Only $15 more for the right baby

Now this must be the most comforting news that I have read so far. According to a report in a local Chinese paper yesterday, mothers delivering their babies could be assured that the babies they are carrying home are their very own babies by paying an additional $15. This amount is really nothing knowing that the whole child delivering procedure could cost several thousand dollars. The paper did not mention which hospital is charging this additional fee or whether it a govt private hospital or a private hospital. It is like after paying this fee, there will be additional effort or procedure to monitor the correct baby for the correct mother.
 
It is also good to know that it is better late than never. They could have introduced this long ago and be applicable to all the hospitals, private or govt, if there is a problem.
Is there a problem? Millions of babies have been borne and grown up over the years. Wait a minute, you know what I am thinking of? Anyone who thinks he/she does not resemble his/her parents, uh oh. The DNA department is going to be swarmed with such requests and business is going to be good.
 
How many people will be having sleepless night wondering, just wondering. And a word of caution, do not be paranoid about this, don’t panic. It could just because some mothers are being a bit more kiasu and wanted that little bit more assurance.
 
All is fine, I am sure. This is a very reassuring piece of news, must be. $15 for peace of mind.

PS: KKH has confirmed that it was the hospital mentioned by Lianhe Wanbao and that it does not charge extra for the use of Radio Frequency Identification System. It was incorrectly reported by the media.

Asia geopolitics – who balances who?

The American Empire has been the sole military super power in the world since the end of WW2. It has dominated every corner of the earth just like the British did once. There was no rival after the collapse of the USSR. The Soviet Union came quite close to balance the overpowering presence of the Americans but fizzled out.
 
Today there is still no country in the world that could pose any serious challenge to the American Empire. With its naval fleets and nuclear arsenal it can simply knock off anyone standing in its way. Why is the western media filled with comments like the Americans are moving back to Asia to balance the growing military power of China? China was not a military power, and even today it is just a new power gasping to catch up with the American Empire militarily, but not going to catch up in at least another 100 years.
 
Is the rise of China and its growing military clout a balance to the American Empire or the American Empire and its pivot to Asia a balance to China? Who is balancing who? Whose dominance is now being challenged and being balanced? Asean and Asian countries should be grateful that there is now a strong China to stop the Empire from turning the region into another Middle East. They should be grateful that the Empire could not do regime change in the region as it pleases because there is a China to say no, or at least a China in the equation to put the Empire on check.
 
Without a strong China to balance the Evil Empire, North Korea would have been gone, Iran would have gone too, Pakistan and Myanmar could go as well. And countries like Indonesia and Malaysia would be on the watchlist and could also be on the listed among the Axis of Evil and be under constant threats of regime change.
 
The daft countries could not appreciate the importance in the rise of China to their security, economic and political well being. China needs not do anything, but its presence is enough to keep the Evil Empire sane and to adopt a less ruthless and unyielding policy towards countries in these the region. Just think what it would be like if there is not a strong China in the way of the Evil Empire. Asian and Asean countries should count their blessing that there is a China to balance the Evil American Empire.

Now you know why Obama is paid so little

He could not get his Obamacare past Congress and the US govt has to shut down. What kind of leader is that? He should take his Air Force One and head for Changi and then make a trip to meet the Oracle. And this time the Oracle will send him to meet Hsien Loong for a solution.
 
And the solution is so simple. Just make it compulsory, like our Medishield Life. Problem solved immediately. And if Obama still cannot figure out how to do it, we can loan him Gan Kim Yong and his team, at a fee of course, unless Obama want to make a trip to Japan to learn and work out the formula himself.
 
We don’t pay our ministers the kind of money for nothing. Solving national problem is our minister’s forte. The Americans can adopt our 3M medicare system whole sale. Oops, now it is 4M, with Medishield Life. The Americans have their own 3M but that business would not help except to tape together broken pieces.
 
The American Embassy here is also sleeping. They should send a coded message to Obama immediately, Top Priority, to visit the Oracle before it is too late. But makes sure the message is not intercepted by Wikileak. It can be embarrassing for sure.

