Champerty is now legal and acceptable (Correction, my mistake)

The latest ruling in the High Courts by the Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon and Judges of Appeal Chao Hick Tin and Andrew Phang on Champerty is most welcomed by the people and the legal fraternity. The practice of allowing lawyers to be paid only on winning a case was illegal in the past but due to the overriding circumstances of extremely forbidding legal fees this has to change. Otherwise many people who cannot afford the high legal fees will be robbed of justice in our world class legal system. It then would be like only the rich can buy justice and the poor will be robbed of justice, punished by injustice.

There are other issues for making this practice illegal in the past such as lawyers demanding excessive payouts and leading to conflicts of interest, or frivolous litigation. The latter, frivolous litigation, is now the hobby of the rich, knowing that they can threaten the poor with Sue and the poor would have to say sorry even if not guilty, no money to pay for legal fees. Such concerns can always be taken care of in modernity when the clients can seek redress should they think they have been cheated. The legal system, the legal profession, must make provisions for unhappy clients to have an avenue for mediation and conciliation when there is a dispute with the mighty legal professionals on legal fees. There must be transparency, honesty and integrity in the legal profession if this change is to work.

The change will now make justice available to all, including those who cannot afford the legal fees. Maybe the fees can be worked into a case on a contractual basis and open to scrutiny and investigation by the legal profession and the courts. This may make things more transparent and equitable and not be subject to abuse and discriminatory practices of foul lawyers.

This is definitely a good thing and the rich and powerful are less likely to take advantage of the poor and weak now.

PS. My apologies. I thought I read the paper yesterday saying that this was a big change in our legal system. I re read and see this statement, '

“We wish to emphasize that until and unless there is a change in the law, lawyers who enter into champertous agreements can expect to face at least a substantial period of suspension,” Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon wrote in the court’s 45-page decision, “and depending on the factual matrix this period could well exceed the present imposition of six months.”



Read more: http://www.law.com/jsp/law/international/LawArticleIntl.jsp?id=1202611925480&Singapores_Top_Court_Suspends_Lawyer_for_Champerty#ixzz2ZvN189oV

Hong Kong Brokers Drive Cabs as Competition Forces Locals Out

By Eleni Himaras and Stephanie Tong

July 22 (Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong, Asia’s second-biggest stock market, may see 25 percent of its local brokerages close as trading and fees plunge, and competition from banks intensifies, a securities association said.

The number of local broking firms may decline to 300 from about 400 in the next five years, Mofiz Chan, a spokesman of the Hong Kong Securities & Futures Professionals Association, said in a telephone interview.

“There are many people taking part-time jobs or completely moving out of the industry,” Chan said. “Many of our members have needed to shift into other jobs such as security, taxi drivers or tutors for primary school students.”

Fees have dropped since bourse operator Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd. in 2003 removed a brokerage commission floor of 0.25 percent of the value of transactions, squeezing profits for brokers as mainland Chinese rivals expand operations. The competition has claimed foreign equity traders, with South Korea’s Mirae Asset Securities Co. and Japan’s Daiwa Securities Group Inc., among brokerages that have cut jobs.

Eleven brokerages have ceased trading this year, according to filings posted on the website of the Hong Kong stock exchange. King Fook Securities Co., established in 1971, said it will close at the end of this month.
“King Fook Securities was one of the founding members of the stock exchange before it became listed,” parent King Fook Holdings Ltd. said in an e-mailed reply to questions. “We’ve been seeking to keep operating despite booking losses. High rentals and labour costs, together with the fact that banks are offering zero commission have made it difficult for us to survive.”...

The above is part of a Bloomberg article on the pathetic state of the stockbroking industry. And the Hongkong Govt is not thinking that this is bad and is not doing anything about it. The crippled stockbroking industry is already limping and now the unfair competition by the banks, using their strategic advantage to offer no commission for trading is allowed to go on. Where is the anti unfair competition authority in Hongkong to stop such hideous and unfair practices? For the benefits of a few big funds, and the bottomline of the Exchange, the authorities and regulators are willing to allow them to dictate how the stockbroking system should operate and leading to its eventual collapse.

None of these jokers bothers to look ahead and ask what would happen if the stockbroking industry goes kaput? A dead or critically ill stockbroking industry will severely affect the whole banking and finance industry and other related industries and many jobs.

The Singapore stockbroking industry is having a mirror image of its counterpart in Hongkong. And it is likely and highly probable that the Singapore industry will turn turtle ahead of Hongkong. Singapore is much smaller and there are fewer broking houses and fewer remisiers in the industry. And many are barely making enough for their pocket money.

