Racism in Singapore

Recently the outcry against racism is getting louder. Many, even a minister, are raising issues of racism openly. Yes, there are incidents of racism in this island and there is nothing to hide, or better to sweep them under the carpet. The case of this elderly man berating his Indian neighbour for unpleasant smell, unhygienic lifestyle, and turning his flat into a squalor, has been given special prominence by the minister in his Facebook posting. What is the intent of the minister, to prove that there is racism, to use this as an issue in the national dialogue or to say that racism exists in little pockets in the society?

Short of saying that this elderly man’s IQ or EQ is suspect, that he did not find anything wrong complaining to Minister Shanmugam who is obviously an Indian, I just dunno what to say. With such a strange behavior from an elderly man, it is equally strange to trump this as a good example of racism. And the case only helps to confirm the mindset of those who see racism as a big issue in this island. And some took the opportunity to beat drums and gongs to the screams of, hear, hear, there is racism in Sinkieland.

And the drum and gong beaters are raising their pitch higher, which is very unfortunate. No one in his right mind will deny that there is racism here and everywhere in the world. It is a matter of degree and seriousness. No one will accept the racial slurs by the elderly man even he if he is not the average Sinkie man one encounters in the island and thus not excusable.

The point is this, is racism really a big issue in the island? Since 1969, has there been any racially incited conflict or killings, of people being attacked physically or verbally abused in public because of race? There were a handful of racist postings in the blogs by some hot young men and they were immediately taken to task by the police. And these were about the most serious incidents of racial discrimination one could find. It is quite embarrassing really.

What more can you ask for? For those who believe that this island is a racist place populated by a racist majority victimizing the minorities, why not choose a country that has a more pleasant environment where different races live in better harmony than in this little island? No we are not perfect, but trying to.

Yes, I am offended as a Sinkie. I seeing more accusation and agitation of racism in this country I called home. And no, I am not saying that there is no racism, but when they manifest, they are so mild and so few in between to warrant the sounding of a tsunami coming. There are bound to be a few bad hats in all communities. But the bad hats here don’t beat up people or shoot people with guns. This is Singapore, a multi culture and racial city state with no equals in the world as far as race relations is concerned.

Sinkies should feel offended when people keep harping about racism in the city and tell the racist off. Only racists go around seeing everything racist using their racist lens.

Attack the complainant and miss the complaint

The elderly gentleman was complaining about his neighbour because he was Indian. Any insinuation? No, this elderly gentleman must be a racist at heart. Right or wrong?

By the way, what was he complaining about? Bad smell, dirty habits, and what else? Now that the focus is on this elderly man, what happen to his complaints? Were his complaints valid and need to be addressed? HDB flats are homes to the ordinary Sinkies, not a farm or pig sty for pigs. The residents deserved to have a clean and healthy environment, no dirty and smelly neighbours and neighbours clogging up the walkways or turning their flats into health or fire hazards. No IMH patients running around abusing or threatening the neighbours with physical harm.

While the complainant now has been turned into a villain, a racist, it could be easier to accept his complaints as valid if he is not so dense to keep repeating the fact that the neighbour was from a different race but just about the problems. Then his complaints may be accepted and dealt with. In this case everyone forgot about the reasons for the complaints.

A similar case was Sylvia Lim raising the disquiet in Woffle’s case in Parliament. She was questioned and intimidated as if she was the wrongdoer. Is this the proper way to deal with a complainant, a messenger or a whistle blower? It is like killing the messenger of bad news to avoid hearing more bad news. Divert the attention from the issue and make the complainant the problem.

Of Hope, Heart and Home

Someone asked me why I am still subscribing the ST, on weekends only, when many refused to touch it for their many reasons. The answer is simple. You need to know what it is, what it is printing and what it is not printing. You must know the subject or you can’t make a fair comment or judgement of it. Likewise many have openly declared that they would shun Hsien Loong’s National Day Rally Speech. I did not, or else I would not know what I am writing about the speech.

It is not very normal to see someone speak in three languages at the same time and on a very serious subject like the nation’s future. Other than his command of the languages, his elephant memory is abnormal, to be able to speak through a couple of hours without making a glitch. It was scripted and rehearsed many times, true, but even a news reader would make mistakes here and there for such a long script.

Many of the misgivings and gripes of the people were tackled satisfactorily with many yeses instead of the usual no’s in the past. Many were happy that the govt is listening to their grouses and willing to act on them positively. What was not so good is that it was kind of reactionary. The govt was simply reacting to the cries and the problems raised by the people. And many of these problems needed not happen if govt policies were implemented with a heart. Yes, the heart was missing or misplaced for many years.

Hsien Loong’s main themes were the heart, hope and home. When the heart was not there, hope was dashed, and home became a big burden and a troublesome factor in their lives. Many pains were inflicted on the people because of the missing heart. Policies were shafted down the people’s throat in a very arrogant way, dismissing the people as non entities. This is how I am going to do it. Like it or not, the people just have to live with it.

