Obesity a national issue

The problem of obesity is important enough to be raised as a national issue in Parliament. We don’t want NS men to walk around looking like barrels do we? If that is the case, we can parade a contingent of these barrels at the National Day Parade. No, they need not have to march. They just need to roll along. And the marching orders, got to be changed to rolling orders, ‘Parade, ke kiri…roll’ instead of ‘Ke kiri… pusing.’ And a more serious problem is that all the buses and MRT trains got to have their seats changed to barrel size. Not only it will cost money to the transport companies, it will bring down their profits as they can now take lesser passengers per trip. Lagi susah is that fuel cost will go up as the passenger loads will be heavier. Now where is the root of the problem? The mummies and grannies of course. They have been feeding their children with the best food and best herbal soups to ‘por’ them while they are growing up. And probably 6 meals a day instead of 3. Looking fat and chubby is a sign of wealth and prosperity. They would not want their children to have that skinny and hungry look of the have nots. It is so malu if relatives say ‘Oh dear, chai chai is so thin!’ It is another way of saying ‘eat not enough’. The MOH shall start to conduct courses for the grannies and mummies on how not to fatten their children and also looking thin is not necessary shameful. This will give a boost to the ego of the have nots as their children are thin simply because they don’t have enough to eat. Now they can pretend that thin is good or not so bad, and walk with a little confidence.

Climb Kilimanjaro For Kids 2011

A Singaporean teacher in York University doing something for kids. Climb Kilimanjaro For Kids 2011 Fundraiser: Andrea Goh Donors can visit www.uk.virginmoneygiving.com/AndreaGoh

The Myth of Mas the Supernatural

He walked out of the detention centre like David Copperfield, in broad daylight, leaving the guard guarding an empty toilet. This second act is like the disappearing act of a magician walking into a box but appears somewhere else. Pretty good magic show. There is also the belief that after burying a few pieces of bawang, he can literally become invisible. Now for the facts. His escape from detention and fleeing into Johore were anything but unusual. Ok, ok, the part about walking out of a detention centre with ace gurkha guards is still an unknown phenomenon. Subsequently taking a walk to Tampines may not be that difficult but physically a bit demanding on him. The hiding in a brother’s flats, no need too much intelligence unless it is a game of poker, both parties trying to second guess each other’s move. That means Mas came out on top. Finally, the make up and wearing of tudung to pass off as a woman, a piece of cake. Simply text book stuff. No need much imagination. So, where is the part that made Mas Selamat that extraordinary or supernatural? Or he is an expert in disguise, in escape from prison. Oops, escape from prison is not easy. Not many people have succeeded. He may be the only one in paradise to do it. This point could make him that extraordinary. Or is it the event or the circumstances made him extraordinary? They use to say that in the land of the blind, the one eye jack shines.

Definitely not enough

Loan shark harassment cases dropped 8.4% for the period Jan to Oct over the same period last year. Is this good enough? It dropped from 15,120 cases to 13,848 cases, or more than 1000 cases monthly, or 33 cases daily. Did I get the numbers wrong? 33 cases daily is a very intolerable number. In 2007 there were 9,400 cases, 2008 there were 11,400 cases and 2009 there were 17,900 cases. Numbers quoted from the media. My goodness, we have been living with so many harassment cases without knowing. With the publicity given to tougher police actions and more arrests, the number does not seem to be making any significant progress. Or the loan sharks are still ruling their turfs and their activities are as per normal. When will the harassment stop? Oh, never mind, there can never be no harassment. Some harassment cases are normal and expected. So, what is an acceptable number?

