Boon Yang's leeway on political films

The easing of ban on political films by Boon Yang is another step towards more liberalisation of media and film broadcast in the otherwise media phobic state. Thanks to AIMS and the strong push by Cheong Yip Seng for a freer and bigger space for social and political discussion and dissemination of news and views. The concerns by the govt are well understood by the public through its obsessive regulations and articulations over the years. The govt has also come to understand the revolution of information technology and its futility to continue its vice like grip on critics and alternative views. It has also reluctantly come to terms with a highly educated citizenry that is not going to take this control forever. And perhaps it has concluded that it is time to release the build up pressure now rather than later. To continue to do so in an environment where cyberspace is there to air the misgivings, cynicism and displeasure will only worsen the divide between truth and official truth to a level of incredibility. Hail the new leeway towards more media freedom in cyberspace and alternative means of expression. The liberalisation and more engagement between the new media and old media will pave the way for more healthy discussions on social and political issues affecting the people. It will lead to a buzz that has long been desired but absence for obvious reasons. Now is to wait and see if the buzz will go on buzzing.

Save Asia from child labour

Asia must act to prevent growth in child labour: expert 12 hours ago SINGAPORE (AFP) — Asia must act quickly to prevent millions of children dropping out of school to go to work as the global economic crisis worsens, a rights expert has warned. June Kane, an independent adviser to the United Nations and national governments on child rights, told AFP the crisis was a chance for authorities in the region to tackle child labour by giving parents incentives to keep minors in education. But she warned that authorities in Asia -- the biggest employer of the world's estimated 218 million child workers -- must act now to provide help to parents who might otherwise be forced to send their children out to work.... I happen to see the above posted in the TOC. It is a noble cause to push for, to help the children of poor countries and poor families from being made to earn a living at a tender age when they should be in school. But this is well said than done. Many are staring at poverty in their faces and helping out to earn a living is their way of getting an education in life. The country is poor and so are the parents. I was a child labour before. There were child labours in Singapore at one time. At one time many of our womenfolks were maids too. And getting a job as a labourer in the construction site was good jobs and good money. We have progressed over the years. We cannot mismanage and slip back to those days when everyone was poor. When aspirations of parents were for their children to become clerks. Even before I was in primary school, I was helping my mother in a godown, sorting coffee beans, picking out the debris and rotten seeds and repack them. The work was simple. Just sat on a large piece of mat, coffee seeds poured into the centre of the mat and the whole family sat around it, picking seed by seed, to earn a few cents a day. Quite comfortable actually. No sweat and not under the sun. No torture or abuses. Just working. And many parents were very happy when their wards failed the PSLE. They could start work earlier, working as kopi kia or walking the streets knocking on a piece of bamboo, kock kick kock, to peddle bak chor mee. It was a phase of our development and our social history.

Keep seniors at work longer

Just a few years back, not very long ago actually, there was this 40ish CEO whose message was to get rid of the oldies and replace them with all the beautiful and fresh recruits. I was wondering where did he got this cock idea from? Creating jobs, getting people employed is a major issue and problem in any country. Only imbeciles will think of destroying jobs and getting rid of employees purely because of age. Now working to death is the new mantra. Personally if I can afford it I will stop work and enjoy my life the way I want it. There are many great things to do in life than just working to keep once self fed, just to carry on living. Unfortunately many people are caught it this trap, to work to be alive, nothing more, nothing less.

Satyam, the truth is out

The doctoring of corporate accounts has appeared to be a common practice among big corporations across the globe, from America to Europe and Asia. I could understand how it could be done over the years without being discovered in backward countries without the due process of auditing. But it should not be whether renowned international auditors are engaged to do the job. Under the western model of corporate governance, the auditors play a very big role in checking the accounts of public listed organisations, and are handsomely rewarded for this task. Apparently due diligence in this role is much to be desired given the prevalence of this malpractice. In fact it is a text book fraud that all auditors must know and look out for. This is the first time that the regulators are thinking of looking at the role of the auditors to see if they are culpable to the misdeeds, whether through negligence or even being accomplice to the crime. More auditors must be hanged to give notice to the importance of their role in preventing corporate frauds. But I still remember that it was said some where that it was not their role to discover corporate frauds. So their role must be simply going through the motion of checking and submit a report to confirm checks have been carried out, without any responsibility. Other than the independent directors, the next level and most effective defence against corporate frauds must be the auditors. And they are paid to do the job. They are professionals.

