Reinvitation for Obama

A few days back Simon Tay wrote about a reinvitation or a standing invitation to Obama to visit Asean again after he missed his last fling because of the govt shutdown. Asean countries really missed him and the Asean Summit turned out to be so dull, no threats, no call for sanctions, no thumping of fist, no American fleet floating around.

Among the things that Simon Tay reminded Obama to bring along should he take up the reinvitation are: 1. No need to bring economic presents like Xi Jinping did. 2. No need to bring anti Chinese rhetoric. 3. Be mindful of American allies like Japan and the Philippines egging for a fight with their maritime dispute with China. ‘…keep it soothing , rather than possiblky stirring more actions or proclamations.’ 5. Better to update the Asean countries of US China relations as this really matters to Asean countries.

Indeed the last Asean Summit was a dull one without Obama’s presence and his leadership to stir up more shit to offer the military might of the 7^th Fleet to back any Asean country that is willing to take on the Chinese or to claim more of the islands that the Chinese are claiming. Without the tension the adrenalines failed to flow and the leaders ended up partying and making friends instead of threatening each other.

Obama’s absence was greatly felt and is greatly expected to return to show that the Americans are the boss and to set the agenda and lead the Asean states to military glory. For those who are expecting more fireworks, it was a big disappointment. Abe must be feeling that he had wasted him time for attending the Summit. The Pinoys must be feeling empty for not given the chance to demand a couple of mothballed American battleships to battle the Chinese coastguards.

Hail Obama, you are missed by your Asean friends.  We need your fireworks. The Chinese would not be able to colonise the area. We were reminicising on our good old colonial days and perhaps the American Empire could help us to relive those glorious days to be colonies again.

Ang Hin Kee – Don’t blame external factors…

And Hin Kee, MP for Ang Mo Kio GRC, said, ‘ I have been to crowded places and seen how people accommodate one another. You have a choice. Don’t blame external factors for our behavior.’ Ang was referring to the anti social behavior of the hooligan who spat at the two female commuters and threatening to hit one of them if not stopped by a SMRT staff.  Ang should experience the rush hour crowds at MRT interchange and then ask if the commuters have a choice not to be there.

I would like Ang Hin Kee to read the study on how white rats behaved when overcrowded and the comments by psychologist Joel Yang, ‘that commuters may become “increasingly angrier” and tend to react negatively to minor annoyances as Singapore’s population density increases.’ Yang also added, ‘It has been widely researched in major, densely populated cities that crowding is linked to anxiety, frustration, aggression, and inappropriate social interaction.’

Do Sinkies have a choice on whether the island should continue to get more crowded and not less? Do Sinkies have a choice on the 6.9m population planning number or the unceasing influx of foreigners here?

Ang Hin Kee said, ‘You have a choice.’ Now what this choice? Can Sinkie stop the 6.9m population from happening? Did anyone give the Sinkies a choice? Who should Sinkies blame for the crowded environment? Yes don’t blame external factors. The foreigners can only come here to flood this place because of internal factors. They are invited to be here like swarms of locusts. And Sinkies have a choice to stop this.

How to turn friends into enemies the American way

Beginning of the week we heard the Saudis were so angry with the Americans that they were reassessing and realigning their security arrangements to distance themselves from them. And to think that the Saudis have been the staunchest American allies among the Arabs in the Middle East, excluding Israel, must be a cause for concern.
 
What happened flowing this episode is more astounding. First the Mexicans, than the Brazilians, then the French, followed closely by the Germans, all blooming mad about the Americans spying on the conversations of their leaders. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff had cancelled an official visit to meet Obama. French President Hollande is reconsidering how to respond to his American threat. German Chancellor Merkel was furious and had called Obama direct on the hotline. This is not how to treat your allies, snooping at their conversations like they were enemies. Obama has assured her that the CIA would stop doing it and not to do it in the future. Quite a comforting thought.
 
Thanks to Edward Snowden, all the worms of American treachery and betrayal are crawling all over. The ugly Americans and their disregard and disrespect for their allies are making their allies turning red in embarrassment for being treated so badly and dismissively.
 
