Questions about China’s role in Africa

Yesterday there was this mischievous article by AGENCIES in the Today paper on Africa. It quoted Botswana’s Ian Khama and Nigerian Central Bank chief Lamido Sanusi ‘questioning whether the trade relationship with China has benefitted Africa as much as it has China’. China’s trade with Africa doubled since 2007 to more than US$200 billion and with a US$20 billion investment by China in the continent.

It is amazing that these stupid African leaders could know how to question the trades benefit to each country and who benefits more. How is this measured is a matter of great science and art. Both parties may be making a dollar each, but one could save 70c while another could squander the whole dollar. So who is benefitting more?

But that is not the main issue. China went to Africa to invest and trade and both parties negotiating their terms of trades apparently must be doing it in favour of themselves before signing on the dotted lines. China did not bring in the armies and the fire power or to put a knife at the neck of these African leaders? So what is there to question who benefitted more or less?

Looking back to the colonial days, the silly and daft African leaders could not even negotiate or question what they were going to benefit from the White men’s presence. The White men came, put a gun on their heads, and took everything, including their women, pride and dignity. Many were hunted down as slaves for the Americans and Europeans. Everything overnight became White men’s property, whole countries and continent. Were the African leaders in a position to ask for a penny? Where were all the western media to report on what happened when the White colonialists invaded Africa and robbed the continent of everything?

And now with China going there as businessmen, investors and even philanthropists, donating generously to Africa, and treating the African states and leaders as equals, what question is there to trouble these thinking or unthinking African leaders?

May I suggest that China skip Botswana and Nigeria since they are so unhappy with their trades with China? Or should these two countries return to the fold of their former colonial masters to get a fairer deal? With China they could negotiate for a better deal as equals. They could sell their raw material to anyone that offers them the best price. Or they would rather let their ex colonial masters have them for free?

There are many such mischievous reports coming from western media painting China as the bad guy without carrying a knife, and the colonialists as the good guys that robbed and raped countries, every country in Africa, took what they wanted without paying a cent. And there are many jokers reading such articles without understanding the history and background of African nations and will jump at China for cheating the Africans as if the Africans are still illiterate and ignorant fools.

Singapore’s old order ready for fall by 2016 – Tan Jee Say

This is an interesting title in an article from the South China Morning Post by Toh Han Shih and posted in TRE today. This is what Tan Jee Say believed as quoted in the article. For those who are waiting eagerly for the demise of the PAP after a long rein as the undisputed political party in the island, this must be music to the ears. Jee Say made this conclusion after his recent involvement in main stream politics as candidate for the Presidential Election and also in the last General Election.

Jee Say’s reasoning is mainly drawn from the electoral results of the GE and the by election which did not really prove much except for a bigger dent in PAP’s image of invincibility. To be fair, losing a few electoral seats is not a big deal, really. In the case of Singapore, somehow this is read as a major breakthrough particularly for the WP to take a GRC with an exceptionally strong PAP team.

Things are a bit shaky but would anyone really believe that the PAP will lose power in three years’ time? According to the oracle, PAP should be good for another two terms minimum. And no one would doubt this prediction before the last GE. But then, though there were a couple of slips, notably the poor showing of the Presidential Election in terms of popular votes for the PAP sponsored candidate and the trouncing of the last two by elections, things are not that bad right?

The swift and efficient passing of the White Paper on population increase to 6.9m was an easy victory for the PAP. And the handful of opposition MPs in parliament are unlikely to make any significant impact to say they have arrived and are ready to take over. Low Thia Khiang too did not feel too optimistic about being the PM of Singapore in 2016.

Could there be anything or event that could make such a great impact in the political scene to bring down the powerful PAP? Could the protest rally at Hong Lim be big enough to reshape the mindset of the electorate to vote opposition? A change of regime is highly possible given a 10 to 15 per cent swing in the votes as was seen in Punggol East. With bad leadership, bad policies and bad candidates, PAP will not be able to pull away with another resounding victory again.

So, is Jee Say’s prediction a likely turn of event comes 2016? Objectively and factually, PAP can lose 40 per cent of its candidates and still be returned as the ruling party. There are of course many imponderables that could upset every political scientist’s forecast of what could be possible. And if one is to look at the difficult problems that the govt is facing, problems that have gone from being mere irritations to intolerables, the exploitation of these issues and blowing them up in the face of the PAP intentionally or otherwise, could prove deadly to the ruling party. These problems have 3 years of gestation to become full blown crisis events and for the people to make up their mind to change or not to change the govt in 2016.

Never has Singapore domestic politics been at such state of uncertainties that a regime change is actually possible in three years time. Jee Say may be hoping for the moon, but it is not really that unreachable, really. The dark horse in the computation is actually the foreign element. They could prove to be the game changer, for good or bad, for the ruling govt.

