Pay and you will get the answers

MAS is keen to know why some goods sold here are more expensive than in other countries or why the prices were different. A tender has been called to conduct a study on the causes. I think they roughly know that some of the factors could be labour, rent, tax, regulations, cost of living, markups, advertising, preference, the weather, hype, consumer irrationality, cost of govt, profiteering, no choice, monopoly, affordability etc etc. The affordability factor is unique to Sin as it means that the seller can sell at any price as long as the consumer has the money and willing to pay, or has no choice but to pay.

Paying for this survey will come up with a clear picture of the whats and the whys of expensive things. Hopefully it will be used to bring down prices so that things that are expensive for rubbish or wrong reasons can be made cheaper. But this is conditional on the caveat that the affordable logic is not used.

I think this will also be useful to me to know how to price my red bean soup too. Then I will know why my red bean soup is more expensive here than in Batam and JB. And for sure I will not price my red bean soup using the affordable logic as I cannot control the supply and demand.

And definitely the survey will help Boon Wan to price his HDB flats. At least he would know why the public flats here are more expensive than in other countries, if he still didn’t get it, and maybe he could then price the flats correctly, and be more affordable. Oops, don’t use the term affordable or the affordability logic can?

I strongly recommend that the Housing Minister also call for a tender to survey why housing prices are so high here. Tenders are useful instruments when conducted properly and the results would be objective and beneficial to who ever commission it.

High Speed trading ‘risky and unfair’ by AFP

This is the title of an article written by Agence France Presse a couple of months back. The gist of the article was about American finance experts raising the dangers and risks of high speed trading in Congress and warning of the consequences. They were all crying foul about how dangerous this animal is and that it must be put down. What they failed miserably to say was that this is cheating and an offence against trading rules and by laws, and against the principles of fair play, a level playing field that all regulators are expected to enforce to protect the traditional and retail investors.

‘”US equity markets are in dire straits. We are truly in a crisis,” said Mr David Lauer, a former trader and now a consultant on markets and high frequency trading at Better Markets ….High frequency trading now accounts for 50% to 70% of the volume on markets each day…But it simultaneously works in “dark pool” trading operations away from regulated markets, with computers able to work at hyper speed to exploit price anomalies and take advantage of buyers and sellers trading in traditional ways.’

This was what Lauer said to the Senate Committee on Banking. He was simply saying that the regulators of the exchange were working hand in glove with the high speed traders using computers, dark pools and tweaking the trading system, to cheat on the traditional traders. To put it even simpler, the regulators are part of the crime syndicate that were exploiting the trading system to cheat the traditional traders and getting away with it with the US Govt either sleeping or closing an eye to their crimes.

‘The effect is that traditional retail investors have pulled out, frightened by the volatility brought by HFT and the perception of unfair pricing…Mr Andrew Brooks of brokerage T. Rowe Price told senators “the almost myopic quest for speed has threatened the very market itself. There is a growing distrust of the casino like environment that the market place has developed over the past decade. We worry that the erosion of investor confidence can undermine our capital markets, which are so important to the economy.”’

Unfortunately all these efforts were in vain as Congress was a lame duck as many congressmen have vested interested to allow the cheating and crime to continue. Some could have participated in the crime themselves. The traditional investors would continue to be cheated and the stock market will continue to wind down to a stand still in time to come. By the end of the day when it becomes unbearable, it would be too late. And the criminals would have walked away with their loot, with the blessing of the US Govt and the appointed regulators to keep watch on the cheats. Who is there to watch over the regulators who became partners of the crime?

Is our market going to suffer the same fate? Are there any similarities?

What is this nonsense called unfair trading? There is no such thing as unfair trading in the stock market. Unfair trading is cheating and is an offence. Even keying in and withdrawal of orders with no genuine intent is an offence to create a false market. Buying and selling without change of ownership is also an offence. Are the computer traders doing this while churning the market and creating a false market? Are they allowed to do this? Anyone with a little privy to price sensitive information and traded on it is committing an offence for insider trading. And high speed trading is doing exactly this, with access to the stock market computer to have privy of orders and to exploit this to an advantage cannot be allowed but is allowed and accepted by the regulators as innocent as a little child.



