. Now that is really good news and a great thing to know.

It is all in the mind

While I am calling for more bloggers and forumers to join cyberspace, while all the bloggers and netizens are named the Person of the Year by Times Magazine, the battle for cyberspace has begun. Three snipers entered www.mysingaporenews.com and started to challenge my postings. It just shows that mysingaporenews is worthy of reading. But how worthy and how good a blog is is all in the mind. When the mind is good it will see good things. When the mind is bad, it will see bad things. When the mind is big it will think big. When the mind is small it will think small. Then comes the clever element. A clever and good mind will think very big. But a clever and small mind will think very small and think very bad. In the drawer of a CEO, there will be two books. One is for good and honourable people and one for small and sneaky people. Both are very useful to him. The good and honourable people will be groomed to take over important positions. The small and sneaky people will do the sneaky jobs. And that will be their lives in the organisation, to do sneaky things. And the CEO knows very well that only such sneaky people can do such jobs. But never will he use them for good and honourable jobs.

Bloggers, this is your time

Bloggers, this is your time For seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and framing the new digital democracy, for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game, Time's Person of the Year for 2006 is you. Times Magazine voted the bloggers as the Person or People of the Year. The role of bloggers and citizen reporting is playing a very significant and increasingly important role in writing and commenting about events and news, and is getting the recognition of an important international magazine. With millions of bloggers in cyberspace, the amount of information generated is unbelieveable and they will present a serious challenge to the main stream media when news and information are expected to be packaged in an expected manner. Three cheers to all bloggers.

eleanor wong - a quotation

I like this quote from Eleanor Wong 'Having something to say that might mean something to someone, change how they see things, or at least make them ask different questions.' That's what writers or bloggers should try to do.

Citizen Banerjee

Citizen Banerjee A foreign talent turned citizen, and he said it simple and clear. '...holding a country's passport is not what binds a person to the place - it is the emotional ties that do....' He added that we don't necessarily need everyone to be a citizen. The real supertalent can go anywhere they want. Do we need a foreign talent to tell us these? Isn't everyone in cyberspace been saying the same thing? What I would want to add it that a pink passport is nothing without the emotional ties and without the benefits or values that come with it. Emotional ties are also dispensable when citizenship is no difference from being just a PR. There is greater need and urgency to make citizenship more meaningful and valuable, to be a treasured and wanted item. Our own supertalents, if they are really worth their salts, too will leave for greener pastures, pink passport or not. There must be a host of things that make citizenship meaningful to the people. Something like getting 10% more discounts or subsidies for medical fees and education. Imagine that is how valuable our citizenship is.

Lift my veil and what do you see?

Lift my veil and what do you see? This is the title of an article by Irfan Husain in the Today paper. And in the following pages you have the new Aceh Governor Irwandi Yusuf taking a stand that he would oppose the cutting of the hands of thiefs. Next to this was another headline, 'Islam debates worry Anwar.' The three names are muslim intellectuals who are not your normal laypersons or average kids turned mullahs. It is a pity that such intellectuals did not take up the profession of being religious leaders. For their views and interpretation of the Koran will definitely make a mark in the development of Islam. The things they lamented are serious doctrinal issues that only muslims are best to discuss among themselves. As non interested parties or non muslims, our views are definitely unacceptable no matter how we rationalise about them.

$3,400 psf properties

$3,400 psf properties How could Singaporeans afford such properties when the top 20% population have a monthly per capita household income of $3000, according to some statistics that were splashed across the MSM? At $3,400 psf, it will mean a 1000 sq ft condo will cost $3.4 million. But these units built for the rich and famous are not going to be 1000 sq ft but 2000 or more. A 2000 sq ft will be a blooming $6.8 million. With the $3000 per capita income a month, Singaporeans would have to go and steal from some where if they can afford one of these units. How is it that about 70% of these properties are bought by Singaporeans? Unbelieveable! Something is seriously wrong here. Either the statistics are wrong, or something got to do with our corruption index. To buy such a property, one would need a monthly income of at least $30,000 and for many years. Where to find such animals in Singapore? Maybe there are, but can't be that many. The reality is that once these few Singaporeans have bought their shares, that's it. The rest will be bought by foreigners as the developers are going to build more. Surely with our miserable income of the top 20% at $3000 per capital household income they would not be able to afford such price tag. Maybe one day we will have to follow the footstep of Malaysia, and reserve 30% of all high end properties, or all privately developed properties to be sold to Singaporeans at a discount.

