Ming Yi is out of jail

The monk Ming Yi is out of jail and under house detention. Is he still a monk or has he been derobed? Monkhood is open to all, criminals and non criminals. It is a place to seek repentence for wrong doings. So, shall he be derobed and not be given a chance to seek repentence in the solitary life of a monk? With religious people getting closely involved in society and social works, and collecting big money, and with many self anointed or self appointed priests and monks, is there a need for a regulatory body to remove the criminals in them? Oops, how can criminals be removed from becoing religious people when they have turned over a new leaf, to be good, to seek God's forgiveness? But there are those who are hiding under the facade of the holy orders to cheat and swindle the innocent and naive believers. How should these hustlers or crooks be dealt with? Quite a complex situation. To make things simpler, in the case of Ming Yi and Father Kang, are both still in their previous status as a monk and priest or should they remain in their orders?

Medals for the Philippines police

With more facts and evidence in the open, Aquino should seriously consider awarding the Police Chief and his SWAT team a medal... for Stupidity. The Police Chief should get a higher award, Medal for Stupidity of the Highest Order. In the public inquest he was asked why he didn't accede to the simple request from the ex police officer. His reply was a rigid text book version 1.01, that if he gave way, more officers will repeat the act of holding hostages to make demands. How ridiculous could this be. Even a machine could be more flexible and think better. And for the police officers running around the hijacked bus wielding their sledge hammers that could do no damage to the bus windows, did they know that the hijacker could spray his M16 at the hostages and finished them off in 5 secs? And they were happily hammering away as if they got the whole day to do so. The fact that the hijacker was willing to talk, to release hostages said a lot about his lack of intent to kill the hostages. And the fact that after all the messing around, many hostages were still unhurt and alive is proof that he was not really interested in killing them. Medals of Stupidity shall be part and parcel of the awards of any country and be conferred to the well deserved recipients when necessary.

What is appealing about the Abdul Malik arrest?

He blogged about burning Vivian, the Minister. He called on the people to vote out the govt. He was arrested for inciting violence. And cyberspace is on fire with many voicing support for Abdul Malik. I must say that the word ‘burn’ is a very sensitive word here. We kind of developed a phobia for burning politicians. Bloggers are well advised not to use such a word in their blogging. I don’t know if Abdul Malik’s call to vote out the govt is against any law. Or could it be a call that can only be uttered during a general election? What is important here is to look at Abdul Malik himself and ask if he is a terrorist, someone trying to incite violence, or is he just a blogger, like many bloggers, including me, spurting generalization and at times nonsensical and provocative comments. My only concern is not to treat bloggers as terrorists or dangerous elements out to destroy the social fabric of our country.

What is appalling about the commando assault?

Some wonder why the hooha over the bungled commando assault by the Philippines police. Many who have watched the drama live on TV would have the same impression as well, without any prompting, that it was an amateurist work of art. And the truth is revealing itself to confirm that it was a bungle, nothing less. Even the Philippines Govt admitted it outright and calling for a thorough impression. What is appalling about the whole episode is the total disregard of the lives of the tourists. That was the impression that I got. The police were running around the bus in full view of the kidnapper and that itself is the most provocative act. You could see that killing the kidnapper was their only concern. Now with the truth disclosed that the kidnapper was no terrorist, no hard core criminal or robber or extremist, it is much harder to swallow that the incident ended in so many death, including the death of the kidnapper. He was an unhappy man. No, he was a model cop that was unjustly dismissed or framed up. At least that was his version of the story. Would such a man who was demanding for an investigation and probably a reinstatement of his job become a killer? His demands were proof that he wanted his job back, with no intention to kill. And who would want to kill him and let to the killing of the innocent tourists? Why couldn't they appease him with an investigation to his dismissal and settle his grievance later, saving the lives of the tourists? The priority, it seemed, was to apprehend or kill the kidnapper. The lives of the tourists did not matter all. The tourists were just calafares in a police and robber movie. Donald Tsang tried the whole day to get in touch with Aquino but in vain. They did not want Aquino to speak to Donald Tsang. And when Aquino appeared on TV the same day and the day after, he was all smiling with no hints of sadness that so many innocent lives were lost for nothing. And now they are still going to investigate the dead cop's dismissal, which was what the dead cop wanted. And there were many pictures of the cops involved in the botched operation taking photos with the bullet ridden bus as the backdrop. It was all like fun, a picnic. These pictures are now circulating in the internet. I have seen several of them. All the police men and women were smiling like they had just completed a movie shooting and celebrating for a job well done. That itself would tell what was important and what was not to them. It is appalling and disgusting, really.

