Send them away

S’pore’s soaring food prices (video) Monday, 28 July 2008, 9:14 pm 320 views Al Jazeera reports on the soaring food prices in Singapore and how Singaporeans are coping. In the report, one lady, who lived in a one-room HDB flat, said she was given $30 when she asked her Member of Parliament for help. “The extra cash can be used to pay for the children’s expenses. Obviously, it’s not enough,” she said. “In the last couple of years, we’ve seen a concerted increase in these prices,” said Dr Chee Soon Juan, secretary general of the opposition Singapore Democratic Party. “So, we’re very concerned for this and as a government, they have a duty to ensure that the poorest segment of society are able to cope with these matters but they’re not doing [it],” he said. The above article is copied from theonlinecitizen forum. I would think these people who can't cope with the high cost of living should be send away. There are some bloggers who have been telling Singaporeans to quit if they cannot contribute or are just losers. How many shall we send away?

When the people lost faith in the govt

The latest turn of event in the Anwar sodomy case is more revealing than just an attempt to destroy Anwar. A medical report has been leaked, showing that Saiful went to see a private doctor to complain about a piece of plastic being shafted into his arse. The doctor found no lesion, ulcer, laceration or damage and told him to see a govt hospital for a second opinion. And this report is now leaked and available to the Anwar camp. What it means is that once a govt has lost its credibility, when the people even suspect that the govt is not trustworthy, would resort to play dirty, the people will do what they could to reveal the truth. And when the people have decided to champion their own cause, to fight a perceivably unjust and corrupted govt, it is impossible for the govt to top them. And the people is everywhere, from the man in the street to top govt officials, even those on the govt side. Injustice will find willing justice fighters to bring it out and be aired. The situation in Malaysia has reached a point where the govt is no longer believeable or respected. The whole govt is now in question. The people have lost faith.

Hanging a millstone around your neck

With property prices going higher and higher, with a 4 rm design and build HDB flat going for $500k and above, the loan portion of the transaction is certainly going to be bigger. Other than those upgraders, a new buyer is going to borrow in the region of $300k or more. Then there are the private property buyers when the loan can be half a million or several millions. But that is a market where the players are very well off and is not an issue. Back to the small people's market when a young couple starting life could be settled with a huge loan to service. Touch wood that everything goes smoothly, and the job and the high pay, and the higher pay expected down the line will be there, it is still affordable. What if, the job is not there, what if the plans are derailed, it is not easy to service that kind of loan. Thrift and frugal living are good virtues to live by. Do not over commit. But not many are giving such advices anymore. And the property developers will keep urging people to commit, it is cheap, can't get it cheaper, good buy. The sales pitch is irresistible. Who does not want to live well? And our system is designed as such. You want to live well, you are welcomed. Prepare to pay like well. There is no turning back once committed. With so much money committed to housing, to car and transportation, and education and medical, there is no savings and no safety lines available except rich parents or family fortunes. Many will be hanged by the millstones around their necks if things do not work as planned. An economic slow down, a crisis, and all will end in big debt. The good living will be gone with the wind as fast as the wind blows.

The Silence of the Lamb

Sssssshhh.... I heard the lamb roars ... and then silence.

New measures to boost fertility

'SINGAPORE: A new package of measures to raise Singapore's baby count will be introduced next month, said Deputy Prime Minister and Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng. Speaking at the 150th anniversary celebrations of the KK Women's & Children's Hospital on Sunday, Mr Wong warned that Singapore's population could be hard hit if its total fertility rate is not boosted....' ST. Let me offer a few suggestions. 1. Sack the whole Film Censorship Board. 2. Stop checking and arresting people bringing in VCDs and DVDs at the causeway. 3. Free prescription of Tongkat Ali and friends. 4. Generous buffet dinner of prawns and oysters huh. 5. No one allows to stay in office after 7pm. 6. No night ERP charges. This one a bit tricky. No ERP charges may slow down traffic and delay reaching home early. 7. Lights off at 10pm to save electricity. Video watching permitted. 8. Media Corp needs a new programming team. Too many comedies and laughters may drive away the urge. What else? Money not enough if the small stuff refuse to work.

