World highest home price appreciation

According to a report by Knight Frank, Singapore's home price appreciation is the highest in the world at 37%. China came close at 36.8% and Hongkong was a far third at 24.9%. This is the best news for property owners and property speculators. It is time for celebration. Singaporeans are getting richer by the day, with their properties hitting new highs. Many public housing owners are really millionaires in their own right. Don't be surprised the taxi driver driving the maids and foreign workers around is a millionaire himself. This will be another first for Singapore with millionaire taxi drivers. More important is to go out and grab another property fast. Property prices here can only go one way, up and up and away. And there is no fear of a property bubble forming. Singaporeans are wealthy, and according to all the reports, the properties they bought are all affordable and within their means. So there is no fear of bankruptcies and foreclosures. And those foreigners buying properties here are filthy rich and mostly paying cash. So very little risk of loan defaults. What else, even land for public housing are only awarded to the highest bidder, which means new housing can only be more expensive. And with land so scarce, and with the population going to increase further, one thing is guaranteed, higher property prices. And more than 80% of Singaporeans will be resting on their laurels, as they are all property owners. They are waiting for their eggs to turn into gold, literary. There will be millionaires all around, not only taxi drivers, but many of those taking public transport too. Basically looking right and left one is likely to bump into a Singaporean millionaire.

ERP rate hike

23 ERP gantry points will hike its rate by $1 come 1 Nov. Ford Road exit from ECP and Kallang Paya Lebar Expressways will now charge $4 instead of $3 for each crossing. Other gantries will increase from $2 to $3 and $1 to $2. With the hike, travelling in the expressways will be smoother and faster. The only problem is that the minor roads will be more congested as drivers trying to avoid paying the higher fees will be diverted to them. And once these roads become jammed, motorists will complain again and there is a high possibility that gantries will be erected in the minor roads to alleviate the traffic conditions there. This is a never ending musical chair game.

A buy out, sell out or a merger?

In very simplistic terms that a layman can understand, a buy out is done when one company pays another company, normally with a premium, and take over the other company, lock stock and barrel. In a sell out it is just the reverse. In the SGX/ASX case, SGX pays ASX shareholders a sum plus X premium dollars, and it ended up in a merger. So it is not a buy out and SGX does not take over ASX, or does it? In the case of a merger, normally both parties will make a valuation of the shares and use that as a basis to determine the number of shares each owns in the merged company. You don’t normally over value one against the other or pay a huge premium. Premium only applies to a buy out. The monetary consideration goes as follows. SGX values the ASX shares at A$48 a share, inclusive of a 37% premium. This will be paid in SGX shares at around 3.5 SGX shares for each ASX shares and another $22 in cash. That is what an ASX shareholders will end up with. After paying these shares and money, does SGX owns the new company and all of ASX? No? It is reported that the market cap of SGX is $7.86b while ASX is worth $6b. This deal is touted as a merger. An ASX shareholder will now own 3.5 SGX shares and still getting a cash of $22 or a total equivalent of 45% of the $8.2b payout. (Today it is reported as $11b based on the same A$8.4b) If this is so, this amount is enough to buy over half of the existing SGX shares in the SGX, which only has a market cap of $7.86b with some to spare. And the Australian share holders could own half of all the shares in SGX plus all the SGX shares in ASX. Am I wrong? What does SGX owns eventually after the payout, and what is the benefit to a SGX shareholder? If it is only a merger, then there is no need to pay a hefty 37% premium. If it is a buy out, I can agree to a premium though how big is the premium depends on many factors. So, is it a buyout or a merger?