Maybe it is already a known fact that the stockbroking industry is dying and there is nothing worth saving this industry. Let it be, let it die. Can Hongkong and Singapore still be financial centres with sick or non existence stock markets? Is the stock market a vital pillar to the whole financial set up or unnecessary and as long as the banks prosper, there is no need for stock markets?

India to call on millions of non-residents to defend rupee

By Manoj Kumar

NEW DELHI
Mon Jul 22,
(Reuters) - India is considering calling on its millions of non-resident citizens to help reverse a record slide in the rupee and does not favour the idea of a global sovereign bond at this time, senior government officials told Reuters on Monday.

However, the government strongly denied having ruled out a sovereign bond issue and said in a statement that "all options are on the table".

The officials, who spoke earlier on condition of anonymity, said India was running out of options and time to revive the currency and fund a record current account deficit but equally policymakers were wary of sending any distress signals to international markets.

Issuing a global bond might send such a signal, so instead policymakers will focus on attracting funds from Indians living abroad, such as by raising deposit rates in India or issuing bonds specifically designed for them - repeating measures carried out in 1998 and 2000 to steady a weak rupee.

The officials declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of discussing government deliberations. They were not immediately reachable for further comment….

India has the second-largest diaspora in the world, with a community estimated at more than 25 million, the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs says….



The Indian Govt is desperate to defend the weakening rupee and is expecting some help from the Indian diaspora around the world. One key factor that is leading the Indian Govt to this crisis is the lack of finance talents in India. Practically all their banking and finance talents are in the US and Europe and of course in Singapore. This is a costly brain drain, depleting whatever talents India has. It is now paying a price for losing its own talents who are out there helping the countries around the world to manage their finance and bankings.

How many of these finance talents are going to return to India to give a helping hand? Throwing some money back is not going to do much good. What India really needs is to bring back some of these top talents to save the country.

Singapore is so fortunate to benefit from India’s despair. We are taking too many of India’s talents to help us grow into the First World. Singaporeans should be very grateful for this and maybe Singapore should reciprocate in some ways to help India. Maybe we can loan some of the ex Indian Singaporean finance experts to get India over this crisis. For a start, a true blue Singaporean, the recently retired Dhanabalan, can be loan to the Indian Govt as Special Economic and Finance Adviser Emeritus.

My rejected letter from ST Forum

“From recent media reports on the AHPETC dispute, it is still not possible to make a judgement on the integrity, or otherwise, of the parties involved.

Can the Government detail the incontrovertible evidence, step by step, to support their position. Can the WP do likewise.

The parties to the dispute are not accountable to the other but to the citizens of Singapore. So, just present the evidence (with explanations as needed but no judgements) so that Singaporeans can judge for themselves on one or more of the outcomes below.

1) The incontrovertible evidence on dishonesty are what they are stated to be.

2) There is room for misunderstanding in the dispute.

3) The crux of dispute boils down to “A said this” and “B said that” without each being able to prove the other wrong.”

Hwang Teng Aun

The above letter by Hwang Teng Aun was posted in TRE. He said ‘It was not published even though two letters on the matter, more demanding of the WP, were published in Forum page later that week.’ This is likely to be the trend when letters sent to the main media were not published and they would then turn to the social media as the alternative source. If more of such cases keep happening, soon it will become habitual for forumers to just go to social media to be sure that their letters are posted.

Is this undesirable, bad, not right?

Sinkies lack humour

Lim Swee Say is perhaps the most engaging and down to earth minister in the cabinet. He always tries to put across his points in a light hearted manner, funny, humorous and effective. Given his academic brilliance, he could easily speak sikit atas, using all the flowery and bombastic words that he is more than capable of. But he tries very hard to be like the people, speaks the people’s lingo, shares their little fancies and distractions in life.

Unfortunately his attempts to connect with the people, his role as the union chief makes this even more important, to be able to relate to the people, is somehow not appreciated and misunderstood.

There is a post in TRE about Swee Say’s regular visits to Din Tai Fung, the famous Michellin class restaurant, and how he appreciates the little good things in life, just like the common people. He explained why he liked the good quality toothpicks of the restaurant and used to take half a pack back for his personal use. He explained that the toothpicks were of very fine quality and well designed. Swee Say could be boasting about how he ordered the most expensive items that money can buy, as he has a lot I am sure. But that would make him look snobbish and would not go down well with the proletariat, the workers he works with.