When would the Americans call a spade a spade that HFT and computer trading are cheating and be made an offence? This is American nonsense at the highest level, allowing the computer traders to cheat on the innocent traditional retail investors. If the American Govt is not going to haul in the offenders, they will pay a very high price eventually with the collapse of the stock market and the end of NYSE.



The Americans must learn from SGX, to ban HFT and computer trading from the market, to protect the interests of traditional retail investors and the capital market. Unfair practices and cheating will never be allowed in SGX. That is why our market is so sound and solid as a rock, with trading volumes increasing and growing.

Two thirds of jobs created went to foreigners

Lim Hng Kiang has quoted some numbers on jobs created over the last 5 years and how many of these jobs went to locals and foreigners. He said, ‘In the last five years, we have been generating something like 120,000 jobs a year, of which 40,000 are Singaporeans and we end up with 80,000 foreign workers. Going forward we have decided that this is no longer tenable over a long term.’

In summary, over the last 5 years 600,000 jobs were created and only 120,000 went to Singaporeans. Could the numbers be extrapolated backwards for a 10 year period and could the number be 1.2m jobs created with 400,000 going to locals and 800,000 going to foreigners? How long has this ratio of employment favouring foreigner been going on that Hng Kiang now realised that it is unsustainable and must be stopped? He said that his ministry would now be more selective and stringent in the type of companies to bring in and the type of jobs that would be created.

His projection is that this year 80,000 to 100,000 jobs will be created and between 40,000 to 60,000 foreign workers would be added to the workforce. The numbers of jobs created for foreigners would still be around 50 to 60 percent. The country is thus creating more jobs for foreigners than for locals even when the govt is going to be more selective going forward. Only if some of the jobs created can go to local PMETs, the unhappy noises would be much lesser.

‘To cow play harp "对牛弹琴!"

Following SDP’s detailed proposal for a NOM public housing scheme, many well meaning citizens have voluntarily cracked their heads to come up with many meaningful proposals to salvage the mess created by the housing policies. This is a really thankless task, not being paid a single cent, and at their own time and resources, they are passionate enough to do the sums. This is not the kind of thankless task that are paid in the millions and no answers. The thinking, effort and solutions should rightly come from those that are paid in the millions. True or not?



Another thorough proposal was in the Sunday Times yesterday by Chua Mui Hoong, a veteran establishment spokesperson. She was given more than half a page in the paper on her proposal, ‘How to cool the HDB resale market’. This effort is not the free labour type like those of SDP or other citizens but still free in a way as she is not responsible for the housing policies and the mess. Her job is to write for the paper.



What she suggested in her proposal made good sense, and so were the proposals in the SDP paper. All were made with good intentions to help the struggling minister and ministry to do a better job. But I must say again that it would all be in vain as the ministry and minister were thinking that they have done a damn good job. So what is the fuss and all the unnecessary proposals and recommendations for?



There are many reasons why all these proposals will end up in the dustbin. Firstly, they all assumed that there is a big problem that needs to be addressed. Secondly, they assumed that the ministry and minister did not know their stuff or did not know how to solve the problem. Three, accepting the proposals is as good as an admission of incompetence. How could lay people not paid for the job have the audacity to think they know better? And how could the professionals be made to look dumb?



The last point is always a hurdle and a big farce whenever an institution or person asked for suggestions. Accepting other people’s idea is acknowledging one’s own incompetence or shortcomings. And not accepting after opening the mouth to ask is an act of insincerity. Think Natcon.



What I don’t believe is that the highly paid super talents could not think of all the recommendations put up by the laypeople and the public. They are paid humongous salaries not for nothing. They are exceptionally talented and how could the less talented ignoramus think they could think better? Doesn’t make sense right? So, what is happening? To scratch or not to scratch?