What is really needed, instead of reactionary piece meal solutions, is to flush the slimy little heart, if it is still there, with sulphuric acid to get rid of the black stains of the past, to start with a new heart. Instal a new set of heartware into the system and hope and home will fall into place.

The old mindset of dictating to the people, not giving the people any choice, or real choices, must stop. Take the CPF scheme. Many would continue to keep their money in the CPF after retirement. Many would want to buy some medical or annuity insurance for their own good. There is no need for compulsion when a scheme is really good for the people. Some will get their money out, some more, some less. But with a good scheme in place, with better terms, interest rates, the people will make choices that are to their advantage. There is no need to compel the people by compulsory schemes. Give the people the choice, let the people decide what is good for them.

The missing heart is most evident in housing policies. All the blocks, deciding who can buy or cannot buy, what they can buy and cannot buy, are simply arrogant and dismissive. Get back to the basics of public housing, build homes for the people. The affordability issue should be more about people wanting to buy beyond their means, wanting to commit to bigger units when they could not afford so. And not forcing people to buy bigger units, or into the private sector, deciding their affordability and how much they must spend, with no regards to their commitments, retirement plans and prudence.

The same applies to mean testing in hospitals. The hospitals must meet the needs of the people. And if more people wanting to opt for lower quality services, provide them. Why compel people to spend more and consume higher quality services when they don’t need and don’t want? Silly isn’t. And the mean testing must go. It only reflects how mean policymakers are.

As for hope, education is where the govt is pointing. We need to provide the places for our children in the universities. Lawrence Wong’s recommendation to offer more places for marketable degrees is sound. Take care of our children instead of other nation’s children. Forget about gaming those impractical and silly ranking systems. A good university is in its products, the graduates. Not the number of foreigners.

And the reality is that our education system is a flop from schools to universities. The fact, we cannot produce good quality grads to fill up many top positions and have to rely on third world grads, from poorly equipped schools and universities, to fill up these top positions. I said our schools failed despite the straight As because these straight As, when sent overseas and returned, were also found wanting. So what is the craze about gaming to score high in those silly rankings? Make sure that our grads are in demand and good enough for all the top positions in the country. If they are not, then it says the system is not good enough. Hope is missing or misplaced when our world class universities could not train our grads to be world class. When foreigners are sought after and walked in to replace our locals in good jobs.

Hope and Home will follow when the heart is in the right place. It is frightening when sometimes one wonders if there is even a heart.

Lotus pond - a piece of rar art

This is an abstract piece that is done quite differently to impress by its colour and compositon.

Dedicated To All those Born in 1940's, 50's , 60's

I received the below article from a friend. The origin is likely from Malaysia but the experience and how we grew up were very similar. I took liberties to change a few words here and there to localise it into our context with some Sinkie names added. It wasn't too long ago when we were all like dat.

Dedicated To All those Born in 1940's, 50's , 60's

Without any maids, our mothers cooked, cleaned and took care of the whole family. They still had time to chat with neighbours. They were called ‘housewives’.

Everyone had candy floss, fizzy drinks and shaved ice with syrups. Diabete was rare and aspirin/panadol cured all illness.

We rode adult bicycles to school, straddling one leg to the other side. Sitting on the seat would mean unable to reach the pedals. Hercules and Raleigh were the top brands. The richer ones had their own mini-bikes. Ironically, we all had problems with our brakes and loosen chains, and after running into the bushes a few times, we learned how to solve the problem.

Prefects were a fearful lot ...more fearful than the teachers. Detention class was like going to prison for a day. We had "public caning" in schools.

NO ONE ever won the big prizes on "Tikam". It was a scam but it did not stop us coming back for more.

Motorbikes were ridden without helmets. It was rare to ride a private taxi. Taking a bus was luxury - we either cycled or walked everywhere.

We drank water from the tap or any source that looked clean, NOT from bottles. Our tummies were coated with steel.

We spent hours in the fields under the sun, playing football, hantam bola, or flying kites, without worrying about UV rays. It did not affect us. Our skins were tougher than cow hides.

We roamed free catching spiders and did not worry about Aedes mosquitoes. We kept our spiders in match boxes and ready for a fight anytime.

With a mere 5 pebbles, girls played endless games and with an aged tennis ball, boys ran like crazy for hours.

When it rained, we swam the drains & canals to catch rainbow fish, none of us were dissolved in rain.

We shared one bottle of soft drink with friends, NO ONE actually worried about catching anything.

We ate salty, sweet & oily foods, bread had real butter and sometimes condensed milk. We enjoyed very sweet coffee, tea, and "ice kacang" but we were not obese because....... WE WERE OUT PLAYING ALL THE TIME!!

We left home in the morning and played all day till hunger drove us back home. When needed, our parents knew how to find us. NO ONE actually watched over us and WE WERE ALWAYS SAFE.

WE DID NOT HAVE HANDPHONES BUGGING US. Very few had phones at home. We rode bikes or walked over to a friend's house and just yelled for them!