Instead, he talks about taking half a pack of toothpicks which the ordinary people like all of us are used to doing. It is the personal touch that he is like one of us. But from the nearly 100 comments it seems again his nice gesture is frown upon. Practically everyone is criticizing him as if he has done something wrong. Some even want to buy him toothpicks as if he cannot afford it. Come, come, Swee Say can buy enough toothpicks to go around the world a million times.

Where is your sense of humour, Sinkies? Enjoy and share the fun and jokes of the minister. He is trying very hard to connect and the people just do not appreciate his effort. Smile when he cracks his next joke and you could be rewarded with more jokes from him. Don’t take life so seriously. Politics is not just about power. Politics can also be fun.

Did anyone get Swee Say’s message? Good service is in the details.

The uncanny timing to perfection

Many of you who need to switch trains at the Jurong East terminal must have noticed this. Just as the train you were in was coming to a stop at the station you must have felt so glad that there was another train waiting on the other line to continue your journey. Perfect timing. Such efficiency must be acknowledged as it makes train connection so smooth and pleasant for the commuters.

Then the annoying and dastard thing will happen. As the doors of your train opened, the doors of the waiting train would close. For those commuters who dashed across the platform they would only see the train moving away, leaving them behind to wait for the next train. Perfect timing every time.

The good thing now is that with the free trips in the morning, this is now a thing of the past. The whole platform would be so crowded that it would take three or more trains before one could hop on to the train. The agony of seeing an empty train moving away when you alighted is replaced by the agony of a full platform of commuters and more waiting time.

There is another uncanny perfect timing incident that happened recently arising from the haze problem. The City was covered by haze for about a week and getting hold of a face mask was top priority. We got our face masks with compliments from the thoughtful company. And an interesting remark was made at that very moment. ‘The haze is going away.’ The issue of the mask was the sign that it would not be needed any more, just like when we were issued with a personal thermometer during the SARS crisis. After receiving the thermometer, the crisis subsided.

I think many people got their face masks just in time for the haze to go away. I am sure the 200,000 who got their face masks free too did not have the privilege to put them on. The sky is clear the next day!

Uncanny perfect timing ya. Lesson learnt. If they want a crisis to go away, do the necessary, like issuing the masks quickly, and the crisis will go away as it will always do. And the reason why the dengue problem is not going away is that they have not issue insect repellant to every household.

From irrational exuberance to irrational despair

The downgrading of local banks by Moody’s has elicited a strong rebuttal from MAS. MAS disagrees with the conclusion and offers a list of reasons to support its position. Our banks are financially sound with good asset backings and strong capital reserves. We also have strong regulations that are above what others are doing. The banks are regularly put under stress tests to ensure that they can hold their grounds when a financial crisis struck. So far the stress tests are showing good results.

As for the exposure to the high property prices and debt ratio, the Govt has implemented 8 measures to prevent a bubble forming. So there is no fear of a bubble bursting as there is no bubble at all. This part everyone must believe. All in, our banking and financial systems are rock solid. Would a huge pull out of funds affect our financial market? The answer is likely to be no even though the whole financial market is linked up to the whole world and when one market is affected the dominoe effect will bring the rest along.

I believe the arguments of the MAS are very sound and the people need not fear about what is going to happen to the world financial system and the contagion effect. But there is one possibility that we should not over look. A false and vicious domestic rumour may create a climate of irrational fear and lead to panic selling of assets. If that happens, it could be like a run on the banks and the result can be equally disastrous. The interconnectivity of today’s world has changed the dynamics of the financial markets. And the big funds and hedge funds will be there to do the damage and to profit from the stampede. We have seen how a single piece of news anywhere in the world can be used to push up the stock market or to crash a market.

Beware of the compounded effect of irrational fear, panic and the bull dozing of big funds to wreck the financial system irrespective of how solid it appears to be, or truly solid as a rock. Remember, we are just a little red dot in a stormy sea.

Vivian’s air tight case on honesty and integrity

The hawker centre cleaning issue just refuses to go away. It is quite bizarre that a small administrative misunderstanding could end up as an issue of honesty and integrity in Parliament. With all the information now on the table, I believe the issue is now pretty clear to even the Ah Peks and Ah Mahs in the market place. Let me try to summarise the case and where it is at the moment.