The ‘to cow play harp’ is not really a good analogy. This phrase applies to the hopelessness of playing music to one that doesn’t understand music at all. Here the cow is no ordinary cow but a wise cow, a clever cow who knows what is happening and how to solve all the problems. What is holding back the cow or preventing the cow from coming out with a complete and effective solution really beats me. Excuse me for the pun.

Painting with your camera

The painters are some of the most talented artists around. They train hard, work hard and acquire great skills in wielding a very primitive instrument developed thousands of years ago and still in its original form, the brush, to create and paint great works of arts and masterpieces. A good piece of brush could be had for a few dollars.

What the painters can do the photographers can’t despite the highly expensive and sophisticated precision instruments in their hands. The camera is not only a piece of fine engineering tool but also a computer added in. The best could fetch several tens of thousands of dollars. Any decent piece of camera of professional grade would cost several thousand dollars.

Other than in capturing great shots that are newsworthy, not many photographers are able to create photos that could come near to a masterpiece of an artist/painter. Are the photographers ready to accept the limitations of their expensive tool and resign to the fate that photography is only photography and still found wanting when compare to what a cheap piece of ancient primitive brush can do?

This is about to change. The camera can paint. There are still many limitations that the camera cannot take the photographers to the world of paintings. But with a new technique that I have developed, the world of paintings is beckoning. Using the technique called The Art of RAR, short for Reflection and Reflection, I am able to create paintings using the camera. My experiment into this realm of photopainting is still in its nascent stage, but the potential of painting with the camera is only limited to the imagination and creativity of a photopainter. Some of my works can be viewed at www.artofrar.blogspot.com.

The kind of paintings that could be created from The Art of RAR technique could vary from realism to abstract art with ease, using only natural light and the natural environment. More creations are waiting to be discovered in a control environment with the right set ups and accessory equipment. Photography is not going to be the same again. Photographers need not be limited by what they were used to be doing with their cameras and could venture into many unknown frontiers of artistry. Technology has given the photographer and their cameras room for more creativity and innovation and experimentation.

The Art of RAR is only a small step forward.

Little fantasies, myths and beliefs

I could not remember what was the annual sum quoted to maintain the make believe gardens at Marina South. The novelties are wearing down and the exuberant crowds have dissipated, or at least during weekdays. The abundance of eateries is putting pressure on the operators of barely half filled joints, sitting glorious like petrol stations in a way out park in the desert. If the revenue from the eateries were computed to defray the original maintenance cost of the gardens, this is going to rocket when they called it a day or with rentals tumbling down. The little fantasy could be a long drawn financial drain on the public coffer. There is another interesting article in the Sunday Times on the poorest president in office, Uruguayan President Jose Mujica. He does not live in the equivalent of a White House or the Elysee Palace but in his little farm house. He donated 90% of his US$12,000 monthly salary to charity and drives around in a 1987 Volkswagen worth US$1,800. His philosophy in life is not to be burdened by possessions. This is what he said, ‘I am called “the poorest president”, but I don’t feel poor. Poor people are those who only work to try to keep an expensive lifestyle, and always want more and more.’ I don’t think he will fit into the ethos of living in Sin. He is easy going, no drive, no greed and no ambition to want to be a multi millionaire, and did not claim that he had sacrificed for the country by taking up political office. Neither did he claim that his income is far below market rate. Another piece which would trash the learning Mandarin is difficult myth for the Chinese Sinkies is about the two precocious little girls of investment guru Jim Rogers. They were Americans but speak fluent Mandarin that they learnt while attending local schools on arriving here. The presence of a Mandarin speaking home environment helps with a full time personal tutor. What is more important is the passion and purpose of wanting to learn a language and the ability to see its usefulness in the future. But this will be an exception as some Chinese Sinkies will still find learning Mandarin more difficult than pursuing a course in rocket science. Another myth centres in the now infamous CIA Director Gen Petraeus. It has nothing to do with his ECA but how the CIA thought it expedient or convenient to con the American public and the world with their reports. Think WMD. In this case it was the 911 attacked of the US Embassy in Benghazi and the killing of its Ambassador. The official and public statements made were that it was a spontaneous rioting. The truth is that it was a planned terrorist attack to commemorate the September 11 attack on the World Trade Centre twin towers. This kind of misinformation or telling white lies is nothing new to the CIA or the American Administration. Fortunately or unfortunately many believers will still believe that anything coming out from the American govt or western media must be the truth, as they keep repeating them. These are interesting readings and food for thought on a Sunday morning.