No one can destroy the Americans. Only the Americans can do it themselves. The rot and decline have appeared on the surface and looking very ugly. Who else will be next to know that the Americans have been screwing their arses while they were in bed together?

Swee Say - minimum wage is a zero sum game

This is what Swee Say said and I fully agree with him. Setting a minimum wage is a zero sum game. When you have to make sure the low level workers be paid a minimum wage that is higher than what they are getting, it affects the overall payroll. With a cake of fixed size, the rest will have less to share.
 
I dunno if this same logic applies to the high pay and bonuses of top management. Is it also a zero sum game, that when they are paid so much, the low level workers must get less. Zero sum game is like that. The total sum is fixed, and when someone gets more, someone must get less.
 
But there are exceptions. In some circumstances, the top can get as much as they want without affecting the zero sum game formula, because the cake can be blown bigger if the supply of income is unlimited. Talented top management would know how to ensure that the money coming in is always growing and so it is alright if they are paid millions and millions. It would not affect what the low level workers would be paid. Tiok boh? The zero sum game formula thus does not apply.
 
What do you think?

Global war for talent

There is a big conference in Kuala Lumpur to extol the importance of chasing after global talents. This craze for global talents started initially in the banking and finance industry where the crooks went around the world cheating and selling fraudulent products to make huge profits for themselves, and if they made any losses the banks would have to pay for it. Many high net worth people and institutions lost big when the first bubble burst. But the scam continues today as the greed for more easy money by cheating the rich guys who think they are smart enough to make money but did not realize that they were stupid enough to be conned by these global financial talents and losing the money they made themselves.
 
this notion of global talents is spreading into other industries. The hype cannot be stopped as it is painted as the in thing, to compete for that global talents or the organization or country will lose out. It is like keeping up with the Joneses, they bought foreign talents so you too much buy some. They bought a few exotic pets, quickly get some too.
 
How many organizations really need global talents and can benefit from hiring these talents? Take the SMRT as an example, it is a local public transport company. Does it need to hire foreign talents and for what? I think the management is smart enough not to go down that road. There is no need for silly global talents to run a domestic public transport company. In fact you need local talents and local knowledge. I will fall out of my chair if they think it is necessary to put up an angmoh face to front their PR office. So far so good, that the top management are locals.
 
Even for organizations that need to compete in the international market, how many jobs really need to be filled by global talents and can benefit from their knowledge of the international scene?
 
Say for companies that operate internationally, like SIA or PSA, how many foreign talents are needed? Oh, may be the CEO needs an international team to work with him. So? Should the CEO and his top management team be forever filled by global talents? And how are the global talents made and how come global talents are always from overseas and we cannot produce our own global talents? The danger of a foreign CEO and his foreign team of top management is a recipe for disaster and forever dependent on this team. They will be entrenched and cannot be removed. Only silly shareholders will allow such a development to take place, when foreigners took the plum jobs and weed out the locals who would never be able to replace them.
 
Would our civil service and ministries benefit from having more global talents? Seriously I doubt so except to pay through their noses for talents and skills that are not needed but good to have. You want a Greek god to sit at the reception to impress the women? The other part is to deprive good jobs that should go to Sinkies. Why is there not a need to consider global talents for political office? It would be the most stupid thing to do. Only morons will flirt with such a thought and to consider having foreign talents as our national leaders, even if they are given pink ICs at the last minute to claim that they are citizens.
 
There are many GLCs that do not need foreign or global talents when the services and their products are domestic. As for the marketing of townships, do we really need global talents when most of the skills and knowledge were developed by our very own locals?
 
Oh yes, we need foreign talents for sports, for all the trophies and glories. Well, as long as we have all the more to splurge and the daft Sinkies do not protest for throwing good money for fake glories, let it be.
 
We are not what we are today because of flooding the island with foreigners. The present day foreigners are mercenaries that are here to pluck the fruits that our forefathers planted. We were selective in the past in our choice and numbers of foreigners needed. We were not so daft to take in all and sundry, fake and half baked, as our saviours. Who is the daft one?