Would NWC bark up the same old tree?

The high power NWC is again tasked to review the wages of workers, this time when the economy is in a tail spin. In good times, it is in a happier position to quarrel about how much increases to give to the workers. In bad times, it is going to decide how much to cut or not to give to the workers. Hard times mean tough times for the workers, the convenient whipping boy. The workers is always at the fore front when cost cutting is needed. They either lose their jobs, got their salaries cut, or lose their increments. This is the standard recipe with its standard recommendations. Didn't we know that labour cost is only one small part of the whole equation of operating cost? Would the NWC do a bit more and look into areas like land cost, rental cost, govt service cost and other cost before slicing through the workers pay packet for once? And don't forget about top management cost. Any further cuts or lowering of increments are going to hit the workers real hard. All the other costs are going up and we are expecting the workers to bite the bullet and tighten their belts further. Are we demanding too much from the workers? This single perspective approach to tackling the operating cost problem has to be addressed differently. The cost of other services and goods must be brought down if the workers are to survive this crisis with further restraints on their wages. 80% of the workforce will fall into this trap of rising cost of living and lower income. We need a more enlighten NWC to do something differently instead of just going through the motion like yesteryears.

NWC's unenviable task

The NWC will have to make its recommendations on wages soon. This time it is very likely on how to cut wages or reduce wage increases. Bet with you the people who is going to get the wage cut or wage freeze will be the workers. We will likely see how the use of absolute sum and percentages at its best. Some will be affected by a fixed sum and some by percentages to the benefits of some and disadvantages of others. The message is likely to be belt tightening to save jobs.

Myth 204 - The rich pays for their wants

This is a long embedded myth that people have forgotten to question and accepted as the truth. In reality the poor pays for everything, including what the rich is enjoying. And the poor pays for them in blood, sweat and tears. The poor is the one that does everything. They work, do, build, make, move, carry, climb, run, walk, practically everything to make goods and provide services. The only think that they do less is think. In the case of the rich, they make the poor pays for everything and at a huge profit. They pay the poor workers less if they employ them. They take as much as they can for themselves when they are the boss. Then they spend as if they were paying for it. No, it is the poor workers that are paying for it. The rich took the wealth created by workers leaving the workers poor and insufficient while they have abundance to spend away.

$46k for French cooking course

A top civil servant reportedly spent $46k for himself, wife and son to study fine French cooking. He took 5 weeks of annual leave, flew to France to learn this exquisite skill. Normally this is a thing that the rich and famous will do and will not raise an eyebrow. In this case, cyberspace is riled by such flaunting of wealth. Should it be? Why can't a man who earns an honest living spend his money the way he wants it? Put it in the proper Singaporean context, here is a case of someone that is overpaid, paid too well, that he could spend big money on niceties. The best part is that he is a public servant and his money is paid from the taxpayers' money. It is a good example of a very well paid civil service and that the people is ired by it and any flaunting of wealth by this group of public servants will definitely invite criticism. The top civil servants and politicians are increasingly being viewed as being overpaid, and not ending. More pay rises will be on the way as there is now no cap to how much they should be paid given an unique formula that could literally pay them hundreds of millions when the condition is right. This case proves that they have more money than they need and are finding creative ways to spend them. Any justification for more pay rise at the top level is going to get rotten tomatoes and rotten eggs. It is difficult to be frugal when you have too much money.

Cannot afford to be frugal

How could it be that people cannot afford to be frugal? Frugality used to be a fad in the era of the hippies. Scions of wealthy families went around in torn and tattered jackets and jeans and looked scruffily poor, like children of working class. It was not that they had to be frugal. They were just making a statement. They were dissociating themselves from their wealthy background as if it was a shameful thing, They were denouncing the decadence lifestyle of the bourgeoisie. Then there was the legendary Tan Kah Kee, probably the richest man in the island whose daily meals were plain porridge, salted peanuts and vegetables. He died penniless after giving away his wealth. He was frugal to a fault. The financial crisis has made some of the affected rich to cut down on a holiday or two, drink cheaper wine etc. There is no need to be frugal but a little less lavish living. For those who were living quite comfortably or just getting by may need to be frugal to save a little. Life will go on practically unchanged. But for those who have been making ends meet, whose income are stagnant or falling, the rising cost in everything will make frugality a meaningless word. They cannot afford to be frugal. There is nothing left to be frugal. To them, living frugally is not about making a statement. It is poverty in a rich oasis.