Singapore needs Paul Volcker

Dr Volcker, the former Fed Chairman, is in town. Hopefully the govt can bring him on board in some kind of advisory role to curb the madness we have been sucked into. Volcker is famed for his Volcker Rule which forbids proprietary trading and speculations by banks in the financial market. His fear of the menace created by reckless banks which came true during the financial and subprime mortgage crisis has led to the US curbing proprietary trading by banks. His experience on the ground is invaluable. The conflict of interest and unfair advantages of banks in trading and speculation is obvious but blind to those who see short term gains. Singapore has adopted this practice of allowing banks to be thickly involved in proprietary trading or with trading arms as an extension of the banks to dabble in more exciting adventures in the wider financial jungle. The only way to throw out such voyeurism which has ruined the American finance industry is to have a giant like Volcker to tell the super talents that they are going down a slippery slope of no return. There is still time to unwind the mess before the whole financial industry got sucked into the abyss and spin into thin air. The other main fear of the financial industry is the ingenious and crooked ways of writing pieces of papers for trading. Derivative trading is not much different from playing monopoly when everything is worthless and trading with worthless money. A return to real value, assets and industry is the key to return sanity to the intoxicated financial market. We really need a heavy dosage of Volcker wisdom, prudence and thrift policies. Would the super talents listen or are they too high in the clouds and not able to see the mess that the industry is in?

Mas Selamat - The story so far

Allow me to reconstruct the first three chapters of Mas Selamat's escape with the revelation of new information in the media. The first phase is of course the escape from Whitley Road. Then the trip back to his brother's home and finally the trip across the Causeway. The escape from detention centre is still a highly guarded mystery filled with amazing tales and adventures bordering on fiction. So far not much new information has come out on this. So nothing much can be added to it. The trip to his brother's flat in Tampines is interesting. It took him two days to reach there and still wearing his prison garb. How did he make the journey without being noticed or caught? He could not have done in it in broad daylight, too easily recognisable. He could not have travelled by car or it would take him only half an hour. This would narrow the options to walking by night when everyone is sleeping. And it took one or two nights, meaning that he would have to sneak along to avoid being seen, and his limping leg would have slowed him down further. Credit must be given to him to be able to complete the journey without being caught. Perhaps when everyone is sleeping also helped. The trip to the Causeway was much more easier. Now he was in full disguise with professional help. Dressed as a woman with a tudung will save a lot of trouble. Now he was likely to be driven to the Causeway in a car. Taking public transport will attract attention to his limping walk and it was not easy to walk like a woman too. Sitting in a car would be the ideal and a cursory glance by the immigration would not be able to detect much. And yes, a woman's passport is a must. Now, who's passport have been stamped with the dates on those few days? The idea of him swimming across the straits strapped with plastic bottles is best told in kindergartens for a good laugh. If he did not look like a porcupine, he would definitely be an attractive piece of avant gard art. No way was he going to get a hundred plastic bottles and the rafia strings to tie them together. He is not light and a bundle of plastic bottles would look like a mole hill. So far the story goes.

So sad the two Koreas are killing each other

The Choenan Incident did not start a war. Disappointing! The North Koreans categorically denied any involvement in the explosion of the ship. Both sides showed restraints in not pushing the matter further. Today, the North did not denied anything after firing 60 shells into a disputed island and killing and wounding South Korean soldiers and civilians. It claimed the South fired first. The South said it was conducting a military exercise and was firing to the west and not to the north. What is the truth, what actually provoked the North to fire ferociously at the South? Would the world know what is going on? One thing for sure, the two Koreans are going to kill each other. They have forgotten that both are Koreans. After all these years of negotiations, have they not worked out a list of things to do and not to do to prevent any break out of hostility? Did they not agree to inform each other of military exercises at the border to prevent any misunderstanding? It is sad that they are all out to get at one another, to destroy each other. Or could someone have fired directly into the north while the South was firing to the west as claimed? North and South Koreans, for goodness sake, don’t make a fool of your self for whatever reasons. You will both be obliterated should war breaks out.

Is there a royal engagement?

