The Sahibs are coming

Obama is going to put a cap to the salaries of CEOs whose corporations received bailout aids from the govt. Many of these highly talented CEOs will be making a beeline out of America, and where to but paradise. It will be a great loss to America, a brain drain. America will lose their great talents. And paradise will benefit from their presence, their skills, experience. More good years ahead. Just pay them for what they asked for. Every cent is worth it. They will come in handy to manage our investments in Citibank, now BOA, UBS, Barclay and whatever.

An end to treasury raiding

Obama is furious at the irresponsibility shown by the corporate big wigs in Wall Street and the American corporate world. Despite so many of them being bailed out by the taxpayers, they are still splurging on themselves and paying themselves crazy. Obama is going to put a stop to all the money madness in America. He is going to put a cap on the CEO's salary at US$500K per annum for those corporations receiving govt aid. This madness of salary without a cap is running to a wall. It has been going on for too long. How could it be allowed to continue for so long? An employee with an open ended income that can literally shoot to the moon? Only the greedy could not see anything wrong with it. There must be a cap to all salaries and all incentive schemes to stamp the abuses and corruption in different guises.

Making sweeping statements

This appear to be the norm in Parliament. Low Thia Khiang was whacked for running down the JCS outright. Of course there are goods and bads of the JCS. It is not meant to be a cure all solution. Then there were sweeping remarks that the netizens were immature as if MPs were mature in making such unqualified remarks. There were unkind and cruel remarks of Seng Han Thongs burning. There were many sites that gone to town burning the news. There were sites that did not do that. At least I know redbeanforum.com and mysingaporenews.blogspot did not. Don't make sweeping statements to tar and feather everyone. That is immature even when spoken in Parliament. So, does Lui Tuck Yew really think that netizens should regulate themselves or a body of netizens to regulate other bloggers? What a missed opportunity that we don't have ABS in action. To tackle the abusive bloggers is a full time job. Who would want to do it for free! Everyone is asking to be paid for doing national service. Let's be realistic. A reasonable voice may say a little to moderate the outcry. But would he/she take it on himself/herself to police the net without being paid? Come on, you must know how big cyberspace is and how much work needs to be done to trawl the sites. Ok, so what's next? More regulations and setting up cyberspace police squad? Or sending in the insurgents to attack abusive bloggers, fighting fire with fire? This will only define the war zone and set up a never ending feud between the nasties and the govt. Another option is to pay for the services of PR agencies to do the PR jobs. But that would be costly and may also backfired as anyone seen to be speaking for the establishment for the sake of it will be attacked or ignored. It is not an easy task to moderate the feelings of bloggers. And don't take the outburst so negatively. It is the purest and most brutal truth, a genuine feedback from the ground. Silencing them will only throw up the sweet and pleasant tooth. Is that what the govt wants to hear? To have the raw feelings out is better than just hearing the good stuff. Maybe paying some established bloggers to be the voice of reason to cool down temperatue could be a possibility. But it is a tricky task. Mishandling it would discredit the bloggers and fan the fire. You need good seasoned bloggers to handle this in the most acceptable way without offending the already angry mob. And it takes a lot of effort and devotion. Doing it for free? Fat hope. It is still a task or a role that has to be filled. And only respectable bloggers can do the job, carefully without ruffling feathers or rubbing the bloggers the wrong way. The heat can be lowered and cooled with the right effort. It is all about maturity! And not making sweeping statements to run down all and none.

Ouch!

Click the wrong button and lost my Contributor list! Got to re enter one at a time again. Anyone knows how to get it back?

Low Thia Khiang taken to task

It was reported in the ST that Low Thia Khiang had doubts on the effectiveness of the Jobs Credit Scheme in saving jobs. "He was promptly taken to task by six PAP MPs,...including labour chief Lim Swee Say.' Surprisingly several PAP MPs also questioned the same thing as Low Thia Khiang. But they were not taken to task. One thing which everyone is careful not to touch is the CPF. It seems that touching the CPF is taboo or will cause undue hardship to the hardlanders. And I too strongly disagree with Ngiam Tong Dow's suggestion that the CPF should be cut. I think he is too far away from the masses. Why can't we cut the CPF? Please ask the HDB or Mah Bow Tan.

Singaporean first or foreigners first

This is gearing up to be the new debate of the day. Several MPs are standing up to be heard in speaking up for a Singaporean first policy. It was never an issue till now. We used to hear things like foreigners are talented and here to help us. Why are we chasing them away if they are here to help us? Not very logical. Then there is also the brutal truth version. Singaporeans who cannot make it in such an ideal environment like paradise, to make money and a good life, deserved to be kicked aside. They just don't have it to make it in life. Let their places be taken over by the hungrier foreigners. Maybe we should compromise on this. Singaporeans, being less talented, can take over the cleaning jobs in food courts. The talented foreigners can run the country.