We did not have Playstations, X-boxes, Nintendo's, multiple channels on cable TV, DVD movies, no surround sound, no phones, no personal computers, no Internet. WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them! Our TV was black and white.

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and we still continued the stunts.

We did not have birthday parties till we were 21, which was when we started to take notice of girls.

We had not heard of the word "Bumiputra". We only knew our friends by names. Their parents were Pak Cik and Mak Cik or Uncle and Aunty.(This para is the tell tale sign of the origin of this article).

In Badminton, we did not change the shuttle as long as it was in flight. Regardless of how many feathers were left in the shuttle, our game continued... but still Wong Peng Soon made us proud in badminton.

Match-boxes were always "chilly" or "king kong" brand...to own a box of matches from a hotel was something great.

Regardless of whether we could afford one, we always knew Maths tuition was $10.00 a month.

All parties were held in the homes, the kitchens and the corridors were the extensions.

Morris Minor and Volkswagen beetle were on our roads...driven alongside Kingswood, Vauxhall, Opel and Chrysler. Executives of companies drove Peugeot and Volvo. Japanese cars were considered "inferior". Some tried rubbing the paint work to prove if they were made from drink cans.
There were no traffic lights, only roundabouts.

The whole kampongs came together during kenduris and all took turns to "kacau dodol". Chinese, Indians and Malays were all part of kenduris and all knew how to speak Malay.

Our favourite local performer was Rose Chan and the Beatles were the most popular band. John Wayne's westerns on Sunday, screening in open fields were 10c cent per show.

Malay weddings had joget sessions at night, it was the only time to ask the Malay ladies for a dance.

Ketupat were NEVER plastic wrapped.
Football was played barefooted in thorn-filled "padangs", rain or shine... but still Quah Kim Song, Dollah Kassim and Rajagopal made us proud. Some may remember Wilfred Skinner and Twinkle Toe Tan Boon Leong I think, and there was Uncle Choo. We actually beat Malaya/Malaysia in football.


Susu lembu was delivered to our house by our big, friendly and strong "Bayi" on his bicycle. All "jagas" were "Bayi" and no place got robbed.
"Laksa" and "Putu Mayam" man came peddling. "Kacang Puteh" man walked balancing on his head top, 6 compartments of different type of murukus.
We played tops, made our own kites & had kite fighting with glass glued threads, and made wooden guns & used buah cherry for bullets.

Kang Kong was free…easily harvested by the riverside. "Kembong" was 30 cents a "kati" and nobody wanted "ikan pari".

When the Circus came to town, everybody went to see it. It was the best LIVE show I ever saw.

Usually we did not have to BUY fruits. They were self planted or given by neighbours or friends, or plucked from the neighbour’s when they were not looking.


The idea of parents bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. Our parents actually sided with the law and brought the child to be caned in schools! Nobody knew about child psychology !

Yet this generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 40 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned ......HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!

And YOU are one of them!

CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids before the government 'regulated' our lives for good !!

And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.

The morning dawns darkness

Work up this morning to be greeted by a bright new day. Sat down for a cuppa of kopi and breakfast to prepare for a quiet and blissful weekend. Flipped the ST and suddenly darkness descended all around me.

Ravi was told to see a psychiatrist by the Law Society or to face losing his license to practise as a lawyer. And Ravi’s consultation with his own psychiatrist, a prominent practitioner, was somehow not enough. How many psychiatrists must Ravi see before enough is enough or before the Law Society deems he is fit to practise law?

Has Ravi misbehaved in courts, incoherent and acted in a way detrimental to his clients or embarrassing to the courts, to the legal profession? Or has Ravi done anything to harm anyone? Has Ravi’s clients been complaining about his behaviour and incompetence?

He has been in and out of courts and no judges have so far questioned his ability to handle his cases. Why is Ravi seen as incompetent and could face losing his licence to practise?

The darkness is overwhelming and suffocating.

Our roads are dangerous for cyclists

Are our roads dangerous? Shanmugam said, and I quote from the Today paper, ‘I have been noticing that there is increased amount of unsafe driving on our roads…I wonder if it is the case that we are simply noticing this more, or if indeed our driving habits have become worse. And Today had a table showing that the number of cyclists and pillion riders who died or were injured in accidents were 589 for 2009, 573 for 2010 and 500 for 2011. The number for Jan-Jun 2012 is 190 and simple projection will see this number to be about 190 plus or minus a bit in the next 6 months, or about 380 to 400 for the year. 

Ahem, I must say that based on these numbers, the number of incidents is getting lesser, not increased.

Nonetheless, the number of death is still too high for a casual recreational activity with one or two death daily. It is the most dangerous sports in terms of number of casualties. It should be discouraged or even banned. The number of death is unnecessary and not worth the risk.

Many cyclists refuse to admit this fact that our roads are just too dangerous for cyclists. They are not only narrow, other than the highways, the drivers, the big buses and lorries, are often driven by speed demons. Many of these heavy vehicles are driven by the lowly educated, the foreigners with their third world mentality and habits, and pose just too high a risk for our cyclists.