Does the Govt respect the people’s elected representatives?

Apparently this is so. It must be, the MPs are elected by the people to represent them and their interests and rightly or wrongly, the Govt has no choice but to work with the MPs, to show some respect to the people. Anyway, this is only an issue when the MPs are from the opposition. An article by Chua Mui Hoong over the weekend raised this relationship between the Govt and the opposition MPs.

The problem is that many Govt initiatives are backed and funded by public money and the Govt cannot deprive the residents of opposition wards of the public funds. Allocating the funds to grassroot advisers smack of impropriety in the sense that the grassroot advisers often are the rejects of the people. The people did not want the grassroot advisers to represent and did not want to work with them. If the Govt is spending party funds, the opposition MPs have nothing to say and the Govt can make love with the grassroot advisers for as long as it wants.

This tricky problem arose again in Parliament when Chan Chun Sing announced that his ministry would be setting up 20 social service offices across the island. These offices are to provide social assistance to the residents and would require the combined effort of social workers, agencies and also the MPs. Chan went on to ask the MPs to work with his officials to identify suitable sites for such offices. Innocently an opposition MP stood up saying she would love to work with the Ministry of Social and Family Development,MSF on this, and Chan’s reply was that he would work with the grassroot leaders. Wasn’t it awkward?

Chua Mui Hoong did not let this matter go away. In her article she posed the question whether it is time that the Govt should put the money where the mouth is, and seriously work with the elected MPs of both sides. The past practice of ostracizing the opposition MPs did not work and was done in bad taste. Should there be a new start to our all inclusive society trumpeted by the Govt, inclusive of opposition MPs when delivering services to the people using public fund?

Does the Govt respect the people and their choice of their MPs and would the Govt show its sincerity to work with them, and be answerable to the people?

Singaporeans lacked skills set, experience and track records

According to a FT HR consultant, Singaporeans lacked the skills set and experience to be employable in Singapore. She could only find such experienced people in India. And that could be the compelling reason why all her job placements for companies in Singapore come from India.

This is indeed a great revelation to the state of affair in Singapore. She did not mention which skills set were found wanting among Singaporean PMEs, but very likely these could be in finance, IT and engineering or may even be in medical science. So what does this say? Plenty.

In the first place the education system is not producing the required people with the necessary qualifications for employment, or it is producing too little of them. Our Minister of Education and the institutions of higher learning would need to do some reflection on their shortcomings. Two, the job experience of Singaporeans were inadequate or unsuitable. This could be a problem of Singaporeans not given the chance to gain job experience. But how could they gain experience without being employed first?

The remedy to this problem is simple. Singaporeans should study in Indian Universities as they have proven to be the best in producing graduates for the job markets in Singapore. They must know something we don’t or our MOE and tertiary institutions don’t. And the next step, after getting a degree from the Indian universities, they should stay in India to gain the needed job experience so that the FT HR consultants can place them for jobs in Singapore.

The whole process is now even made easier by the free trade agreement between India and Singapore and there will be no problem for their degrees to be recognized here. And being educated in Indian universities, they will learn the Indian culture and could, hopefully, integrate to the Indian expat and professional community here, and may even be earmarked for higher appointments.

Now that we know the shortcomings of our education system and the needs of the job market, it is easier to put this into practice. Forget about NUS, NTU or SMU or whatever U in Singapore. The road to success, to get a job in Singapore, is through India and Indian Universities.

Tensions in the Korean Peninsula

Who is threatening who? Who is the provocateur? Who is the cause of rising tension in the Peninsula?

If you read the western media, the answer is obvious, it must be the North Koreans. Last week’s first page headline in MyPaper carries a report by Reuters, ‘Tensions rise as North Korea threatens US again’.

What is the truth? North Korea tested its rockets to launch its own satellites. The Americans accused the North Koreans of testing missile technology. So threatened sanction against North Korea. But the Americans have been doing the same year after year and with a complete arsenal of missiles carrying nuclear warheads is ok.

Similarly, when the North Koreans tested their nascent nuclear bombs again the Americans threatened the same and Japan even talked about pre emptive strike against North Korea. Who is threatening who and raising tension? Why is it that the Americans can have all the deadly nuclear weapons and other countries are not allowed? Which is more provocative, test launching a rocket to launch its own satellite or the threat of a pre emptive strike by Japan?

The recent hiking of tension in the Korean Peninsula was started by the Americans and South Koreans conducting massive war games at the borders with North Korea. Why did the western media not report,’ American and South Korean war games provocative’, or ‘American South Korean war games raising tension in the Korean Peninsula’?

