Strong wings and deep roots

Chok Tong is worried that we are losing some of our top students who went overseas for their studies. This is a drain on our small talent pool and it is important to bring them home to roost. In a way they are a consequence of our success, giving them strong wings to fly high and far, but not deep enough roots to stay put back home. Chok Tong is asking the schools to inculcate emotional values or bonds in the hope of keeping them with us. How much is emotional bonds anyway? The brighter and smarter the students, the clearer they see and understand the ethos of our society. It is all about how much, and not about emotions, sentiments or silly values like giving back to your country or serving the people. Everything is calculated in monetary terms here. There is no room for ties or intangibles. No free lunch, there is a price for everything, except compulsory National Service. Now who have been passing such values to the young? But what is the problem? What we lost we can easily be replaced with talents from China, India and neighbouring countries. And they are not only better talents, they are also more appreciative of what of the goodness of our country. They may be new here, with no emotional ties, no family ties, and short roots. But we know that they will develop all these that Singaporeans born and brought up here, with family ties, cannot. Singaporeans are ungrateful and unappreciative of what the govt have done for them. The migrants will be grateful and appreciative and will not go away for greener pastures. Is there any contradictions or any hypocrisies? Haven't we been very successful in buying foreign talents here? Now, why are Singaporeans running away? In numerical terms, for every Singaporeans that went away, we can bring in 100 or more. In hard cold numbers, in our calculative ways, we are net gainers. Where got problem? Soon we will have a strong migrant population in the majority, and bringing our country to a higher level of material success. PS. More pics of the Singapore River Festival in the blog link.

Notable quote by Gerard Ee

'Many social entrepreneurs do not understand that social enterprises are for profit. Some even feel guilty about it.' Gerard Ee Do Singaporeans understand the above statement? Or do they need further explanations on the purpose of social enterprises? They are set up for profit, yes to make profit. What charity, what helping the needy, what nonsense? There is no need to feel guilty about making profit. That is the reason for all enterprises, govt, social or charitable organisations. The rest of the reasons of how noble, how kind and compassionate, the need to help those who need help, are all a big bullshit. Ok, profit is not necessary bad. Profit is good, just like greed is good. But make profit for what or for who? Be greedy and more greedy, for what and for who? Now with so many professionals in it, they even coined the term venture philanthropy. They went in with the skills of well trained corporate executives and wielding knives as sharp as those of sushi chefs. Remember those organisations that collect a lot of money and were praised sky high that they were good? Even monks and priests are at it. If only they were not discovered and their dirty laundries washed in the open, they will continue to do what they knew best, and enjoy the perks of top class business executives. Today we have several pages of write ups in the ST glamorising the passionate and committed, and in tailored suit executives doing charitable work, helping the needy. I hope they were doing it not for profit. But what's wrong with that? They should not feel guilty about it if they were doing it for profit. I don't know how many of you will agree with my nonsense above?

The ridiculous nature of progress

Yes we are rich, very rich. Many people have gone pass the comfort zone and have time and money to be philanthropists. Actually I prefer this word to be spelt philantrophist. The piss sound in the first word doesn't do justice to the do gooders. Where am I heading? Oh yes, we now have excess money and energy to help more needy people. All our needy people are well taken of by the govt and the legions of charitable organisations in our midst. I do not know the statistics, but we could have more do gooders or charitable organisations per capita than any country in the world. What shall we do with so many good things? Spread them around, overseas, to help the world. And if that is not good enough, we can import poverty to live with us. This will give us more opportunities to explore our creativity and the compassionate goodness in us to help these needies. We must thank the importers of foreign workers for helping the do gooders in their cause. Let's import more foreign workers so that we can feed them and look after them. It is always a good thing to help others. Never mind if they came here in debt and without a job. We can all do our part to feed them. It is good for the soul. The MOM must be more generous in the issuing of WP and not go around chasing after them as illegals.

First brown General

The US took more than 200 years to welcome a black President. We took 44 years to produce a brown General. Not too bad actually. BG Ishak Ismail is the first Malay to be promoted to the general rank, at the age of 46. The world is changing for the better. Let's hope that he will beat a path for more able Malay soldiers to rise to higher ranks, and not because we need to promote them to fill up some quota or a public relations exercise. So far the reports on Ishak is quite commendable. As we move on, our Malay brothers and sisters should move on together as a people and share the progress of the nation. The able ones should take the lead and show the way.