5 parties were involved, the NEA, Town Council and the non existent Hawker’s Association. I hope I got it right that there was no hawker association in the first place or just an informal one. Correct me if I am wrong. The hawkers in the market are not new. They have been operating there for many years and know exactly whether they should or should not pay for the scaffolding. The Town Council may be a bit new and could be expected to be raw or unfamiliar with some of the administrative stuff. But they are expected to know what they can make the hawkers pay and what they cannot. They would not dare to ask the hawkers for payment if they are not supposed to do so. This is a public matter and not something that can be hidden away. They can’t cheat the hawkers. The hawkers and the staff in the Town Council know what is happening. If they are asking for payment, it is likely be an honest mistake. There are things called honest mistakes right? The WP is denying that they did.

As for the NEA, lagi simple. They are the authority and administrator of market maintenance and Town Council matters. They must be very clear as to what the Town Council can collect and what cannot. A young executive from NEA could tell the parties in disagreement clearly who should pay for what. NEA could easily nip this misunderstanding in the bud.

It is strange and highly unsatisfactory that this little administrative misunderstanding could end up in Parliament and becomes an issue of honesty and integrity. And I believe Vivian Balakrishnan must have been convinced that he had an air tight case to prove that the WP MPs had to answer on issues of honesty and integrity. In the Parliamentary debate you could see how confident and assured he was in lecturing the WP MPs and in patronizing Low Thia Khiang to investigate his party members. And for Hsien Loong to openly state that he and his cabinet supported Vivian’s stand, it must mean that he and his cabinet too were convinced that it was a good and unquestionable case to push in Parliament. In a way Hsien Loong is putting his credibility behind Vivian’s charge.

The latest development is the revelation that two key personnel in the dispute are PAP members. This disclosure would create some doubts as to whether this is strictly an issue involving the hawkers and the Town Council or between the WP and PAP. The lawyers will use this to cast doubts into the case.

The next unfortunate things are the notes of the NEA officer and the dossier of Vivian. Apparently the NEA notes were referring to Spring cleaning and Vivian’s dossier was referring to Annual cleaning. Low Thia Khiang’s final statement in Parliament was about a misunderstanding between these two events. The Town Council thinks that it was Spring cleaning and the hawkers would have to pay for the additional scaffolding. They will not charge for Annual cleaning which they have planned for the year end.

Now, is the NEA officer clear that this is an issue of Spring cleaning? If so, why is the dossier of Vivian saying that it is Annual Cleaning? How did the word ‘Annual’ gets into Vivian’s dossier but not in NEA’s notes?

Would Low Thia Khiang stick to his position and regard this little discrepancy also as a misunderstanding and say move on, let the people be the judge? Or would he now go to Parliament with another air tight case that Vivian now has a case to answer on honesty and integrity when the NEA notes and his dossier are concerned? Would Low patronize Vivian and ask him to do an investigation into the matter to clear himself of the same accusation hurled at him?

Whose honesty and integrity are now in question?

Obama saddened by the verdict on Trayvon’s killing

Obama, the President of the USA, has spoken on this tragic killing of a black boy called Martin Trayvon. The unarmed 17 year old boy was shot dead by a burly white man armed with a gun and claiming self defence. Many white supremacists and their sympathetisers did not see anything wrong with that. And a jury of 6 with only one black woman in it gave a verdict that Zimmerman, the killer, should go free.

The black Americans are in shock. Together with the rest of the Americans, including many whites, they are up in protest. More than 100 cities staged protest rallies against this clearly unjust and racist verdict. Obama had no choice but to say his piece.

He related his own personal experience as a black man and how he was also the victims of racial profiling. What is this silly term called racial profiling? The White Americans tried to go around it and avoid saying bluntly that it is racism against the black Americans. Obama said most black Americans had such bad experience. And the boy Martin could be him. Obama could be killed in the same way.

In his Presidential address on the racial discrimination by the White Americans against the coloured people especially black Americans, he minced his words by carefully saying how disgusted he felt politely. He asked the Americans, the white Americans, to go do some soul searching on how they are still discriminating against the blacks in their racist ways.

Many silly Asians are still saying that this is a lie. The white Americans cannot be racist and the black boy deserved to be killed as he is black and according to racial profiling he is dangerous.
Where is JayF?

Singaporeans should stop uttering the phrase foreign talents

For so many years, the Sinkies have been conditioned to look at foreigners as talents and the Sinkies as daft. In reality, the foreigners have also gone through similar education systems in their respective countries as the Sinkies going through our own system. And many of the foreigners actually went through a poorer and less well equipped education system compares to the Sinkie system, which on paper is ranked among the world best. How did Sinkies become non talents when rubbish becomes more talented?