Prepare for more parking hikes in CBD

We are cheaper than London and Sydney. And Sydney is charging as high as $1000 pm for parking in the business district. What we are paying, about $300, is way too cheap. Gear up motorists, there are plenty of rooms for higher parking fees. How can the operators be short changed when they can charge more. And we are not even the most expensive city in Asia. We need to be number one. Then we can brag about how good we are for people willing to pay number one prices to be here. It is a sure measure of a great city.

Sacrificing our child for our own benefit

A Primary One child starts school at 7.20am. Depending on the distance and mode of transportation, the child may have to wake up before 6am to get to school. Now why is there a need for a child at such a tender age to start school at 7.20am? Oh, the parents need to go to work. So they need to pack the child off to school first, could be on the way to work. Huh? For the convenience of the parents, for the convenience of meeting working hours, we force our little ones to wake up so early in the morning, sleepy eyes, to go to school. Are we humans or monsters? For all decency, there is no need for young children to start school before 9am. The parents can go and sort out their own problems. Do not sacrifice our children for the sake of the adults.

You are free to leave!

This is the often repeated message by Singaporeans or new citizens when Singaporeans are griping about some of the things that they are not happy with. Goh Wen Zhong, a LSE student also said the same thing in the ST forum today. This is a simplistic view of a snobbish response, an arrogant and thoughtless remark. Not only that many cannot afford to go, you need to be welcomed, qualified to go where you want to to. And the people who can do that would likely be the talents that we want to keep. The other is the issue of our right to stay. As citizens, it is our right to stay. And as responsible citizens, it is our right to demand changes for the betterment of country and people. Running away is not an option. And if any silly politician would dare to tell a citizen to quit if he is unhappy, kick him in the arse. He deserves that for being childish and rude. Singaporeans must stay in this place they called home. This is where they belong. How and what shapes the country takes shall be decided by them, not by a few individuals. Let no one threatens you or ask you to leave your home, your country. Singaporeans must be stayers, to redefine and rebuild the country to what they want. The country belongs to everyone who is a Singaporean. Running away is to give this island away be default.

Extortion on the rise!

Yes, and it seems legal, technically. I am sure many of you have received unsolicited credit cards and given lines of credit. When the cards plus all the terms arrived, you will find that you will have to pay an annual fee. Sometimes they called, and I politely told them that all my credit cards are free. If they are giving them free to me, I will keep them. If not they can cancel the cards and facilities. Now this practice is getting more arrogant. They just send the package to you, And they bill you if you did not call them to reject them. The onus is now upon the recipients to call and act on something he does not ask for. Now he has to take the trouble to make those nonsensical calls to a phone machine and to wait for several minutes, pressing stupid numbers to get through. And you don't normally get through on the first attempt but after several attempts. I just received another card, with lines of credit, with cheque books, and of course with an annual fee. I conveniently threw everything into the rubbish chute. I am waiting for the bank to call me for payment of annual fees. You can expect what I am going to show them. Is there any law that I can go to for redress against such extortionist acts? The banks may even use their legal muscle to threaten small people like us for not paying. What is this country turning into? Oh, and I remember sometimes back a big shot banker was complaining about unethical practices in the industry. Is this unethical practice?

Was jobless, penniless and a petty thief.

Salimudin was jobless and penniless and was a petty thief. That was his life offering. He offered a part of his liver for a sum of $44k in a illegal organ transplant. The operation did not pose a risk to his health if done professionally. This is reported in the Sunday Times today. He has since bought a house and live with his family, including two children, respectfully. He also bought a 5,000 sq meter oil palm plantation. He is a little rich plantation owner now, and life is comfortable. Is he exploited? The picture of him and his beautiful family flashing their happy smiles say it all. He is a very happy man. If there is no change in the current thinking to consider legalising organ trading, I doubt his case would stand a chance to be aired. It would likely be forgotten, better not to talk about things that the conventional wisdom is against. The mass hysteria being stirred up can end with people being burnt on the stakes. Now we will probably see more stories from the dark side, which actually becomes brighter because of organ transplant. But Salimudin was a lucky one. He did not get cheated by the parties in between. With organ trading being illegal, many could be cheated and there is no redress. That can become more tragic when he gets only a pittance and the middle men took the king's ransom. And both illegal donors and illegal recipients can be found guilty by the court of law and punished. Tang Wee Sung paid $300k and is facing criminal charges. His potential donor have been jailed and fined. And yes, some will enjoy discussing about it as a matter of ethics and morals while people are desperately trying to keep themselves alive or dying. And people like Salimudin will still be prowling the night as petty thieves.