Fake degrees in the Education Hub

We want to be the premier education hub of Asia. We want to attract hundreds of thousands of foreign students here to pursue their studies. We had a spate of frauds coming from the private school providers. Now we have more revelations of fake degrees being offered over the years, undetected. Undetected!!! My god! Could all these be avoided? Is it so difficult to weed them out before they even enrol the students? It cannot be that difficult than sending man to the moon. Alas, the squeaky clean and administratively efficient state is now no better than a third world country. How could we be an international education hub when such simple frauds like accreditation from reputable institutions can get pass so easily? It is definitely a case of negligent, no one or organisation being assigned to administer it. Another equivalent of selling toxic products. Come on Singapore, you can do much better than this, to allow such blatant frauds to exist right under your nose, Terribly disappointing. Exactly like the motor insurance fraud. Nobody's child, nobody's problem. Not my problem. Soon we will be known as an island of super first world infrastructure but operated by third world conmen and tricksters. This is a reputation we cannot afford to live with. Rip Van Winkle is still enjoying his nice nap.

2 more pics for viewing pleasure

Stop crying to papa and mama

There was this little tiff between Lionel De Souza and TOC of which the former complained to MDA about the contents in the latter's forum, claiming that the postings were harmful, bordering on perdition and sedition. MDA has made an official reply to the complaint stating that not everything or everyone should go crying father and mother to the authority. If anyone is not happy with the content, speak to the forum owner or moderator first. And MDA will only take action if the content is serious and damaging. Otherwise, grow up. The internet is there and will be there and MDA will continue to handle it with a light touch. Bravo, MDA!

Property sales and prices going up

These must be good news. And the better news is that more of the buyers are HDB upgraders, 46% of them. The actual number is 673 for the 2Q of 2009. It is good to note that HDB upgraders are able to move on to the private property market, thanks to the higher resale values of their HDB flats. The other side of the coin is that with resale prices going up, prices of HDB flats, new and old, will also move up accordingly. While the upgraders have the benefit of owning flats that are appreciating in price, the new buyers, those who have yet to buy a flat will have something to worry about. And with their income not keeping pace with the rising prices, the new flats that they are going to buy are going to cost them more. But they should not worry as there will be more new flats being built in the new towns. And if they cannot afford 4 rm flats, go for cheaper 3 rm or 2 rm flats. They must tailor their expectation according to their income level. This is only a reasonable advice. Would we reach a stage when our young graduates could only look forward to buying a new flat in a new town, and probably a 3 rm one as their income will not be enough for the bigger flats? We used to have graduates being seen as someone who have made it and on a career path that will lead to a better lifestyle. With the rising HDB prices keeping up with market prices, future graduates should attune themselves by lowering their expectation of bigger HDB flats or private properties in their first buy. Things are different now, and they got to get use to the higher cost of everything.

Singapore River Festival

Just a few pics of the Singapore River Festival that I shot.

Tan Kah Kee Station

How can we called an MRT station Tan Kah Kee Station? Who is Tan Kah Kee to deserve such an honour? Never heard of him or his contribution. A better name for that station should be Queen Elizabeth Station. This will remind everyone of the royal neighbourhood of Duchesses and Kings and royalties. It will also remind Singaporeans of the great contributions of our colonial rulers. These are the legacies of the neighbourhood according to Leslie Raj. Actually I don't care a damn about the royalties. To the many ignoramus, the piece of land which Hwa Chong sits was donated by the philantrophist Tan Kah Kee. That piece of land is as large and as far as the eyes can see. For those who only know the value of money, please count how many condominiums can be built on that piece of land, real prime estate. Tan Kah Kee's contribution was more than that, if one bothers to read the history of Chinese High School and Hwa Chong. Their existence came about by the spirit of the community to break the stranglehood of secondary education for our children when the British govt refused to educate them but only at primary school level to be clerks and office boys. The community stood up, led be Tan Kah Kee, to build the first secondary school for the Chinese community in this island. And Tan Kah Kee donated his treasured piece of land on which the school stood today. That is the legacy of Tan Kah Kee and Hwa Chong. And his contribution is not just in and around Hwa Chong. Tan Kah Kee is most deserving to be honoured by having the station named after him.