Time to be credited.

Many of the bloggers here are still using anonymous to post. Increasingly there are more who are using a nick to represent themselves. This is year 2009 and we have seen how the internet has evolved over the last few years. The quality of the postings are getting better compare to the early years when it was a lot of battering just for the sake of battering one another. We are seeing many respectable people in the cyberspace using their own names to express their views and make their points, not necessarily anti establishment or to bring down the establishment. The discourse in the internet is far ranging, very informative and challenging. Many views are expressed ingeniously and artfully. It is time that bloggers should be credited with what they post. It is not necessary that they should use their real name or identity. A pen name, like many authors or even journalists did will be good enough. It will be a cyberspace identity that will grow with the author and may become part of the author. I strongly encourage all the bloggers to use a nick of whatever that they fancy to post. It will be more meaningful for everyone. Cheers.

Peanut spitting monkeys

I went mountain climbing, or hill climbing, at Bukit Timah one weekend. As we drove into the car park we could see the monkeys lining up at the car park fringe waiting for us. When we alighted they came dashing towards us, anticipating some peanuts from visitors. We gladly obliged and threw a few in the air and they went jumping all over the place. Hungry monkeys. There was a weekend that we went to the zoo. We brought along packets of peanuts for the monkeys as well. We went from one beautifully landscaped confine to another watching the monkeys. One thing we noticed was that the monkeys were not as energetic as those at Bukit Timah. Even when we threw the peanuts at them some even refused to move. Over fed monkeys! Then we heard the zoo keeper telling the visitors to be careful not to disturb the monkeys. When angry they would spit out peanuts at them. They were so well fed that they stored the nuts on both sides of their cheeks. It is not easy to get them excited over a few peanuts anymore.

Paying less to workers to pay more to management

How is that possible? One of the ways is like what Wall Street was doing. The top management just pays themselves crazy. But this is not serious then as the financial institutions were churning up big profits and the workers were small in numbers. Put this into the context of manufacturing companies or any large organizations with a big worker base. The amount paid to the top management must come from the general pool of money available for payout. The more being paid to top management, the lesser will be available for the workers. Yes, it is a zero sum game. In the same way any organization that pays big bucks to the top must get the money from somewhere. Normally it comes from paying less to the workforce in general. Organisations that pay their top executives big salaries must find ways to boost up the kitty every month. It either comes from higher cost to their products or services, or from paying the workers less. As simple as that, unless money can appear in mid air. The consumers pay for everything. The workers indirectly pay for the top dollars of their management. True or not?

The internet is YOU!

Below is an extract of a fairly long article posted in TOC by a KJ. It is very good reading for those interested in seeking alternative views other than from The Old Media. ....The Internet is not the perfect mass medium, and it need not be. Being an excellent one is enough for its purpose. Its inconsistency, unpredictability, and dilettantism are precisely its strengths. Its excellence and political potency cease only when individuals no longer blog, participate in forum discussions, forward that incriminating email, access a plethora of info-news websites – professional and amateur, local and foreign – and continually comment, debate, and quarrel, post pictures and put up videos and form communities. Its potential for political change is anywhere and everywhere. But political activism is neutered at its heart when individuals forget that change comes not just from the arena of parliament and street protests, but also from the sitting and thinking individual. The personal is the political, and the political is in the quotidian and in the everyday. Action originates from one’s thought, conscience, and consciousness. An impassioned thought is in itself activism. Taken together, they constitute the truer citizen, one that perpetually questions received wisdom, rips up underlying assumptions, and resists and unmasks the artifice, injustice, and sophistry emanating from those enthroned in the white chambers of power. Taken together, you rebuff the vacuous regurgitation of propaganda by those indoctrinated ones, and you expose their shallow, hollow, and spurious patriotism.... Since the Straits Times has abdicated its role as the paramount purveyor and conduit of critical, independent thought, then the Internet should attempt that role. As long as you have something original to say, the keyboard is yours....