Our political system, accommodative or hostile?

9 candidates will stand for the Indonesian Presidential election. We can't find even one willing to stand unless the ruling party nominates him. And the restrictive rule that one must be an elite before one can even qualify further removes a large number of good candidates. The Indonesian do have their rules governing eligibility, like being a member of a political party and with a 15% representation in Parliament. Another built in barrier favouring the ruling party. What is important is that there is no dearth of qualified and respectable candidates offering themselves to the people. In our case, even without the elitist ruling, not many will want to stand. Some misfits may stand up. But we cannot simply dismiss the intelligence of the people to vote for a freak. Let's have more trust in a people that is well educated, well informed and good enough to be comparable to a first world country. And Chok Tong was talking about tweaking the system to make it more relevant. The question is that why is the current system unable to throw up more good people in politics and the presidency? Is the system accommodative or seen as hostile to political participation? Obviously the latter, given the lack of participation and only participates when invited. If the system is allowed to continue without any serious changes, what will happen is that no good people will want to come out voluntarily. And those who come out will join the opposition and probability have a kind of attitude that the ruling party fears most. A recklessness or do or die attitude, bring down the system before the system brings them down. The divide will grow and becomes irreconcilable. And things will naturally gets more vicious and unrestrained, for the good of neither side. We are seeing this happening. Why would good and decent people want to get involve in politics when their little indiscretion could suddenly be a national issue? Things like putting a ball point pen from the office in his bag and use to sign his personal cheques as well. Or his little relaxation in a spa in Bintan suddenly floated in the rumour mill. Or worst things could even happen. Chok Tong talked about a system that would throw up good leaders in both the ruling party and the opposition. Is our system doing that? Looking at the opposition camp, we know that it is definitely not. Looking at the ruling party, it is apparent that they are scrapping at the bottom of the barrel. Other than the key appointment holders, let's face it, ...I shall save my comments as they are not very flattering. We need a system that promotes healthy participation from good people in politics. We need to accept and listen to alternative views and grow with them. There seems to be some changes in this line of thought in the ruling party, with more conciliatory messages for a better opposition. Would it turn into a reality or just a red herring? Under the present system and political climate, it is near impossible to have good people forming their own political parties to provide a decent alternative to the ruling party. They won't. The rules of the game is stacked against one side and the price for participation can be untold misery, when the opposition becomes a real potential to win an election. No one knows what will come out when the gloves are off. Can we really move forward and evolve into something healthier?

Instant baby solution

Why is the govt struggling with the baby problem? Our baby growth rate may be lower, but why is there a need for more babies? We are not producing enough babies to keep the pyramid game going? Or is it that we are still chasing the 6.5 mil target? More incentives and more money will be considered to make parents start to reproduce again. The question is, reproduce for what? To keep the economy going, to keep the social and family structure viable? To keep the main core of the population local Singaporeans? Having more babies should not be just a simple case of economic consideration. It used to be a natural thing, get married and keep mating and producing babies. Today, having babies bring along a life long series of problems of maintenance and making sure that the babies are going to get a reasonable life when they grow up. The rich have accumulated wealth, bought houses in advance, to make sure that their progeny will have a comfortable life. What about the poor who are struggling to even feed themselves? Is it responsible to ask them to go ahead and produce recklessly without much thought of their children's well being? Many from the lower income homes will grow up handicap, unable to compete with the more materially well endowed children. Many will start life with a ball chained to their legs. Is this a good thing, producing cannon fodders? What about a promising future, a brighter future of hope and happiness? Many at the lower rungs of society will only continue to perpetuate their pathetic life of deprivation by bringing more children into this competitive and highly stressed country. It is very difficult for them to break free from the poverty trap they are in. If they so choose to have a couple of children, that is a choice that they have made for themselves in their given circumstances. But to push that choice into a non thinking quest just to produce more cogs for the economy, that may be quite tragic. We have done it for many years. Instant trees, instant population, and why not instant babies? Are we having second thoughts on the consequences of having instant babies that may lead to more instant problems when they grow up? Would such questions be unnecessary as we claimed that we are all migrants and having more migrants is only a natural thing, a good thing? We can have a more migrant and vibrant people in the future. And they shall be the new Singaporeans and they shall decide what kind of Singapore they want. No need to sweat the small stuff and coming out with more and more costly options. We have created a system that technically is fair to all but in reality put those in the lower income group in a very disadvantageous position. Why are we making things so hard, so expensive to raise a family by pushing up cost of living without a second thought of how it will impact the people and change their lives and expectations? Did someone say we create our own problems only to find superficial solutions for them?