Malaysian EPF paying 6% interest

The Malaysian EPF has been consistently paying an interest rate of between 5 to 6% for the last 10 years. How is this compares to our 2.5% and 4% interest rates paid by CPF? Damn shiok right?
 
Now how could the Malaysians do it? They employed fund managers and so did our govt. They are likely to invest in a basket of financial products like us. It would be the greatest joke if their investments are chalking better returns than our world best fund managers. They could not be doing anything too different from us. Cannot be right? How then could they pay that kind of interest rates for so many years?
 
It would be patronizing to assume that their returns are lower than ours and still able to pay higher interest rates. Let’s be fair and presume that both perform just as well in ROIs. So, if the Malaysians are paying higher returns to their EPF owners, then the fund managers must be getting much lesser in salary and bonuses or they are returning everything they earned to their fund holders.
 
I think this is it. They did not engaged world best fund managers at world best pay, so the savings could count a lot and could end up paying better returns to their EPF owners. Explaining it in this way is not too complimentary to our fund managers. Our fund managers must be better and making better returns for the money they are being paid. And the lower pay out could or might be due to other reasons that we are not privy to.
 
Overall, it must be value for money. If we are paying so much we must be getting more in return. Tio Boh? But still doesn’t answer the discrepancy that the EPF can pay so much but with our world best talents our CPF are paying so little.

"We pay people what their job is worth................"

"We pay people what their job is worth and what the quality of the people is worth..............." Does this statement impute that the presidency and the ministerial posts in Singapore are heavier and of greater gravity and responsibility than those of USA, Russia, China, Germany, England, France, India Indonesia and Brazil and therefore needs to command  premium salaries many times higher than the others.

As regards the quality of our president and ministers , do they measure up to that of President Putin of Russia, Merkle of Germany, Xi Jingping and Li Keqiang of China and those of the aforementioned countries. In both cases they do not and therefore their salaries should henceforth scale down to more commensurate level say forty to fifty percent that of the salary of Obama or Merkle or Putin. Singapore is very much let down by our president and ministers. They have four of the five proverbial blindness viz blind to injustice, blind to their incompetence, blind to the righteous, blindly engaged in war and blind to the citizens' well being and all this would eventually doom the state to fall and the people to suffer more.

They do not seem to care that their sinful unrealistically high salaries, the COES, ERPS and GSTs have a very high negative and direct impact on the peoples cost of living and therefore a great burden to them.  They don't seem to realise that the high cost of HDB flats, high cost of transport and high medical cost is a nightmare to the people at large never mind what Koh Boon Wan said about paying only $8.00 for a heart operation.

Many of the government's policies and governance are poorly thought out especially regarding the workers' CPF , foreign talents and intake of hundreds of thousands of immigrants into this tightly sardine packed island and these have a great detrimental impact on the lives of Singaporeans. The president and ministers should  'Walk The Talk' and not talk 'NATO'.

5 kinds of blindness worse than being blind

In an article written by a David Wu and Tanya Harrison on music in The Epoch Times they mentioned an ancient blind musician by the name of Shi Kuang. When the emperor took pity on his blindness he told the emperor that his blindness was nothing. There were 5 kinds of blindness that were worse than his.
 
He said, ‘when a king was blind to injustice, blind to his official’s incompetence, blind to the righteous, blindly engaged in war, and was blind to his subjects’ well being, his state would be doomed to fall and his people would suffer more.’
 
This little ancient wisdom can be applied to modern day states and the state of blindness of heads of govt or country. Any head of govt or country that lives with the 5 blindness will soon see his country’s doom and his own doom.

CPE will not take legal action against student blogger Han Hui Hui

Media Release

STATUTORY BOARD WILL NOT TAKE LEGAL ACTION AGAINST STUDENT BLOGGER

Court Action Discontinued as Parties Arrive at Agreement

SINGAPORE, October 8, 2013– Han Hui Hui, the 21-year old Singaporean student blogger who was threatened with a defamation suit by the Council for Private Education [“CPE”], has agreed not to proceed with her challenge in Court against the statutory board. The CPE has agreed not to take any action against Ms Han for defamation.

