A rousing reception for Janil Puthucheary

Cyberspace has a rousing welcome for Janil Puthucheary but not the kind that he would have liken. Crossing to the side of his father’s political enemies, breaking a promise to his wife, and quitting his country of birth were the reasons that did not go down well with bloggers. This may be a bit unfair to a talented man who has stepped out to be counted, to sacrifice and to serve the country, and the very people that are not happy with him. Quitting Malaysia could be easy as the opportunities here are much better for him to practise as a doctor. How he convinced his father to join the PAP must be tricky. How he convinced his wife to forgive him for breaking his promise to her could be even trickier. Look at it this way, the lure of politics must be a very strong calling for Janil to step into the ring. The temptation of chasing a good cause, a national calling to serve the people of his adopted country, must be so powerful for him to resist. Assuming he got elected, assuming he goes on to become the Prime Minister of Singapore, his will be the greatest story ever told of a foreign talent making it good in Singapore. He will become a national hero of sort, a role model for all foreign talents seeking their fortunes here. STB could use him as the poster boy to attract more foreign talents to this island, a place that truly appreciates foreign talents without any biases, but recognizing everyone according to his merits. And once a citizen he can pursue his dream to the highest office in the island. The task of attracting more talents here will become a piece of cake, with PM Janil Puthucheary. Just a good bedtime story.

New Citizens Party

The PAP is the first to announce a new citizen, Dr Janil Puthucheary, as a candidate for the GE. Though he is just 3 years as a new citizen, he is no stranger to Singapore. His father, Dominic Puthucheary, was a founding member of PAP but joined the Barisan Socialis and ended up as a political prisoner. The family left to become Malaysians. Janil Puthucheary is a kind of homecoming, and a healing of political rift. The other opposition parties are also heard to be considering putting up new citizens as their candidates. This is good news as new or old citizen, they are all citizens with equal rights under the law. The better part is that there are many talents among the new citizens that are much better than the old citizens. With this abundant pool of foreign talents turned citizens, I am sure there will be enough of them to form one or two new parties to contest in the election. And being hungrier and adventurous, more entrepreneurial, in the same mould as the founding members of PAP and Barisan Socialis, they will be a great asset to the political scene. Singapore politics needs new blood and a heavy dose of fresh air to give it a new life. The staleness in the air is getting a bit nauseating when political parties need to scrap the bottom of the barrel for talents. The vibrancy, the new mindset, the never say die attitude of the new citizens should carry the country forward in the 21st Century. There is no longer the need to depend on lazy and has beens Singaporeans that are complacent and waiting for the sky to fall on their laps. Singapore will benefit from the drive of the new citizens and their enterprising spirit. NCP or New Citizens Party, maybe one or two, will be nice to have. Come on, new citizens, it is time to serve the country, to sacrifice for the country that have treated you so well.

War Games in Libya

The Americans and its European allies are conducting war games in Libya. In this case it is live firing with real ammunitions. The gamers are firing their cruise missiles, known as Tomahawks into Libya to test the weapon’s accuracy and effectiveness. It is also a cheap way to use up old and expired items and to replace them with new inventory. The American weapons industry is yet again given another new lease of life with more orders for new weapons and ammunitions. This is much more lucrative than the war games at the Korean peninsula where limited live ammunitions were fired. Of course things will be rosier if the Korean peninsula could turn into another big live firing exercise area. Who is fighting who? It is the Europeans and the Americans attacking an Arab country. The US, Canada, UK, France, Italy, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Norway and the UAE are in. Where are Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt? Without the participation of the major Arab countries other than UAE, the West is going to look very bad. This is going to be ammunition for the Arabs to be more anti West and anti American/British in particular.

I slept with the Merlion

Anyone with the money can sleep with the Merlion. Yes, this is true. It is a nice message. Everyone is welcome to sleep with the Merlion. This should be the message or logo for Singapore. Forget about Uniquely Singapore. We welcome everyone with open arms, with loving hospitality. Come, sleep with me. This must be the most exciting experience awaiting our guests.