My National Day Inputs

1. Bring down the price of public housing. Remember it is the citizens that have to pay and pay. Paying for a life time for a public flat is a life sentence. 2. Make sure that all citizens, especially NS men, be eligible to buy a HDB flat. Make it a right attached to NS. If not, what’s the point of NS? And worst, new citizens who have not done NS are eligible to buy HDB flats. 3. Bring down the cost of medical services and hospitalization fees. 4. Bring down the cost of public transport. 5. Stop the mad population growth. It is a vicious cycle that will lead to doom. Nah, nobody will listen.

One happy problem out of the way

Singaporeans are now all smiling with the prices of their HDB flats going higher by the days. And with this good feeling of becoming millionaires and near millionaires, they should all be very grateful to the HDB and the govt for their windfalls. For those singles, young professionals etc who are not eligible to buy a HDB flat, just accept your fate or migrate to a place where housing is cheaper. And being professionals, they are in demand and can always find good employment elsewhere. And don't worry, their absence will not be felt as there are millions of foreigners waiting to become new citizens and buy HDB flats. Bon voyage!

More concessions

While the anger has still to subside, and the benefits yet to come, more reasons were given to explain and justify how fair and good the transport fare hike under the distance based system is. Everyone, or every article or speech heard is that it is a better system. Better for who? I read a small column in the ST saying that NSF man's train pass cost $50 now instead of $48. And it gets a bigger concession than before. Heh heh. This sounds like HDB, bigger subsidy. Or Singapore Sales, big discount. I think they should mark up the price higher and announce higher discount. That will sound even more impressive, 70% discount! The plain fact is that students and seniors are paying more. And these categories of people are not income earners or mainly small income earners. The rich seniors will be so rich that they will be driven around. So big concession good ah? Good reason to explain away the fare hike?

The Philippines commando assault

Against one gunman holding hostages in a tourist bus, the Filipino commandos launched an assault against the gunman who was a disguntled ex police officer. They killed him and at the same time killed 8 Hongkong tourists and wounded several others. They think they are Rambos or Israeli commandos? Or there are more to it than just a simple trigger happy troops thinking they are Hollywood heroes? Hongkong should put a ban on their tourists visiting Philippines for a year and demand compensation and an apology from the Filipino govt. The assault was not only uncalled for but badly executed.

Apparently good news

With the high cost of COEs and cars, many Singaporeans are still able to afford 2 or 3 cars. The way it is reported, it seems so easy to own cars. And this is good news as it reflects how wealthy Singaporeans are. They have the dollars, and money is plentiful. There is a small happy problem though. Not enough car parks. And the car owners are complaining. Heh heh. Now here's the trick. You know what happened to the problem of overnight parking? Not enough car parks right? The solution is so simple. They kena pay double for overnight parking, in every car park, empty, half full or over parked. Now I can see the brilliant solution going to be enacted. But no need to worry lah. Only the car owners would have to pay a bit more. Double the $90 it is only $180 pm. Cheap, cheap, cheap! When the roads are congested, make the motorists pay to use the road. When car parks are congested or ful, increase parking charges to reduce the number of cars in the car parks. Then motorists can park more easily. I am beginning to think like a genius.

Corruption of Power

I heard in the news that Deutsche Bank has been allowed to conduct Dark Pool operations in the Hongkong Stock Exchange. This is as good as allowing big time drug dealers to conduct drug business with approval from an authority that is tasked to apprehend drug traffickers. The Exchange has a responsibility to ensure that all trading activities are transparent so that all parties big and small are privy to such activities. Now it is allowing the big boys to conduct activities that small traders are not supposed to know. Why don't they take a share as part of the drug syndicate? They too can make money selling drugs. Does it mean that the authority is above the law and can violate the law to its advantage? If this is not corruption of power, then what is? The only place when the authority can commit murder and get away with it is paradise. God is the biggest murderer, killing at his fancy, wanton killing of all living things during the big flood. And he is believed to be the most forgiving and kind. No one wants to tell him that he is a murderer, or no one dares to. So God walks around with a halo on his head like he is so pure and innocent, above the law. Oh, he is the law. Corruption of power is corruption of power. It cannot be otherwise.