Acting for Ms Han, lawyer Mr M Ravi believes the matter has come to a happy outcome for his young client. “I am so proud of Ms Han’s conviction. She has not shied away from a fight and through her persistence and activism, Ms Han has raised awareness on this issue – Singaporeans should have a reasonable expectation that they will not be sued for defamation when they question or criticize a public authority.”

Through her challenge, Ms Han was asserting in the Singapore Court what is known as the “Derbyshire Principle”: plainly, that individuals should be free to criticise government institutions and their agencies without fear of being sued for defamation. The principle has been adopted widely in the Courts, beginning in the United Kingdom (Derbyshire Town, for which it takes its name) and following in Canada, Australia, India, South Africa and Malaysia. In the United States, this principle has stood for nearly a century and its purpose is to allow free and fair criticism of public institutions by the citizens who both fund them with their tax dollars and are governed by them.

“I hope that Parliament will act soon to amend the Defamation Act to ensure that government agencies do not continue to use the tax-payers’ dollars to fund actions against their own citizens in Court. The government – particularly in Singapore where the mainstream media is state-controlled – has ample resources and opportunity to respond to any inquiry or criticism raised by the public without resorting to punitive civil action against private individuals” states Mr Ravi.
 
Han Hui Hui and fellow Singaporeans should say a big thank you to brave and upright lawyers like M Ravi to stand up for them. Many had in the past decided to back off and even pay compensations to rogues that were in the wrong but used the weight of the law and their big bank account to bully innocent citizens and abusing the courts of justice. Without professional and civic conscious lawyers like Ravi, Han Hui Hui could go the same way if she could not find anyone to represent her without bankrupting her with legal fees.
 
Thank you Ravi and the likes, if there are any of you in the community

Education quality to be improved

In his dialogue with Poly students yesterday at the 17th Polytechnic Forum, Heng Swee Kiat said there was no need to build another polytechnic. The five polytechnics should be adequate for our needs. What is lacking is the quality and this must be improved ‘to make learning more engaging and valuable for students’. This about sums up the education and job situation here at the moment.
 
We are producing enough graduates but lacking in quality. The problem is solved by importing good quality graduates from the third world and they have the numbers we need. In the meantime the urgent matter is to raise the quality of our world ranked education system to compete with those in unranked education institutions in the third world countries. They have got their education system right while we got it all wrong. We are like getting all the branded goods, brand names, but all fake, unusable and of poor quality.
 
The issue of improving the quality of a flawed education system will take a longer time to correct. While the MOE is doing it, perhaps it would be better to correct the clear and immediate problems by sending our students to the third world countries that are producing all the great talents that are replacing our daft graduates. The second step is to send a few teams to these third world countries to learn from them on how to produce graduates that are better than our universities and polytechnics. And certainly, even if the quality does not improve, the cost will be much cheaper if we engaged all their top professors, lecturers and teachers to replace the robots that we are using to teach our students.
 
With this two prong approaches, we would be able to save a lot of cost in education and produce good quality graduates as well. We may not need all the world ranked universities and polytechnics by sending our students to universities and polytechnics in the third world countries. No need to pay expensive western professors and lecturers, no need expensive education institutions and infrastructures, no need to sell ourselves as the education hub when we are producing not employable graduates or graduates good only for second or third tier management, etc etc.
 
That’s the way to go, cheap and good, very good and very cheap.

Meetings of world leaders should be like this

Photo courtesy of China Daily
Vladimir Putin celebrated his birthday in the idyllic island of Bali. Among the party guests were the Prime Ministers and Presidents of the Asia Pacific and Asean countries. Xi Jin Ping was there too. And Putin had the honour of another President in Yudhoyono strumming the guitar and playing the birthday song for him. And all the PMs and Presidents sang Happy Birthday to Putin in a relax and joyous moment like an old boys' club. What an evening.
 
In a gathering of world leaders, it was about caramaderie and friendship, about building bridges and relationships. It was not about threats of military actions, sanctions or signing military pacts. It was not about warning countries that their national interests means the country has a right to thump table and expect other countries to let them run roughshod in their neighbourhood.
 
The APEC Asean summit was like a birthday party, about peaceful pursuits and trades, not about big bullies threatening everyone that they are here to stay, bringing their guns and warships, and to sign defence treaties to prepare to fight one another.
Happy birthday Putin. And what a gracious and charming host in Yudhoyono. It was a Bandung gathering of a different kind in a different time when Indonesia again played hosts to world leaders.