NaturalNews Insider Alert

NaturalNews Insider Alert ( www.NaturalNews.com ) email newsletter (Unsubscribe instructions at bottom) Dear NaturalNews readers, As of right now, the situation remains desperate in Japan, with a confirmation coming this morning that the food near Fukushima is now radioactive. Efforts to cover the spent fuel rods with cooling water have failed again and again, and now there is concern that at least one of the fuel rod storage pools may be cracked, meaning it cannot hold water. Thus, there's no way to cover the fuel rods no matter how much water you pump in (and the pumps aren't even operating yet anyway...) The official government explanations about radiation exposure in Japan are an insult to intelligence. A few days ago, they would say things like "The amount of radiation people are experiencing is only equal to that of a chest X-ray." Today with the irradiated food, they now are comparing your exposure to "the amount of radiation you might get from a CT scan." What they don't tell you is that a CT scan emits up to 600 times more radiation than a chest X-ray. What's next on this scale? Are they soon going to announce that people are only exposed to "the same amount of radiation as a miscalibrated mammogram?" And folks, the radiation exposure in Japan is constant radiation, meaning it's like getting a CT scan that just keeps scanning 24/7 (if you're close enough to the Fukushima plant). This isn't one limited dose that turns off in two seconds, it's an ongoing radiation avalanche that keeps coming. The mainstream media has all but abandoned accurate reporting on this issue, almost as if they were all ordered by the White House to just stop talking about Fukushima (because it was scaring people). Here's my story on that: http://www.naturalnews.com/031748_mainstream_media_nuclear_catastrophe.html There now appears to be a total information blackout on the true status of reactor #4, reports Ethan Huff: http://www.naturalnews.com/031758_Fukushima_nuclear_reactor.html A Japanese Mayor has gone public with his own accusations that the Japanese government abandoned his people and lied to them about the real situation: http://www.naturalnews.com/031747_nuclear_fallout_disinformation.html Mark Sircus brings us a timely update today on the worsening situation in Tokyo: http://www.naturalnews.com/031757_Tokyo_radiation.html

Notable quote by LKY

“85% of Singaporeans are living in HDB flats and we intend to keep the values of these homes up. It will never go down,” said MM Lee. If there is one thing that will defy gravity, it will be the price of HDB flats. Wonder how this will be managed if it is subject to market forces and the world economy. Wondering what will the price be if the lease expires. But the formula is for the govt to buy back before the lease expires at market price to knock down and rebuild. And as long as the price of new flats is up, the resale or buy back price can only go up. Sounds good. There is another assumption, that the CBF workers's salary will be able to keep pace with the rising prices. _________________

Say No to destructive growth formula

The growth formula built on population expansion will destroy the earth. The obsession for growth based on high consumption of goods and services to obtain economic growth numbers will also lead to the depletion of raw materials and limited fossil energy sources. It is crazy to leave the world to crazy economists who only believe in growth in numbers and numbers while mother earth is being eaten up, destroyed, without any conscience. High consumption is greed, gluttony for no good reason. Why should a car be built to run on 7000cc engine, why should one person owns ten or twenty cars, ten houses, yachts, and many wives and tens or hundreds of children? Having wants and greed are good to some extent. But when these become wasteful and leading to the destruction of earth, it must be stopped. Imagine if every country just keeps on producing more people to generate more economic activities, more consumption of produces and resources, and of course energy, it will lead to an earlier death of mother earth. There must be a rethink. There were plentiful of land and resources available to humankind when the world’s population was a few hundred millions or less. Now we have several billions to share the space, air and food supply and resources. We are consuming everything at double quick time. It is time to consolidate our resources and improve the lives of people with more production/growth but lesser consumption. Stop wasteful production and wasteful consumption. The free willing economy where the fittest survive and enjoy everything they want in abundance, without any care to how their wasteful consumption is destroying the earth must be stopped. The crazy idea of growth and growth without thinking about the consequences must be stopped. At a micro level, this little rock is overpopulated, over consuming the limited resources. And the crazy thing is that it is claiming progress and claiming that without growth, life will be a misery. Life will come to a standstill and the system will break down. Yes, under the current belief that economic growth is everything, things will change. The formula is a bigger cake for more people. More people, more economic growth, more demand for space, water and energy. Can this be change to smaller cake for lesser people? There must be a freeze on population growth in the world and in every country. Mother earth is under stress. The food chain is under stress. The resources are being depleted. Fossil fuel is being drawn down to a dangerous level. Ya, the savior is nuclear fuel. Everyone is looking towards nuclear energy as the panacea to sustain economic growth and energy consumption. This will eventually lead to a catastrophic destruction of lives and everything on earth.