I thought I have seen it on the news but have gotten about it. It is good that the ST wrote such an emotional article about the engagement of Prince Andrew and his fiancée, a commoner. Sorry, forgotten her name. Thanks for the reminder. The engagement is about a real life prince and a soon to be real life princess. Oooh la la, fairy tale stuff! Now my mind is full of Robin Hood, King Richard and King Arthur. And Yes, 1953, the coronation of Queen Elizabeth the second! And she came to Singapore as part of her Empire tour to let her subjects have the pleasure of seeing her, the new Queen, in person. And the loyal subjects of the Empire lined the streets of Singapore to wave flowers and the Union Jacks as the Queen passed by on her topless motorcade. It was fairy tale and fantasy came alive. Now I think many Singaporean will wish that the Prince and Princess will pay a visit to this former colony for the citizens to go gaga over them. The former subjects would probably have passed away or mostly immobile. But not to worry, the new and younger citizens will be the most enthusiastic over this event and will definitely be out in full force to welcome them. They have not the privilege of seeing a real life royalty in their lives. And they will be in their best dresses, designer’s clothes, hats too, to match the occasion. We can relive our colonial heritage and lifestyle one more time, so glamorous and so intimate, as members of the Empire. And those who have been knighted with an OBE or MBE can put on their medals and be invited to dine and dance with the Prince and Princess, at the Istana of course. Memories are made of these.

SDP and three doctorates

Who says SDP is a lost cause? Many may have the impression that with Chee Soon Juan at the helm and the associated bad press and publicity in the media, the SDP is like dead horse. And in the coming GE the SDP could just be another no horse run. Just when people thought the SDP is a goner, in came two doctorates in the form of Vincent Wijeysingha and James Gomez. The trinity of doctorates will now helm a revived and revitalised SDP. SDP can now claim to be able to attract talented individuals and professionals to join its ranks, something that the Workers Party has been quite successful recently. In Vincent Wijeysingha there is a history of pro establishment blood in his father, the renown ex principal of the famous Raffles Institution. Passing through his hands during his tenureship were several ministers and many MPs and luminaries of the Singapore society. With such a scintillating background, it is not easy to throw mud at him and get them stick. James Gomez is no small weight either. His entanglement with the Elections Committee in two previous elections have made him a household name for good or for worst. His experience in the academia and his overseas stint could be put to good use in the coming election. Resourcefulness and financial resources will be his strength and SDP could benefit from them. Spending so many years overseas, in Sweden, Australia and Japan speaks well of his finances and networking. Now that the SDP have two additional bigwigs of no lesser mantle than the PAP candidates to show, they could produce more surprises when the election approaches. More names of professionals could appear at the same time as the PAP introduces its slate of new candidates. The Workers Party should have some good candidates in their sleeves. SDP too will not do too badly when its full deck of cards are revealed. The next GE would be an interesting poker game for now.

The rude pommies

When David Cameron paid an official visit to China with the hope of signing more trade deals, he and his entourage arrogantly wore the poppies on their lapels. They justified themselves that it was their tradition to respect their war dead. They insensitively brushed aside the Chinese request to have them removed as it was a rude reminder of the Opium War humiliation the Chinese suffered at the hands of the pommies. Of course the trip ended with nothing to bring home. So, would they come back with the Jardines and Mathesons and their gunboats loaded with cannons and opium again to force trade with China? They were superior in weapons technology once. They may still think that they could shove the Chinese aside like football hooligans. They better be reminded that even their world famous Rolls Royce engines are falling out of the sky. This is the last days of a dying Empire and more will come when the loot they ransacked from the Asian and African countries were used up. Soon they will be auctioning away all the stolen treasures in the London museums and the Crown Jewels. Buckingham Palace on sale! Who will be the first sick man of Europe? The Brits have a good potential to assume this position, starting with Ireland. Maybe it will take a little longer as they could also print more English pounds, provided the EU did not stop them from doing it. Or maybe David is thinking of slaying a dragon, like Goliath.