No country, no govt, no citizen – bo cheng hu

The pathetic incident of this guy spitting at two young women at Woodlands Interchange, grabbing one of them and harassing them, is what this country has turned into, bo cheng hu. This guy went spitting at one woman after another several times each and everyone, including SMRT staff could only watch like a despicable circus act. No one could or would stand up to stop the abuse and humiliation of two women in broad daylight, in a crowded place.
 
How could such a thing happen in a first world city? I can offer only a few reasons. Everyone was so civilized except the guy who spitted at women, or everyone was so selfish, so afraid or did not know what to do or whatever. Chivalry is dead. Manhood is dead.
 
What happened could be like this. The guy could be fierce, but from the video, any medium built guy could knock him down. He was no big hunk, more like a grown up boy. Anyway, the women could also be foreigners. The people watching also could be foreigners, or most of them. Any Sinkie there, maybe a few. Even the SMRT staff in uniform could be foreigners.
 
So you have a group of foreigners in a little corner of this island watching something unpleasant happening. What to expect them to do? They are foreigners, no ownership. This is not their country, it is not their business to get involved. Why should they? And as for the Sinkies, the women could be foreigners too, so why should they bother?
 
The point is that there is no ownership. This island has so many foreigners that every other person is likely to be a foreigner. And at an interchange, the likelihood that the majority are foreigners is even higher. It is a situation of no country, no govt, no citizens. Anything can happen, who cares? No one will step forward to help anyone in distress, to defend or protect lives or properties. It is nobody’s business.
 
When there is a country, a citizenship, ownership, an identity, belonging, then there will be kampong spirit, to help each other, because we are a family, the people of a country. In a rojak situation when everyone is likely to be a foreigner, when none can identify with anyone or anything, this is what could happen. Apathy, alienation, distinterest, not my business, nothing to do with me. No one people one nation, no stand up for Singapore. This is the same as the foreigner cyclist threatening the Sinkie driver in the middle of road. In a country when the national identity is strong, the cyclist would not be seen walking or cycling again if he dared be so rude and aggressive to the citizens. In some countries they would mow him down and it would be his fault for being there. He was not supposed to be there. He did not belong there.
 
We are looking every bit like a failed nation. Yes we are just a city with no identity, not a country or a nation. Nobody cares for anyone except when their interests are directly affected.

Studio flats versus 2 rm flats

The big price gap between these two types of flats came up for questioning in Parliament. Boon Wan rightly said that one cannot compare apples with lemons. This really sums up what were at stake and the perceived unsatisfactory pricing. Some felt that the oldies were ripped off by paying so much for their studio flats and with so many strings attached. But then they should be happy that they were getting apples instead of lemons. Those getting lemons should not complain as the pricing was just right for lemons.
 
Putting this aside, the best thing coming out from the discussion is the kind of profits that studio flats could generate for HDB. In the first place the pricing for the first owner was already very high compared to the 2 rm flats. I think HDB must be making a big loss from such a sale. My apologies for the contradiction.
 
After 30 years, HDB would have to repossess the flat, upgrade and refurbish it, and sell it at what kind of price, you can make your guess. It is going to make another big loss I think, if the same way of reasoning applies. And the same flat would have another round to go, to be upgraded, refurbished and sold a third time to another oldie at even higher price, due to inflation and of course upgrading. And of course, HDB is going to lose another huge sum of money for reselling it a third time.
 
For whatever reasoning and whatever sum of huge losses, I wish that I could be the developer to build and sell these flats with the same terms. I don’t mind making all the huge losses for the good of the people.

Termination of a train driver, a Sinkie

We have heard the story of the termination of a train driver after 18 years of service. Gintai did not explain exactly why but I gathered it was due to some minor mistakes he made. What actually went wrong is not the issue in this article. What I want to address is where should a Sinkie go from here.
 
Gintai was with the Police Force before he became a train driver and had chalked up 18 years of experience on this job. He is about 50 and still has many good years to go even if he does not intend to work till 80.
 