A green Sunday

What a lousy Sunday morning My eyes were sleepy, and everything takes an unusually slow pace. Even my movements were slow, slower than any other day. Sunday is meant to slow down, relax, forget the world, forget the rat race. The sexy pictures of Tang dynasty women did raise the heartbeat a little. But my poise and serenity vanished when I hit page 3 of the Sunday Times. My eyes turn green and instantly I am fill with rage, the rage of envy. How can young upstart claims that it is normal to earn US$500k at a tender age of 34 years? And what he was implying is that many are earning much more. This reminds me of those heady days of an unprecedented bull market when stupid remisiers went bragging that any normal remisier would earn $30k a month. And what happened to them is history. The same pathetic state also befell the insurance and housing agents. Probably many have now turned to become taxi drivers. In Singapore it is very hazardous to brag about your stratospheric income. People not only get envious but angry as well. Just like how I feel now. How can these young people earn so much and easy money some more. Must do something about it. I am still wondering what is the agenda of the paper to splash the erotic incomes of children and what will likely to happen to them later? It was only a few days ago when we read about the pathetic existence of 'has been' high flyers and the top 20% of our population only having a per capita household income of $3000 a month. If we have a young couple earning three quarter of a million each, it will mean that their per capita household income will be $60,000 a month or $30,000 if they have 2 children. This is really obscene. I am still seething with green rage. I am going to do something about this. I am going back to sleep and forget about this brutal reality.

plight of the unwanted talents

The unwanted talents I was talking to a cab driver last week. He was only 46, a NUS business graduate. Lost his job and could not find any and was resigned to driving a cab for $3k a month. He knew that no one will want to employ him anymore as he had tried and tried to be reemployed. In the Straits Times today, several pages were devoted to the issues of the unwanted talents. These are highly qualified, highly experienced and matured professionals, all ended unemployed or underemployed, disenchanted, disgrunted, ego deflated and life shattered. And yes, our country is crying for more foreign talents to replace them, that we have no talents and no experienced professionals and managers. And yes, our qualified people are leaving our shores and we need to replace them with foreigners. What is the problem? No problem at all. Can't see any problem. It is all globalisation's fault and nothing can be done about it. It is so pathetic and depressing to see these once high flyers who are now willing to earn half or one third of their income, maybe less, begging to be employed. We don't have jobs for them? Bullshit! There are many jobs waiting to be filled or filled by people who don't need them or did not have the time for them. We have a few super talents hogging on many jobs and pretending to be working and effective, but in reality, going through the motion as the multiple jobs they are handling are beyond them. That's why shits are piling up everywhere. Just take the occupation of company independent directors will do. There are something like 700 companies listed in the Stock Exchange and each requires the services of at least 2 independent directors. But many of these positions are filled by duplicates or people who either cannot do the job or do not have the time to do it. Indepedent directors can be a profession by itself for the lost talents who have acquired a wealth of experience through their working life. Then the multi tasking that have gone crazy and people ended up with 10 or 20 hats. This is another bullshit in our system. 2 or 3 hats may be just the maximum that an able person can handle, and still stressing him out. More than that, I can only think of one person being capable of doing it. He must be omnipresence, omni conscience and untiring and undying. If there is conscious effort to create more decent and highly qualified jobs for the experienced professionals, there are many ways. Manage the appointments of independent directorship and cut down on multi tasking, and we will have created some extra jobs to go around. Provided those with a big fat pension are not allowed to say I want also. I almost forgot that this multi tasking thing went down to the middle or lower professional level too, making people doing several jobs at the same time without understanding that at the lower level they are definitely not super talents and would not have the talent to do them. One man or woman only has 8 or 10 hours a day to work. Beyond that he/she is working to his own death unless he/she is cheating all the way, without doing his/her fair share of the load.