Then the Americans flew their nuclear bombs capable B52 in the Peninsula which was a show of force to threaten the North Koreans. Why didn’t the western media report, ‘Americans raised tension in the Peninsula with B52s’?

Then inside the same paper was a report from AFP titled, ‘N. Korea threatens US bases in Japan, Guam’. Why not a title, ‘US threatens N Korea with B52s’?

Who is the real culprit in raising tension in the Korean Peninsula? Depending on your sympathy and who is reporting the activities there.

Can a Cyprus visit this city state?

The big banks in Cyprus are in trouble and facing downgrading. And the EU is recommending robbing the depositors to bail out the banks. This is another case of too big to fail and bailing out the criminals and crooks in the banking industry by using the people’s money. Another twist to this whole dirty episode is that the EU is eyeing all the dirty or hot money from Russia and finds it convenient and appropriate to rob the Russians of their illegitimate wealth parked sinfully in this tax haven, a version of Switzerland and Singapore.

There are many similarities in the banking systems of Cyprus and Singapore. Too few but over size banks, financial centres, tax havens due to low corporate tax, rich foreigners parking their money under secrecy laws. But there are also clear differences like our strong corporate governance, our strong control over money laundering, our well managed banks by the best banking professionals money can buy.

And should the bank hit a crisis and needed more cash injection, Cyprus would have to look outwards, to the EU for help, our banks can always look internally instead. The Govt has huge reserves, SWFs have a lot of funds, and there is always the CPF to tap. There would be no need to rob the depositors in case of bank failures.

I think it is unlikely that we will be hit by a Cyprus and have to rob the depositors to bail out the banks. Our banking industry is very well managed and even if it got into trouble, we can rely on our national reserves and the CPF for interim bailout fundings.

The gods have landed

The Pacific Ocean has been dotted with many little islands with islanders that had not seen modern civilization and modern technology. Several decades back, they would not even have seen a ship or a helicopter. And as all civilizations behaved in a similar way, they looked to the sky or heaven for their gods. They prayed to anything that flew or came down from heaven.

These people were in a way happy with their own existence, self sufficient and without any worries of how to make ends meet. God has provided them well and they were quite contented. Then the day would come when modern civilization would dawn upon them. The White gods would land from the sky with all the roar and thunder and fire of their flying machine. And to the natives of these islands, these White men must be gods. And they looked up to them in fear and awe. They knelt and bowed to them, feasted them and let the gods to rule over them. And the gods knew that the natives were ignorant and simply took advantage of their simplicity and acted like gods and lived like gods to affirm the belief of the natives.

Today, in the 21st Century, history is repeating itself in another rich and prosperous island. The islanders were once very progressive and productive and had built a little paradise for themselves. But through the passage of time they were told that they were daft and lazy. And they believe, and other people from around the world also said so. Everyone is calling the inhabitants of the island stupid. And they believe too. How could they not when their leaders were a bunch of frogs. The frogs are the smartest and live in their ivory well. They have not seen much of the real world since they descended into the comfort zone of the well. And when they look up to the sky, it is as big as the well’s opening.

And sure enough, the gods came, descended from the sky. Every god is greeted with great admiration as some wonder beans, some super natural beans, definitely better than the local beans. And the gods were worshipped and prayed and feasted. The gods were elevated to all positions of importance to be the gods of the natives. And the natives cowered in awe and fear of these new gods. They felt inferior to the gods and accepted their new low down existence.

The gods knew how daft the natives were, including the frogs. So they acted and behaved like gods, walked like gods and lived like gods as expected by the natives. The more they acted as gods, the more impressive they became and the frogs were in high praises of these gods.

Without their knowledge, these new gods started to plot for their continued existence and dominance as the privileged gods, above the mortals, above the natives, to be served and ruled over the natives, including the frogs. Who knows when they would chop up the frogs to be served as frog leg stew when the day comes to rule over the natives and the frogs. And what's next when the frogs were gone?
The new gods have arrived and shall inherit the paradise from the natives. A new religion will be founded for the daft natives to believe in. The gods have found their willing and daft followers and believers.

In Love - A piece of RAR Art

This is an abstract black and white piece called In Love. Another creation of Mother Nature.

The children of Jessie and Bluebell

They were whisked away from Jessie and Bluebell when they were young. They were sent to special schools, mostly in the physical and martial kind, combat skills, rather than the soft skills of intellectual stimulation. Brawn was what they were meant to be, just like the cotton field niggers bred by the white Americans in the good old days, strong jaws, strong bones and strong teeth to endure the back breaking works in the farm and cotton fields.

The children of Jessie and Bluebell were more fortunate. They were trained less on martial and combat skills that needed brawn than brain. They were well kept, well bred and with internet skills to boot. They would appear whenever and wherever they are needed or told to be on duty. They possess this highly desired quality called dogged loyalty to their masters. They were carefully chosen from an elite pool of the brainless so that they don’t think or question too much or not at all, but just to obey and to do as they were told.