We have failed to progress

After so many years of trying to restructure our society, we have failed miserably in the most important quarter, the purpose of life. Today the front page news is about saving jobs, create jobs, create employments so that people can work until they die. And everyone is singing this tune mindlessly. This is a sick society alright. In paradise, a true paradise, there is no need for people to work for a living. That must be the goal of all societies. The more prosperous we are, we should need to work less and enjoy our lives the way we want it. We have forgotten. I still remember that some 10 or so years ago we were trying to restructure our society to eradicate jobs. We were on the right track then. Now we are so confused with the purpose of life. We think working to death is the only thing in life. Slave drivers! We have the technology to give humankind the freedom from work. We can mechanise, automate, use robots, use the computers to think, plan and do everything for us. Humankind deserves better, to live life and enjoy life of plenty, without worries and without work. Shouldn't that be the goal for working so hard? Have we gone crazy? Creating more and more jobs to work the people? We should be planning on how to pay people a million a year without having to work. Then everyone can spend their time flashing around in their newest personal commuter or personal jet. And for those who still enjoy blogging, they can continue to do so without a worry, 24/7 sitting in front of their latest model personal entertainment system. What is the point of having the IRs, the flyers, all the theatres and fine restaurants and facilities when we have to work and no time to enjoy them? Do we pay millions to super talents who can only think of creating more jobs to work the people to death?

My tummy ache is more complex

I used to visit the dentists quite regularly in the past. Today I see them less frequently. Not many teeth left to give problems. But I still have tooth ache occasionally. The same tooth ache I had 50 years ago, 40 years ago, 30 years ago. And my tummy ache is no different today then 50 years ago or 40 years ago. So were my flu and sore throat. And I think this goes with many other sicknesses, migraine, heart attack, artery blocks, piles, or whatever that our bodies can inflict on us. I protested to my doctors and dentists. Why are they charging me 10 times, 20 times or 30 times for the same ailments? The panadol and vitamins are still the same except for the branding. After repeated protests the doctors finally gave in and explained. He agreed that they were all the same. He agreed that the only thing that was different was the bill. And he said the medical condition probably made up 10% of the bill. The rest were other costs. At least now I know that my medical conditions are not more serious, not more complicated, not more complex, not more heavenly that require a medical maverick to heal them when the ordinary doctor of the past could not. And I pay more.

The new Singapore success story

Ting Kah Ting is a very happy man. As a contractor his income is inconsistent. He had problems paying his mortgages for his 4 rm flat but HDB was understanding, agreed to stretch his payments in smaller amounts and at one time allowed him to postpone his payment for 6 months. Today he has no more outstanding loan. Peace of mind. He sold his 4 room flats for a tidy profit and downgraded to a 3 rm flat and live happily with his 4 children age 11 to 21. The morale of the story is that Singaporeans can live a happy life if they know how. The trick is downgrading. Singaporeans are downgrading from bigger flats to smaller flats. And the demand for smaller flats is exceeding supply. HDB is rushing out a programme to build more 2 and 3 rm flats. The other kind of downgrading for a happier life is downgrading jobs. Many Singaporeans are finding a new life, new contentment by going for training to acquire new skills that can fit them into lesser paying jobs. And of course the lifestyle needs to change a little. Take public transport or buy a smaller car. Eat more at foodcourts or hawker centres instead of restaurants. Life will not be the same again, but without worries. An anonymous blogger here posted that many young girls are earning more than $10k pm. These are real. And many more are earning 6 figure salaries per month, too big that they don't appear in the statistics, just like when you type in 10 zeros into a calculate, it cannot be shown. The calculator cannot capture too many zeros. Some are even more fortunate. On retirements they were given directorships that pay them double or triple or quadruple their incomes when they were fully employed. And all they need is to attend a board of director's meeting once a month. But the best goes to those who retire with a pension good enough to buy a private property every year. But the pension is only the appetiser. They will be moved from running a full organisation to one that practically does nothing and continue with full pay plus pension. Now that is the real success story. They can now live life to the fullest, enjoy what they missed as little children and buy the Porsche or Ferrari that they dreamed off in those fairy tales. Singaporeans have different success stories.

Why be mean when no need to?

I have spoken enough of mean testing. But I must say it again and again to show how detestable is this thing called mean testing. By the way, how many of you think that mean testing is an acceptable and decent thing to do to another loser? If you think it is ok, then you must be prepared to be mean tested when your turn comes. Not everyday is a sunny day. There will be cloudy days, raining days and thunderstorms. Your sunny day may be over without you knowing and thunderstorm may be here tomorrow. The idea of mean testing is simply that the poor can be humiliated, that they can be paraded in public, to any strangers to prove how poor and what a failure they were in life. This kind of thinking can only be present in the minds of the rich and powerful who have no qualms in treating the downtrodden as useless bums, deserving to be abused. It is an elitist concept. It will not happen to me because I am rich and successful. And I will not be a loser. So it is ok to line up the losers and subject them to despicable acts of verifying how poor they are. Make them show you how miserable are their incomes, open up their bank account books to reveal that there are only a couple of dollars left, make them reveal how useless their fathers and mothers were, all losers. Then give them a pat and say ok, you poor bastards, you deserve the handouts. It is a sad day if our elite show this lack of compassion and kindness and subject the poor to such disgraceful acts in the name of kindness and compassion. Oh this is in place to catch a few cheats! I regard this as a failure of good policies. A good policy should be able to do it without the humiliating experience. It is totally devoid of human kindness.