HDB lease buybacks is on

The first batch of HDB owners have opted for the HDB lease buyback scheme yesterday. The scheme will ensure that they will have a roof over their heads and an annuity payout for the rest of their life. By this scheme, these people would have some form of income in their old age, a replica of what CPF annuity scheme and minimum sum scheme were trying to do. So, does it mean that now these people do not need to buy annuity scheme or have their CPF locked up in the minimum sum scheme? To continue to retain their money in the CPF will not be accepted as good faith. People will now see the retention of CPF minimum sum in a different and negative light. The money must be returned to these folks as they have made provisions for their retirement and old age. To claim that the amount from the lease buyback scheme is insufficient and the need to continue to hold back to the minimum sum is anything but atrocious. No amount is enough if the reasoning shall go this way.

A proactive and caring govt - A big thank you

In the 60s and 70s, most of the population were living in wooden huts, squatters and cubicles in the city. Then came the govt to the rescue. They built cheap and affordable HDB flats at less than $10k in Queenstown for the people. When the people get richer in the 70s/80s, the govt started to build better and bigger flats, 5rm, executive and HUDC flats for the people. Then came 90s, people getting more prosperous. And the govt was pleased. They started to build condominiums for the people. All still quite affordable. Now comes 2000s, what happens, flats are now too expensive. People cannot afford to buy bigger flats. So comes the proactive and caring govt. It starts to build smaller flats, 2/3 rms and even 1 rm rental flats. The people are so lucky. They can always downgrade. Always a roof of their choice to befit their pocket. Very affordable.

Medisave - the magic cure

It is reported in the ST today that chronic disease patients managed their health better when allowed to tap on Medisave. In a study by the MOH, 'Diabetics, for one, experienced improved diabetic, lipid and blood pressure control over the two years... 46% had optimal control by the end of last year. And nearly 4 in 5 diabetics with initial poor control, had made improvements by the second year....As for hypertensive patients, up to 85% of those with poor blood pressure control made improvements by the end of last year.' These fantastic findings were due to they 'being allowed to tap on their Medisave for outpatient treatment.' Wow, Medisave must be a wonder drug. The MOH must allow more patients to dip into Medisave to improve their health. I was involved in a free health screening in one of the constituencies in the North. We were surprised that despite being free, and so many volunteer doctors, very few people came forward. So some of our volunteers went to one of the aged homes nearby to encourage the inmates to come forward. They were scolded by the oldies. Their reason, screening was free. But what about the followup and medicine that were prescribed after the free screening? They could not afford to pay for them. So they rather stayed put and gave the free screening a pass. The moral of the story is have money have good health. No money, poor health.

The greatest con game

This game is invented by the fund managers. They gamble with OPM, other people's money, and call it investing. When they placed a winning bet they pat themselves on their back and proclaimed how clever they were. When they lost, they still charged the investors a management fee. They cannot lose. Just like the doctors and lawyers, whether one is cured or otherwise, wins or loses a case, they are paid handsomely. But fund managers outdo the other professions by the way they measure their performance. They have a shifting or relative target, mark to market. If the market makes $1m and they make $1.2m, they are better than the market. If the market loses $1b and they lose $900m, they outperformed the market. In both instances the investors must thank them for being smarter than the market, and even reward them. The other trick which they invented is selective data. Choose a time frame or a specific area that makes money, just talk about it and ignore the rest that register losses. Or do some window dressing on a particular day of the month for book closing. Push up the prices before market closes to look profitable or lose lesser. I want to be a fund manager.

Is building 2 and 3 rm flats a sign of progress?