From the company’s point of view, has Gintai committed mistakes serious enough that it was necessary to lose a very experienced train driver with many good years ahead? What is the opportunity cost to hire and train another driver? The new driver could be cheaper without taking the training cost into account. There are opportunity costs involved as well as opportunity to save some money for the company. They can’t be hiring a more experience and higher pay train driver for sure.
 
The other point is that a Sinkie lost his job, hopefully not to another foreigner to be trained to take his place. Now what shall Gintai do, what are his options if he intends to work again? I think at his age, not working is not an option. We also know that getting a job is a near impossible task.
 
First, there is only one train company here, so there is no chance of Gintai driving trains again. Neither can he return to the Police Force. If he is to remain in the city, his next job is probably driving taxi. For Gintai to look for any other jobs, retraining is necessary. And he is likely to get a job that would pay him less than his current basic, without the overtime pay. He probably has school going children and a housing mortgage to provide for. He needs an income.
 
The alternative for Gintai is just not too rosy. The net effect is for the train industry and the train company to lose a trained and very experienced driver. And this driver has to start anew in a new job in a new industry. It is a waste of trained manpower. We value our workforce. Our workforce is our main asset. We foolishly wasted a trained worker who would have to downgrade to do something he has no experience in.
 
On the whole it is a lose lose situation. Maybe the train company will gain by getting a cheaper and new train driver. And a new driver is born. Very likely a foreigner. Sinkies better be nice to their employers and don’t make mistakes to warrant a dismissal. The consequence is dire straits, and nobody will be there to help you, no institution or organisation will be behind you, except Gilbert.

Need to build more private hospitals

The over utilization of our govt privatized hospitals is becoming a joke when an appointment could be in terms of several months or even years. What kind of nonsense is this? Many medical problems would have died or healed by themselves or could have eaten the affected patients. But never mind. Let’s try to do something positive.
 
We have a population of 5.4m and a citizen population of 3.31m. The rest, PRs and non residents, make up 2.1m. This is by no means a small number of people. Now you know why our govt privatized hospitals are finding it difficult to cope. Many of these people are really consuming the health services provided by the govt privatized hospitals, leading to high and over utilization.
 
Perhaps one way to go about improving the quality of healthcare services to the citizens is to encourage the private sectors to build more hospitals to cater to the needs of PRs and non residents. It would be good for everyone, win, win and win solution. The citizens can have better healthcare services from the govt privatized hospitals or private hospitals if they can afford to pay for them. The PRs and non residents can have their private hospitals that are better and well run, to serve them.
 
And the medical profession can have another big industry to make more money. And more land can be sold to build more hospitals, more employment, more jobs and higher GDP. The MOM may even make exceptions and let them staff with foreigners as this is strictly a foreigners industry. Someone just need to do the sums right, on the cost/benefits to the country for providing such services for foreigners, including good jobs in our first world country and the cost of first world infrastructure.
 
Have a new directive that foreigners are now allowed in govt private hospitals to ease the bottleneck. They can go to private hospitals. This may ease the jam in public privatized hospitals and shorten the wait for a medical appointment.
 
What do you think? Think 6.9m coming.

Many questions and answers in Parliament

Many questions were tabled in Parliament and the ministers were busy answering them. Somehow I find the drift not going the right direction. What are all the questions about, and what are the parliamentarians there in the first place?
 
Parliament has degenerated to a state of talking cock to score points for whichever party. Questions and answers were there to do just that while the interest of the people was secondary, do not really matters. At least that is my impression.
 
When would Parliament and parliamentarians be there to speak for the interests of the people with politics taking a break? The politickings should be set aside after the GE and all should work together or separately but putting the well beings of the people ahead of everything else. It is time to work for the people.
 
Roll up your sleeves and get down to work, and forget about party or whether you like that bugger or dislike his or her face. Can we have a bit of sincerity, to deal with issues as elected leaders of the people and working for the people? Do not brush aside the concerns of the people by clever or slippery answers or excuses.
 