Market Pricing and market economy

I have posted many times, and most of you are aware of my views and orientation with respect to market pricing and market economy. I always believe in moderation, market pricing with a little govt interference without allowing extremism to push things too far. The pricing of HDB flats, medical fees, and all kinds of services are gradually moving towards full market pricing in a market economy and it is something I don't agree and don't feel comfortable with. My position is that the govt must always work for the betterment of the people and a market economy running along market pricing is only as good as long as it is good for the people. If it is good just to make more profit at the people's expense or causing more hardship to the people, then it is not good no matter how fair it is claimed to be. The govt must always be for the people. The profit made must also be for the people. The money made from the people must not be excessive. There is no point in hoarding a huge reserves when the reserves are not managed for the interest of the people. As the govt edges further and further towards a full market economy, many policies will eventually be market driven. Good or bad is not an issue. Here we have a govt that makes it very clear of its philosophy and policies. There will be people who agree and support such philosophy and policies. There will be people who don't agree. It is good that the govt takes on such a position, clear and transparent. It allows the people to understand how such policies will work out and how they will be affected in the process. The people can then make an informed choice of whether this is what they want. And it will be good if there are alternative parties presenting alternative models for the people to choose from. For the dogmatic and party loyalists, they may want to view the alternatives as a for me or against me ala the idiot called George Bush. This is a very narrow minded way of how a country and its people should evolve. In a democracy, it is the people's choice and not a matter of you are my friend or my enemy. I am not sure how many of you are in favour of this trend of market pricing. I know that some are for it and some are against it. While we are discussing such issues, let's be more objective and mature and avoid behaving like kids. It is not a crime to disagree with the policies of market pricing. Neither is it a vindication of goodness to support it.

The Hippocratic Code

This is one of the most honourable code of any profession in modern society. I believe those who swear by it still believe in it and would like to uphold this code of conduct. The Code upholds the value of life, not money. What is happening to the medical profession is that it is being turned into a money making machine, a very efficient and ruthless one at that, by the people running it as a business. Today, being admitted into a hospital, even a privatised govt hospital, do not be surprised with a bill that goes above $30k or $100k or even more. The amount to be paid for a month or two in a hospital is enough to buy a 3rm HDB flat! The question is whether the medical professionals who swore by the Hippocratic Code have any say in how the profession is being turned into a money making machine in direct conflict with what the Code sets it out to be? The doctors were very highly regarded as honourable men with a noble passion to save lives and heal the sick. It will be very sad and disappointing should their reputation be tarnished by this madness to milk as much money as possible from the sick and helpless. These are people who are in a desperate state of medical and mental condition that made them highly vulnerable, and money is no longer a factor to them. To slap these people with an exorbitant bill beyond their means is cruel by all counts. The medical professionals should wrestle back the control and management of their profession from the business minded and money minded people and restore honour and respect back to them. Other industries can go to the dogs, but not the medical profession. It is the last bastion of human decency that needs to be defended by none other than the selfless and passionate medical professionals themselves.

Are there saints running corporations?

Bankers Can be victims, too! Everytime a Singaporean makes a frivolous investment claim against a bank, he undermines thousands of genuine fide cases Dec 31, 2008 This is the heading of an article posted in www.littlespeck.com. The gist of the article is that bankers are also innocent victims to unscrupulous customers. And the bigger picture is that most organisations, including banks, are run by highly righteous and honourable people. What a myth. In my experience, many organisations are headed by unscrupulous thugs. This is the kindest word that I can use. Anyone think otherwise, that there are saints running organisations? Of course there are a rare few that still believe in a little virtues and moral standards and responsibilities. In the name of profit, survival, politicking, all kinds of unspeakable things were done for self preservation. Anyone working in a corporation would have experienced them personally, seen them in practice or been a victim of such thugs. Am I telling the truth a bit too hard?