Red Dot buying over Australia

This is perhaps the biggest taking over in history. A tiny Red Dot buying over Australia...well almost. SGX is buying over the Australian Stock Exchange and paying cash! All $8.2b to take over the Australian Exchange. What is $8.2b? This is chicken feed knowing the war chest in our hands. This is only the beginning. Next destination, New York Stock Exchange. Let's buy over all the major Exchanges around the world. I will consider this a major strategic move, like the buying over of some of the biggest banks a couple of years ago. Just make sure this time round the exchanges are not rotten apples like the banks, that were infallible but fell like coconuts. If the homework is done properly, and no cans of worms, this is a giant step forward for a little Red Dot. And it is good to think big. I have always been advocating the buying over of the whole of Australia, starting with North Western Australia, the nearest state to home. We are making a difference, eh. Matilah, you can't run away from little Red Dot. We will call Australia the Red Continent! And you can call yourself Singaporean once more. : )

Myth 225 - The myth of superiority

A Singapore ship was hijacked by pirates off the African coast! The pirates of the Somalian/Kenyan coasts are proving to be invincible. There is an armada of international naval ships patrolling the area, all armed and equipped with the best that money can buy. And the naval personnel are from the best military and technologically advanced countries today. They are also assisted by satellites, brilliant intelligence officers, radars, and manning round the clock to do just one thing, prevent piracy. And they failed miserably. Who are these super human pirates and what kind of stealth technology are they developing that can sneak through the most highly guarded military zone to continue with their piracy at will, anytime, any place at their own calling? The advanced military countries are literally held at ransom by these not so sophisticated pirates and could do nothing about it! What a shame, what a myth!

Political asylum for Assange

Julian Assange is now no better than a political dissident in the US and the Western world. His life and freedom are at stake. They may put a bullet through his head to end his works of exposing hypocrisies, crimes against humanity and deceit at the highest level of public office in America. China should offer political asylum to Assange and his team of dissidents, provide them with a safe sanctuary to pursue freedom of the expression, freedom of the press, human rights, and prevention of genocide through unilateral declaration of war and using myths or distorted truths as excuses. China, why are you waiting, when the US is harbouring all the anti China dissidents and promoting anti China verbiage through supporting their activities? Your turn to do the same, to protect the champions of human rights and press freedom and coercion from the evil Empire.

Celebrating Julian Assange

I reserve the column Celebrating Singaporeans for notable Singaporeans who have done something really worthwhile to be recognised. This is my little equivalent of an Award, The Redbean Award in recognition of contribution to human beans in little Red Dot. No, Julian Assange is not a Singaporean. But he and his friends have done something that is much more than another other human beans have done, and its impact can be felt across the world, transcending national boundaries, racial and religious barriers. Julian and his friends have taken on the world's most powerful evil empire disguising as the Empire of Goodness. The evil Empire has been lying by the skin of its teeth, claiming to be fighting for freedom, freedom of expression, human rights, the rights to fair trial, to be treated humanely and with dignity even as prisoners of war, and the right to live and choose one's own way of life. Yesterday, Julian Assange and his friends have released nearly 400,000 war logs of American deceptions and atrocities in Iraq. It is revealing a truth that only exceptionally motivated human beans would dare to do, taking own the mammoth machiney of the Empire. They are risking everything, their lives and freedom, to tell the truth, for a better world. They stood by the American Constitutions of Freedom and Free Press. They quoted this in their website. '3.3 Should the press really be free? In its landmark ruling on the Pentagon Papers, the US Supreme Court ruled that "only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government." We agree. The ruling stated that "paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people and sending them off to distant lands to die of foreign fevers and foreign shot and shell." ' In every chapter of human civilisation, when evil has taken over control of the human race, some exceptional men and women will appear to change the rule of the game and bring light to a world of darkness. Though Julian Assange and his men and women would not be deemed worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, only war mongers like Obama and maybe George Bush Junior were found more worthy, they deserve to be celebrated by the freedom loving people of the world.

Everything is subsidised!