Such highly specialised professionals are prized items and like soldiers, to be used and also dispensable. Morals, rights and wrongs, principles, were not in their vocabulary. They only have one virtue, or two, absolute obedience and execute orders blindly but diligently.

They attack, they bite, ferociously at any one they were told to bite. No matter if one is an elite, old elite, ex elite, when one does not toe the line, when one crosses the line, the children of Jessie and Bluebell will be at their sides, barking and harassing them. Thankfully they have no need to answer to Jessie and Bluebell. Both were dead and gone and could not impart some good values of human decency. There is no need for conscience or the feeling of guilt. They did not know of such high falutin stuff. As long as they are well fed, they won’t even mind the lease on their brass studded collars. They put on their collars like medals of pride, not infamy.

Could the island survive a major economic crisis?

Would PAP be remembered as the rogue Govt in the future for bringing about the collapse of the country through its high property price, high cost of living and high dependency on immigrants? The formula for a crash in the economy and property price need no guess work. The writing is on the wall that the international finance and the monetary systems are waiting to hit ground zero. There are so many frauds and corruption in the world’s financial institutions and systems that it is now being sustained by the continuing printing of paper money by most of the developed countries. And Singapore is in the thick of this hazy and corrupt financial system that when it collapses, there is no where to hide and no where to run. Every Singaporean is part of this money matrix, tied up in huge loans through housing and a disappearing CPF that is good only on paper.

When the world’s financial system stops functioning, it is as good as dysfunctional now at the rate it is going, cheating all the investors of their hard earned money to benefit a few crooks, it is simply unsustainable. When it goes down, the economies of most countries will go as well. Our Raffles Place and Shenton Way and the new financial centre in Marina Bay will become ghost towns. All the high salaried finance FTs will have to pack their bags and return home. With half a million to a million foreigners that are here because of jobs, and will flee when the jobs are gone, the population will shrink overnight. Instantly the whole property market will be like a house of cards. No tenants, owners unable to service the loans, everyone scrambling to get out by selling whatever they have, bank foreclosures…. The more properties one owns, the more heavily one is mortgaged and in debt.

This spiral will hit every sector of the economy and everyone, including HDB owners. FTs and FWs will be evacuating like locusts migrating to greener pastures after a feast and leaving waste behind. Construction companies and developers will all go bust. The whole economy will be in ruins and so will be the lives of a people depending solely on unproductive pursuits of churning properties and stocks and derivatives. Everything will burn like all papers will burn.

The highest risk and heavily leveraged industry today is the finance industry. And we are deeply in it. And the people are all highly geared in properties, private or HDB, all in big debt and needing more money to service the debt. When jobs are gone, when easy money from high finance is not there, where will it lead to? Our economy is too highly reliant on the finance industry and properties, and on more foreigners being here. They are intertwined like triplets, when one goes, the others go as well. With 40% or 2m transient workers here, their departure can be traumatising and financially crippling.

When that day comes, don’t worry, economic systems are designed for boom and doom, like the great depression, it is a matter of when. And the good thing, it seems so near. The Govt will have no more tricks to pull out from the bag. In fact it is living on one last trick, growing population to boost up property prices and the economy. How long can this trick last?

I know, this is a very pessimistic doomsday forecast. Pray it doesn’t happen.

Would Japan and China be better off with more immigrants/people?

LKY chided Japan and China for their presumingly flawed population policies. China’s problem is its one child policy to hold back a population explosion.It must be crazy to keep growing the population with 1.3b now. In the case of Japan, it is its homogenous society that did not take too kindly with immigrants of other origins. So, would these two countries be better off by abandoning their population control policies? The hyped fear is that the countries will age too rapidly and eventually ran out of stock of people. And leave it to the mathematicians, it is then possible theoretically, assuming that the human race is unthinking and as predictable as robots and both countries will be nothing, no people left.

Putting this argument aside, are these two countries progressing or regressing? One has just emerged as the second biggest economy in the world and threatening to over the USA as the biggest in 30 years or less. Japan is still the third largest economy in the world, having been overtaken by China which is impossible to stop given its physical size and population. But Japan is still unbeatable as the number three, ahead of all the developed European economies, ahead of Britain, France and Germany.

Though the Japanese were experiencing very little economic growth over the last 30 years, is the quality of life getting worst? Definitely not. They are still enjoying possibly the highest quality of life without growth, and also with little inflation while housing prices remained practically stagnant to mitigate against slower or no growth. The Japanese are still very wealthy as a country with plenty of reserves and industries and high productivity. Japan does not need the ponzi population growth to maintain a high quality of life without the apparent growth that is deemed desirable.