Why is a Sinkie with the same degree or degrees, be it a first degree or post graduate degree be non talent while a foreigner with the same degree/degrees becomes a talent? Why is a Sinkie with the same number of years of working experience be less able than a foreigner with the same number of years of experience? Why is a foreigner with lower qualifications, less distinguished qualifications, lesser number of years of experience be deemed better than a Sinkie and made to be heads of depts and institutions and the Sinkies be left in the cupboard?

Sinkies must take pride in themselves as the real talents. It must be. The Sinkies are schooled in one of the finest education system, one of the most expensive, and have proven their abilities to build a country from the Third World to the First World. In the case of the foreigners, many are schooled in ill equipped education system with poor facilities and inadequate teaching staff, in unranked universities, and came from Third world countries that they failed to turn them into First World, how on earth that they are now better talents than Sinkies, to help Sinkies, to create jobs for Sinkies when they could not help their own countries, could not find jobs in their own countries?

Who are the silly ones who are calling these Third World products as talents and rubbishing Sinkies as not talents, helpless, useless and daft?

All Singaporeans, especially the new media, the netizens, should henceforth refrain from the use of the phrase foreign talents or FTs. There are foreign talents but there are very few and only very exceptional ones. The more Singaporeans keep calling these foreigners as talents, the more Singaporeans unconsciously start to believe that they are when they are not and start to believe themselves as unworthy. Any Singaporean that spouts this phrase should be seen as betraying Singaporeans and deriding Singaporeans and should not deserve to be respected by Singaporeans, be they politicians or otherwise. Only real talents are deserving to be called talents.

Let’s do it together to say the right thing that favours Singaporeans and not the right thing that abuses and belittles Singaporeans. Let’s stop the crap that the lesser number of Singaporeans in the island is to strengthen the Singaporean core. It is a lie. The Singaporean core cannot be strengthened by having more foreigners to take over the rightful place of Singaporeans as citizens and in job opportunities.

Foreigners should just be referred to as foreigners, foreign workers, foreign white collar workers or at most foreign PMETs, ie foreign ‘pampered, mediocre, expensive thrash’.

Where is ownership of omission, negligent or fraud?

When the Subprime crisis and the American financial crisis hit, no one was found guilty of any crime or mistake or fraud. They only one punished was the institutions that were fined. This ultimately means that the main street, the minority shareholders had to pay for the crimes of the management.

When the Lehman bonds and toxic notes hit Singapore, something very similar happened. Only a few out of luck jokers down the line were dismissed to take the blame. The top management that allowed the farce and fraud to do damage to the investors continued to enjoy their big fat bonuses and pay. Whose money ultimately went to pay for the fines of these banks?

The NTUC’s My First Skool was issued with a warning and its licence shortened to 6 months pending probation. No one in management was held responsible. The teacher that committed the abuse was sacked and pending prosecution. If the Skool is closed, who suffers?

Think Mas Selamat and think the HDB fiasco. Think the state of health of the SMRT. Think the Sovereign Wealth Fund. Where is responsibility and where is accountability?

Black and White Matrix seriesAfrica

Africa

Tribal Dance

Party

Three black and white pieces of rar art of the Matrix series.

Beware of anonymous bloggers and websites

This is the main topic of discussion in the ST forum page on Saturday 20 Jul. Do not trust bloggers that post as anonymous, or blogs that are owned by anonymous owners. In other words trust only those you know who is behind the blogs or when the identity of the owner is known. Would this also apply to articles in the main media when the name of the writer is not stated, like from the Editor, from the PMO, from the Ministry of Dounce?  Some may not even say that it is from the editor.

Superficially it may sound true that an article or blog with the owner identified is likely to be more composed and less capricious in what is being posted. Then again, there are many blogs with owners living in no man’s land and letting everything flies, right or wrong, truths or untruths, blasphemy, defamation, scandals, anything goes. And on the other hand there are many very serious bloggers blogging under anonymity and making very good sense. Even using a nick is posting in anonymity if no one knows who is behind that nick.

I used to pose as redbean without identifying myself until I signed up as a writer with Asian Correspondents. I do not see any difference in what I posted then and now. The style and content are still the same. What I am trying to say is that it is the person and his intent and not whether the person is posting in his real self or incognito.

Another forumer in the ST forum by the name of Tan Ying San also warned of websites run by anonymous owners. Then he quoted, “there have been reports of foreign agencies setting up websites to promote certain causes and regularly editing entries in Wikipedia to favour certain viewpoints (CIA, Vatican and Howard’s office ‘edited Wikipedia’”. He went on to say that ‘Many less discerning Singaporeans believe whole articles on such websites simply because parts of them are true and the message resonates with them. They forget the best liars do not lie completely.’