All the good signs

The economy grew by a record 15.7%. What a miraculous number and what an exceptional govt to achieve such a high rate of growth in a world hit by financial crisis and natural disasters. Time to reward everyone for a job well done. All civil servants and politicians will receive pay rise, performance bonuses and GDP bonuses to the tune of 10 or 17 months of bonuses on top of the basic salary, the 1 mth AWS and the 3 months of variable bonuses. Please correct me if I am wrong. Roughly it is about there, and everyone will be happy happy. The people will also not be left out. Everyone will get something, at least $800 plus whatever savings from taxes, and top ups. And the opposition parties are in the mud ring wrestling and trying to get out to be ready for battle in the coming GE. And let’s not forget the most important man in the country, the President. He too must be rewarded for doing such a fine job, shouldering such a heavy responsibility and still having to look happy and make visitors to the Istana ground feel happy. Of all the good signs, this is the most telling. For some may claim that it is audacity beyond words for the govt to pay the President $4m a year plus all the perks, and almost a $1m pay rise. Such arrogance could be negatively received by the electorate. But looking at it from another angle, it is a sure sign of confidence. The govt knows the ground well and that the people will still give the ruling party a resounding victory in the next GE. They would not dare to risk winning a GE by making this kind of payment if they think it will not go down well with the people. The govt is always right and they must have done their sums well and knowing that all is well. The next GE will be another clean sweep. There will be no meltdown whereby the opposition will do a clean sweep. The budget, pay hike and big bonuses will not be the swan song.

All the bad signs

Japan is into the second week of the tsunami disaster and nuclear plant meltdown. The situation is grave but how grave? There were reports and reports and updates and updates. The Japanese on the ground are feeling uneasy. Many are openly questioning the reports coming out from their govt. What is the situation today? Last night I heard Naoto Kan saying that he would be visiting the site next week. This is the first time a senior govt official is talking about a visit to the disaster site. What does it say? For one whole week, with all the assurances that the nuclear fallout is still safe, no govt officials dare to visit the actual site of the disaster. Maybe I am wrong and they did visit the site but not reported. And the victims were accusing the govt of neglect and leaving them to die. Japan is a super efficient govt. Not just talk only. They have proven it in many ways. Why are the aids not reaching the stricken people after so many days? Bad transportation, bad coordination, bad weather, not enough helpers? None of these is valid. The Japanese are the best equipped and best organised. Even in India and China, helicopters will be flying around to drop aids to the victims. Maybe all the helicopters are used in dropping water on the nuclear plants. Is the situation that bad that it is better to leave the affected people on their own, to die as the victims are claiming? Could it be that these people are like lepers, already hit by radio activity and better to leave them there than to risk good people going after bad people? The Americans are helping, but no troops on the ground. They are keeping at a safe distance of 80 km. What does this tell? Is there a message saying nothing nearer than 80 km is safe? Then the exodus of foreigners and those who are able to do so. Embassies and MNCs are telling their staff to get out of Tokyo. Another bad indicator that there is more to it than meets the eyes. Finally, yesterday the threat level using the International Nuclear and Radioactivity Event Scale (INES) was raised from 4 to 5 with 7 as the highest. And the cooling of the 6 nuclear reactors are still work in progress, with one leaking water as fast as water being pumped in, and some still in threatening state. The signs are bad and saying a lot of bad things that were not reported. A sure sign of things are getting better is to see govt officials and the Americans on the ground itself. The UN nuclear envoy also avoided visiting the site. And there is no surge of volunteers rushing to save the victims by the highly nationalistic Japanese and their samurai spirit. Obviously things are bad. How bad?