USA, The Evil Empire

                 USA, The Evil Empire

Since its independence from imperial Britain, USA has always been run by bad wicked people whether in the government or in the private sectors. In fact its government departments be it White House, CIA or PENTAGON and its business institutions like the big banks, insurance business, stock exchange and other big business conglomerates have  always been run by crooks, robber barons and scoundrels. Immediately after its independence from Britain the white American invaders started on an aggressive war path of wiping out the native Americans through killings, murder and genocide and as a result over eighty-five million or about ninety-eight percent of the natives were brutally and wantonly killed. Then the white invaders started on a massive programme of getting millions of white immigrants from Europe to fill up America. Then to develop America the white invaders embarked on a programme of using African slaves as free labour to work in the plantations and other labour or construction works . Believing in its own superiority the white Americans went on a rampage march of aggression to attack and invade Mexico and consequently took by force of military might about one million six hundred and fifty million square miles of Mexican lands comprising the present states of Florida, Texas, Utah, Dakota, New Mexico and California. It subsequently attacked and took away Hawaii and Guam from the natives of these Pacific Ocean islander kingdoms.

While the politicians and the military were active in political and territorial aggressions their counterparts in the business institutions were just as aggressive in building up big business empires at the expense of the natives and the people. These white American crooks, scoundrels and robber barons are very much in the big picture of the present day of controlling and ravaging banks, insurance, real estate and stock markets not only in America but also throughout the whole world. It is through their selfishness and uncontrollable greed that they have not only brought the American economy, banks and finance to its present debacle of self destruction but it has also extended its evil operations across the seas to affect the economy and finance of many others countries .

With the American economy and finance are in shambles and the country already bankrupt the wicked American politicians and its military can't bear to see other countries especially Asian countries coming up growing rich in peaceful development. So in their warp thinking they will not allow others to develop and grow rich while they stagnate and so they try all ways and means to create troubles, instability and wars across Asia to stop the march of Asians to development and prosperity. This can be seen in its wanton open attacks on Iraq, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan and soon Iran as well as creating tensions and suspicion between the countries in the East China Sea and the South China Sea. The world especially Asian countries must wake up to realise how  wicked and satanic the Evil Empire, USA is and unite and cooperate to stop the Evil Empire from doing further damage to others.