Tan Ying San has an important point here. Many undiscerning readers are unwitting made to believe what they read, sometimes over an article, sometimes over a long period of time reading a certain viewpoint. A very good example is the anger and hatred for countries the Americans have painted as bad or evil, like North Korea, Iran, Myanmar, China, Russia and a whole lot of others. People are just reading the American slanted views from American and western media source, NYT, Washington Post, Guardian or Reuters, AP, Agencies, Fox, CNN etc etc and will eventually think like them without realising it. That is why China and North Korea are so hated by unthinking Sinkies till today. The mentioned of North Korea will send the blood pressure up as if they are enemies of Singapore and are about to launch a nuclear strike on the island. Daft can be acquired or programmed by others with the victim unknowing or did not understand what is happening.

It is thus very important to know the source of the information, who wrote it and what is his agenda and motive. Know the author or owners of blogs and websites helps and is better than not knowing who is behind them. The important thing is to be discriminating and thinking and questioning and don’t be a literate fool, being fooled all your life without knowing it. North Koreans bad, Americans good. North Koreans killer, Americans not killers. North Koreans for war, Americans for peace. You have been programmed and conned.

How many of you trust the main media or information coming from the govts or official sources?

More cases of teachers abusing children exposed

A primary 6 boy was allegedly pinned on a school desk by his neck. This was done by his teacher.The incident happened on Tuesday, July 2 at about 10am in an elite school in the east of Singapore.

He had gone for classes late as he was not feeling well, and his mother was shocked to see his teacher chase him into the classroom. She claims she saw the teacher pinning her son on a desk by his neck.
Tay Weiming's father, 63, and his mother made a police report, complained to the Ministry of Education and also alerted Lianhe Wanbao.

There was another case reported in Stomp I think, of a primary school boy being made to stand in a corner for 3 hours without food, drink or break to go to the toilet and with a paper bag on his head. Punishing a child for bad behaviour is acceptable but it must be reasonable and should not go over the limit especially for primary school children. Forbidding a child to go to the toilet, without food or water is cruel, wicked and inhuman. Unacceptable for adults to dish such punishment to children unless these adults are from some primitive tribes that have yet to be civilised.

Harsh punishment, roughing up children, yelling at young children, and handling them in a threatening manner not only frighten them, they instilled fear in them. What the shit are these adults thinking, that they can harass young children without harming them emotionally and psychologically? My impression is that these are not only insecure adults but likely to be mentally sick or just unfit to take care of children.

This is only the tip of the iceberg, a few cases that were reported after the My First Skool case was exposed. Today another mentally sick teacher abused a 5 year old girl by making her standing naked in front of her classmates in a PAP Community Foundation Centre. She even swung her against the white board. And she was given a 21 probation on the ground that she too was an abused child. What a sick joke! What a sick mitigation excuse!

Is our teaching profession going mad? Or is our society going sick? Don’t the principals or MOE put their ears on the ground to find out what is happening? Oh, the second case mentioned above was dealt by a principal. No wonder Singaporeans are so docile, so authority fearing. They must have been mentally castrated from young in our schools.

The MOE must take a stand on this and get rid of sadistic adults that are unsuitable to take care of children. They will do more harm than good and the earlier they are removed the safer it is for the children. There is an urgent need to do some spring cleaning for the well being and safety of young children. Stop wasting time on cleaning hawker centres.

We need to guard against pyschopaths walking around as teachers. A serious personality and pyschiatric assessment must be conducted on all teachers. Though this may not weed out all of them, at least a big chunk could be taken out early. It is better to be safe than sorry. Subsequently, schools and pre schools, nurseries, kindergartens must have a continuous programme to monitor the teachers to ensure that they are safe for the children. There is an honest and naïve assumption that teachers are all normal people, love children and can be trusted in their entirety with the children in their care. They could be monsters and little devils in disguise.

Wake up and stop being complacent and think that every human bean is ok if he or she calls herself a teacher. Even one in a robe is committing all kinds of crimes behind the robe. Our children need to be protected from their teachers. Our preschools, kindergartens and nurseries must not be turned into frightening places for our children.

The right COE Scheme

Please note that I used the word right and scheme. I could have said the best COE formula or the correct COE system. You see, the right scheme to different people means different things. The right scheme to a super talent is different from the right scheme of a layman or the right scheme of a crook. They are all right schemes to each one of them.