A worst case scenario

What if a sudden explosion or discharge of radioactive clouds from one of the reactors and raising radioactive particles to a dangerous level? Fukushima prefecture no longer habitable and the govt order an immediate evacuation from the area. Radioactive clouds are blown towards Tokyo and a similar evacuation order is made. Can you imagine Fukushima prefecture will be abandoned and left barren for years to come? Can you imagine an evacuation of Tokyo! Just pray the Japanese is able to control the situation and prevent it from becoming a crisis of such a magnitude.

Cover ups rife in Japan nuclear industry

This is the heading of an AP article about the cover-ups in Japan’s nuclear industry. The Japanese are angry and no longer believe what they were told, especially of the current nuclear meltdown. Kei Sugaoka, a former nuclear engineer said, ‘There’s not enough transparency in the industry.’ AP wrote, ‘In 1989, he received an order that horrified him: Edit out footage showing cracks in plant steam pipes in video to be submitted to regulators.’ The cover-ups of Japan’s nuclear industry went back to the early days of the 1970s when the plants in Fukushima were built. According to some reports that were in the media, some GE engineers resigned because of fear that the plants were unsafe as they were built to withstand only quakes up to 7 in the Richter Scale. There were reports that subsequently this was rectified. How much was the truth and how much were cover-ups no body really knows. The Japanese people are feeling the brunt of this fiasco.” ‘I can’t believe them,’ said Taketo Kuga, a cab driver in Tokyo, where low levels of radiation were observed on Tuesday.” What about the foreign communities? They voted not to believe all the reports that the radiation level is low and safe by leaving Japan, particularly Tokyo. There is an exodus going on with foreign companies and embassies ordering their people to leave. The honesty and integrity of the Japanese govt are taking a whacking for sure.

Why the President’s salary is pegged higher

This is a reply from Chen Hwai Liang, Press Secretary to the Prime Minister in the ST forum page. I am wondering why is it a letter in the forum page and not an official statement, say in the front page of the ST. The kpkb in cyberspace about the more than 20% increase in the President’s salary must be making people uncomfortable. So here is the official explanation. The salary is pegged to the private sector benchmarks. ‘The principle and benchmarks have been extensively debated in Parliament, most recently in 2007.’ He forgot to add that this was also approved by Parliament. Who and how many MPs voted in favour of this formula? Let me guess, 82 for and 2 against? I am not sure, forgotten already. The vote in favour was almost unanimous. Do the citizens agree with it? Sorry the latter is a non issue since the people voted the MPs as their representatives in Parliament and are indirectly saying that the MPs represented them and voted on their behalf. The other reasons given by Chen Hwai Liang, ‘The President occupies the highest office in Singapore. He exercises custodial powers to protect our past reserves and over the appointment of key public officers to protect the integrity of the public service. As head of state, he represents the country and advances our interests internationally. This is why it is appropriate to peg the President’s salary higher than ministers’ and just above the Prime Minister’s.’ I think the first sentence should be sufficient. It is the highest office in Singapore. Period. But the explanation added that the President’s job carries a higher responsibility, though the ministers may be running their ministries and their thousands of staff. The people may agree or disagree, but this is the official position. Now that the people understand the rationale, let’s move on.

Quotes from Japan after the tsunami

‘What the hell is going on?’ PM Naoto Kan ‘This govt is useless’ Masako Kitajima, Tokyo office worker. ‘I’m not sure if what they’re saying is true or not, and that makes me nervous. I want to know why they won’t provide answers. Tokyo resident Tetsu Ichiura.