To add to the problem, some cyclists think that drivers are as well mannered and safety conscious as them, and would drive with care. To further add to the deadly delusion, some of the cyclists thought number is safety and would cycle abreast in twos and threes or more when in a big group, ignoring the right of motorists. They are simply inviting for trouble. A little mistake by the drivers, intentional, accidental or trying to frighten the cyclists to cycle single file would send them flying to heaven.

At this point in time, our road infrastructure is just not suitable for cyclists, not even single file. Best to just keep to the parks, connectors and housing estates. Venture to the main roads at your own risk. The hobby or sports, the attractive sports attire and gadgets to don on, are not worth the risk of losing arms and legs and lives. Don’t be silly and don’t be stubborn. Our roads are not meant for cycling.

Quote from Professor Christopher Balding

‘Everyone the world over, the Chinese included, acknowledge that the Chinese media is blatantly manipulated and censored. Chinese technocrats quietly admit they don’t trust their own economic data believing it to be rigged for political purposes.’ Christopher Balding

How many people believe that their country’s media, or any media, is not blatantly manipulated and censored?

What you will be getting and missing reading western media

This is what David Pilling wrote in his article, Japan, China and their ‘history problem’ in the Today paper, ‘The argument over Senkaku goes back to the start of Japanese colonialism. Japan surveyed Senkaku in 1885, … Saying that there was no sign of the islands being under anyone’s influence, it incorporated the into Japanese territory in 1895. Beijing says the islands have appeared on Chinese maps since the 16th Century. From its perspective, Japan seized the islands when it was setting off on its Western inspired colonial rampage. The islands were controlled by the Americans after the war, but returned to Tokyo in 1972 as part of the reversion of Okinawa to Japan. Beijing says the US had no right to return them since they were not Washington’s to give.’

Anyone reading this piece will think nothing is wrong with the Japanese version and the return of the islands to Japan. What was missing was the acknowledgement by the Japanese Imperial govt even much earlier of Diaoyu Islands as the territorial limits of the Qing Dynasty. What was left out was the ceding of the islands in an unequal treaty after China lost a war with Japan in the 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki. It was not an innocent act of simply incorporating other countries’ land into another country like the Western powers did during their colonization of the world. Columbus went to American and found no one owned it, so claimed that he found it. Raffles founded Singapore because no one else found it.

It also brushes aside the fact that the islands were held in trust by the Americans only and America was not the rightful owners. It also did not say anything about the post WW2 treaties for all land grabbed by Japan to be returned to China, including these islands. It also turned a blind eye to the American agenda of the Cold War conflict with China and Russia and thus conveniently ignored China’s rights to these islands.

The western media often deliberately ignored the truth and the relevant facts to show a different truth. Unwary and innocent readers would easily be made to see only their side of half truth, and lies as truth. And may daft Asians and Africans would believe these western truths and yell and cheer and embrace them like the gospel truth. Unthinking and not thinking and making an ass of themselves to serve western interests and agenda without knowing it.

China will do very well by not learning from the corrupt West

There is a Bloomberg article in the ST yesterday about the great pay gap between the American and Chinese bankers. As an example, it said that ‘For every US$1b of profit, investment bank JP Morgan, the biggest US lender, pays its chief executive and chairman Jamie Dimon US$1.21m, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the world’s most profitable, gives its top executive Jian Jianqing US$9,400.’ Dimon’s total package last year was around US$23m while Jian was about US$300k.

The disparity is probably as wide as the income gap between the rich and poor in Sinkieland. The article also said that the gap would be narrowed in a matter of time. It would, but hopefully China would not be as crazy as to go all the way like the crazy American white collar crooks. The salary of their political leaders is another example of China refusing to do the wrong things and ape the West blindly. They are not going to restrict the number of banks and not going to let them grow to become too big to fall. This is something that will keep the Chinese income gap and inflation in an even keel. Remember, all the big money paid to top bankers, CEOs and govt leaders eventually is paid by the people. It comes from the people that they robbed indirectly.

Despite the hue and cry about property prices falling, the Chinese are not going to do the same crazy thing to let property prices go sky high. The developers are trying to frighten the govt by claiming prices would collapse. They did not know that there are more than 1.4b Chinese waiting for cheaper properties and waiting for the prices to fall. The Chinese have brilliant scholars and administrators who are studying the developments around the world and could see the pitfalls of high property prices. They are going to introduce more curbs and control measures to keep property prices low.

There are many things the Chinese are learning since they joined the world community in the last 60 years and they are very discriminating in what they would adopt and apply to their country. Heh heh, high property prices and high salaries are not in their cards, at least if the current leaders have their way. They are not daft, like Sinkies. Hope they don’t turn their stockmarkets into doubles of Wall Street, and allow computers to trade against small investors, and not to allow derivatives and snake oils to be sold in their markets. By not aping and copying the West blindly, the Chinese would do well and protect themselves from the greed that is destroying the western economies and system.