US Evil Militant Doctrine of Perpetual Warfare

China And ASEAN as well as all other countries should be aware of US Evil Doctrine of Perpetual Warfare
                                                          
China and Asean countries have both in the recent past shared the unfortunate fate of being occupied , colonised and badly exploited by the West and therefore they should now be more vigilant and wary of the West headed by the Evil Empire - USA . US has an evil militant doctrine of perpetual and permanent warfare. Under this doctrine US and the West will consistently and incessantly psycho, provoke and incite other unsuspecting countries to fight and go after each others throats while they will sell weapons and military hardware to the pathetic warring countries . US find this insidious doctrine of perpetual warfare necessary and essential because of its huge mongous war industries . The war industries employed hundreds of thousands of employees and are owned by warmonger capitalists who sit in both Wall Street , The White House , Congress and The Senate as well as in CIA and The Pentagon. These war industries serve the multi purpose of not only earning the warmongering capitalists hundreds of billions of dollars annually but also enable US and the West to control the natural resources of other countries as well as allowing US - The Evil Empire to hold hegemony and have complete control of all countries in this world.

China and ASEAN as well as all other countries must not fall into the trap of being psychoed and incited to go into warfare among themselves just because of imaginary, flimsy and frivolous grounds or reasons played up by The Evil Empire - USA.

Southernglory1

Read the article below and watch the video by CORBETT

Re: Who Is Really Behind the Syrian War? - YouTube
Inbox

We all know that the US government is the greatest warmonger in the world.  Without wars, big or small, how do their weapon manufacturers sell their weapons? This group of ppl have great influence in Capitol Hill.  So they go around to instigate revolt against legitimate governments around the world using the flimsiest excuse to wage wars in these countries.  Iraq is the case in point.  Where are the WMDs?  None.  But look at the state of affairs in Iraq.  It is anarchy all round.  Libya was next and now Syria.  Now they want to pivot to Asia.  China is their target.  They tried the Jasmine revolution but failed and now they try to get their minions, like the Japanese lap dogs, the ingrate Vietnamese government and the spineless Philippines government to do their dirty job by needling China into localized wars in the South China Sea over island disputes so that they can go in to hammer China invoking their so-called joint defense treaties. 

China must exercise the greatest restraint not to provoke a military skirmish, thus giving the US the long awaited excuse to launch another debilitating war.  China must concentrate on improving its internal security, (against the separatist elements in Tibet and Xinjiang) strengthening its defense capability and furthering its economic power. 

Militarily, China is no match against the US at the moment except maybe starting a nuclear conflict in which there will be no winner but mutual destruction.  Remember the US was the one who dropped 2 atom bombs in Japan in WWII.  Now sworn enemies of yore viz Japan and Vietnam are bedfellows with the US against a rising China.

Without the internet to show real footages, I would have thought that the US is the 'good guy'. Now I know the US and its leaders are just as devious and they have their agenda to bring down Syria as they have done with Iraq. I have learnt not to trust the politicians any more.

Like to share the following link on the Syrian saga.   the video is from Corbett Report, an independent podcast on politics, society n economics.   it was started by a Canadian James Corbett.   what is worrying is retired USA general Wesley Clark's comments of a plan to get rid of 7 Muslim countries in Middle East, viz Irag, Lybia, Syria, etc.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=cCdaExnIpGs

China and ASEAN as well as other countries should beware of US evil militant doctrine of Perpetual Warfare

China and Asean countries have both in the recent past shared the unfortunate fate of being occupied , colonised and badly exploited by the West and therefore they should now be more vigilant and wary of the West headed by the Evil Empire - USA . US has an evil militant doctrine of perpetual and permanent warfare. Under this doctrine US and the West will consistently and incessantly psycho, provoke and incite other unsuspecting countries to fight and go after each others throats while they will sell weapons and military hardware to the pathetic warring countries . US find this insidious doctrine of perpetual warfare necessary and essential because of its huge mongous war industries . The war industries employed hundreds of thousands of employees and are owned by warmonger capitalists who sit in both Wall Street , The White House , Congress and The Senate as well as in CIA and The Pentagon. These war industries serve the multi purpose of not only earning the warmongering capitalists hundreds of billions of dollars annually but also enable US and the West to control the natural resources of other countries as well as allowing US - The Evil Empire to hold hegemony and have complete control of all countries in this world.