A new kind of colonial conquest

For those who have read history or still remember, the Western powers sailed into Africa, Asia and America in their gunboats and took everything from the natives. And the best part is that they claimed everything as theirs, including the people who became subjects of their empires. How Europe became rich had its beginnings in robbery and piracy. Today they came again, guns hidden, but with stash of newly printed papers they called money. And they are taking everything in exchange for these pieces of printed papers. And the natives just gave them away happily this time round. They gave away goods and services. The latest are beautiful houses and properties which they built at high cost, all for the pieces of papers. And the Americans are warning the rest of the world that stopping the use of these printed papers is destabilising the world’s existing order. In other words, if they are not allowed to cart away goods and services, which they happily exchanged with printed pieces of papers, they are going to pull out their guns. There are countries that have wise up to this new form of colonial robbery. They are not going to give away their valuables for worthless pieces of papers. There are others who are happy to collect the printed papers and willingly give away their goods, including hot properties.

Save Singapore while there is still time

The hottest topic in cyberspace Singapore Chapter is overcrowding in Singapore. But this is only a one sided view of the disgruntled Singaporeans. The supertalents don’t believe a wee bit that Singapore is overcrowded and there are signals and mind conditioning processes actively trying to convince the unconvinced that Singapore can support a population of more than 10m people. The people of the world are crying out loud to save the Gaia while there is still time. Singaporeans, or some Singaporeans, are crying out to save Singapore while there is still time. For this group of Singaporeans, they fear that one day they will end up like a congested fish tank teeming with fish fighting to push their heads up gasping for air. For so many years, even today, we have been crowing about how successful we are and how great this little paradise is. Is there anyone seeing signs that it is going downhill and can snap into chaos, unemployment, bankruptcies and disorder? Some thought they are seeing the signs. Some are oblivious to any signs and are looking at more good years ahead. But they have bought their insurance plans, overseas properties just in case. Can the party go on and on like this, with inflation shooting to the roof. Oh, that is only my personal view and it is likely to be wrong. Inflation is very low according to official statistics despite runaway housing prices, car prices, transportation, medical services and even food prices. With the bulk of the population whose salary got to fit the bill of ‘cheaper, better and faster’, can they cope with the rising cost of living? Looking at the speed in which properties are being snapped up and the long queues waiting for ever more expensive housing, I think all the doomsayers are wrong. Singapore and Singaporeans are getting more prosperous everyday, or at least their property prices are making them richer by the days. And now even buy cars can make money too. The good days are here and will stay forever. Who says must save Singapore while there is still time?

Hongkong and China coming down hard on property speculation

Hongkong has announced more stringent measures to curb property speculations amid warnings by the IMF that the property bubble could burst. Sales of properties within 6 months of purchase will not have to pay 15% of stamp duty. Down payment for properties above S$2m has been raised from 40% to 50%. This irrational fear of property bubble is spreading from South Korea, China to Brazil. The control measures would mean that property prices in these countries will not go up anymore. Now that is bad. In Singapore, property prices can only go one way, up and up. And this is good. It must be. And we have no property bubble to fear. Our properties are all priced to be affordable. This is the ingenious trick that all the other countries failed to learn. The affordability formula is as stretchable as rubber. Even if our HDB 3 rm flats are priced at $1m each, they will still be affordable. From two income households servicing the mortgage for 30 years, this can be made even more attractive by having 4 incomes to pay for it. There is further flexibility to increase the repayment period from 30 years to 60 years too. If these countries would be humble enough to learn from us, they will not need to panic and impose all kinds of anti speculation measures. And they will be cheering everyday for property prices to go up, the higher the better.