In both these countries, would they be better off or worst off if their populations were to shrink another 10% or 20%? Economists can argue either way but more population does not only bring growth alone but could bring along many more social and political problems that would negate the little benefits from economic growth. Would it be better to maintain a high quality of life with little economic growth and little population growth?

How much time left before the rice is cooked?

While Gilbert Goh and his friends are busy planning the May Day Protest Rally, while many angry Singaporeans are rallying for support from their friends and other Singaporeans to make a presence at Hong Lim to make a statement to the Govt’s population policy, time is ticking away. How much time is left to prevent the population from growing from 5.3m to 6.9m in 2030? How much time is left to prevent the population from hitting 6m in 2020?

There was an unusual silence from the govt’s quarter as to what is happening since the White Paper was approved in Parliament in a sure pass voting when PAP held an absolute majority of parliamentary seats. The passing of the unpopular bill with very little support from the citizens has been quickly swept into the cupboard and not to see daylight again. No govt official is willing to talk about it, presumably the whole process and mechanism of bringing in more foreigners to hit the two targets of 6m in 2020 and 6.9m in 2030 are in full swing. Make hay while the sun shines.

If this is so, how many have been added to the 5.3m to date and how many foreigners will be coming in monthly or annually as to plan? According to the projection in the White Paper, the average increase in population is 100k annually or about 8,500 monthly. Two months have passed and the population number must have gone up accordingly. By May Day about 35,000 new migrants would have gone pass the gate. By 2016, 300,000 more heads will add to the current 5.3m to 5.6m.

Is there any change in the position of the Govt on this? As planned, I suppose. And the increase will add to demands for all other services and facilities and more trains, cars, roads and HDB flats and schools and what not…more Jolibees and restaurants and shopping centres and food courts.

At the moment the road to 2016 is a foregone conclusion and 5.6m will be the population by then. Would the GE change anything? A regime change is the only way to put a stop to the population growth and a rewind to a smaller number, maybe 5m or less. So it looks like nothing is going make any difference till 2016 and very likely after 2016, if PAP continues to be in power, the 2020 and 2030 targets of 6m and 6.9m are the likely certainties.

Is there time for change or just wishful thinking?

New definition of affordability of HDB flats

In the papers today, Liu Thai Ker spoke about his times, the premises they used to compute affordability before coming out with HDB prices. This was the old formula, Dr Liu said, ’in those days, flats typically cost about three years of an owners’ salary…we looked at the per capita GDP growth, the sector of people eligible for public housing, their income, and then matching that to our selling price and to our flat sizes. It was really a very detailed study’.

The new innovative formula of the super talents, ‘ the prices of new HDB flats are set based on the typical household of families, the market price of similar resale flats in the vicinity, and the flat size and location.

You can make out the thinking behind the two formulae and the kind of people formulating them and what they were trying to achieve.

Time to stop the housing ponzi

The pioneer of Singapore’s public housing, Dr Liu Thai Ker, has spoken on the need for HDB to return the basics. Dr Aline Wong also joined the call. HDB should go back to provide a roof for all Singaporeans. More and more senior elites from the establishment are saying that things are not going right and needed to take a step back. And the solutions offered by Liu Thai Ker to stop the housing ponzi are not calculus but simple common sense. Build public flats with no frills and build a little extra to the supply. The prices of public housing will adjust accordingly.

The same call was made by Boon Wan but with many catches. Back to basics to offer cheaper flats will necessitate adjusting the products for sale and one could end up buying half an apple, like shorter lease, conditions to sell back to HDB and all the jazz. Why like that?

In today’s media, it was reported that 2 rm and 3 rm flats can be sold at a net price of $57k and $159k respectively after setting off the grants. Hey these prices are quite decent and reasonable. If this can be done, why is there a need to tweak the terms of sales to bring down the prices? Many silly suggestions to make HDB prices cheaper were made by muddle head Singaporeans. The actual cost of building public flat is very much lower and the sale price can be brought down without all the silly suggestions. The fact that the cost of building the flats is being kept secret is telling a big story.

What so far transpired in the media is that the Govt is preoccupied with the need to keep property prices going up. If we don’t bring in more migrants, property prices will come down. What rubbish. Now you understand why 6.9m is necessary? It is to prop up property prices as part of the ponzi scheme. The SERS and en bloc sales will not be feasible without more and more buyers in the pipeline. Every old flat pulled down must be replaced by 5 new flats to justify the cost of rebuilding. Thus, it means you need 5 times the buyers to sustain the scheme. The population must continue to grow even after 6.9m if the property price is go be kept up.