Put the people first and everything will fall into place. When this is not the case, everything will be screw up as the intent is wrong, misplaced and nothing will be right. There are still a couple of years before the next GE and there is time to do things and work for the people. The results will speak for themselves.
 
The people are watching and the social media can be harsh to those that are just wayanging and not working for the people. The people are not daft for sure. Whether a politician is sincere and genuine will easily be recognized and be put in their place in the next GE. There is no where to run and no where to hide, and no where to talk rubbish or act silly. Those days of going with the flow and hanging on to the gravy train are over.
 
First base, got problems or no problem? If got problems, what are the problems and what must be done to remove the problems? Or maybe there is no problem so can continue to talk cock and sing song and be merry and enjoy the good office and the good pay and the good blessing of abundance.

Hsien Loong – Don’t perform will have to go

During an interview with the CNN Hsien Loong said that anyone in his team would have to go if they did not perform. This statement has been quoted by some bloggers as a reason for Boon Wan to go since the MND is losing several billions for building HDB flats for the people. The issue is not that simple as it is made up to be.
 
How shall a minister’s performance be judged, in particular, like the case of building public flats? Should the measurement be about making profit for the govt or building affordable housing for the people? Or should it be about building enough flats for the people are reasonable prices, not affordable prices, and without having to wait for several years? Or should it be about building enough flats to meet the demands of the people without incurring huge losses.
 
The above questions are quite straight forward reality. In the current case, the issue is not just about the losses, or is it about the losses? And what is this loss, or is there really a loss? This can only come to light if the details of the costing are laid on the table. Then it could become an issue of productivity, efficiency and taking care of the interests of the people. Or it could become an issue to taking care of the interests of the party.
 
The factors to be used to measure Boon Wan’s performance can be complementary or be in conflict with one another. And different people with different perspectives or vested interests would want to judge his performance according to their own set of good or right factors.
 
In this case, the loss of several billions is academic, in a way fictitious as it is a matter of right pocket left pocket. That is why Boon Wan could proudly announce it with a blank expression knowing very well it would not affect his performance. If it would, he could easily ask the finance guy to jiggle the factors and numbers to show a profit instead. It is all about what factors to be used for the input.
 
So, what should be the pertinent factors to be used to judge a minister or Boon Wan to reflect the real performance and the desired results? Should it be the price or the quality of the flats? Should it be the ability to meet the demand and expectation of the people? Should profit be a factor and if so, how should it be measured and what factors should be used to be reasonable?

Chennai Industrial Park

There was a programme on the Tianjin Eco City on CNA last evening. In a piece of waste land, a lake used for dumping industrial waste, up rose a sparkling clean eco city, a joint venture between China and Singapore. The infrastructure was first class, like a super condominium but at least a hundred times bigger in size. The roads and buildings were many times better than our best and newest new towns in Punggol or Sengkang. It was like a modern new suburb in the western world.

Tianjin Eco City easily outclassed the first industrial town built in Suzhou, the Suzhou Industrial Park. I think this is a great expertise of ours that can be easily replicate in other countries. Vietnam is getting one and I think India is getting one soon. The Vietnamese do not need much convincing to want their industrial park Made in Singapore.

The Indians may need more convincing as the project does not seem to be moving, or has it been moving that I don’t know. If convincing is necessarily, actually we have a perfect model of a modern Indian industrial park right in our little island. I have been told many times that the Changi Industrial Park is every inch like an Indian Industrial Park with Indian companies and Indian workers forming the majority of the companies and residents in the Park. It would be a good idea if the govt could invite the Indian leaders to visit the Chennai Industrial Park to take a look at what future modern Indian industrial parks would look like. Oops, I mean Changi Industrial Park.

This Changi/Chennia Industrial Park could be a big tourist attraction for Singaporeans to want to have a feel and taste of what an Indian Industrial Park looks like without flying to India. And Indian tourists, not necessary just the Indian politicians, can be arranged to tour to this Park, a model on which future Indian industrial parks would be like. I am sure they would be very impressed by what they see in Changi/Chennai. And the residents in Changi/Chennai Industrial Park could bear testimony to the good life here, the great and modern facilities that they have come to live with and enjoyed that they could not find anything better in India. Maybe I am wrong and there are better and more modern Indian Industrial Parks than the Changi/Chennia model.