PS. For those wondering why I wrote so many articles about China, US and east and south east Asia, these are my academic interests. No man is an island and we must look beyond the little wells we live in. The world is so interconnected that everything affects us in one way or another.

Japan, the day of reckoning beckons

Flashing across several newspapers was Japan’s call on China to protect its citizens amidst public protest over the landing of Japanese nationalists in Diaoyu Island in a tit for tat move by the Japanese. This brought back vivid memories of the early 20th Century, the days of Shanghai Bund, of foreign concessions in China. During those dark days of China’s history, when foreign soldiers were stationed inside China, including several of the big cities, there were also many protests by the Chinese students and nationalists in China against foreign encroachment and aggression. Japan was one of the big powers occupying parts of China and with its own concessions.

In those days, there were no calls for protection of Japanese nationals inside China. If there were, it was the Chinese govt calling for the protection of Chinese nationals inside China from cruelties and attacks by the Japanese in particular, and the western powers in general. In those days, the Chinese citizens were victims of foreign soldiers in their own country.

Often, the Japanese would provoke incidents with the citizens and used it to attack and encroach further into China, claiming reparations and demanding compensations for Japanese military actions against the Chinese govt, and more territorial concessions as well.

The China then was a broken country, disunited, poor agricultural land that was torn apart, and with no modern industries. They don’t even have a proper army and no arms industry to produce even small arms. Today, China is a full fledge superpower that would even hold the mighty US forces at arms length. Would the Japanese dare to trigger any incident and attack China again? A united China with military forces much bigger than the Japanese in all areas is not going take any Japanese engineered incident lightly.

How genuine is this Japanese fear for the safety of its citizens inside China? Over the past decades after China became a people’s republic, there were many incidents of public protest but hardly a Japanese citizen was hurt unlike when Japan was invading China. Are the Japanese plotting new excuses to revisit the days of old Shanghai and old China? Would there be another coalition of western forces in the likes of the League of Nations to attacking China?

Would China take it like it did before, being beaten to pieces? Or would China deal a forceful blow to the invaders this time round? Would Japan be able to run free in China again? Or would Chinese troops be running free in Japan should hostility breaks out?

Time to get rid of the old and senile

Shanmugam revealed a few more details of his meeting with this elderly man, a Sinkie, who complained all things about Indians, from smell, social status and turning his flat into a squalor. Being an elderly person, and complaining about such insensitive problems, I would presume that this is another member of the lost generation, illiterate or poorly schooled, and very ignorant of anything further than the tip of his nose.

The fact that he rattled off about how ugly and smelly his Indian neighbour was without knowing that Shanmugam is also an Indian, tells a lot about the mentality of this elderly person. Is he bi polar or senile? How could a sensible person be complaining about an Indian to an Indian without thinking that the Indian he was speaking to could be offended? Maybe he is colour blind.

There will be many of such elderlies that lived in their little cocoon world. There will even be young people who may have such prejudices. Some may need to be sent to the IMH. They don’t represent the normal and the majority.

The point is that such elderlies are remnants of a past where many did not have the privilege of a decent education and have very narrow world views of things. One way is to try to understand and tolerate them in their pathetic and deprived existence. In a way like tolerating the foul smell and squalor of a dirty neighbour. Another way is to tell the world how ugly these elderlies are and dispatch them to some forsaken place to keep them away from creating trouble to the well endowed and affluent citizens. JB, Batam and Bintan look very convenient. I think the latter suggestion is a good and easy way to take care of such elderlies. This beautiful world class city of ours, with all the fine and elegant people, has no place for such laggards of the past.

Mohammed did not go to the mountain

Did the Mohammed go to the mountain or did the mountain go to Mohammed? The mountain did not need anything from Mohammed for sure. Mohammed needed to listen to God, and needed to go to the mountain for that. This cannot be too confusing right?

I heard Reach has set up many feedback platforms for the people to go and have their feedbacks heard. And the ministers would be waiting for them. Many will go to the platforms to do as told. Many will also not go to the platforms. Those who are going will fit into a certain mould, a certain kind of thinking and expectations. The feedback will be skewed towards this kind of thinking format. There will be an absence of another format of thinking which is what the feedback probably will want to hear. This kind of thinking is floating all over cyberspace, in many blogs and forum. But the mountain would not go to the forum to hear them. The mountain may just make do with whatever and whoever is willing to call at the mountain’s convenience and dictates.

Would the mountain be humble enough to go to the people, to listen to the people, to chat with the people? Would the need to listen to the people be compelling enough to move the mountain? At the moment it is unlikely. The people must go to the mountain. Fortunately there is no requirement to kneel and pray after every 3 steps on the way to the mountain.

I think the mountain would be very welcome in many blogs and forum if indeed it can move from its immovable position. It would be like calling on the people, knocking at the doors and be invited in for a chat.

It is difficult, very difficult, to think that the mountain will go to Mohammed even with the convenience of not having to move one step and at its own time, and not risk being assaulted. The sincerity of the mountain is being questioned if it did not think it necessary to go to Mohammed.