China and ASEAN as well as all other countries must not fall into the trap of being psychoed and incited to go into warfare among themselves just because of imaginary, flimsy and frivolous grounds or reasons played up by The Evil Empire - USA.


Southernglory1

How to save the USA?

The US govt is on a shut down mode. And two weeks down the road it is faced with a more serious problem, to raise its debt ceiling of US$16.7 trillion to a higher ceiling. Failing to do so will mean the American would run out of money, unable to pay interest on US govt bonds. It will be the first default in American history, that they could not service their loans.
 
My God, with a debt of US$16.7 trillion, they owed China US$1.3 trillion and Japan US$1.1 trillion, and nearly all the countries in the world and they want to print more money! And this country is talking about how rich it is and that it can afford to conduct wars everywhere and pay its soldiers to do that, buying more and more expensive military hardware, when it is already broke! It needs to print more money just to get by. In a way it is a bankrupt nation if it is not allowed to print money.
 
And the Americans are still consuming like hell, spending like hell, and enjoying like hell. How long can this go on? How many more times can it kick the can further down the road before there is no road left?
 
What the Americans need is a big electric jolt. Another way, as someone told me, is for the Americans to find a Lee Kuan Yew to run the show. This is the greatest statesman on earth and still alive, to save America. He also needs a bigger stage than the little piece of rock in red dot. We can loan him to the Americans where there is still time, though not much.
 
A big jolt is needed to get the American out of their senses. Obama could simply go on national TV and tell the Americans that the Chinese will overtake America as the Number One economic power if Congress still wants to play with fire and not to approve the budge and not to print more money. The thought of America being second to China, or having a Chinaman as President, will send fears down their spines and will wake up their ideas. They still did not know that they are in really bad shape, with a debt of US$16.7 trillion while China and Japan each is sitting on a reserve of more than US$1 trillion each.
 
Wake up America or we will send you Lee Kuan Yew. If that does not frighten you, then be prepared to be Number Two, no longer calling the shot, no longer be able to threaten other countries with regime change, no longer the sheriff of the world. You are bankrupt.

Fatimah Akhtar’s speech at Hong Lim Protest

Below is a short quote of Fatimah’s speech at Hong Lim last Saturday. ‘Fatimah is a trained architect with an intrepid interest in globalisation. To date she has lived and worked in Hong Kong, Middle East, Europe and Japan with active working experience in Greater China, Australia and Africa. She has immediate family members that have lived and worked in more than 12 countries partaking in almost all the boom and bust stories of emerging and developed economies. Where ever she is, she has no doubt that Singapore is not only home but CORE identity. As such Fatimah has the first-hand experience as a foreigner in other people’s country. Since coming home, she has the ultimate experience in being a foreigner in her own country like the rest of Singaporeans.’
 
“Middle East experience really opened my eyes. Gulf Arabs have been dealing with foreigners outnumbering them since 1970s. They have gotten used to rampant fake certificates and untrue CVs. The don’t even bother to weed them out. However, the market developed to the point where it is unlikely that a worker from third world countries will be allowed to hold key positions. The typical advert will read “Candidate would need to graduate from a reputable university”. “Reputable” refers to western countries, Singapore, Korea, Hong Kong and perhaps Malaysia. The salary of a true blue Singaporean working for Emiratis is easily 2 or 3 times that of an Indian or Pinoy as the Emirati believes that we can get the job done and not them.  “Hiring practice governed by law have to prioritise Emiratis, followed by regional Arabs”
 
Back in Singapore, because of racial and nationality enclaves foreigners are able to pay themselves well. They boasts how much better paid they are then we are and keep us out in the picture. By the way, out there we are paid as much as ang mos if not better. You see, it is rare for the Ang Mo to have a skill that we do not have. Hiring practice governed by law have to prioritise Emiratis, followed by regional Arabs. Then reputable nationalities fill key positions, others occupy rank and file positions. Nationalities from countries that perceived not to be reputable have very little chances of even occupying middle management roles….”
 