Singaporeans are doing well

Despite the high inflation rate and prices of everything going up, Singaporeans are coping excellently without govt assistance. All they did was to tighten their belts a little, apply food substitution theory for cheaper products and kpkb to let go some steam. Then life goes on as normal. Actually Singaporeans were hit more with the introduction of more ERPs and higher tolls to pay. They took it in their strides. No problem at all. This is the strength and depth of Singaporean wealth and healthy income. And the workers would not be expecting much of a wage increase to compensate for the rising prices. Singaporeans should be proud of themselves to be living in the 5th most expensive city in Asia and 13th in the world, and doing fine.

More than US$10 billion in losses

"Temasek Selling Merrill Lynch Half or total of 87m shares have been sold off at a loss, according to US recorded filings. By Seah Chiang Nee Jul 24, 2008 Temasek Holdings has sold off half its ill-timed investment in Merrill Lynch - or about 87m shares, according to a mutual funds report on institutional trades on US stocks. The online report, MFFAIRS (Mutual Fund Facts About Individual Stocks), reported it sold off 86,949,594 shares (50%), leaving a current holdings of 86,949,594 shares (50%), according to the filings made public.... At that price Temasek would have suffered a loss of $17 a share - or a total loss of about US$1.48b for the 87mil shares.... Huge paper losses The disposal leaves Temasek Holdings and the Government Investment Corporation (GIC) still holding substantial parts of big troubled Western banks. Its remaining investments in UBS (Switzerland), Citigroup, Barclays and Merrill Lynch - at an original cost of US$21.88b - have declined on by some 47 percent in value. That is a paper loss of US$10.28b. However, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew had said these investments were made as a long-term strategy of 30 years...." The above was extracted from www.littlespeck.com Murphy's Law working? Things that can go wrong will go wrong? When I first posted on the acquisition of these top international banks, I was a little optimistic that this was a god sent golden opportunity to be a big player in the internation financial market. I was also expecting that enough groundworks were put into it and the risk factor of this turning bad has been factored in. And should the investment becomes a bad deal, the losses are limited and we are protected from digging a big hole for our reserves. I am feeling very depressed now. It was a huge investment, an opportunistic one as someone has called it, but betting with such a big sum of money cannot be taken lightly. Didn't the financial experts cover their arses just in case it goes like what we are seeing? In stocks we always talk of trading in short term but often we are caught and short term trading turns out to be a bad long term investment that could eventually melt away. This is going to be a really long term investment now.

TOM is flawless

News reporting by the TOM is as flawless as you can get. They have been impeccable in their reports on govt policies, what political leaders said, or on national issues. It is tough to find them being critical or taking a dissecting knife to cut them to pieces to show just a little flaw. Generally, everything is flawless. I am not sure about reporting on other issues or on alternative parties and their members. But glancing through some of the criticisms in cyberspace recently, I think TOM must be good at critical analyses that naturally will incur the wrath of netizens. The drawback of a flawless TOM is that the flaws will be left to the netizens to expose and report on. And netizens are never kind in writing about things they are unhappy about. The division of roles will continue. The more flawless one side is being painted, the more flaws will be repainted in cyberspace.

Money babies

Money solves everything. Have babies, more babies. We will give you money. No one wants to know why must have more babies. No one wants to know what life will be like for the babies when they come. Having babies is no longer an emotional or sentimental thing. It is about got money or no money. It is not about loving the children and giving the children a life that is worth living. No need to think about such things. How much you need? Tell me how much you want for each baby you produce. Very clinical. Very economic. The state needs your babies. For what? Come to think of it, it is better to produce babies for money. At least there is a reason to do it. Many produce babies without knowing why? No reasons, just keep producing.