Leong Sze Hian wrote in TOC about his friend's encounter with govt privatised hospital and private profit making hospital and the fees they charged. The govt privatised hospital's fees are heavily subsidised(that was I think) while the private hospital fees are not. For the operation of a cyst that took 15 minutes, the cost quoted by the govt privatised hospitals that included paying a visit to the polyclinic to earn the right for subsidies came to $600. Leong's friend went direct to a private hospital, preparing to pay more as there was no subsidy and the bill came to $287. And this did not take into consideration the wait and wait because of the long queue of subsidised patients waiting to be treated in privatised govt hospitals. Below is the detail numbers quoted from Leong Sze Hian's article. 'She subsequently went to a private hospital, and was operated on, on the spot by a surgeon, in a 15 minute day surgery, costing only $287. The total costs of the polyclinic consultation ($9.50), Government restructured hospital consultation ($29 after a $57 subsidy) and day surgery, were $600. Since there are no subsidies in private hospitals, it is puzzling why a simple 15 minute cysts removal day surgery at a Government restructured hospital’s subsidised rate is more than double that of a private hospital.' Sometimes it can be very scary when one hears the term subsidies. The subsidies for public housing is just as pleasantly scary. Who needs more subsidies please put up your hand.

Yes we need help...No we don't

Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said the haze is an international problem and Indonesia cannot do it alone to control it. No thanks, we can handle it ourselves, said Gusti Muhammed Hatta, the State Minister for Environment, when Yaacob Ibrahim called to offer help. Do they want help or not? Oh, this is the first time that they had such a big fire and big haze? My eyeballs are rolling all over. Maybe Marty has been staying overseas for too long and just returned to Indonesia. Maybe next he is going to say is that this haze is a once in 50 years occurrence, no need to worry. Given the severity of the situation and the health of Malaysians and Singaporeans are at stake, this cannot continue to go on and on every year. We have been suffering from this, and so do the Indonesians themselves. A solution could have been in hand after so many long nights dreaming over it. Both Malaysia and Singapore will be most willing to help, to contribute to prevent this international pollution of the air. Forget about second hand smoke from tobacco. This is far more serious and widespread. And no, Malaysia and Singapore will not give any aid in the form of money or a free satellite. What could be possible is a joint task force of fire fighters and equipment, stationed in various parts of Sumatra to be on call to put out the fires. This will be attacking the problem directly, putting the fire out, nothing more nothing less, with the Indonesians in charge and Malaysia and Singapore providing the manpower and resources. Boleh Pak? Cukup Pak?

What if it is Agent Orange?

The perennial blanket covering of Singapore and Malaysia by haze arising from forest burning is becoming an annual Great Expectation. We knew it is coming, and we know that there is nothing that we can do about it. We can ask to talk to them, call for conference, ministerial meetings, but the haze will still come. Perhaps we shall just yield to their demand for a multi million dollar satellite and see if they will stop burning. The chances are that the burning will continue as the satellite could do nothing except to tell them where the burning is taking place, which we already know. They will probably make the best use of the free satellite for other commercial pursuits. The thing is that everyone is treating this as just a nuisance. What if it is Agent Orange or something more toxic? They don't need an armed invasion or an army to decimate Malaysia and Singapore. It is so easy and cheap.

A standing Orgy

It was a case of meat to meat. The people were literally glued to one another. They were squeezed so tightly that if you remove their clothings, the flesh could have fused together. The breathing was heavy. The eyes were in a daze, some in a state of shock and disbelief. Wet, yes, I could see that everyone was wet, perspiring and sweating, young and old, men and women. It was a standing orgy alright. And I was caught in the midst, right in the thick of action. The foreign workers loved every minute of it. That was the standard of public transportation they were used to. I was wondering how the cleanly dressed female office workers and the little girls in school uniform felt about the big squeeze. And this standing orgy will repeat and can repeat practically everyday. All it needs is for the train to delay for 15 mins. And that was how long my morning train took to arrive. And everything slowed down. At every station the commuters going down would have to squeeze slowly through a mess of fusion meat. It took quite a while, and a big struggle to get out of the train. And to make matter worst, the huge crowd outside were panicky, trying to force themselves into the party, to join the orgy. The time taken for the journey simply doubled. This little delay can cripple the normal lifestyle and routine of the commuters. It can bring everything to a halt if the breakdown is extended. This is the price we are paying for living it up to the limits. Good to increase the population to 6m. We can increase to 10m with a little clever planning. And we can have orgies everyday too. Nice!