The full text of Fatimah’s speech is posted at TRE under the heading ‘3rd PWP protest speech by Fatimah Akhtar’. It is worth reading to see how Sinkies have been shortchanged and programmed to think and behave like fools in their own countries. It shows how smart the Arabs in Dubai were in the way they dealt with their foreign workers and putting them in the right place. It also shows daft we are to be bullied, discriminated and blackmailed by third world rubbish talents. It is really a sick joke, that first world talents are fearful of third world thrash and hold them in awe.

Uneasy population numbers

Our population hits 5.4m according to the latest report. Citizens make up 3.31m, PRs 530k and Non Residents 1.55m. Among the citizens the distribution of the Chinese, Malays, Indians and Others is 74.2%, 13.3%, 9.2% and 3.3%. The actual numbers of the races are 2.44m Chinese, 440k Malays, 300k Indians and 110k others.
 
Of the PRs and Non Residents, I am unable to get any data on the distribution among the major groups of foreigners like PRC Chinese, India Indians, Pinoys, Indonesians, Myanmese and Europeans. All I got is one number of 400k non resident Indians. This number is as big as the 440k Malays and much bigger than the 300k local Indians and the 110k Others or Eurasians. The local Eurasians alone could be less than 100k.
How big are the groupings of PRC Chinese, 400K? The Pinoys are estimated to be around 200-300K. The Myanmese near to 200k.
 
What do these numbers mean to our local minorities? Each of these groups can be as big as the largest minority group and much bigger than the Eurasians. The Eurasians are also an absolute minority compare to the foreigners. Soon one might not know that the Eurasians exist as their number is so small and easily overwhelmed, no longer noticeable except in Mediacorp. The India Indians are now more than the local Indians.
 
What would the picture be in 2030? The Malays and Indians would be absolute minorities vis a vis the foreigners like PRC Chinese, India Indians, the Pinoys and the Myanmese? Their combined numbers are now bigger than the combined numbers of Malay, Indians and Others even today, 1.55m against 850k, almost double the 850k. And the numbers did not include the 530k PRs.
 
How should we play this number game? Are we comfortable with numbers?

SGX designates Asiason, Blumont and LionGold as designated stocks

The 3 stocks that were suspended from trading for irregularities will resume trading today but as designated stocks. What it means is that trading is restricted. Sellers can only sell the stocks if they already owned the stocks, or no short selling. Buyers must pay cash out front.

SGX is viewing this episode seriously and would not hesitate to introduce more control measures to prevent it from happening again. SGX has a responsibility to regulate the market, to prevent big syndicates/funds to manipulate the market to their advantage. A fair trading system and a level playing field are two of the fundamental principles that SGX has to guard zealously. Failing to do so is not only irresponsible but will kill the market in the long run. A stock market cannot be rigged to favour any party, big or small. No one is to be allowed special advantage like hooking their computers into the SGX system to have pre knowledge or advanced information that other traders did not have. This is cheating and allowing it is to condone cheating.

Churning, cornering of stocks, buying and selling without change of ownership, this could be done with a few parties swapping the stocks to deceive the regulators, creating a false market like ramping up stocks or selling down a stock, etc etc are offences under the SGX regulations for fair trading. Violating any of these is a serious offence. SGX is always on the look out to ensure that no such malpractices take place in the market.

There are bound to be incidents of such nature in the market. The question is how prevalent and what the SGX is doing about them? How fair and level is the playing field to the small investors? If the market is unfair, if there is no level playing field, if all the above is violated and taking place, who should be responsible?

The events surrounding the 3 suspended stocks, and many stocks would have led to many red flags being raised. Was anyone watching or anyone noticing that the red flags were raised?

Sinkies over reliant on the govt?

How many of you believe in this? Or is it the reverse that the govt is over reliant on the Sinkies instead?
 