Who's talking?

Quote by Michael Richardson, visiting senior research fellow at the Institute of South East Asian Studies. If America fails to send the carrier into the Yellow Sea with South Korea, it will embolden hardliners in China and set a precedent that will be widely interrpeted in the region as a sign of US weakness. Below is a quote by Redbean by substituting America with China If China fails to keep the American carrier from the Yellow Sea, it will embolden hardliners in America and set a precedent that will be widely intrepreted in the region as a sign of China weakness. Reading the two quotes it is obvious what arrogance of power is all about. To the Americans, sending their warships to someone's front porch is not provocation but to tell the other party that America is the big power. China just have to accept it. To the Chinese, it is provocative and they will not be intimated by the Americans and will tell the Americans to back off from their front porch. And they are going to stand up to the Americans now that they are able to. Then to the Americans and westerners, China is the aggressive party. Of course many WOGs and anglophiles will say yes, yes, America must send their warships into the Yellow Sea.

Buy to profit versus buy to stay

The speculators, investors and developers are happy that property prices are up. And with limited land, the formula in investing in properties here is a sure win formula. Foreigners and swarming into our shores to swipe up whatever they can get with clean money and money to be cleaned. It is a happy story. Speculators and developers are in the property business to make money. Our citizens buy properties to stay, with a few exceptions in the speculator category. The respectable word is investors. Who do the speculators and developers made their money from? Of course from those who need to buy a roof over their heads. In the end, the people who needed a place to stay, a home here, will have to pay double, triple or quadruple for a roof over their heads. And this is good. Our residents paid through their noses for something that cost so little but to enrich the speculators and foreign investors. Who ends up the winner and who the suckers? And some jokers said don’t worry, when the demand is high, they will build more to manage the bubble. With our limited supply of land against an unlimited supply of money from abroad, who is going to call the shot? Oh, don’t worry, we can build many Towers of Babel. I don’t know whether the guy up there has anything to say about this.

Singaporeans must not sell their HDB flats

This is a serious call. Never, never sell your HDB flat! Yes it will appreciate in value at the way things are moving. But that is not the main concern. Many Singaporeans think that they could reap a handsome profit by selling their flats, maybe a couple of hundred thousand which could buy them the new car, the holidays, that new wardrobe or to splash around for a while with the new found wealth. This call may come too late for some who had already done that and live to regret it. The problem is that once the flat is sold, even with the same money untouched, will not be able to buy another similar. The price would have run away. And how could those who splurged on their profits and ended up with lesser money in their CPF afford another similar flat? The only people that may think of selling for a quick profit are those that already have alternative accommodation and have no need to buy another flat. On the other hand, those whose incomes are increasing substantially may want to sell and upgrade, assuming they could afford better housing. Once again, those who are thinking of a quick profit to feel rich for a while, better not try. There is no turning back and you will only be worst off than before. That's how some ended up living in the parks and beaches.

Good news for HDB and property owners again

New MRT line driving property boom in Bukit Panjang. COV $120k for 5rm and at least $30k for the rest. Singaporeans are getting richer again, without having to work for it. Just sit on the property and ask for higher price and they will get it. For those who cannot buy HDB flats, pray hard that the bubble will burst. But this will not happen as the price inflation is carefully managed and everyone can afford one, be it 1rm, 2rm or bigger. Everytime there is an increase in $100k, it means someone will have to work another 10 years for nothing just to pay for it. We are a country of happy property owners.

How real are polls and reports?

Singapore is the most desired country for migration and its population could go up by 200% if those who wanted to come are allowed to come. But the US is still the most preferred country to migrate to. Wow, we are number one again. If one ask anyone from a third world poor country if they want to migrate to a first world country, would they say no? If the survey were to be conducted in India or China, at least 1% would say they want to come to Singapore and we would have 20 million instant citizens. If the survey were to ask the respondents about Australia and that there is no racist policy to keep them out, at least 50 million each from India and China would be there in no time. So how much good can we attach to a survey like this? And of course as been pointed out, if 10 million want to come here, our population will be inflated by 200%. If 30 million want to go to the US, its population will only go up by 10%. In percentage term the US is less favoured than us. It is like surveying 5 people and claim that 100% of the respondent say yes.