Singapore fund is $1.5B bidder for Paulson hotel group

August 22nd, 2012
Author: Online Press

Aug 20 (Reuters) – The Government of Singapore Investment Corp has bid $1.5 billion for a group of bankrupt hotels owned by hedge fund Paulson & Co, including the Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa in Phoenix and La Quinta Resort & Club in La Quinta, California….

This seems to be the strategy of our SWF, throwing good money after bad money for high risk and high returns. On the other hand other funds are buying into Sin into good and sound companies like energy, power and the latest, a national icon in F&N.

If, I say if, the source of the funds is from the people’s savings like CPF, money that cannot lose, is this strategy a bit risky and incompatible to the risk profile of the owner of the fund? What if the strategy fails and unacceptable capital is lost and the fund owners cannot be repaid?

If the gamble turns out good, no one is complaining. If the gamble sours, who is to be responsible? This is not enough as the money must be paid. Do the owners agree or give their permission to using good money to take high risk?

USA creating war to save its ass

The Evil Empire, USA is down and out economically and financially. It
is in deep shit. It is trying to struggle its way out not through
logic and hard work but instead it resorts to creating troubles and
warfare throughout the worlespecially in non caucasian or non white
countries.

When the first wave of White men came from Europe especially from
England, France, Spain, Portugal and Holland to invade the Americas ,
they justified their invasions on religious grounds, claiming that the
native Americans were heathens and savages and did not deserve the
resource rich lands of both North and South America which their
Christian God had meant to reserve for white people. In subsequent
savage wars of aggression and conquests across the whole wide world in
Africa, Asia, Australia and the Pacific island kingdoms not only was
religious grounds invoked but the use of power, force and military
might was their right and prerogative and as they claimed it had the
sanctity and blessing of their Christian God ,Jesus Christ. Killings
of native Americans, Africans,Australian aborigines, New Zealand
Maoris and the wide board of Asian heathens or non believers of
Christianity and Jesus Christ was no sin but on the other hand
blessed by their Christian God, Jesus Christ. White men always quote
Chapters and verses from their Christian holy book, the Holy Bible to
justify their aggressions, conquests, atrocities, killings and
genocide of non white people or non believers of their faith . To the
whites all non believers or non Christians are heathens and devils and
should be condemned to hell while only they the clean and pure white
killers and murderers will go to heaven.

The Evil Empire, USA is determined to create troubles and wars against
China. It is cowardly using its junior Asian gang members as pawns or
proxies as front line trouble makers to create choas and destability
in Asia to contain the peaceful development of China. The Evil Empire
thinks that in curbing China's peaceful development it will preserve
its number one position in the world. It is trying in every way and
means to lure China out to fight thinking it is now or never for it
thinks China now is not as powerful as the Evil Empire and more so
when the Evil Empire doped its silly and selfish junior Asian gang
members to join force with it.

Russia is supposed to be China's friend or ally. What is Russia's
stance now in the face of the Evil Empire's latest move in East China
Sea and the South China Sea? Why is Russia not saying anything or
making any move in support of China's position? Will Russia just fold
its arms and watch the war scenario goes on as it did in the Korean
War ( 1950 - 1953 ) ?

Come what may, China must be solely and highly and powerfully self
reliant to take on the uncalled for aggressors and warmongers and
defeat them totally. China should expedite building up its economy and
armed forces equipped with the latest and most modern military systems
. China should build sufficient ICBMs, long range jet fighters and
bombers, drones and missiles equipped with nuclear weapons, nuclear
armed submarines to position in American coasts and sufficient
warships and aircraft carriers as well as best equipped cyber warfare
systems to disable and destroy the enemies' electronics and satellites
or their cyber networks.

The Evil Empire and the Japanese must know that any illogical
unprovoked attack on China is considered an attack on Chinese people
not only in China but the world over. If that happens Chines people
all over the world must rise up against the Americans and the
Japanese and kill every one of them without mercy. China will have to
join forces with the world's anti American muslims, the Africans and
the Russians to fight off the warmongering evil Americans. President
Obama has no real power but is only a stooge of the White Americans
who will dictate to him what to say and do and he is made use by the
whites to pull wool over the Africans' eyes so that they cannot see or
remember all the evil deeds and atrocities that White men had done to
Africans in the last four or five hundrfed years.

China may not want war but all the same please be fully prepared and
well armed for the Evil Empire in collusion with its junior gang
members may out of desperation force one on China. In the meantime try
to be as patient as possible and not be lured out by the Evil Empire
for a showdown. When the right time comes and Cina is under attack ,
fight without mercy and defeat the evil forces totally and completely.
he Evil White Americans are the scourge and the curse of the earth.
They need to be cleanly obliterated from the earthly world.

An industry dying

The rot is showing and starting to hurt. The first to be axed will be the remisiers. Following closely will be the backroom staff, then the dealers and the analysts. Eventually the brokerage will simply shrink to a skeleton crew.