All Japanese must not forget Unit 731

What is Unit 731? Just google for it and a detailed description will be available in Wikipedia. For those who intend to, please be warned that it is not good for weak stomach. It describes the monstrous Japanese and their barbaric crimes in World War 2 in China. For ignoramous Japanese like Seiji Maehara, Shintaro Abe, Junichiro Koizumi and the likes, either they refuse to know their history or Japanese school left out this part altogether. If Japan continues to ignore their historical crimes, they can never dream of a peaceful co existence with China and Korea in the long term. Unless they recognized their evil deeds, repent, and return all the loots they robbed from the two countries, including territories and islands, you just would not know when someone in the future will take these issues up and start a war with Japan. While there is time, it is only honourable and decent, and rightful for Japan to return what they had taken. It would put them in a better light than to pretend the past did not happen, they did not commit any crimes to their neighbours and the land or islands seized were inheritance from their forbears. They were robbed from their neighbours at gun point. If they don’t return today, one day they will be taken back at gun point, for sure. The Japanese leaders and people better have the wisdom to do the necessary and clean up this bad patch of their history with their neighbours, once and for all.

The Stock Exchange should go 24 hrs

SGX is still pushing for continuous trading with no lunch break to improve trading volume and to capitalise on the connectivity with other operating exchanges. Though the idea is good, it is half hearted. SGX should go all the way, provide continuous trading round the clock. This will make SGX the only stock exchange that never sleeps and investors who have insomnia or in different time zones can always call our exchange to trade till their hearts contend. This will definitely generate all the volumes that SGX intended and even propel SGX to become the world's number One stock exchange. It will be another feather in our hat. There should be no problems with our pool of remisiers and broking house employees. They will welcome such a great idea with glee. Plentiful of money to be made. The broking houses can help by redesigning the trading area with beds attached to the terminals so that remisiers can literally trade, eat and sleep in the same place. I would suggest something similar to the SQ jumbo airbus first class seat cum bed. That would allay any protest from the remisiers. Just make them comfortable and happy. Anyway the remisiers are very pliable and adaptable bunch and would just adapt to the new demands. They don't have a troublesome union to fight for humanly working hours or other craps that make operating the business difficult. There will be fatigue and stress problems no doubt. Just provide more steriod jabs in case they need them. And if they make mistakes, the stock exchange should be generous enough to pay for their errors. Working in a highly stress environment, none stop for 8 to 10 hours, can be killing and mistakes are bound to happen. And working 24 hours is a new ball game. No joke. If the maids can cope with working for 24 hours without any problems, I think remisiers too should be able to do it equally well. Take this as an experiment and if it works well, other industries too can go on 24 hours non stop operations. Our Ministries and Ministers too can work 24 hours to increase their productivity. 24 hours is the way to go. Make Singapore a city that never sleeps.

The housing predicament - What we do not know

One thing for sure, we do not know that we have limited land, that land is scarce. We do not know that we should not be selling our landed properties to foreigners, like selling Alaska, gone forever. We do not know that property speculation is bad, as a home is a must have essential asset, a roof over our heads. We do not know that prudence is good, or at least until yesterday. We also do not know that the laws of demand and supply can wreak havoc to our property market. We do not know that allowing private property owners to buy public housing will inflate property prices, and that is bad. We do not know that allowing more foreigners into the island will result in high demand for property prices and high speculation. And we also do not know who is the main cause of high property price. Maybe now we know, or do we?