So, littering by fliers is ok?

If the ST is the official mouthpiece of the govt, then littering by fliers is ok. I say if. Of course ST is not the mouthpiece of the govt and its position is not necessarily the position of the govt. It just exercises its right to express its view and position on any issue it wants. This morning's editorial on littering by housing agent is blaming the Singaporeans for being too well taken cared of, a spoilt lot. It asked, why can't the heartlanders just pick up the fliers and put them into the dustbins? Let's see, 3 or 4 fliers daily, at different times, will mean that the heartlanders will have to perform this cleansing daily a few times if they did not want the flier/litter to adorn their entrance. Why should heartlanders be responsible for clearing the fliers left by someone else? They are not simply nuisance as I have said. What if all the spoilt heartlanders just let the fliers accumulate in the corridors? It is not a matter of just the cleaners to come cleaning. It is a slum in the making. The heartland will become another third world slum, with litters everywhere. Is this the standard that we want, permitting litters to be strewn everywhere? Heh heh, I love the idea.

Why need foreign talent in finance?

Look at the three local banks that we have, big strong and financially sound. These banks were built, brick by brick, under conservative and traditional principles and practices of banking. They grow in a slow pace, under strict regulations and scrutiny. Their conservative and traditional practices have lagged them behind the multinational American and European banks, the Citis, Goldmans, the Morgans, the Lloyds, Barclays and the UBS. These American and European banks grew rapidly during the period of liberalisation and deregulations. But then many grew big fast and quick and went pop fast and quick as well. In banking and finance, the hare and tortoise race is still applicable in many ways. With the benefits of hindsight, the Americans and Europeans are trying to rein in the free wheeling days when high finance is nothing more than a casino and selling snake oils. Liberalisation and deregulation were what they demanded and what they got, and the whole system nearly collapsed with trillions lost across the world. The situation is best summed up by an article in the ST by Howard Davis, former Chairman of Britain’s Financial Services Authority and now director of the London School of Economics. He quoted Andy Haldane from the Bank of England, …‘Only when markets were deregulated and liberalised from the early 1970s onwards did finance once again leap ahead…. He argues that much of the apparent growth in value added has in fact been illusory, based on increased leverage, excess trading and banks writing deep out of the money options, for example, credit default swaps, a US$60 trillion (S$80 trillion) market in 2007....What all these strategies had in common…was that they involved banks assuming risk in the hunt for yield – risk that was often disguised because it was parked in the tail of the return distribution.’ The era of fool’s gold may be over and America and Europe may not see its heyday sooner. But fear not, for if America and Europe ‘over constrain the finacial sector, risk may migrate outside the regulatory frontier, where it will be harder to measure and monitor.’ And this is where Singapore can step in. The rejects from the American and European financial industry are welcomed here to do their damages. Our local banks is in need of these foreign talents to spurt growth, to grow as big as Citibank, Lehmans, Goldmans, Morgans, the Bears and Stearns and the likes. Shall we or shall we not welcome these foreign talents into our financial industry? They will bring growth and innovation and boost our productivity and bottom line practically overnight. We don’t have to wait a millenium to grow our local banks to super banks. They can be super banks with the foreign expertise and their innovative banking practices and writing off debts. Banks need to take risk, high risk, and operate like casinos if they want rapid growth and high yield. With our greed for instant growth, like our infamous instant tree formula, we have no choice but to embrace these foreign talents with open arms. PS. Below are the causes of the financial crisis listed in Wikipedia. You can actually tick those that are applicable and happening here to see the risk that we are exposed. 1 Background and causes(2007/8 financial crisis) * 1.1 Growth of the housing bubble * 1.2 Easy credit conditions * 1.3 Sub-prime lending * 1.4 Predatory lending * 1.5 Deregulation * 1.6 Increased debt burden or over-leveraging * 1.7 Financial innovation and complexity * 1.8 Incorrect pricing of risk * 1.9 Boom and collapse of the shadow banking system * 1.10 Commodities boom * 1.11 Systemic crisis * 1.12 Role of economic forecasting