Did the people ask the govt for a compulsory Medishield Life? Apparently from the govt’s point of view, it is the people that asked the govt for this scheme. Who and how many? Why compulsory when it is what the people want? Or is it that the govt wanted this scheme? I know many didn’t. And looks like those who asked are going to regret dearly and will be cursed by those they dragged along into this compulsory shit hole.
Did the people ask the govt to keep their CPF savings for as long as the govt wants it? Or is it that it is the govt that wants to keep the money for the people? Who is reliant on whom?
 
Did the people ask the govt to implement compulsory minimum sum schemes? Did or did not? Who started these schemes and who is benefitting from it? The people too reliant on the govt or is it the govt too reliant on the people?
 
Are the people reliant on the govt for their retirement pension or payout? Or is the govt relying on the people’s savings in the CPF for funding?
 
The people have been telling the govt to leave them alone. Please don’t help, please let the people manage their own lives and their own money. Is this over reliant on the govt?

PWP’s last stand at Hong Lim

The turnout at Hong Lim for the Population White Paper protest was deserving of a report in the Sunday Times today. It was 500 strong, much lesser than the first and second protest that saw thousands thronging the field of Hong Lim. Should this be expected? The initial anger aroused by the 6.9m people that will populate this little piece of rock has fizzled out as usual. The internet and the two protests have done their job for allowing the Sinkies to air their frustration. Once that is out of the way, life will go on as normal. No need to say ‘Let’s move on’. It is a natural course of events here.

The Sinkies will be unhappy but just for a while. Once they know that protest will be in vain, they will get on with their lives and there are better things to do, like making more money and churning the property market and aiming for that red Ferrari. The govt can now do what they know best and according to plans. The Sinkies have spoken and all is well. 6.9m it will be.

It must be very assuring and comforting for the govt to know that protest in Singapore is just like that. It is just an expression, nothing more nothing less. No need to send in the troops to quell the 500 people or 5000 people at Hong Lim. Let them enjoy their little moments of feeling important. All protests will die a natural way. Look at the empty ballot boxes case? Forgotten, history! Anyone aiming at anything? Hawker centre cleaning or Rolls Royce bicycles? All forgotten.

Now that this trend is confirmed, I think the govt will be encouraged to loosen the lease and allow it a few feet longer. Let them protest and say what they like. It is healthy. The people will want to protest and the govt will want to do what is right. They may appear to be heading for a collision course, but nay, it is just a public airing, a show of a little unhappiness, like a little sulking.

The govt need not sweat the small stuff the next time Gilbert and his friends apply for another protest at Hong Lim. The govt can even be generous and throw in some freebies like chicken rice to make the protesters happier. Long live the protest spirit in Sin.

Essential services and jobs must be in the hands of Sinkies

The military, the police and other uniformed services are vital organisations that protect the country and people. Jobs in these services have traditionally been filled by citizens and their appointments to key positions are highly guarded. Today it seems that anyone can join these services and many are demanding that PRs must don uniforms, serve in the military as well without any concern about compromising the sensitivity and security of these organisations when non citizens are exposed to them. Maybe it doesn’t matter anymore as PRs are in many ways regarded as locals, another term for being one of us. Or maybe the leaders have thought through this and are confident that it is safe to do so.

There are other essential services like power plants and water supplies. Control of these organisations is a serious matter and leaving them to foreigners would have serious implications. Letting PRs control them should be ok as PRs are locals, one of us? Why not when power plants can be sold and managed by foreigners. Maybe security of these services is no longer an issue. All is safe and sound.

I am wondering what services or industry in the private sector would be regarded as essential services that must not be controlled and managed by foreigners. Again citizens, new or old, definitely do not matter. One given a pink IC, they are safe, one of us. And definitely PR is not an issue either.

Over the last few years, many foreigners have taken over the banking and finance industry, and also the IT industry. Some are PRs and some are still foreigners, and some given the pink IC. How pervasive is the presence of foreigners in these two industries/professions today that should they decide to walk out, go home, the banking/finance and IT support could simply go kaput? Maybe such a thing will not happen no matter what. There is nothing to worry about, just like the Fukushima meltdown would never have happened, but it did happened.