How could that be? With investments in the hundreds of millions for out of this world high speed computers, big funds with their high speed sophisticated machines, and product managers with their sophisticated derivatives and wonderful paper products, and with sales volume chalking up double digit gains, why is the industry drying up, and dying?

There were all kinds of gimmicks to increase sales but mostly elementary. Most of the time it is just barking up the wrong tree. What is the real problem in the stock market? Why are the gimmicks of no lunch break, continuous trading, minimal commission, minute bid sizes, cutting more commission to gain market share, sophisticated high speed computers, more derivatives, all proved unworkable? And don’t forget the setting up of many foreign funds to gamble in the stock market, with their expertise and grand machines, it is simply not working.

Does anyone know? Does anyone want to know? Does anyone bothers to know why the stock market is turning turtle? It is time to set up feedback units and ask the people to come up with the answers. Yes, more feedback is the solution.

What is at stake, 10,000 jobs? That is inconsequential. It is the whole finance and banking industry, the financial centre, the companies that needed to raise funds in the stock market that are at stake.

When the financial crisis hit the US, they scrambled for more liquidity, more Quantitative Easing, to provide money to support the industry. What was being done here? Squeeze the liquidity, cut the commission to the barest. Has anyone forgotten that the industry needs the commission to pay for the overheads, to pay for the salaries of all the staff, the fund managers etc? The industry cannot survive without the oil to lubricate the system.

Does anyone know that when commission was 1% we had the best bull run in history? What more tricks are up in the sleeves to save the dying market that no one wants to talk about? How did the industry ended up in this pathetic state? Self inflicted, ignorance or tidak apa, leave it to the experts? Bring in the gods and all will be fine.

Do not over react

This was an old joke of LKY’s time. When he opened his mouth, everyone jumped and tended to over react. Unfortunately this state of affair is still continuing till today. The Stop at Two policy lingered on for too long waiting for the man himself to say stop, but he was too busy and did not do so. So no one dared to push the button, or no one intelligent enough to see the problem coming.

In a way, the housing fiasco was also a case of over reaction, but with a clear agenda. With a surplus of more than 10,000 units of unsold flats, a happy problem, turning into a disaster that building another 50,000 units over the next two years would not be enough. In the meantime a property balloon has been created that cannot be pricked but pricked it must. Whichever way, to prick or not to prick, some parties would be hurt real bad.

Back to the population ‘crisis’. There is a shortage of babies according the economist’s formula for growth and sustainability, but not a shortage of several millions after exploding from 3m to over 5m over a decade! How can that be? And if the population has grown so fast, should there not be a huge surplus instead, like the surplus of HDB flats. Why is it that after flooding the island with 2 plus millions and there is still a huge shortage? Unbelieveable!

The last few years have led to a population explosion that has strained the whole infrastructure built for a much lesser population. The population increase over the last decade is more than what the normal growth needed for at least 10 years or 20 years of babies. No?

With a 3m population at 2% growth or 60,000 a year, a simple extrapolation will mean 600,000 in 10 years. Even compounded it will give a number less than 1m. We now have 5.4m or an increase of 2.4m! Is this not enough, not an over reaction, that we needed less but imported more than what we needed?

Then why the hooha that the growth number is still not enough? The trick is the bigger base and a statistical formula that says no matter how big is the population, you need so much percentage of growth to be sustainable. Now the base is bigger, so with the same percentage, more and more babies are needed. Even when the population hits 10m, they would insist on a 2.1% growth rate. They forgot why French caps were invented.

And the latest message, just multiply without a care of how many. Now, if the daft Sinkies really follow the edict, and every family just reproduce 4 or more, what is going to happen? Would it lead to another over reaction, another population explosion to be followed by another Stop at Two policy? No need to bother with whether the infrastructure can support, the number of jobs needed to create, the amount of food needed to be imported and the energy and water resources needed to support a 6m or 9m population.

Over reaction without thinking and without planning? No? No? In a financial crisis, or when there is natural disaster like flood or drought, when there is a food shortage, the bigger our population, the bigger is our problem. Even with money the producing countries may not have enough or want to sell them. Forgotten about the wisdom of keeping trim and fit? Are we over reacting again?

National conversation a red herring?

There were 3 letters in the ST forum page today. In fact the whole forum, all 3 letters, were on the housing angst faced by the people. Just wondering how many letters have been written to the ST on this painful and frustrating problem the people are facing. Would the ST think it is proper, for the sake of transparency, to reveal how many letters have been written to the forum on this issue alone? Or is it so embarrassing that it is better not to tell?

Now, would these letters be regarded as feedback to the govt? Or would they be thrown away, disregarded, or nobody wants to know as they are not things that wanted to hear or to know? Or they have not been put into the proper hole called Feedback, so no need to bother?

The fact that the ST devoted the whole forum to this issue is a sign that it deems it important enough, or it is another way of saying that they have received too many letters on this issue and must air it, like it or not, for the policy makers to take note.