US carriers the perfect targets

'Setting the stage for a possible conflict, Beijing has grown increasingly vocal in its demands for the U.S. to stay away from the wide swaths of ocean — covering much of the Yellow, East and South China seas — where it claims exclusivity. It strongly opposed plans to hold U.S.-South Korean war games in the Yellow Sea off the northeastern Chinese coast, saying the participation of the USS George Washington supercarrier, with its 1,092-foot (333-meter) flight deck and 6,250 personnel, would be a provocation because it put Beijing within striking range of U.S. F-18 warplanes. The carrier instead took part in maneuvers held farther away in the Sea of Japan. U.S. officials deny Chinese pressure kept it away, and say they will not be told by Beijing where they can operate. "We reserve the right to exercise in international waters anywhere in the world," Rear Adm. Daniel Cloyd, who headed the U.S. side of the exercises, said aboard the carrier during the maneuvers, which ended last week. But the new missile could undermine that policy.' The above is extracted from an article by ERIC TALMADGE, Associated Press. The article is about China's new missile technology that is specifically developed to take on the American aircraft carrier group that is proving to be a menace in the East China Seas. The Americans have enjoyed naval and air superiority over all nations for a long time. This superiority is now being negated by the Chinese missiles that have the precision to knock out an aircraft carrier. It would be a cheap missile against a big, high value and worthy targets in terms of lives and machinery. Going down with an aircraft carrier will be several thousand crews and several hundreds of aircraft. A good bargain definitely. The Americans will now have to be very careful pushing their sitting ducks in the waters around China. They will come within the range of these high precision missiles designed specially to take them out of the equation. It is no more an invincible task force. It is a lame duck! The arrogance of American raw power has met its nemesis.

Pavlov’s Law in action

Pavlov is famous for his experiment in substituting a stimulus to elicit a desired response. Animals can respond for instance to a bell or a light and salivate as if it is responding to a food stimulus. After reading the papers these few days, I can relate to how we train our young to respond to money as a stimulus. Little school children were given tickets to watch YOG programmes but have to sign an undertaking to forfeit a $5 deposit if they did not turn up. If we keep training our children to respond to this money stimulus, soon their minds will respond to it in a predictable manner. It will be very effective when they become adults. Do not litter or you will be fined. Our streets will be cleaner. We can save a lot of time and trouble teaching children to behave responsibly as a rightful thing, as an ethical thing, as a good thing. Just use the money stimulus will do. Efficient and effective! No need to explain and explain on the whys. Pavlov called this kind of reaction as conditioning. The circus, the zoos and bird parks around the world also use this method very effectively to train animals to behave in the way they want them to.

We have overcome

Asia Insurance Building was the tallest building. Bukit Timah Road was the longest Road. Two battalions armed with 303 rifles and a few guns, we used them for ceremonial salutes today, were all we had. We had 3 tiny reservoirs and had to depend on Johore for our water supply. Each family had 8 to 10 children, mostly uneducated, under employed, and crammed into attap huts or Chinatown cubicles. There were unemployment and shortage of housing. Small businesses had to pay protection money to secret societies to remain in business. We had several small family banks run by self taught businessmen. We overcame the odds. Asia Building is now dwarfed by HDB flats. Longest road is either AYE or PIE. We have an armed force equal or better than anyone in the region. We are self sufficient in our water needs. We have full employment, solved our housing problems, educate our people to the highest level possible. Now what? We have housing problems all over again. We have unemployment among our own people in spite of full employment. We cannot solve a little flooding problem. We do not know what to do with littering by flyers. We built 3 large local banks that operate in the international market, all by our local talents. Now we are sneering at our local talents that they were not good enough to run these banks, and we need to employ foreign talents to run them. And very likely none of these foreign talents even know how to start a banking business. We have one of the world’s highest saving rate only to find out that many will not have enough money for retirement. A visit to the dental clinic or hospital is like offering oneself to be robbed. Maybe it is true that our local talents are hopeless, despite paying them top dollars. That is why we are struggling with little petty problems and got caught off guard now and then. Those days when we could overcome all odds and surmount all problems, no matter how big are over. We can’t even come out with a simple fare structure for public transport and the oldies/students have to subsidise the able, and no one can do anything about it. They just put up a show of protest and live with it, as what had happened to all the unpopular policies. What is happening?