Cutting talk time in Parliament is right

When it was first proposed, many people were irked by the move. By restraining MPs from speaking in Parliament when that is the most important part of their job I think, baffles the role of Parliamentary sessions. Parliament is the highest body in the country and MPs must be allowed all the time in the world to say their piece. If MPs cannot talk in Parliament or allowed only a few minutes to talk, might as well abolish Parliament. Those were some of the views from the masses. Today ST published some statistics which proved beyond any reasonable doubt that cutting talk time is the right thing to do. Many MPs don't even speak in Parliament or ask only a handful of questions. So what is the point of having long talk time? Ok, it may be just a provision and whether they use it or not is a separate issue. Who knows some Rip Van Winkles may woke up and want to speak for 3 days nonstop? The curbing of talk time in Parliament may be a bit harsh on those who have a lot of questions and things to contribute. Cutting their time is like telling them that they are talking too much and to shut up. The point is that when MPs have a point to say, especially an important one, time must be the least of concern. Only when an MP is talking rubbish that he/she should not be allowed too much time. With the new restriction, let's hope the Speaker is sensible enough to make exceptions and allow MPs to speak beyond the time limit when the points made are important and relevant. In the same vein, when MPs are talking cock, even the time allocated is too much and the Speakers shall rule the MP out from talking more nonsense. Maybe a little tweaking is necessary here. MPs who are known to ask a lot of questions should be allocated more time. MPs who have nothing to say should not be given anytime. Their time can be apportioned to the voracious question askers. Fair right? Another way is to allow MPs to buy and sell talk time credits like carbon credits. MPs who choose not to ask questions can sell their time to MPs who have plentiful of questions. There can be different variations on how this can be done. But one important thing, Parliament is there for discussing important state matters and time must not be an excuse to curtail talking about them. The saddesst thing that can happen is for the Speaker to ask an MP to sit down because he/she has exceeded the time limit though what the MP is saying is important and all wisdom, and for the good of the country.

Learn from the Americans

America is today the most productive country in the world. And they are now the richest. They can actually buy up the whole world if they wanted to. Just a few weeks back they just printed for themselves US$600b to spend. I think with that kind of money the Americans could have bought up all our properties in the market. And if they print more, they could buy up the whole island. This is the most ingenious way of making money. No need to work, no need to sweat, no need to play tricks in the stock market, no need to devise toxic bonds, no need to go to war. Countries around the world should learn from the Americans and start printing. And with the hot cash, they can go anywhere and buy up everything. Singapore is for sale, all the properties up for grabs. No problem even if we sell our 3 rm HDB flats for $1m. There will be limitless amount of money available to buy them. All Singaporeans can sell their flats and price them more than a million, 2 or 3 million should be no problem too. Just sell and exchange them for the hot and easy money. Oops, heard someone said don't sell. Why not? So much money for the grabs. Oh, just one point, one plate of chicken rice will now cost $300! And our ministers will ask to increase their salaries to $100m. How else would they be able to afford anything when prices of everything is up and up. It will be like the Japanese Occupation time. People will go marketing carrying a basket of banana currency notes. Today they may use the trolleys for the new notes. On second thought, better don't sell your property. It will become priceless at the way things are going.

No apologies for Choenan

President Lee Myung Bak of South Korea is not demanding an apology from the North for the resumption of nuclear disarmament talks. Is this an appeasement, a back tracking, a concession or what? The South has accused the North for killing its sailors. The North must not take this accusation lightly. It must take the case to the UN to demand a thorough investigation for the murdering of South Korean soldiers. It must clear its name or the world and silly South Koreans will think that the North is guilty. Push for an investigation now, and if found innocent, demand an apology from the South, especially from Lee Myung Bak. This is the least that the North Koreans should do, after being falsely accused of murder. If they are not careful, this will be used as an excuse like WMD to invade the North. See that justice is done, to the dead soldiers of the South Korean Navy. The families of the dead soldiers must equally demand for an impartial investigation to the killling. An independent investigation board approved by the families and the North Koreans should be set up under a neutral body under the UN supervision. The South Koreans and Americans involved in the last investigation should be excluded from this independent board of investigators. The South Koreans need to know the truth for the killing of their own people. The North Koreans need to clear its name from being accused as murderers. Do not let this matter rests as it is now. The killers must be dugged out from wherever they are hiding.