Nuclear energy – expert opinion

If a govt is exploring plans to build a nuclear plant and engages nuclear experts to provide expertise advice, what would be the likely recommendations? If the experts say, no go. Finish, his job ends there. If the recommendation is that it is ok, nuclear energy is the way to go, all precautions can be taken to reduce risk to zero, ha, his expertise will be needed much longer, at least till the completion of the nuclear plant and possibly longer. Now, why would a nuclear expert tell a govt that nuclear energy is too dangerous and too high a risk to take and to risk his usefulness, and his paycheck? Many experts will say, don’t worry, there are risks, but manageable. We have the technology, the knowledge and the knowhow to make sure that it is safe. Go ahead and have your cake and eat it as well. And such soothing and confident words are what many govts would want to hear and will feel very assured. I read in the paper that some countries in Europe are putting on hold their nuclear ambition. I also read this comment from a third world leader, ‘Our reactors will be third generation and they will be able to withstand even the most powerful earthquake.,’ Bangladesh Atomic energy Commission chairman Farid Uddin Ahmed told AFP. He must be rightly advised by the experts and believed everything they said. I believe when the Japanese built their nuclear plants in Fukushima, they must also have been told that the biggest earthquake will not shake the nuclear plants. Absolutely safe! Fear not. Whatever sophisticated and bestest technology and equipment, there must be accompanied by the bestest talents and workforce to operate them. Third world mentality, third world attitude, third world ability, third grade work force, are themselves the greatest risk to a potential nuclear disaster. Just like buying sophisticated military aircraft, without the skill technicians to maintain them, without the skill pilots to fly them, they will all ended up grounded. In a nuclear plant, the ending is tragedy of mass termination.

Trading madness or irresponsibility?

Matthew Lynn, a Bloomberg News columnist, wrote an article in the Today paper about high speed trading to the fine tune of picoseconds, just to take advantage of the next guy who does not have technology as an aid. Now what is a picosecond? This is Matthew’s definition, ‘a picosecond is one trillionth of a second, or …a picosecond is to one second what one second is to 31,700 years.’ This is the direction the stock market trading is heading to. Hey, wait a minute, what is a stock market, a jackpot machine, a casino or a game of chance? ‘A stock market has two core functions. It exists for companies to raise capital needed to invest in their business. And it should help ordinary people to make a decent return on their savings by investing in those enterprises.’ I quote Matthew. And this is nothing new. Why are the regulators allowing themselves to be led by the nose by the big funds to change the nature of stock trading from investment to one of pure gambling, by odds and speed? Mathew added that ‘at a certain point, you have to step back and ask whether this is a road we really want to go down, and whether it performs any useful function.’ He concluded by saying that ‘The stock exchanges should call a halt – and tell the traders that if they only want to hold their investments for a picoseconds, they might be better off going somewhere else. Like a racetrack.’ I would like to add that it is highly irresponsible for stock exchanges to allow this to happen as it not only gives the hedge fund an unfair advantage over other traders, which is a fundamental principle it must uphold, such trading methodology will eventually lead to the destruction of the stock market itself. High speed trading and many other variable methodologies are undermining all the cardinal principles of stock markets, eg churning, creating a false market, uneven playing field, buying and selling without change of ownership etc etc. The rot has started and its natural ending is the demise of the stockbroking industry if this deceptive trend is not stopped.

Relying on cheap labour unsustainable

Eureka! Eureka! Singapore has finally discovered that relying on cheap foreign labour for economic growth is unsustainable. The govt is now advising the companies to change their business model to raise real productivity instead of just employing more and more cheap labour. The govt is doing the thinking again, to help the unthinking Singaporeans, this time to increase their productivity by other means. This is good news or bad news? If companies are not going to import more foreign workers, will it affect our economic growth? What about the businesses that are dependent on foreign workers, like those in Geylang? I think it will also affect property prices and rentals. Maybe not. I don’t think the spending power of cheap labour really help much to generate economic activities and growth. The only businesses they provide, other than in Geylang, will be public transport and loitering in the casinos and all the public parks. They would also provide more jobs for themselves as cleaners, to clean up the litters they left behind. If lesser cheap workers are imported, the casino operators will be most happy, the local commuters will also be happy. Not sure if the public transport providers will be happy as the trains and buses will be less crowded and their revenue will be affected. Singaporeans and Singaporean businesses will have to make adjustment to live with the presence of lesser cheap foreign workers.