Southernglory1
Saturday, 17th November,2012

S’pore tried to poach M’sian: BAM

A main article in the Sports page has this heading. The correspondent, Terrence Voon, wrote about a Malaysian claim that Singapore has approached a young Penang badminton player, Goh Jin Wei, 12, with offers of scholarship all the way to university. The offer was so attractive that the mother was at the verge of accepting before BAM stepped in to block the deal. Goh Jin Wei is one of Malaysia’s brightest badminton talents and Malaysia is sore over it. Poaching is a not a good word as in the case of illegal poaching of protected or endangered species of animals. It is still more polite than stealing. Whatever, it is not a nice thing to do as the intent and purpose are not good, not sportsmanship. And to go poaching for sportsmen is kind of a contradiction, a demeaning way of achieving sports excellence. What is Singapore trying to achieve by going all over the world, to poach or to lure foreign sporting talents to don on Singapore colours, to win medals, to do the country proud? And the sickening thing is that many Singaporeans are not a bit proud of such tactics and achievements. A nicer way, a commercial way of doing it will be simply to put up a big advertisement to the world that we are willing to pay good money for top sporting talents. We simply buy them, with our money, something we have plenty to throw around. Incidentally, how much money have we thrown to bring all the sporting talents to play or represent us? It is not just money spent on the sports talents, their allowance, training, income, and their living expense, their awards, medicare etc etc. There is the whole machinery of scouting talents, some MPs were so proud of their trips to pick our table tennis players, their expenses, the organisation structure, to monitor, to keep track, and to go and poach these talents, all costs money. The govt has shown great interest in football talents, table tennis and badminton players, athletes and their coaches and what not. How much have been spent so far to fix the cravings of some people who think these talents are important and will being glory instead of shame to us, to do us proud and not otherwise, to rally the people together, to have something to cheer and clap about, and not something divisive and be sneered at by the people? For the same money, if they were to bundle into nice big carrots for our own natives, would they not be big enough to have our own talents inspired and tempted by the money, to want to excel in sports, for a bite of the cherry? Money is a great motivator, and so is greed. Make the sporting talents feel the temptation of greed and money and they will put in the effort for it. A little boy or girl in a small village in some far corners of the world is no different from another one in a corner of our HDB flats. Give them the incentives and encouragement and they too can square up to be world beaters. Throw them the money, show them the money to be professionals, to devote a life time to sports. And forget about wanting to score straight As in PSLE and wanting to be tops in sports as well. And forget about a holistic education wanting to be everything and ended up as nothing. And forget about wanting to excel in education and wanting to spend time mixing with Ah Kow, Ahmad and Muthusamy to know how they feel and their exciting pursuit as little gangsters. Come to it, the Ah Kows, Ahmads and Muthusamys could be very good sports talents if they know that there are plenty of money to be made playing sports with no schools.

West should work with China

Updated: 2012-11-16 08:04

( China Daily)

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China is the most successful country led by a communist party to have given most of its people economic security and happiness, says an article by Eberhard Sandschneider, director of German Council on Foreign Relations. Excerpts:
China will gradually transform its economic strength into political and military influence, which will shake the West's feeling of superiority. Although the West knows China's stability is in line with its interests, it is yet to find the right strategy to deal or coexist with China. The West's containment and mollification policies reflect its lack of confidence, and are doomed to fail.
The West has no choice but to join hands with China to solve global issues and make global policies.

I believe my CPF saving is enough

I believed that my CPF saving would be enough for my retirement. That was 40 years ago. And honestly, with so much put aside into my CPF account, how could I doubt that it would not be enough? Sure must be enough. What happened? Is it enough? What do you think? So the young people are told today that their CPF savings will be enough. 40 years later, would they still believe that their CPF savings would be enough for their retirement? How many of you believe so? I guarantee you it will not be enough 40 years later. No need to bet. I would not be around to answer. So would the people telling you it would be enough. Heh heh.

Something to learn from the PRC

The stereotype, fed with a daily dosage of bacon and hamburgers would frown on everything Chinese or China. This ancient country has gone down the sewers for several centuries and were in the worst stage of decay with maggots all over and left to die. It died but like the proverbial phoenix, rose from the dust to become a strong and self reliant nation when the people are well fed, have jobs and are proud to be Chinese again. Like it or not, they are happily feeding 1.3b people and with excess to spare and with a national reserves exceeding US$2 trillion. Spit at them, curse them if you like, they did not come to this point in their history by being stupid and daft. And what they have achieved is no accident and no fluke. And the odds stacked against them by the western powers were enormous. They have overcome without relying on foreign talents. The recent change of leadership in China is something that the West hoped will fail, with bloodshed and all that jazz of fierce infighting, instability and China about to break up, rioting and martial law and everything bad that they could dream up. All hogwash from the western academics and high brow analysts and institutions of great fame. Hu Jintao relinquished his leadership to Xi Jinping unceremoniously without a hitch except for all the hue and cry and insinuations in the West. A new team of younger leaders have taken over the rein to run the country for another ten years. The Chinese leadership renewal system has been put in place since the era of Deng Xiaoping. There will be juggling for position of power but all within the rules of the system. Younger leaders are put up to replace their predecessors and no one is allowed to entrench his position for life. Two terms and off you go to make way for new blood. The quiet and unassuming Hu Jintao did one more feat this time. He even relinquished the powerful PLA position to his successor, Xi Jinping. This is unprecedented and a show of confidence and trust that the new man is not only good for the job but his complete trust in him. And it also sends a signal that he is not going to stick around to mess around and hang on to power. This is a clinically efficient, no nonsense and great leader China has ever produced. No great speeches like Obama, but cool and purposeful in what he is tasked to do, and delivered. In fact the few leaders since Deng were all very able and selfless leaders that saw the rise of China from strength to strength. It is time like this, when a country needs good, able and selfless leaders, they came to serve and leave when the time comes for them to leave, gracefully and with full honour and respect from the people. They left behind a vibrant economy for their successors to continue to bring the country to a higher level. Great leaders are difficult to come by. Great leaders need not look suave like actors from Hollywood. It is real substance that counts. Hu Jintao handed a China that is economically, military and strategically sound and well placed to a younger man to continue with the good work done by him and his predecessors. This is something that we can learn from China.