War Dead Medal Tally

What I would like to see is for Asian media to maintain a War Dead Medal Tally similar to the Olympic or Commonwealth Medal Tally to be viewed by their audience daily during news presentation. In this case instead of Gold, Silver and Bronze, the count will be war dead by nationals, those killed in the ensuing wars in Asia. The Tally Board shall read for example, Iraqi 1200 Afghan 800 Pakistan 600 Palestinian 500 Israeli 100 American 300 English 150 German 30 French 20 Australian 10 Such a Tally Board not only serves the purpose of tracking the number of war dead, it also gives a clear picture of the people that have been sacrificed in the name of country and nation or as war collateral. It also helps to remind the politicians who support and promote the wars to know the number of lives they have killed. For the moment I think only the Americans and the Europeans are interested or care about the lives of their citizens killed in wars. The rest don’t matter. Or is it? I am sure the rest of the countries too value the lives of their citizens and those killed in wars, directly or indirectly. The statistics should not be difficult to obtain as every country involved will have their reporters reporting in the war zones. Not only that the media will be doing its duty to report and tell the pain and sufferings of wars, it will also remind people that as long as wars are not stopped, people are being killed daily. By not reporting them, by not knowing the numbers, no one feels guilty, no one can relate the horrors and grief of the victims of wars. I really hope some Asian media will take up this proposal as the Western media do not think it as their responsibility to do so, nor would they want to tell the evil side of the story of wars started by their trigger happy Presidents/Prime Ministers. Al Jazeeera and Channel News Asia are suitable candidates to take on this task to educate the people on wars, and indirectly to stop proliferating wars. Countries waging wars should also know that the world is watching at their evil and wicked deeds. It is a duty to humanity to tell the story of wars and war dead to keep people from thinking that war is only a movie.

Pressing all the right buttons

Mah Bow Tan was very impressive in Parliament yesterday. He was pressing all the right buttons and saying all the right things. I like the word prudence, the need for prudence in buying properties. I like to hear him going after those overseas properties, though I don't agree with him. I like what he said about more calibrated measures to control property prices. Though prices will not fall, they will not go up as much as 5% per quarter, only 3%, giving an annual increase of 12%. Not bad for property appreciation. Still got chance to hit $1m for HDB flats. The Ministry of National Development is doing a great job in managing the housing problem. Soon there will be no housing problems to talk about. Or maybe someone will say you cannot expect to have zero problems. But just don't create more problems to be solved by brilliant remedies.

Is China trigger happy?

According to Paul Krugman, Professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University, China is. He referred to the recent Diaoyutai Incident when the Japanese Navy arrested a Chinese fishing boat captain and China's withholding the sale of rare earth to Japan and made this comment. '...the incident shows a Chinese govt that is dangerously trigger happy, willing to wage economic warfare on the slightest provocation.' What is the US doing in pressuring China to revalue the Yuan? Not trigger happy, just an American right to do so? What about the calls for trade sanctions, branding China a currency manipulator when the US is the real currency manipulator, printing more and more money and depreciating its own currency? But wait, let's talk about trigger happy? What was the reason for the invasion of Iraq? In this case, real bullets were fired. No, not real bullets, bombs, all kinds of bombs were thrown into Iraq, killing hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis. No this is not trigger happy to the Americans. What about Pakistan and Afghanistan? Oh, the Americans are using water pistols to shoot at their enemies. So the Americans are not trigger happy. They only squeeze water at their enemies. This is the American hypocrisy! They can be trigger happy but point the fingers at other people. Has China fire a single bullet? But he is only talking about economic warfare, firing economic guns. Which country has been enforcing economic sanctions on other countries on its own terms? China has been the victims of all kinds of economic sanctions from the Americans even till today. No need to mention North Korea, the Middle Eastern countries and all countries branded as enemies of the US. The US is not trigger happy. China is, according to Paul Krugman and most of the Americans who can speak and write. And they all believe in this hypocrisy as the American and western truth.