When a designer of a scheme starts from the point of a right scheme you can bet what are his objectives and goals. The current COE Scheme is the right scheme for the govt and for the rich buyers. It is the wrong scheme for the less well off buyers for sure, and for those who cannot do without a car, eg the invalids or handicaps, the families with dependent young and old that have to be ferried to and fro. That is the reason why so many people are so unhappy with the current right COE Scheme as it is not right to them. And that is also the reason why so many people have so many brilliant ideas to offer but will not be accepted or ignored. Cause those ideas are good, excellent but not right.

Anyone who wants to offer any good suggestions to modify the current COE Scheme must take note of who it shall benefit. Otherwise, no matter how good or brilliant the suggestion is, it will simply go into the waste bin, wasted time and effort.

Now did I get my right idea across? It is the goals and objectives of the COE Scheme that determine how it should be designed, what to consider and what not to consider. Get it?

Anyone still wants to offer the best formula, the correct solution or better please think what is the right scheme first?

How to get rich quick?

The whole world is entering a golden era when wealth of money is made so easily, so quickly and in such a sum that our forefathers would never have imagined. Many of the old rich made it after a life time of slogging and business acumen and hoping that all the decisions made were the right ones. In today’s context, the money made by the old ways was just too slow and too little. The internet age has made many very rich overnight, and many are very young. These are the true entrepreneurs that were there at the right time with the right products. They truly deserve every cent they made.

The money did not go to only the mavericks of the internet world. Money is everywhere, overflowing and it is up for everyone to grab in whatever ways they could. Ok, the internet whiz kids are just an exception. And making money the true honest way is still the way forward for many. But there are many that are taking the shortcut to instant wealth. They defy the old wisdom of making money slow and steady in all honesty. Instant wealth does not come easy for many.

In today’s world of high finance, many fortunes were made by many through other than by the honest, slow and steady way. The old ways cannot make people rich overnight. Only the crooked ways, by cheating, by gambling, by conning and deceiving, by robbing, can people make money so easily and so fast other than the few exceptions stated above. When people are making quick money without having to really sweat for it, the answers are all out there. Put one and one together and you will get two, but the instant wealth makers will get three or four. And remember that they are cheating and robbing others and many will be poorer because of them.

An example of how corrupt the financial system is and how the crooks are making tons of money is the trial of an ex Goldman Sachs trader now going on in New York. ‘The trial of former Goldman Sachs bond trader Fabrice Tourre was about "Wall Street greed," a lawyer for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission…’, reported Nate Raymond in a REUTER article on 15 Jul 13.

The gist of the case is as reported in the same article: ‘The SEC accuses Tourre of misleading investors in a mortgage investment called Abacus 2007-AC1 by not telling them that a hedge fund was involved in selecting the underlying assets and betting against it.

Matthew Martens, a lawyer for the SEC, told the jury the deal Tourre put together was "secretly designed to maximize the potential it would fail" to the benefit of the hedge fund, which made about $1 billion.

"In the end, Wall Street greed drove Mr. Tourre to lie and deceive," Martens said.’

The snake oil seller, Goldman Sachs trader, was selling some toxic product designed to fail and pushing it to his clients while knowing that another party was shorting it and with knowledge of how the CDO was structured, could actually cause it to fail. The result was expected, the clients of Tourre lost more than one billion and the hedge fund of John Paulson made the one billion. How convenient and how easy to make money in Wall Street and how easy to find innocent suckers? The formula is being repeated across the big financial centres of east and west.

Structured products, derivatives, CDOs (Collateral Default Obligations) and CDS (Credit Default Swap) are instruments that the designers had a handle to turn them to their advantage without the victims having a clue of what is going on. That is why they called them ‘sophisticated’ instruments for ‘sophisticated’ clients, with clients thinking that they are sophisticated and clever but in fact the definition means ‘thinking that they know and can afford to lose but cannot claim ignorance.’

And the selling of such snake oils is spreading across the world financial markets with the perpetrators of such products seen as financial geniuses and welcome by greedy govts everywhere. In the meantime the financial time bomb has been set clicking. When will it blow up?

It is just a poll

This latest poll was prompted by a very assertive statement from Hsien Loong arising from the hawker centre cleaning issue debated in Parliament. His statement, ‘Singapore has succeeded because we have honest, upright people in politics: people who can be trusted to uphold the public interest, to speak the truth even when it is inconvenient...’ And the poll is conducted to see whether the people agree or disagree with his statement. What do you think?

93% of the respondents disagree with Hsien Loong’s comment that Singapore has upright people in politics, people that can be trusted, to speak the inconvenient truths when needed. How come like that? Is this frightening, that the people don’t think we have upright and trustworthy people in politics?