The Govt cannot be sued?

In the latest incidents when two NSmen were killed while on training, someone pointed out that Ng Eng Hen, Defence Minister, said that the SAF/Mindef or the Govt cannot be sued for such accidents. In these two cases, both victims lost their lives because of breaches in safety procedures, which meant the incidents were more than just accidents. There were negligent or misconduct or serious violations of protocols involved. Is it therefore true that the Govt/Mindef/SAF cannot be sued for such incidents when they are more than accidents? I also read that though the officers involved could be court martialed, the police are also investigating and may commence to prosecute the officers involved. Does this mean that only the officers can be sued but not the organisation or Mindef/Govt? Aren’t the officers appointed by Mindef/Govt and the latter should be ultimately responsible for the officers’ conduct or wrongdoings? If Mindef/Govt is not responsible, does it mean that if the officers were found guilty, it is only between the officers and the victims to settle their grievance and compensation? Also, the NSmen are conscripted by law, by Mindef/Govt for national service and their welfare and well being must be the responsibility of Mindef/Govt? I think there must be a miscommunication or misquote of what Eng Hen had said. It is, from a layman’s understanding, that Mindef/Govt must be ultimately responsible for what happened to NSmen under its authority and administration. And that the people could seek redress and justice from the Govt in cases of injury or death and compensation.. It is frightening to know, if it is true, that Mindef/Govt is not responsible for the death of NSmen in active service. Where is the responsibility, who is responsible and where should the buck stop? Anyone can enlighten on the legal responsibility of Mindef/Govt when NSmen are injured or killed in active service? Responsibility and accountability are key to the actions and performance of an organisation. If an organisation is not accountable for any mishap or wrongdoing, you can expect that only lip service would be rendered at best. Only when someone’s head is on the chopping block would real actions be taken to be tip top and zero tolerance for accidents and negligence or failure to perform.

Unnecessary death of NSmen

In Parliament yesterday, Eng Hen spoke about the death of two NSmen while under training. Pte Dominique Lee died from inhaling smokes from smoke grenades. Third Sergeant Tan Mou Sheng was pinned down by a jeep. Both accidents were unnecessary and caused by lapses in safety procedures. “Any commander who ignores safety regulations, whether wilfully or negligently, puts his soldiers at risk and is not fit for command,” said Dr Ng. “These two deaths could have been avoided if safety instructions had been followed”. Is that all Eng Hen could say? How much compensation is enough to the parents of these young NSmen for the loss and grief of their precious sons? No amount is enough for such unnecessary death. Mindef was not born yesterday. The SAF is a highly professional army with more than 50 years of history and training accidents to remind and caution every officer in the field not to make silly mistakes. And silly mistakes are still being made with the lost of lives. Unbelieveable! Unacceptable. What is in it for the NSmen to risk their lives for? Relating the account of Pte Lee's mother, Felicia Seah, when the death was told to her was heart wrenching. The Minister should be on his knees to beg for forgiveness. This is not a case of sorry not enough. Explanation also not enough.

What a joke?