This gravity defying act, by meddling with market forces and supply and demand will all come to naught without the increasing influx of migrants. The 99 year lease will dictate that all such flats must end up with zero value unless they can be pulled down before the lease expires. The ponzi scheme must come to an end sooner or later as the island just cannot keep taking in more and more people and the price of flats keep going up while the workers remain as CBF.

It is better to stop the ponzi housing scheme now with lesser people being hurt and less badly than to allow it to snowball to monstrosity and beyond control, like the American national debt. Too big to do anything or unsolvable without a total collapse of the system.

Obituary – Today we mourn the passing of Feed Me To The Fish

A day has passed and no more news from Fish. His blog is filled with condolence messages to Mrs Fish and the family. It is sad that our social media has lost a booming voice in defense of the common Singaporeans. His last stand was in Hong Lim Park on Feb 16. He was not a lone. His family was with him, and the 4000 Singaporeans that turned up to keep him company. It was an opportunity I missed to meet this honourable man.

Fish will be remembered by all the keyboard warriors in cyberspace and all those who read his blog and are touched by his humble sincerity to fight for the average Singaporeans. I can still remember him singing with gusto from his troubled heart,

‘Do you hear the people sing?

Singing the song of angry men

This is the music of a people

Who would not be slaves again!

When the beating of the heart

Echoes the beating of the drums

There is a life about to start when tomorrow comes’

Fish was very happy that night after the Worker’s Party reclaimed Hougang in a by election. He was joyous as he shared the moment with the people on the streets of Hougang and his video with all in cyberspace.

Bless you Fish. RIP.

So much deference, so little substance

‘Former Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew was speaking at a dialogue on 20th Mar 2013 organized by Standard Chartered Bank [Link] with US Federal Reserve and former chairman of US President Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board, Paul Volcker. Also included was Standard Chartered group CEO Peter Sands.’ Quoted from TRE.

This gathering is best remembered as the last pose to honour the passing of a political giant. His view on population growth as if it is the only way to achieve economic growth was swallowed like a bitter pill, solemnly without much protest, more in due deference to his stature as a senior statesman.

Volcker the economist politely contradicted this flawed growth theory by growing population with this comment, ‘the world “cannot continue to grow” indefinitely, and would have to resign to “being like Japan” eventually. This is in response to LKY lamenting that Japan’s refusal to admit immigrants would see the population halved and eventually becoming nothing. A simple extrapolation on paper may say so, but the realities of how the human race will adjust to different situation will see the race’s continued existence into the future short of a nasty catastrophic disaster.

The assertion that China or all countries must continue to grow their population must be greeted with disbelief. The world would be a better place if the population is reduced by a third, and countries like China and India and even Japan could be better off with a 20% or 30% population reduction. There will be more for everyone and all the unnecessary economic activities to support a bigger population can be made redundant and the resources allocated to more productive and useful things for the rest of the population. Mother earth and the oceans would have a reprieve and time to nurse their wounds and to replenish the livestocks in them.

Population growth for economic growth up to a point becomes meaningless and disastrous, self defeating and self destroying.

The other point harped upon is the value of foreign talents with the assumption that the talents come in peace and to bring goodness to the people. What if the talents are here with their private agenda, to promote their own interests at the expense of the citizens? A country or its govt owes its right to be the govt to look after the interests of its citizens and not the good of foreigners no matter how talented they are. It is treason to allow foreigners to destroy the local population and to rob away their wealth and the right to a good life.

Every country can do away with foreigners when the end result is not a betterment of its citizens. To hell with foreign talents. Every country can grow at their own pace without the need for foreign talents unless these talents are there to advance and complement the general well being of the citizens.

Tan Chuan Jin, We have a situation.

Tan Chuan Jin must have discovered that he has landed up in a shit hole when the lid on the problems of discrimination and victimization of Singaporeans in the job market was lifted. He must be cursing himself for the mess he has inherited. At least Boon Wan did know what he was in for and was prepared to have shit up to his neck in housing. Boon Wan is still struggling but unable to get them off. There were just too much shit and he too deep in shit. The housing problem has taken a life of its own and cutting any corners would cause pain in other corners.

Did Tan Chuan Jin know what he was in for? Before he knew anything, his little stuff is already half cooked. The discussion in Parliament and the peep into the problems were too revealing and frightening to know the whole truth. It seems that he had some preview to what was coming and had some serious discussion with Tharman and needing Tharman’s weight to move some boulders along the path.

There are high expectations from the citizens for Tan Chuan Jin to do a successful Herculean lift. Any half baked measures like in housing will not do. This problem is very serious and hit the citizens real bad and more and more citizens are feeling the pain. Can Tan Chuan Jin rise to the occasion to clear this shit or would he be sucked into the shit hole like Boon Wan?