Is it feedback or not feedback? Or is this part of the so called national conversation that is expected? Would there be any response to these letters, as part of a dialogue? Or would the national conversation be a conversation if it fits into the agenda. Things outside the agenda not counted. Who is to determine or initiate the national conversation and the platform or venue? Can so many letters to ST forum be a starting point for a conversation? Or would they end up in the rubbish bin of the political wilderness, not something that should be talked about, just like the cost of building public flats, a taboo topic. You can have transparency in everything but not this state secret.

When they got it right

Theoretically the govt of today should be better received by the people than those of the 60s and 70s. The people are richer, better educated, better housed and the quality of life has improved. Why is it that the govt of today seems to be losing it, losing the support and confidence of the people? Maybe I am wrong and the people, or at least the majority of the people, are fully behind the govt.

In my view, there were so much respect and deference given to the first and second generation leaders than today. Life was not as good, and there were many problems that were really serious. Unemployment was a serious threat when the economy was young and small. But they worked hard to get jobs for the people. It was never a case of training or handouts or funny schemes.

Educational level was low and there were very few trained professionals to run the industries. There were hardly any industry except small businesses and cottage industries. And housing was a serious issue aggravated by the big Bukit Ho Swee fire.

What the govt did right then, when many things were uncertain, was to go to the basics. It built schools to educate the people. It created jobs and more jobs to keep the people employed. It built houses, really affordable houses for the people. Even the civil service and uniformed services prioritized the needs of their employees by given them cheap loans and priority allocations. Basically, feed the people, house the people, give them a roof over their heads, give them jobs and social mobility. And the hearts and mind of the people were solidly behind the govt.

Then things changed. It became a case of making as much money as possible from the people with the essential services that the people needed. Education was no longer cheap. Health services were killing if not, may empty the savings of the people. Jobs were aplenty for foreigners but our own people ended as taxi drivers or self employed out of no choice, out of jobs and could not get reemployed. Those above 40s were more perilous as the young employers, including HR, thought is a wise thing to discard the dried orange skins. And while the people cry for jobs, they were sent for retraining to downgrade, not to upgrade. This is uniquely Singapore, train to be downgraded! They were told not to be choosy when that was not even an issue. It applies to housing as well. Go down grade, lower expectations….

And the foreigners, now called foreign talents, were all laughing at the silly citizens for crying our loud like pathetic and spoilt children without knowing why. To the govt, the people are getting lazy and too pampered and daft of course. How could that be when university graduates are prepared to do any jobs, manual jobs, sales representatives, driving cranes and taxis, or do temporary jobs? No the govt just cannot understand, or chose to look the other way.

And housing price keeps going up which is good for those who have bought their homes earlier but threatening the young from owning a home. And if they got one, it becomes a life time burden. And the HDB got the audacity not to build and demanded the young people to plan their lives and marriages well ahead if they want to get a flat on time, ie 4 or 5 years ahead. So easy mah.

And the cries of high prices were rubbished with the minister insisting that public housing were affordable, and even subsidized woh. And more ministers came out in full force to support the fiction with ridiculous statistics. Basically, giving the people a decently priced home is not in their minds, but how much to squeeze from the people. And if the people did not get a home, it is the people’s fault.

The people are caught in a dilemma, happy that they have bought a home before the price rocketed to the sky but worried that their children will become suckers to the ponzi scheme and indebted for life.

As for those who have lost their jobs, it is no longer the govt’s interest if they could survive by downgrading when the cost of living is up and with some having to service their mortgages and children in school. That is not the govt’s problem as long as they are sent for retraining and get a job, any job. No one cares whether citizens’ interests should come first and every joker is praising the great contributions of foreigners. Understandably foreigners are seemingly more important than citizens and they are happily employed, even ganging up to victimize the daft citizens in the daft citizens’ own country.

And what is the most important preoccupation of the politicians? Their high living and high spending lifestyle. Multi million dollar homes, overseas holidays, limousines without a care to the high cost of car ownership and whether the average Sinkies can afford the expensive housing and expensive COEs. All they know is to quip, live within your means, downgrade if you can’t.

What happens to improving the life of the people, upgrading the life of the people, housing the people? The only thing they want to upgrade is your flat and estate and you have to pay for it. The other big concern of the govt is the people’s money. This one the govt works very hard for it and regularly comes out with great schemes of things for the people to buy with their savings. The people’s savings, which for some queer reasons, the govt thinks it is alright to decide what they want to do with it, and keeping it for as long as it wants. Of course it is for the good of the people, the govt said so. The people did not believe so.

Why is the govt, so rich, the country so rich, the people so rich, living in million dollar properties and with so much money in their CPF savings, turning against the govt? Maybe I have misread the feelings of the people. Maybe I have been disconnected with the people and what I just posted is pure rubbish. The govt is well loved and supported by the people with all it good policies, people caring and people centric policies, and will be reelected again and again to rule the people. Come 2016, the ruling party will receive the biggest percentage of popular votes in its history. I am so foolish to think otherwise. And there is a national conversation for the common good of the govt and the people.

Untitled. A piece of RAR Art.

Conceived and painted by Mother Nature.