Have the banking/finance and IT professions reached a critical point that foreigners are in effective control, domination and could hold the country at ransom, that they are indispensable as there are not enough qualified and trained Sinkies to fill the vacuum if they decide to leave for any weird reason? For that matter, how exposed and dependent are GIC and Temasek Holdings to foreigners that could cost havoc if they quit? How much of highly sensitive information are now in the hands of trustworthy and dependable foreigners? We nearly have more Goodyears.

The lack of succession plans to ensure that Sinkies can fill up the top banking positions is obvious. After so many years, the industry still has to depend on foreigners to fill the top jobs. And looks like the situation is getting worse by the days when more foreigners are recruited to fill the top management grade positions and being groomed or in place to take over the top jobs instead of Sinkies.

Maybe I am unduly worried as everything is in control and what is the problem when PRs are one of us? There are plentiful of PRs that will be most willing to fill the positions and do the bidding. And a little carrot would be enough to see them turning pink. It is precarious to think that two vital services/professions are dominated by foreigners and with Sinkies either fleeing or not given the chance or being kicked aside.

A little foresight or 20/20 vision is good I supposed, to prevent such dire situation to even exist at the peril of the professions and industries. When is the long term planning for such strategic human assets? 

I heard a fart. C'mon, this is no farting matter.

American Dream crumbling, what about the Singapore Dream?

One of the key features of the American Dream is to own a home with a little white fencing around it. This is becoming elusive to many Americans. To make matters worse, they are ‘more than a quarter of all home owners owing more on their mortgages than their properties are worth,’ according to an article in the ST today.

Many Sinkies are smiling, our Singapore Dream is still ok. Many are home owners, never mind that it does not sit on a piece of land or has a white fencing running around it. It is still home in the air. During the last financial crisis, quite a number of Sinkies ended up in the same fate as the quarter of American home owners, with negative assets, ie owing more than the value of the properties they owned.

Is the situation better now? The first fallacy is that the Sinkies think they are home owners when they have a 30 year mortgage to service and all they paid was 10% or 20% of the property. Wise up, get real, you only become a home owner when you fully paid up the mortgage, or for those who have the ability to pay all, or on the last few years of their mortgages, the Singapore Dream of homeownership is there or nearly there. Many are just servicing their mortgages while the ownership of their properties is with the lenders, the banks.

The next fallacy which many take for granted is that it is a lease. Even after paying up the mortgages, the lease would only have a remaining life of 69 years and getting shorter every year. Homeownership of a 99 year lease is a temporary ownership, a lease is a lease.

In another 50 years or so, the first batch of lease owners of 99 year flats will no longer be homeowners. And the pace of disowning their homes will pick up after that when we will see many Sinkies losing their homes unless they can afford to buy another lease at $2m or $3m for a 3 rm public flat.

Other than those living in freehold properties, the Singapore Dream of homeownership is, yes, a dream. It is a 99 year dream and who ever ends up living in the dying years of this dream will have to wake up to face reality.

Aung Sang Suu Kyi – Did we learn anything from her visit?

She came and gone and left her fragrance behind. Some may find it a breath of fresh air, some may find it a little pungent, a little uncomfortable after taste. While she was here she must have learnt quite a fair bit of this little jewel city, with another jewel coming up at Changi Airport soon, a gleaming oasis of modern skyscrapers and facilities, the beautiful gardens and the F1 that she was shown and expected to be in awe. From her statements we all know what she had learnt and would pick up only the right or relevant things for her country.
 
Have we learnt anything from her visit? Learnt what? Are we supposed to learn from her, a third world country? No, she was here to learn, and we were there to teach her, to show her the way to a modern first world country, oops, I mean city.
 
I don’t think Singapore learnt anything from Aung San Suu Kyi’s visit. Our mindset was that we have it all and everything that Myanmar wanted. And we were so willing and eager to please her by offering our helping hand. We were so helpful. Shit, she did not seem to appreciate what we can do for her country.
 
But some Sinkies did learn a bit. Some are questioning whether this mad race to make more money to buy more things, to have more money in the bank accounts are all there is to life and living. Could we seek some balance in our life and live a little, smell the flowers, and sit on the sand along the beach, watch the sunset, play with the children. What is living all about?
 
Yes we all feel very rich, with all the modern convenience around us. Material life is good definitely. So?