But that is not all. Even if the Indian govt could replicate the physical part of the Park. What they could not easily replicate is the software, the ease of doing business the Singapore way. This is the trump card of Changi/Chennai Industrial Park. Singapore and the Indian govt could have a long list of cooperation in building more industrial parks in India if the Indian govt could come and see it for themselves. It is already there, a working model with many Indian companies and a nearly all Indian workforce.

Our community centres and Residents Committee now have a new place to visit for their constituents. It would certainly be a wonderful experience to be in Mumbai or Chennai in Singapore. Come and visit our Indian Industrial Park at Changi.

What is real behind the myth of freedom of navigation

 Freedom of navigation in the regional seas has been harped by the Americans in every occasion available to raise tension and fear among the Asean countries. Hugh White, the Professor from Australian National University has an article in the ST last week to demystify this rubbish talk of the Americans.
 
Freedom of navigation in the Straits of Malacca and the South China Sea has never been an issue. There were a few cases of piracy that were nothing more than mosquito bites and could easily be dealt with by the coast guards of Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. There is no need to bring in the American Seventh Fleet and all the nuclear tipped missiles to deal with the pirates. And even if the pirates were navy guys in civilians, like the Pinoys in the South China Sea harassing and bullying the fishing boats and kidnapping them for ransom, they can be easily taken care of. The Taiwanese have shown the Pinoys that they would sink their navy ships if they dare to attack their fishing boats again. China is going to sink their biggest antique warship with compliments from the Americans.
 
So what is the real issue of this freedom of navigation shit? When it was the Straits of Malacca, the Americans were aiming at the Malaysians and the Indonesians. In the South China Sea, the target is China. But then, the whole thing is a hogwash. All the three countries have never threatened freedom of navigation in the region. All of them, according to Hugh White, needed freedom of navigation for trade. How on earth would they threaten freedom of navigation against their national interest?
 
The American humbug played at the highest key with the biggest orchestra is all noise to deceive the countries in the region. The tension and bickering by pesky countries like the Philippines and at one time Vietnam and India, were all the works of the Americans egging them on. Now with Vietnam and India backing out, Japan is now dragged into the frying pan, willingly of course, with the new right govt of Abe aspiring to rearm Japan as the new military power in the region. Under normal circumstances the Americans would have objected after suffering from the devastating sneak attack of Pearl Harbour and the thousands of American lives lost. The Americans would want to continue to keep this barbaric people under a pacifist constitution they imposed on Japan. But because of its wild big power ambition and rivalry with Japan, they are willing to use the Japanese card to give trouble to China. American is consenting and helping Japan to rearm and return to its military past.
 
Hope the Japanese would be strong enough to return the Americans the favour of two nuclear bombs to remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But before that, the Americans would be using the Japanese to raise tension in the region, with the Pinoys in tow.
So much for the fear of freedom of navigation in the Straits of Malacca and South China Sea. When have the Indonesians or the Malaysians or the Chinese done anything to threaten freedom of navigation? The real threats of freedom of navigation is when the American Seventh Fleet is here to choke up the passages and control the movement of ships through the region, and to conduct searches as and when they like on the pretext of intelligence reports of terrorism.

The injustice of justice

In this modern world, the treachery of the elite is much more sophisticated than the wisest of yore. The elite are using the system to cheat and scam against the interest of the ordinary men in the street.
 
Just read in the media today, ‘JP Morgan set to pay record S16.1b in deal’. What is wrong with this statement? Everything is wrong with this statement. It is trickery, treachery, deception and lies of the highest order. It is never about justice though it gives the appearance of justice. There is no justice!
 
The elite are exploiting the goodwill, reputation, funds and power of big institutions to cheat, to fraud, to scam for their own benefits. In the JP Morgan case, and many other related financial frauds during the financial meltdown, the top management of these financial institutions devised and designed fraudulent notes, CDOs and all kinds of gambling chits in the form of derivatives to cheat the people, the funds and also high net worth customers. And when they were successful, they paid themselves crazy and walked around like gods.
 