What is US$60b? It's only Madeoff!

Tony Tan reported that GIC was managing a fund of $450b and Temasek Holding managing a portfolio of $200b. These work out to be $650b. He also said that 7% was in cash and something like 30% in income paying investments. And we have outperformed the market! The market valuation of stocks worldwide has fallen by 42%. Our portfolio only lost 40% of its value. Not bad after taking some precautionary measures to trim down our investments in stocks and shares. So what is our paper loss to date. A 40% loss of $650n is $260n. But if we deduct the cash and other investment part, assuming 40%, then the sum invested in stocks and shares should be around $390b. A paper loss of 40% works out to be $156b. Still not a small sum of money. A little more than what Madoff has lost. But this is based on the above data and extrapolation. The actual amount loss, on paper, may be lesser. How much did we really lose? The number must be unspeakable.

Step aside Tan Kin Lian

We have two heroes coming in to help the investors in the minibond debacle. Professor Hans Tjio of NUS will oversee the process at Hong Leong Finance. At DMG & Partners Securities, Kim Eng Securities, OCBC Securities and UOB Kay Hian will be Hwang Soo Jin. Both "will not be personally involved in the resolution and settlement of individual complaints. 'They will provide MAS with regular updates on the progress of the financial institutions' complaints review and will highlight to MAS any shortcoming in their processes as well as any issues that require regulatroy follow up,' said the central bank." This is reported in Today paper. Tan Kin Lian's role is over. Now the heroes will step in to finish the job.

Workers clapped after being retrenched

This is the headline of an article in the old media, 'Somthing to clap about' by Lin YanQin in Today. Workers of Chin Heng Garment Factory still found something to clap about after being retrenched. They were initially unhappy and angry and feeling quite emotional about being out of job. Soon they were clapping when the severance package negotiated over a month was improved. The workers greeted the news by bursting into an applause. This is a very positive spin on a depressing news. And the workers' morale is high and bubbly and looking forward to more challenges in good spirit, like oxens.

Singapore's answer to save the world

Singapore went to Davos with a solution to save the world from another financial meltdown. It has diagnosed the cause of the current crisis to the low pay of regulators and administrators in charge of Wall Street and the financial institutions. The solution is simple, pay the administrators and regulators at least as much as the bankers and fund managers and the problem will not have happened. The underlying assumption, according to my understanding, is that you pay for good talents. By paying the administrators and regulators as much as the bankers and fund managers, the supertalents will become administrators and regulators. And if they are paid even more, then they will be better than the bankers and fund managers. Now, how much will be enough to pay these supertalents? The bankers and fund managers are being paid hundreds of millions with the top three getting billions at the peak of the market. But there is one problem that I noticed. These supertalents of bankers and fund managers were being paid so much and they could not stop asking for more and actually resorted to frauds to continue to demand more and more pay. Would they behave differently if they become administrators and regulators? Won't they be the same greedy and unscrupulous thieves again? One thing for sure. If this is our solution, we must put it into practice first to show the world it works. The minibond crisis and the rubbish dump stock market are indicators that our administrators and regulators are not being paid enough. Let's pay them as much as the bankers and fund managers first. And when our stock market shoots pass 4000 points and no more similar minibond crisis, then we can tell the world that we have done it. We can solve all kinds of problems by throwing money at the problems.

Who is more guilty?

Wall Street and the American corporate world are in a big mess. And the whole world is suffering the pain. Who is guilty or more guilty? At the moment only a handful of big wigs are caught with their pants down. No, they were not caught. They surrendered to the authority, confessed their own crimes. The authority was sleeping! Or were they sleeping with the thieves? The wonder of it all, the real criminals are all enjoying their ill gotten wealth without any sense of guilt and not guilty of any crimes. The real criminals are the regulators and administrators. They created and managed a flawed system! And the rest took a ride on the flawed system and benefitted from it. No crimes, just mismanagement. The thieves are stealing from an open till. So who is to be blamed? The regulators and administrators are pointing the fingers everywhere except themselves. Who is to regulate the regulators? Who is to guard the guards? When the administrators and regulators are cock enough to let flawed systems to operate and the thieves to take from the till legally, or without breaking the law or the rules, where is the crime? It is time to hang the regulators and administrators. They cannot find excuse that they are not paid as well as the thieves.