How many of you agree that building more 2 and 3 rm flats is a sign of progress? To me it is the clearest indicator that we are going down, getting poorer as a people. For those who are living in private properties, good luck to them. They are the people who are living well and progressing. What on earth is happening that we keep crowing about how rich we are and how much reserves we have and we are now launching a new batch of smaller and smaller flats? The uplifting of the lives of the people must be across the board, not just for the elite and the well endowed. As I have mentioned earlier, we went through a phase when everyone is thinking of buying the next bigger flat. There were hopes and aspirations. HDB even had to put into the back burner its building of smaller flats. The aspirations of the people is for a better and comfortable life, better and bigger housing. Today, the sentiment is reversed. A number of people are thinking of downgrading and many are actually downgrading. Even Wally Buffett is thinking of downgrading. And at the same time, people are buying their 10th or 11th property for their grandchildren or grandchildren's children. The divide is getting wider and wider. Many factors contributed to the people being unable to afford better housing. We all know why. Land is the most precious part of our limited resources. And if we keep on building to sell to foreigners and leaving the 2 and 3 rm flats for out citizens, will this lead to our own people being displaced or feel displaced in their own country? Are we for the betterment of our people or foreigners? What is the point of selling land and properties to foreigners, more profits for what? PS. Wally, the hell in Jalan Kukoh is not just the structural design. It is social, the people who are being displaced, who are desperate and with a mentality that can be dangerous to you and your family. Not all are like that, but all you need is a few and your life will be turned into hell. And in this modern slum of our first world city, the proportion of desperados are more than in other areas.

All bridges lead to JB. Why?

More opposing voices are being heard against the 3rd bridge. I can understand the people of JB for not wanting any bridge that does not go their way. I can understand all those with vested interests in JB, businesses, properties etc to want everything to go to JB. A 3rd bridge will only divert people and business activities away. But have they thought of the consequences of everything going into JB? Do they want a KL or our CBD in JB, when the place is jammed packed with vehicles and people and pollution? Could they not see any merits in diverting away traffic, people and vehicles that are not bound for JB, through other avenues, and bridges? Yes, the 3rd will not benefit JB directly but more for the east coast towns like Mersing, Kota Tinggi, Desaru, Pulau Tioman and all the islands, and also Kuantan and perhaps Trengganu and Kelatan. But JB will benefit from a cleaner and less congested city, less through traffic, less enforced travellers that must go through JB short of alternatives. The Federal Govt is right in looking at the big picture. Who will have the final say? I think not Najib. Another stillbirth.

Make yourself useful and work for life

Yesterday a Raymond Lo wrote to the ST to encourage Singaporeans to make themselves useful and they can be guaranteed of life time employment. His role model was LKY, who he quoted, at 86, 'MM Lee did, to a gruelling round of visits to Malaysia, meeting important personalities, gauging opinions and cementing ties. He has my respect and admiration because he does it for Singapore's well being.' In the same page a Kelvin Tan wrote to complain about the plight of his 81 year old father who was literally a football, being kicked all over the place and no one interested in his well being. The old man could not qualify for the Eldershield and need to be certified as 'disabled' to get help from the Interim Disability Assistance Programme for the Elderly(Idape). And it needs a simple process to confirm that he could not eat, dress, bathe or go to the toilet, move around and transfer from bed to chair. Kelvin Tan was able, and made many calls only to be pushed around too, with no solution to his father's plight. He was very disappointed. What is the moral of the two stories? 1. One must be useful. 2. One must be your own boss and have a job that is only yours, to work at your own time, to decide what you want to do and not to do. 3. No one there to breathe down your neck, to check on you and ask you to hurry. Why so slow? 4. The job must pay so well that you die die still want to work. How many of the taxi drivers would want to work to their 80s if they have a choice? How many cleaners, clerical staff, executives, mechanics, technicians or even professionals would want to work till their 80s if there is someone younger and fiercer yelling at them at every little mistakes they make? I would like to emulate LKY if I have that kind of job, or even be his personal blogger for the rest of my life for a pittance of a minister's pay. To be real, find something to do and enjoy doing it, like blogging or photography, and make yourself happy. No one to boss around with you and you decide what, when, where and how to do it. Happy blogging people. Forget about emulating LKY. Forget about emulating Nathan or Chok Tong. Find your own peace. But don't end up as a football to be kicked around, useless and unwanted.