The PAP, if it knows how much its fate in 2016 rests on how Chuan Jin tackle this issue, must also want him to do a good job and give him all the clout he needs. Tan Chuan Jin cannot fail or he would fail himself and the party. He has only a couple of years to clean up the shit as the smell is spreading too fast and wide.

For an Acting Minister, his task is the biggest and most difficult to unscrew. No lip service and no time to delay, no honeymoon years for this young man. All eyes are on him and the true blue displaced, victimized and discriminated Singaporeans are looking to him like the savior, The One that is coming to lift them up from their miserable existence.

Any foreign company operating here and stuffed by mainly foreigners has very little value add to the people and country except to raise the rentals of office space and property prices. They should not be allowed to be here as there is no gain for us. We are a multi racial country and we must not permit the practice of racism in the country and worst, against our very own citizens by foreigners. No organization must be allowed to practice racism in our country. Their licences must be cancelled with immediate effect if they are found guilty of this racist act.

The ball is now in Tan Chuan Jin’s feet. He can pick it up, blow the whistle or continue to play the game like them shiok, nothing wrong what. Have Singaporeans been led to the slaughter house with blinkers on?

Open letter to Acting Minister over Unfair Unemployment Practices at banks in spore

Complaint Against Unfair Unemployment Practices at Swiss Italian Private Bank

Dear Acting Minister,
It has been almost a month since our email dated 22 Feb 2013 was sent to your kind self. And it's extremely disappointing that we have not heard from you nor your ministry to date.

We sincerely hope you are not merely paying lip service to your own pledge in Nov 2011 to ensure that Singaporeans remain the core of our workforce in companies operating here.

Being accountable for what you have said, we would like to highlight the unfair unemployment practices against Singaporeans at a Swiss Italian private bank XXX Bank. We would like to know what actions are you or your ministry going to take to rectify the situation.

1) Until the middle of last year, almost all the Heads of Department/Section in the bank’s Wealth Management Department consist of foreign Indians:

Head of WMS (Malaysian Indian)
Head of Active Advisory (India Indian)
Head of Strategic Advisory (UK Indian)
Head of Investment Strategy (India Indian)
Head of Structured Product (India Indian)

It was only in May 2012 that a local was engaged by the bank as Head of Product Strategy. And that was the result of an unfortunate event further elaborated below.

Where is the hiring and developing of a Singaporean Core the TAFEP and the government have been advocating all this time?

2) Sometime in late 2011, an anonymous complaint letter against one of the India Indians was sent to the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

Instead of launching an investigation into the India indian, the bank shockingly chose to cover up for the latter and terminated the services of 2 Singaporeans. They then created the Product Strategy to take over some of the major responsibilities held by the India Indian in an effort to minimise the damage done.

Prior to that, the Singaporean Head of WMS was forced to step down after he openly questioned the competency of the same India Indian. The Deputy CEO, another India Indian, also reduced the Singaporean's responsibilities and remuneration, and this led to his resignation.

In all, it's disheartening that 3 Singaporeans lost their jobs simply because the management chose to shield one of their own kind.

Where is the protection afforded to Singaporeans against biased senior management who use unfair hiring/firing to favour their own countrymen in this case?

3) The bank has a discriminatory hiring practice, using every opportunity to recruit foreign Indians, whenever possible, for positions within the WMS department. It is not hard to understand why, given that the Deputy CEO is an India Indian.

Some examples: In Nov 2010, the bank went all the way out to recruit an India Indian for the position of Investment Analyst in the department.

Sometime in Mar 2011, another India Indian was also employed by the bank as an Advisory Associate in the same department when all these low level positions could have easily been filled by local Singaporeans.

Even the department’s risk manager is a new Singapore citizen who was previously an India Indian.

In fact, almost half the interns in the department during 2010 and 2011 are foreign Indians. Furthermore, if you exclude the investment advisors reporting to XXX HK (but based in Singapore), more than half the advisors ranked AVP and above in the department are foreign Indians too. This is clearly unacceptable.

We completely agree with Mr. Brenton Ong's letter to the ST Forum dated 28 Feb 2013 that many Singaporeans are unhappy with the "liberal recruitment of foreign professionals, managers and executives". In fact, almost 9 out of 10 Singaporeans now support curbs on foreign workers, especially PMETs.

In a ST article dated 25 Jan 2013, the Prime Minister was quoted as saying the PAP government is on the side of Singaporeans. Is it really true... then why are there so many foreigners performing jobs that can be easily filled by locals?

And in many cases, the foreign talent are not as "talented" as what the government paints them to be. They are simply here at the expense of Singaporeans, taking advantage of the government's lax pro foreigner policies.