Pass the hats around please

We need to create more jobs. I don’t mean creating jobs like cleaners and chambermaids. I mean real jobs that pay reasonably well. There are three ways to go about it. One, with our huge reserves, more jobs can be created with the money available. We can create more seniors and deputies positions, eg senior or deputy President to the President or senior vice Presidents, deputy to the vice President, senior Perm Sec, deputy Perm Sec or deputy to deputy Perm Sec. We can also have senior mayors, deputy mayors, or even create new ones like governors and deputy governors. The people have already accepted the practice of seniors, so it should not be an issue. Precedents have been set. It is a good precedent. A second way is to pass the hats around. Stop the ridiculous practice of one person wearing 10 or 20 hats. Pass the hats around so that more people can wear one or two fat hats. The greedy practice of several hats on a small head or a small head that thinks it is very big is unhealthy. Ok, I must be careful about this as there are not many people that are fit to wear big hats or many hats. A third way, and this concerns the filthy rich oldies. Many of the oldies are so rich that even without the income from their jobs they will have enough money to last a few generations. Let them retire gracefully to enjoy their wealth, to see the world and smell the roses. And let the younger and hungrier people take over their jobs. After all many are so feeble that most of the time they were on sick leave or fail to turn up for meetings or for work. We can spread a little generosity around and cast the net wider to share the goodies.

Too much bad news!

This seems to be the complaint of the day. The old media is joining cyberspace in reporting bad news and more bad news. Now isn't that bad? It is time to report good news. And this is a sign of being responsible, to tell good ending fairy tales. How would the media react to this call of telling good news in bad times? Would they be challenged by their professionalism or their conscience? Should the journalists or anyone reporting on news, deliberately take on a one sided approach, to cook up good news for that happy feeling? To tell the tooth or to tell the truth? It seems that telling the tooth is a duty call. What kind of spin shall one put into it when job losses, wage freezes, cannot keep up with bills and debt payments are the order of the day? One way to approach it is to report on the lifestyles of the rich and famous and their parties and expensive taste. Forget about the hard luck cases. Those are losers and they deserved to be in those desperate situations. These are the people who skims to save 10c on their bus fare, try to whip up dinner for 4 for $10 or downgrade from drinking $200 a bottle wine to a $12 bottle of fermented grapes that are still drinkable. What a life. I hope writing on bad news does not become seditious.

Colossal pays and bonuses to go?

Is it just a sickness? With all the big financial institutions and corporations asking for millions of dollars from the govt to prevent bankruptcies, the CEOs in Wall Street are still paying themselves crazy. They take it as their dues, their just rewards for bringing in big businesses. Gary Goldstein, President and CEO of executive search group Whitney Partners, has this to say. 'It has become very corrupt...I've watched it over the years and everyone was taking their piece of the pie...and not paying attention to the end game, which is the little guy who ends up with all of these securities on their retirement accounts.' If these people have created real value or wealth, no one is going to protest. Have they? Their ingenuity in creating false wealth, doctoring of accounts, false businesses, supported by all the regulating agencies and the civil servants, have led to this world wide financial meltdown. And the best part is that they don't care and are continuing with their taking habits. It is part of the system, authorised, no fault, no crime and no guilt. Obama is furious and so are the Americans. They want to stop it but can't. The people are helpless while those in position to take continue to take. And the value of the stocks of many corporations hit bottom. No sweat. It is the small guys that are holding to the stocks thinking that it will see them through in their retirements. It is time to review the fat bonus scheme. It is the scheme of the thieves in power, to fatten their own pockets. Corporate honchos should tie their bonuses to the performance of the company as well as the value of their stocks. This must be fundamental to the health of the corporations and the wealth of the shareholders and the viability of the stock market. If stock prices are allowed to be manipulated by big funds and corporations do not care a dime whether it is going up or down, or if it is $20 or 20c, then the value of the stock is worth only the value of the paper it is printed. It is worthless. At the rate it is going, the stock market industry across the world will hit crisis situation just like the banking industry. Small investors will end up holding worthless pieces of papers. The compensation of corporate managers must be tied to the performance of the companies and stocks. This will ensure that they will bet their future on the well being of the corporations and stock value. Of course the flawed stock market mechanism must also be revamped to prevent massive sell down of stocks regardless of the value of the corporations. There must be responsibility and accountability! At the end of the day, when investors found themselves holding hoards of worthless papers, someone must be hanged!

Chingay Parade 2009 pictures

I have shot a few hundred pics of the Chingay Parade at the Padang. I will try to post as many of the pics here as possible over the next few weeks. My first set is a spread of the various groups of participants, both local and foreign performers. After this I will try to post a group each starting from the locals and ending with the guest performers. I have quite a bit of photos on the Thai, Filipinos, Indonesian, Japanese, Taiwanese, Korean and Indian participants. I could have a bit of others all mixed together. I was not able to cover all the other groups. I have seen some Europeans and Latin Americans if I am not mistaken. The Orchid Collection will temporarily be held back until this batch of Chingay pics runs out. Cheers and happy viewing.