Revelation of the MPs

In the follow up to the changes to the political system that is akan datang, ST has a full page report of the views of the ruling MPs on these changes. And the revelation is quite enlightening. Teo Ser Luck said this, 'We will be thinking in terms of national interest, and less about putting things across because of political points.' He was referring to the Govt Parliamentary Committees which were trying to serve as a check on govt policies in the absence of a significant opposition presence in Parliament. Both Ser Luck and Amy Khor probably share the same view that it would be a step back if PAP MPs were to censor their views just to toe the party line. For all these years, how much of the MPs views were party lines or to score political points and how much were based on national interests? The two positions may or may not be in conflict, but at times they could. The other interesting quote from Amy is that, 'When a PAP MP criticises govt policies, he or she is not doing it just for criticism's sake or playing to the gallery.' Well said, Amy. How many had been guilty of criticising for criticism's sake or playing to the gallery? Anyway, what is the point of having opposition views when they have no right to vote against the bills? Opposing views for the sake of opposing views or playing to the gallery of the public eyes? Can this be all there is to it? This is best answered by Charles Chong who said, 'Currently, MPs can say whatever they want,...The Party Whip - applies only during voting.' This simply means that the MPs can make all their opposing views, but when come to voting they must vote for the party line. Doesn't this smack of hypocrisy? When one is so against a policy but must vote for the policy? What is not very enlightening in the report is the comment by Dr Gillian Koh. She said, 'Gone are the days when opposition can say there are so few opportunities. No longer would that excuse be there.' She was referring to the increase of single ward seats from 9 to 12. Hmmm, what kind of logic is that? Didn't she know that once all the seats were single wards? So it is a great concession after taking away all the single seats and now say you can have 3 more from 9? Better say a big thank you to the govt for being so generous and magnanimous.

Putting a lease and tag on thieves and cheats

Obama is going to do it. Make no mistake about it, the thieves and cheats of the corporate and financial world must be leased and tagged and kept under observation. They have committed horrendous crimes against the innocent public and minority shareholders for too long, robbing, stealing and cheating under the guise of financial engineering, clever accounting and selling toxic products that were no better than snake oils. And practically none, only a handful, has been put behind bars. And who is to be blamed? The govt and regulators of course. They were either sleeping or in cahoot with these thieves, sharing their kickbacks. The Obama Administration is going to take the lead, to show the way, that a crime is a crime no matter how well conceived, how legally documented and how sophisticatedly worded and looking so real. The financial system has been at the brink of being ruined by these thieves and cheats. And one bunch is still happily singing and whistling as they go about cheating through a game that they cannot lose by sheer advantage of financial power and a set of rules of the game that are in their favour. I am referring to the hedge funds and how they are courted by stock market operators to participate in the market, to give a false sense of an active and healthy market, but at the perils of the small investors and shareholders. Obama shall not stop at just the corporate thieves and cheats, but also the hedge fund operations. Taking advantage of arbitraging is acceptable. Taking advantage of a trading system by its system weaknesses is unacceptable. And the fault does not lie just in the hedge funds but also the system administrators for creating a faulty or flawed system, an uneven playing field. Obama shall show the world how the bad systems, sold to the world as the best and workable systems, are really a scam, and let the little administrators around the world wake up to their follies of blindly following Wall Streets and the dictations of the big fund managers on how the system should be, of course to enable them to participate and exploit to their benefits. Just hope Obama is not bundled out as the forces stacked against him is huge and powerful.

From hot heads to wise old men

We have progressed over the last 50 years, and in two months time we will be celebrating 50 years of self government. During the early years of nation building, many of the ministry and dept heads were young and hot headed task masters. They howled and they growled to get things done. They were intolerant of mistakes and heads would roll at the smallest of errors. They demanded the best and no ifs and buts. In a way these were brash and rash men in a hurry to get things done. The room for errors were small. There were heads being given the boots for sending their peons to buy lunch or lottery tickets. Today, as we celebrate our manhood as a nation, we can see the change to a more mature people, civil and graceful. Mistakes were accepted as part and parcel of a job. No risk no mistakes. Big risk big mistakes. No sweat, another day's job. In a way we have grown to be kinder and more forgiving, a sign of maturity and age. We have arrived as a rich and graceful people with plenty of botok on the face, full of forgiveness and compassion for the people. No more hot heads in charge, but plenty of Yodas.