As such, the PAP government especially the Ministry of Manpower must be held fully accountable (to what they have said) by investigating and penalizing firms with discriminatory employment practices and hiring/firing policies. Otherwise, we should vote for somebody else who can protect Singaporeans' jobs. Thank you.

The above letter is posted in TRE and CNA forum. I copied from the latter.

Foreign talents needed?

‘A TR Emeritus (TRE) reader posted a comment [Link] on TRE yesterday (19 Mar) highlighting that a Junior College (JC) is looking for English tutors for its international scholars.’

It is normal for a college to hire a good English tutor to teach English or GP. Wait a minute, the adjective English means the subject English and not a native English tutor. There is no requirement to engage a native speaking English tutor to teach the subject when a local Singaporean can do the job equally well. And don’t forget, many Singaporeans are technically native English speakers as English is the language they were borne with and spoken for their whole life in an English speaking environment. The criteria shall be good grades in English, trained or experienced in teaching the subject and not being English. Being English has nothing to do with being able to teach the language well.

The confusion with the term talent and ability has been so misleading, wishy washy that many Singaporeans have been conned and stupidly accept the presence of foreign talents. Allow me to give a simple example to illustrate the silliness of people at the top. If a photographer is assigned to take a picnic or dinner event, what camera shall he use? A point and shoot, a prosumer mid price camera, an entry point DSLR or a high end professional DSLR? If the result is to print 4R or 5R prints, actually any of these cameras with at least a 6 megapixel sensor is more than adequate for the job. Anything more, a DSLR, entry level or professional, is over killed. There is no need for the additional resolution and camera power. Most of the shots are point and shoot scenario. Even some difficult lighting situations would not be a problem with a point and shoot. There is no need for a foreign talent or super talent when a normal talent will be more than adequate to do the job. This does not take into account that many foreign talents fall short of being talent or are really worst off than local talents, or fakes. Many jobs can be done by any Singaporean.

In the case of the English tutor, what does this mean, only a native speaking English native can do or anyone proven to be good with good grades would be better able to do the job? Singapore in practice is an English speaking society and our understanding and command of the language are not inferior to native English speakers. You are looking at the professional level and not the Ah Lians in the shopping centres. If the ad is to engage native English, it is an insult to the abilities of all good English Language teachers here, and an insult to the person putting up the ad as well.

He knows not what he is doing. Still living in the 1950s and 60s. I hope I am wrong and indeed the college is not looking for native English tutors but just good English Language tutors. It could be just the way it is worded.

A national manpower audit is needed in the banking, finance and IT industry

‘Acting Minister for Manpower Tan Chuan-Jin talked about creating fair and inclusive workplaces for Singaporeans… one important aspect is to take a firm stand against discriminatory employment practices against Singaporeans (‘Minister Tan: We’re taking a firm stand against discriminatory employment practices‘)….

He broke down the frustrations of Singaporeans into three categories:

1. ‘hiring-their-own-kind’ practices

2. Undue Haste in the Recruitment Process

3. Lower-cost foreign professionals substituting Singaporean PMEs’

The above is quoted from an article in TRE about Tan Chuan Jin’s reply to Gerald Giam in Parliament. He also mentioned a few meetings he had with employers about the problem and Tharman was also involved. This showed that the matter was taken at very high level. But from what he had said, it appeared that MOM was just starting to scratch the surface of a huge problem that has remained buried for too long and not enough is being done.

What the MOM could do for a start is to do an audit of all the financial institutions on the breakdown of their PME staff and with Singaporean stated clearly as a separate group and not lumped together with PRs. The audit should also be extended to institutions and businesses that hired a lot of IT personnel. This act alone will show the employers that the govt meant business and it is time to clean up their dubious acts against Singaporeans or the Govt will do the cleaning for them.

Perhaps the MOM can make it more transparent by reporting a few companies that have been discriminating against Singaporeans in the workplace in the main media. Let’s give the main media a chance to do a patriotic act for once. I am repeating this word ‘Singaporean’ to be distinct from PRs. In fact it is opportune for the Govt to separate Singaporeans from PRs to give a clearer picture of the shit Singaporeans have been stuffed in their mouth without knowing in all official statistics.

Scratching a few pimples is not enough. The problem is massive and widespread and the Singaporeans demand more positive intervention from the Govt. The May Day protest Rally at Hong Lim must include this as a major issue.

Some people have asked what’s next after the protest Rally? Is it just to be there as a show of force or should the organizers work towards some kind of actions like a petition to the Hsien Loong. Don’t bother about a petition to the President. It is not in his terms of reference to meddle with such issues. He has more important tasks to take care of, like guarding our reserves. The MOM can talk, the protest Rally can talk, but what is urgently needed are concrete steps to stop the rot as it is hurting Singaporeans badly for too long.