The relevance of copyrights and internet domain names

Just a hypothetical question. Supposing someone could register a domain name like MacDonald.com.sg, and MacDonald writes a polite letter to ask him not to use it, change it, does he need to comply? This is only a hypothetical situation. It can apply to any domain name. Or would MacDonald call the owner of such a domain name and negotiate to buy it over as a business transaction? If I am not mistaken, the trademark of MacDonald, or any other brand name, is a different matter from a domain name. And every country can have their own MacDonald.com.xx. So MacDonald would either have to register it first or have to buy it over from the first registered owner? Anyone can fill in on this?

Myth 224 - Our land is limited! Property prices must go up!

Everyone is spouting this nonsense daily as if it is a gospel truth. There is limited land, we are land scarce, so property prices can only go up. The supply will never meet the demands. Here is the fallacy or root of this fallacy. Who says we don’t have enough land? Or why is there not enough land? Land was plentiful at one time. The migrants just go around and build their little attap or zinc roof houses anywhere, on any piece of empty land they could find. Our population then was a few hundred thousand and increasing gradually. At 2 million or 3 million, land is not an issue. It is when we keep piling up the numbers, inviting more and more people here that land become scarce. We create our own problem. We make our land scarce. We will have plenty of land once more if people start to run away from this land. Or we can stop the inflow and reduce the population. But economic laws and principles will be against any reduction. It means recession and depression. No growth is bad. So we must have growth and growth and growth. This unending growth is good for us. Same as for the whole world. Keep producing more people and more people. Go forth and multiply. Where will it end if growth is unceasing, unending? Is our limited land a myth or a conjure reality? We have changed from land abundance to land scarce. That is clever from the economics of growth. If Australia will to blindly follow this economic principle of growth, it too will run out of land in a matter of time. The whole world will run out of land. But it does not have to. The pain is self inflicted. We don't have to go down this road. It's final destiny is self destruct. We need to know our limitations and stop while we can. So is the world. Population growth, economic growth, high consumption, high destruction to environment, depletion of resources and food supply, climate warming etc etc etc. All for incessant growth.

Be prepared for the invasion of the Dark Side

They are already here and in a big way. They turn Singapore into their turf like their home countries. The latest report of three Taiwanese being arrested, jailed and to be caned for loan shark activities is only a glimpse of what have yet to be uncovered. Now we can understand why the loan sharks here are fearless and would have no qualms burning and locking up their victims' residents. They play the game they know best in their lawless societies and think that they can do the same here. According to a govt statement, three Taiwanese citizens were given 7 to 24-month prison sentences after being convicted of loan shark harassment. 'Two of the defendants, identified as Su Wei Ying and Wu Wei Chun in the Singapore Police Force statement, were also to receive "15 strokes of the cane" for their offenses. Su, 28, and Wu, 24, were both convicted of seven charges of loan shark harassment in violation of Singapore's Moneylenders Act and sentenced to 24 months and 21 months in jail, respectively, in addition to the caning.' Source CNA. And their Trade Representative is showing concern that they are being caned. Why should he when the Taiwanese broke our law, got a fair trial, and were punished like any Singaporeans would have been. There was no discrimination or biases? Did he forget that Singapore is not Taiwan? Or did he think that Taiwanese should be dealt with more leniently than the locals? Perhaps in Taiwan they could get away with their crimes with a call from the Dark Side. The loan sharks flouting our laws and becoming more adventurous and defiance is only an early sign of more to come. If we cannot deal with this problem and clean up our city, there would be no way to put a blockage to stamp the flood of Dark Side activities that normally coexist with casinos. In many notorious countries, including those that are claimed to be operating under the rule of law and the respectability of law, it is common that the govt officials were in the pay lists of the mafia and with the mafia calling the shot. We have to be prepared to stamp this tide and stay on the bright side. The Dark Side is sexy and inviting and tempting.