Heard from a couple of young and highly qualified overseas Sinkies about their experience with housing and quality of life. They left because they were not allowed to buy direct from HDB and the alternative was to cough up a million or so to buy private properties. Doing so would mean an empty bank account. They could act stupid and pay double for a resale HDB flat in the open market. Some people think these young professionals got no brain and would allow themselves to be armed twisted to pay double for some lousy HDB flats while others are paying half the price from HDB. Only immobile and daft Sinkies without the choice would just pay up. They did the wisest thing, scoot to Europe and the USA, got themselves better paying jobs and cheaper housing and cost of living. The joke, delegations of officials have been travelling to these cities to invite them to return to Sin. After chasing them away with a system that is designed to rob them, they are going back out there to coax them to return to be conned? What would these discriminated Sinkies say or do? Their answer is simply, go and catch spiders, oops, catch FTs from the third world countries. They can forget about them coming home. For what, to support the private property market with a million or two? And to continue to be activated for in camp training, travel by public transport or pay up for COEs? What kind of quality of life awaiting them when every cent they earned has been carefully programmed to go to housing, cars, medical and bringing up children? No, this is no joke. This is the new reality.

Mean Testing is history? Boh liao!

Can anyone confirm that mean testing for hospital admission has been scrapped? This outrageous policy was so unsound and ethically unacceptable that it was a grievance from the start. It could have continued as a tough policy and nothing can be done about it for as long as someone tried the tough act and refused to budge. Now, has anyone really budged and got it removed? And if so, shouldn’t it be announced so that the people can be at ease during admission and have a freer choice as to how much money they are willing to pay? It is unacceptable that such a high profile policy that was implemented with so much fanfare but evicted without notice. My bet is that it is still in force, at least until an official statement is made on this. The grapevine and gossips that it is no longer in practice are not reliable. And getting this monster out of the way is not enough. With hospital bills that can bankrupt any average Sinkie, more must be done to bring down hospitalization cost, provide more C ward beds, more generic medicine that do not cost a bomb. The rich can continue to opt for their special branded or high end medicine and pay for it. Would someone in the ministry or hospital care to clarify that this mean thing has left us for good?

Wow, my article in TOC

For the first time, my article finally appeared in TOC. I regard this as an honour. Though my articles have been frequently appearing in other sites like TRE and Singapore Daily and some others, never has it appeared in TOC to my recollection. TOC must have a set of very stringent rules for articles to be reposted there next to the main media. I swear none of my articles will find it fit to appear in the main media except for those when I was writing for the New Paper. Instant citizen, instant wealth’ has seen the light in TOC. It must be a damn interesting article, the best of all my articles. One regret, they did not acknowledge me as the author though my name was written clearly below my article reposted in TRE. TOC acknowledged the article was first posted in TRE. (TOC thanks TR Emeritus for allowing to republish the article. It first appeared here.) Anyway, I am high over the moon now that my article finally appeared in TOC. Thank you TOC for the great honour. TOC is welcomed to publish my articles anytime. I am going to frame this article.