Myth 186 Foreign talent and cosmopolitan city

We need the vibrancy of a cosmopolitan city to prosper like New York or some big American cities. We also need the foreign talents, given the few and limited talents we have among ourselves. The American formula is the way to beat the world. But the American formula comes with other terms. A big country with abundance of resources and opportunities, a lawlessness culture with a can do attitude. Then the contradiction of a strong constitution and a legal system. The fourth estate and a people who are ready to challenge the highest office when the law is broken or undermined. There are many other conditions to add on, not just the influx of foreigners to make America a great country. And obviously an authoritarian culture with a submissive or dismissive population are not compatible to what makes America what it is today. Then there is that big American Dream to look forward to. Actually America is an aberration. Not many countries can survive a mixed bag of communities and continue to be the number one super power, the number one economy. If foreign talents is the prerequisite to making a nation great, there would not be any German Empire, Dutch or Spaniard Empires, the British Empire or the Japanese Empire. All these empires rose to prominence because of a strong sense of nationalism and homogeinity. If the American formula is right, we can forget about the reemergence of India and China, both relying heavily on indigenious talents and resources. On the other hand, the former empires like the Brits are falling apart and fading into oblivion with a huge influx of foreigners into the countries. But the homogenous countries like Germany and Japan are doing exceptionally well. Is the American Dream sustainable? Or is the American formula the way to go? Before we get near to our Singapore Dream, there may not be a Singapore to talk about in the future if we no longer become a people built on some shared values and history. The broth is too small and too little and will not be able to retain its originality when too much new ingredients are added into the cooking pot.

A little window dressing may do the trick

As the opposition corner quiets down in their protest against organ trading, there are still some whimpers of unhappiness. Words like organ trading, selling or buying organs seems to be getting on the nerves of the protesters. To overcome such great misgivings, I would suggest that we shall henceforth desist from mentioning the words organ trading or buying/selling organs. In its place we shall creat a Organ Donation Charity Fund. The organ donors can donate their organs to this Fund and be allowed to have a lucky dip. Depending on where he/she is from, the price will be the equivalent of a sum of money decided by the Fund either in S$, US$, rupiah, pesos or whatever. On the other hand, kidney patients can donate a sum of money as decided by the Fund and be entitled to another draw which will be his date for a transplant operation. By doing these, both will be donors to a charity fund, no buying or selling. And the public can help by donating as well to boost up the Fund. And celebrities can also do their parts to participate in a Organ Donation Charity Show. The telco will be happy as well. Actually all will be happy. Nothing changes. And some eminent people can lend his or her name to the Fund or charity show. Back to square one. To cater to those who have strong objections on moral, ethical or religious grounds, HOTA scheme should remain. The poor or those who do not want to donate to the Fund can continue to remain in this scheme. And people who do not want to donate their organs to the Fund can have their organs harvested by HOTA and distributed free to those in the waiting list. Nothing changes. Nothing to cry about. And we shall not deprive those who have the money and willing to pay for it from external sources on their own effort. They should be allowed to do as they please as long as they don't cut the HOTA queue or the queue in the Organ Donation Charity Fund. With these well thought out plans, am I brilliant, I think no one shall have any more objections or unhappiness, except me. I will be giving this plan away free, not collecting the consultancy fee, the survey fee and the research fee. My estimate is that I will lose about half a million by sharing my plan openly. What the heck, it is for a good cause, though a bit silly not getting paid for it. Hope people would not think it is not a good plan because it is free.

Signs of decline or complacency?

In one of my earlier posts I did mentioned about the unusually high standards set by the first generation leaders and their intolerance for mistakes. Basically the message coming down from them was that 'Don't fool around and no slipshod work.' No mistake was tolerable. Zero defects was the standard. What we are hearing from Parliament yesterday would make our first generation leaders cringe or turn in their graves. We are not perfect. So mistakes must happened. Fatigue, too much work, different facts, different circumstances, so mistakes happened. We are only humans! Yes we are only humans. We all made mistakes every now and then. But to use such arguments as justifications is simply bad. A mistake is a mistake, is a mistake. Period. Deal with it. No amount of excuses is good enough and the more one tries to explain them away, the more ludicrous it will sound. Just simply said, yes, it is a mistake and unacceptable and inexcusable. How to react to all the finger pointings? Just listen quietly and show some shame and remorse. Nod the head in acknowledgement that the criticisms and unhappiness are justified and deserving. Eat the humble pie.

No gems in Parliament

The brevity in the reports on TV last night did not disclosed any gems worthy of posting here. The closes that one can get is a gleam of a shiny and beautiful head of Siew Kum Hong. I was so distracted by the glare that I totally missed out on what he was saying. I will now have to refresh myself from the factual reports in TOM.