The poll is just a poll and it is not conclusive to say that the people are right and we don’t have upright people in politics. We may have a lot of them, we may not. What the poll is saying is that they don’t believe, rightly or wrongly, that there are upright and trustworthy people in politics. This is bad enough. It is like an innocent guy in court while the jury insists he is guilty.

For the people to say so, alright, just the people who responded to the poll, it says something. What has the Govt done to deserve such mistrust from this group of people? Go do some soul searching ok?

The other point is for the Govt to do the right thing so that they can regain the trust and faith of the people, that they are good and upright and can be trusted to speak the truth. I think this is a trying task looking at the emotions today. Can the Govt change this negative perception?

What is bad is that if the perception of the people is true. In that case no medicine can cure this sickness. Habis lah.

Is this poll important to the Govt? It depends. It depends on whether they want to believe in it. It depends on how genuine or how close it is to the perception of the whole population. If this is a true representative of what the people perceived the Govt to be, it is definitely not pretty. The Govt and Hsien Loong can only hope that this poll is not representative, not real or biased, or only the views of a small group of anti PAP cynics.

What do you think?

Hawker centre cleaning, time to move on

As more things are revealed in this issue of great national importance, perhaps it is time to move on as the points in question could boil down to some misunderstanding in what were said and what were written or between annual cleaning and not annual cleaning.

Can we call it a stalemate, both sides never win or never lose, call it a truce and everyone gets back to work? Some overseas blogs are even laughing at us for creating such a hooha with ministers and PMs involved. But I must respect those who think this is indeed a very serious matter of integrity and honesty and needs to pursue until every stone is turned and every straight and honest face turns crooked and red.

Shall everyone say peace? I also feel very embarrass to post about it.

South Korea begging the US to take control of its armed forces

Though the South Koreans have been bragging about how able they are to invade and fight the North Koreans, they are so afraid of losing the backing of their colonial master. This semi American colony is begging the Americans to continue to be their supreme military commander in case a war breaks out with the North. The agreement means that the Americans will have full control of the South Korean armed forces in war. The whole of South Korean military will be under the control of the Americans.

The Americans were supposed to surrender this right to control the South Korean armed forces in 2012 but this was delayed because of the sinking of the Choenan. The handover was then scheduled to be in December 2015 but the South Koreans willingly wanted to submit their armed forces to the control of a foreign power, the USA and is asking for a delay in the handover of power back to the South Koreans. It is unbelieveable that a sovereign state would willingly beg another country to assume command of its military. Where is the pride of the Korean people? Is this not a sign of a semi colony?

And now we know the reason why the Choenan was sunk in October 2010. The real reason, the South Koreans would be assuming control of their own military by December 2012. And there must be a strong reason to frighten the South Koreans to want to continue with the Americans as their military commander and colonial master. Who then has an interest to sink the Choenan to keep this status quo?

The North Koreans, the South Koreans or the Americans? Who sank the Choenan and the reason for its sinking is now clear as day light.

Malaysian University admission standard very high

It is reprinted in My Paper of a report in The Star/Asia News Network of a number of top Malaysian students with perfect scores for the STPM but either failed to get a place in Malaysian Universities or being given a course not of their choice, or courses that are unpopular or of lower economic values.

Chai Yee Lin obtained a perfect 4.0 CGPA score, applied for medicine, dentistry, pharmacy and bio medical courses but was given a veterinary science course in Kelatan University. Another student, Chong Yong Sheng, also with perfect score was not even good enough for a place in the universities. And another girl, Deveshini Uthani was devastated as well for not given a place. Her score was poorer, 3.96. She thought it was good enough and that she had done her family proud.

What all these students failed to understand is that there must be many many students with perfect scores, probably 10,000 or 20,000 or more. Thus, their perfect scores were actually average or below average. And the standard for admission must also be very high.

These students should work harder if they want to get admitted to Malaysian universities. On the other hand they may try their luck in Singapore Universities. Here the entry requirements would not be that high and they may even be good enough for an Asean or a Singapore Govt scholarship with food and lodging thrown in. And if they did well on graduation, they may even be given citizenship.

The competition of the local students is not so fierce as the local talents are deemed daft and would not have that kind of scintillating results. It has been proven that many third world students have done much better than the locals and even in employment. Even a youtube porn star was once a scholar in a Singapore university.

I will encourage these top Malaysian students to come down south. Oops, they are not tops in Malaysia but tops in Singapore, I think. They will be received with open arms.