Who formulated the Job Credit Scheme?

A big article was written today in the ST on the role and contribution of 5 talented young men and women in the Finance Ministry. They made submissions after submissions, simulations, computations to come out with this uniquely Singapore scheme to help employers during this economic recession. It was like a reduction in CPF contribution without a CPF cut. Their formulations went in and out of Tharman's office countless time before Tharman decided that that was it. In the process Tharman also gave his valuable inputs for the final product. It was an important piece of product that was key to the whole stimulus package. Now you see why the civil servants are very important as the main work horse of the govt. Without the civil servants, the govt is nothing or without the hands and legs, just a group of parliamentarians. The civil servants did all the major works and the politicians decide. In fact in many cases, the politicians decide first and the civil servants did the necessary. What kind of impact would it be if we change the civil servants and retain the politicians or if we change the politicians and retain the civil servants? Which is more dispensable? Ideally the two shall clap together.

Hire Americans and buy Americans

Obama is faced with a whole list of problems on his first day in office. And the first thing that irked him was the continued greed and irresponsibility in Wall Street. American financial CEOs are still paying themselves crazy in bonuses in times like this and when many of them are still being bailed out by the tax payers. It is time that minority shareholders start to claim back all the nonsensical bonuses paid to these CEOs including those in the past. They must be made to pay for the fiasco they have created. Many were highly irresponsible in their financial management of the organisations. Protectionism and giving jobs to Americans will also be a priority of Obama. Foreign workers will see their job opportunities cut or reduced. And many may have to go home. But hiring Americans has long been taking place in paradise. Maybe Obama should use us as a great example of hiring Americans. And he can also recommend that all the financial wizards of Wall Street who are jobless to hit direct to paradise where they will be welcomed. We definitely love the Americans, their skills, talents and high pay mentality. And they rob their organisations without anyone complaining.

True grit and true leadership

Seng Han Thong was badly torched and recovering in the hospital ward. Many would have been so depressed in his condition. But he did not. He had written a message to boost the morale of the workers in this depressing time. The message was encrypted in a Chinese New Year card he designed. "Mr Seng's message in the card read: 'Press on in the Year of the Oxen. Do not fear the opposing tides.' ...Mr Lim(Swee Say) described it as an example of how Singaporeans could exhibit 'positive energy' even in adversity. 'Even though he (Mr Seng) is recovering in hospital, he is also projecting his positive energy to the rest of us,' he said." This is what great leaders should possess, a strong spirit even in adversity, can be down but not out, and keep on standing up to the challenge.

The journalists have found a way around

While many are lamenting at the kind of news appearing in the old media, and many are wondering what is happening to the professionalism of the journalists, there is a glimmer of hope that things are not as dull as it appears to be. There may still be the coverage of pictures showing what the average Singaporeans may be doing, like walking to the market, hanging clothes etc, or there may be the great events like which celebrity is getting married or what theyare eating for dinner, there are still real gems in the midst of the papers. They have found their way around to write the conscience piece, the social justice piece, the wrongs of our society etc etc.. There is the art of not saying but saying, saying but not saying. Or another way of putting it, to say a little and let the rest of the story unfolds in the minds of the inquisitives. We have some ingenious reporting recently, very innocent and very ordinary. The reactions were far from ordinary, at times earth shaking. So do not underestimate the professionals. They know how to wield the mighty pen to create the impact intended. Journalism is not dead yet. The media, old or new, has a very important role to play in educating the masses, reporting what must be reported and keeping everyone informed of the good, the bad and the ugly. Responsible journalism just takes on a different guise. Just look out for the subtle messages.

Dismantling the walls of Elitism

Meritocracy has done us good. In it purest form, meritocracy is fair, devoid of discrimination of any dimension. Anyone who merits to rise the stratosphere deserves to be there. But there is no pure form of meritocracy. Intended or not, there are barriers that would not allow the ablest to rise to the top. Some are social and economic, some are political. Meritocracy protected by barriers intentionally erected to safeguard a small group of people will lead to a bad form of elitism. We are beginning to witness more and more barriers being erected to protect the elite in the name of meritocracy and making stratosphere their own playground, forever. The elite are not only keeping the troughs to themselves, they are feeding on many troughs at the same time when one or two troughs will be more than enough to make them fat. This is an extreme kind of greed and will not be good in the long run. Just like the end game in the animal farm, greed and elitism will eventually be a sore point that will lead to grievances and opposition, which will lead to suppression and open revolt. When would the people rise up to notice that such barriers are not in the people’s general interest and even offensive? When will the people think that such barriers should be dismantled to level the playing field, to allow democracy and meritocracy to really thrive in our socio political system, untainted by unwarranted barriers?