A Japanese lesson

By the time the last head is counted, there could be tens of thousands of Japanese dead after the one in a century 9 on the Richter scale earthquake. The flooding water that rushed to the shore and inland, flooding everything in sight was 10m high. Yet, the Japanese were calm, stoic, as if it was just part and parcel of living in Japan. No panic, no kpkb, no screaming and crocodile tears. They put up a brave front despite the destruction and loss of life. Coming home to Singapore, you should look at the faces of the lucky Singaporeans who escaped death while holidaying in Japan or missing a connecting flight to America. There were grief, fear, and some were sobbing. What a frightening experience and a narrow escape from death. Come nearer to Orchard Road, we had the once in 50 years flood of 2 feet deep water. What a disaster! What a comic disaster. It was just an afternoon monsoon rain that could help to clear the longkangs of the debris that needed a strong flushing. Boo, boo, boo, crying all round and blaming everyone and the govt for not preventing a flash flood caused by two hours of tropical rain. Singaporeans must grow up, learn to take disasters in their stride. The two feet of flood in Orchard Road should be time for a little fun in the rain. Throw some soap powder into it and have a free foam party. Enjoy and have fun the next time when it floods. No need to kpkb on spilling a glass of water. Learn from the Japanese. The next campaign for nation building, clap and have fun in Orchard Road when it floods. Enjoy the blessing of water from the sky. Take a bath or have a party. There are worst calamities than a little flood. And for those who are hell bent to have a nuclear plant here, because no choice, too many people and oil too expensive, the Japanese lesson will help them build a better nuclear plant that will never fail. If the local super talents here are not good enough, the foreign talents will swarm here to say aye aye, they can build one for us and guarantee it will never fail. They will not live long enough to see it fail for sure. By then they would have taken the money and gone.

The 4th Dimension

A clash of life forces at the frontier of two dimensions.

Need for a major restructuring of the workforce

Singaporeans should be grateful that 106,600 PMET jobs are being taken up by the Filipinos. This is the same as the thousands of construction workers and maids doing jobs that Singaporeans did not want to do. What Singaporeans should do is to retrain themselves for higher paying jobs. Not retraining PMETs to do lower level jobs. If this is the case, then someone’s ass need to be kicked. There are plenty of high paying jobs in Singapore that Singaporeans should aspire to do. Those jobs that Singaporeans are no longer competitive, should go to foreign talents. We should welcome the Filipinos and the rest to be our PMETs. Singaporeans can then seek jobs that these foreign talents cannot do and pay better. I am looking at Members of Parliaments, mayors, town council chiefs, President, or other political jobs. These are high paying jobs that Singaporeans should aspire to do. There may not be that many now but more can be created. We can have more MPs, more mayors, vice mayors, PMs, dep PMs, asst dep PMs, Presidents, Vice Presidents, and even Senior Presidents, or executive Presidents etc etc. And of course there are plenty of directors to be appointed in public and private companies. Singaporeans are barking at the wrong tree to fight with cheaper foreign talents to be PMETs. There are better and higher paying jobs waiting for Singaporeans in govt and in politics.

Japan caught sleeping

The nuclear meltdown may happen. All systems failed. Human error compounded by a huge earthquake. Did they plan for such a day? They must have. The construction of a nuclear power station must have taken into account all the possibilities of a meltdown and to prevent it from happening. It happened. But what was disappointing is that the 8.9 Richter scale quake did not lead to an immediate evacuation of coastal villages and towns. If it did, it was too slow. The Japanese have been preparing for such eventualities all their lives. They have tsunami drills regularly, more regular than conducting war games with the Americans. How could so many lives be swept away if there was a tsunami warning and evacuation of the coastal people? Caught sleeping? If it is a once in 50 years act of God, maybe excusable. But earthquakes and tsunamis are part and parcel of the Japanese life and they are very well prepared and equipped to deal with them. Japan caught sleeping. The world expects the Japanese to do much better in preventing such disasters. They are very meticulous and systematic people. They have failed their own people this time.