When they were caught with their crimes, with their hands in the cookie jars, they used the funds of the institutions to pay for the fines. The guilty party is the institution, no the management. And the money is from the shareholders, not theirs. The shareholders have to pay for their crimes, for their salaries and big bonuses. They have no personal responsibility and accountability. To them, they can cheat and forge all kinds of dubious products and instruments, and they win in all ways. The masses and shareholders are the losers. It is head they win and tail the masses, shareholders and the main street will lose.
 
They will not be caught to pay for their wrong doings. They have the law enforcers in their pockets, paid by them to share the loot. And they are repeating their crimes in bigger ways since then, with the help of the law and lawmakers, that they will not be prosecuted or persecuted. They are the modern day bandits and crooks in suits and ties. They can do not wrong and are above the laws. Many billions will be coughed out from the banks and financial institutions to pay for their crime, now passed to the banks and financial institutions.

Where is the justice? There is no justice.The bank pays the fine and the criminals keep their loots.

Gintai lost his job as a train driver

One of our regular bloggers that stopped posting after his long story of his conversation with Shanmugam posted in his blog has lost his job as a train driver with SMRT. He worked 18 years in the company and is still fit to drive maybe for another 10 years. Was he dismissed, sacked, asked to resign, asked to leave, or whatever term you called it, he lost his job. He is a full blooded Sinkie.
 
This is what Gintai said of his experience as a train driver,
 
‘For almost 18 years, I live, sleep and breath within the train system. I worked almost every day including off days unless I was on courses or on leave. I can’t even recall when was the last time I reported sick. I work with all kinds of odd hours with bizarre reporting timings and rotating shifts with rotating off days. Almost everyday, I had to remember my train timings, places (depots, stations and different platforms etc) to take the trains and worry about my train schedules. If I miss taking the train, the handing over driver will need to continue driving the train. With few misses within a short time-span, it’s out you go. That is one example of many where I was always pre-occupied with trains – even in my sleep; over the last 18 years. I had to force myself to sleep if I were to wake up at 4am the next morning to prepare for work sleep or no sleep! The train must be launched from the depot! No one will understand what I’m trying to say here except the 400 over train drivers in the system whose job is to move millions of passengers regardless of rain or shine, flooding or ponding, lightning or thunder!’
 
And this is what his India Indian friend had to say about his abrupt departure.
 
‘My FT Indian friend Manish had this to say, “… India maybe 3rd world country but it seems that Singapore is poorer than India in all respects now. If they can’t take care of a person who served 18 yrs loyally, then it’s curtain down for them where human values are concerned. You take care my friend.” PS: Reproduced with permission.’
It is so regrettable that an experienced train driver with so many years of dedicated service and loyalty will have to be let off. Nevermind, they will train another foreigner to take over his job if they cannot find another Sinkie to do so. Welcome to the unemployed PMET club.
 
Gintai should give his friend Shanmugam a call. Maybe he will be able to fix him with a better job now that the govt is talking about Fair Consideration Framework to consider Singaporeans first in job offers. Looks like Gintai did not benefitted from FCF.
I feel sorry for Gintai. Hope he will get a job soon. If not he can join Gilbert Goh and speak up in Hong Lim Park for the unemployed PMETs. This group of Sinkies is growing in strength daily. And thank God the govt is working very hard to help them and get them a job.

FCF is not just balancing of employer worker interests

Rip Van Winkle woke up after a long stupor to find a pool of local PMEs underemployed and unemployed while foreigners of all shades are taking over their jobs. What if Winkle continues to be asleep, would anyone know of this problem or would anyone recognize that there is a problem. What is the meaning of being proactive, being able to see over the horizon?
 