Boulders versus pearls

It is quite amusing reading Ravi Velloor’s article in the ST today. The world’s number one gangster went on a world tour to rope in the gangsters to contain the rise of China. On the other hand China was kept busy building ports and signing up commercial contracts with countries around the world. For that, China was described as a rogue and the gangsters anything but rogues. So who are the real rogues, someone trying to do business or someone signing military alliances? But the description of boulders to block pearls is most appropriate, rough and tough gangsters, in the form of boulders, blocking the way of business men doing their business. And India is the most willing of all the boulders to gang up with the evil Empire. It has its own strategic interests and wild ambition to be a world power other than the number one power in the Indian Ocean. Japan and South Korea could be taken for granted as they are mere semi colonies of the Empire. Ravi was also optimistic that Russia and Myanmar would fall in line to be proxies of the evil Empire. Would these two countries be so foolish to become the tools of the evil Empire and got dragged into a hostile conflict to serve the Empire? He should count another willing gangster in Vietnam to join the gang. Indonesia has wisely stayed clear of big power rivalry and choosing its own path of independence and neutrality. It is comfortable being the big brother of Asean. Only foolish rogue nations would gang up to threaten other countries in a pack. Birds of the same feather flock together. PS. Logging in from a laptop seems ok.

We cannot discriminate against foreigners

There is this very interesting article by a Christine Chan in the ST forum today, titled ‘We don’t have the right’. We don’t have the right to do what? She said we don’t have the right to ban foreign workers from the casinos nor can the govt imposed levies for them to enter the casinos like Singaporeans. Doing such things ‘would result in unfair discrimination against foreign workers’. But it is ‘fair and justifiable application of the law’ to impose entrance fees levied against Singaporeans and PRs. KNN, I am now scratching my head sore and the few strands of hair left could be no more. Imposing entrance levies against Singaporeans is fair and against foreign workers is discrimination? Really ah! Where does this Christine Chan coming from? I hope her view is a personal one. Using her logic, I think we cannot ban foreigners from chewing gums. It will be discriminatory too. What else we can’t impose on foreigners? Oh foreigners can smoke anywhere, can litter or break any law right? If in our country we can have laws applied on our citizens and the same laws cannot be applied to foreigners, now what kind of logic is that?

Caught off guard again?

There were no crimes in my ward, or at least until yesterday. The men in blue launched a big operation and netting about 50 gangsters. Now the ministry is talking about studying, reviewing and revamping the criminal laws against teens and gangsters. At least something good comes out from the recent spate of gangsterism. Everyone suddenly found that they have work to do. But it would be better if they were more proactive and nipped the problem in the bud before it exploded in the face. Maybe the word 'proactive' has long been thrown into the longkangs. So, arresting 50 or 60 gangsters is enough? No more gangsters in the street? Low crime doesn't mean no crimes. A little crime is unavoidable and can be lived with? Is there a need to fester out all the vermins once and for all? What about the bigger animals? Just like the loan sharks, we are seeing only the little dogs and cats being caught. The big ones are so elusive and impossible to be caught. Cutting the lallangs without pulling out the roots will only see it grow again.

The unlikely reaction to QE2

Much as the Americans may want to think that the whole world is made up of ignorant fools, and they can keep on printing money on worthless pieces of paper for as much as they like, the Quantitative Easing2 is triggering a reaction from around the world that could lead to a backlash of unimaginable proportion. While MNCs took a whole year to earn a couple of billions, the Fed just printed $600 b for its own use. No need to work or sweat. Step aside hedge funds, loan sharks, pirates, robbers, con men, and bankers. The Fed can make more money and easier than all of you combined. The world is looking at this QE2 in shock and awe. Even Germany, a hardcore ally of the US could not believe it and had come out openly to criticize this move. Unwittingly, the QE2 has aligned the forces of the world against the US, an unpredictable reaction. They are all going to lock out American dollars from their economies, maybe abandoning it. And the consequences of such a world reaction can be deadly for the US. The banana currency is ripening and will soon become thrash. The nightmare is just beginning for the Americans and their evil Empire. Will it disintegrate?