My mother very powerful

The ‘My parents very important people’ reminds me of the episode of ‘My mother very powerful’ that happened a few months back. It was a boxing round between the MOE and the mother of the boy whose hair was cut by his teacher. It was actually a petty little disagreement that should be put to an end quickly. The whole episode was like the history of Singapore, that grew from a third world country with absolute power in the authority to affluence and the growth of individual or personal rights that is beginning to see how the masses are unable to cope with the rights handed to them. With rights, a little affluence, a little education, the trend is towards abusing this right and power. The schools and authority have been used to exercising their rights in the education system. The abuses of the past are relatively much lesser today as the teachers themselves too are embracing the new liberty and applying lesser oppressive methods in disciplining school children. There will still be the few nut heads that would abuse their position of authority just like those abusers of maids and workers. People with such mentality should not be in the teaching vocation. On the other extremes, the parents should know that the school and the education system have its own regulations and acceptable norms of behavior. Going to school is an implied acceptance to follow the rules and regulations of the schools unless they are oppressive and unreasonable. The MOE should be very clear on what is allowable and what is not. These should be defined clearly and observed by its staff and convey to the parents. The parents and their children should accept and abide by these rules. If the parents and their children cannot accept the rules, simply just quit the schools. The principles and teachers need not have to resort to violence and manhandling of children, which in most cases are naïve, immature and innocence. Talk to the parents about the problems and let the parents decide if they want the child to remain in the school or to find a more suitable school somewhere else. What is the problem? What is so difficult? Teachers no need to pull their hair or get emotionally upset. No need to abuse their authority as guardians of the school children. Parents need not threaten to sue teachers. And if they do, the MOE should put all their resources behind the teachers should there be such a threat to take them to court. But make sure that no teachers abused their authority or crossed the line. Some will of course, as no one knows how sick a normal looking person is until he exposes him/herself. Teachers, lawyers, doctors, all can be sick but waiting for the right moment to show their true selves. What is troubling are the values the children will be imbued with, thinking that they are somebody and can get away with anything they want, because their parents are important or powerful. They can stomp at anyone like cockroaches.

My parents are very important people

This elitist uncaring face attitude is not going away. After the public lashing and the dressing down in Parliament a few years back, it is resurfacing again. Two teenagers camped in a nursing room at Woodlands Regional Library and refused to allow a young mother to nurse her baby. They even showed her the middle finger and wrapped up the insult with the ‘My parents are very important people’ message. Until today, no one knows who they are. Though their photos were all over the internet, there seems to be a kind of self censorship in place. In the last elitish uncaring face, the elitist child’s face, name and parents were public knowledge. In this case the parents must be really important. Mypaper carried an article of the incident with the two elitist boys’ photo but with their faces pixilated. With a handheld computer game gadget in hand and some drinks on the table, they must be there having a good time for quite a while. And wonder how many nursing mothers were turned away because they thought their parents were important and they could occupy the nursing room as their personal playroom. Would this be the last of such elitist uncaring face incident or this is really the beginning? Interesting to know what the parents must have taught them.

2000 scholarships worth more than $30m

It was reported that the Singapore Govt gave 2000 scholarships worth $34m or $36m to foreigners. I did not get it whether it was for a year or for how many years. Whichever, it is a significant number of scholarships given to foreigners. The point I would want to know is how many scholarships did the Govt give to children of its citizens annually? This kind of comparison is getting increasingly of interest to the citizens when good money was seen to be thrown to the wind or to the undeservings while the parents of Sin children would have to empty their life savings, some selling their precious homes, to finance their children for overseas studies. It doesn't look like a fair or sound deal. A misallocation of national resources, misplaced loyalty of sort.

Sexual offences the most serious and prevalent crimes

I think this is a blessing of Sin City. When sexual offences, or more of sexual misconducts, are the number one crime in the City, it means that the City is really safe and relatively free from other serious crimes. And think about it seriously, sex offences are acts of pleasure, at least in all the cases mentioned in the courts recently. These are not violent crimes like rape when the victims would have to suffer pain, nightmare and needing psychiatric care. The type of sexual offences did not really have anyone being tormented and will suffer for a long time to come. Everything will soon blow away. It will be serious problem if murder, kidnapping, violent street fights, arson, rape etc are the top crimes in the island. In the reported cases, the victims were actually the offenders and willing parties. Count your blessings, Sinkies, when the courts only have to deal with offences of passion, not crimes of passion it is another way of saying life is good and fun. Yesterday’s Parliament sitting could change the trend of crimes in the City. The first step has been taken to reduce the punishment for drug offences. Death penalty is passé. This could possibly lead to more easing of the drug abuse laws and drug taking may become a lifestyle choice and no longer an offence. The City will then have one offence less in the statistics. The City could be free of crimes if all crimes are decriminalized or legalized. It would then become the first city in the world that is crime free and the police can be ‘demobbed’ and reduced to patrol the highways to regulate traffic flow and as mediators in neighbourhood quarrels.