Now we know there is a problem, and the problem has grown to a point that nice talk is no longer an option. But they are going to talk nice to the employers who have exploited the situation at the expense of alienating a group of experienced and well educated citizens to the fringe of the country’s development. Industries have been taken over or dominated by foreigners to the point that they could not find locals good enough or available to fill even low level positions. And millions of foreigners are now living among the citizens and their sudden departure could create a social and economic crisis.
 
The influx and employment of foreigners in great numbers and the exclusion of citizens in vital and essential services and jobs are no small matters. There are strategic and security implications at stake. A country that is populated by foreigners and employed in essential and strategic industries is like allowing the foreigners to have a stranglehold on its security and national interests.
 
Total Defence is not limited to the uniform groups but also to the economy, the well being of workers/citizens and the sustainability of the economy to continue to run without being held at ransom by foreigners. Do I have to say more when key positions are occupied or dominated by foreigners who could do harm to the country? Do I have to say more when key industries are owned by foreigners that could undermine the nation’s interest in time of crisis?
 
Getting our citizens to be fully employed and in essential and strategic jobs and industries must be part of our national defence. Well, a good start has been made. According to Lim Swee Say, ‘The next step, he added, would be to work with the companies to put in place a programme to nurture local talent over the next few years.’ Things should improve with this programme and over the next few years it will be better. Thank God they are finally doing something.

Limiting influx of foreign talents may affect growth

‘For the past couple of weeks, I have been teaching my annual course in microeconomics in Singapore, a country whose remarkable growth owes a lot to the theory of incentives embedded in my course.

An independent country only since 1965, Singapore is now one of the wealthiest countries in the world in terms of per capita income. Visitors agree that it may be the cleanest and safest country, with remarkable racial harmony and city streets that can be driven at rush hour without the gridlock that you see in most of the rest of the world….

In response to a growing income gap between the many less-well-educated Singaporeans and the highly-skilled foreign workers who are well-paid in the country, the increasingly democratic government has begun to yield to populist pressure to greatly limit foreign workers. Even more so than the U.S., Singapore has benefited from the highly-educated, creative and hard-working expats who drive much of its economic growth.

By subverting the laws of supply and demand and deliberately not allowing the most talented workers to be hired at the going wage, Singapore may be relegating its miraculous growth to the past.’

Dr Lewis Mandell is a financial economist with a research specialization in financial literacy and a teaching specialization in investments and valuation at the graduate and undergraduate levels

The above is part of an article by Professor Lewis Mandell reprinted in the TRE with his permission. It was a nice piece of work praising the great achievements of the govt and what they have done to this island. As a Sinkie, reading it also makes me feel shiok. We are so damn good, but with a few drawbacks. The professor said Singapore must keep opening its door to let the ‘ highly-educated, creative and hard-working expats’ in or else  ‘Singapore may be relegating its miraculous growth to the past.’ I beg your pardon, when Singapore was rebuilding this country, were these foreign expats here and what were their contributions? Thought they were here only after everything has been built, the infrastructure, the industries, the big local banks and institutions?

The article has generated more than a hundred comments from netizens, 116 when I last read, mostly not too complimentary, and still adding. The daft Sinkies were just being disrespectful to this eminent professor. He is here to add value to our universities, teaching our young undergraduates about microeconomics. And he wrote such an enlightening piece on Singapore and even gave free advice to bring in more foreigners for Sinkies’ own good. How can our laypeople spoke so dismissively against this article and the professor without knowing their place? Boh tua boh suay.

No foreigners and dogs allowed

Below is a short paragraph posted in TRE by a blogger, pijitailai, in Mandarin.

新加坡可是越来越威风了，在洋人的地盘竟然不让洋人进入新加坡日的庆祝会。真想不到，新加坡政府在澳洲的一小片短暂的不到一天的租界，竟然表演出一幕《洋人与狗不准进入》的种族歧视风….

The gist of the article is about the Singapore Day in Sydney’s Botanic Garden. Let me try to translate. Singapore is getting more and more garang. In a foreign land Singapore refused to let foreigners enter to celebrate Singapore Day. Can’t believe it, the Singapore govt in a short span of time in Australia could demonstrate ‘foreigners and dogs not allowed in’ racist behavior.

Please regard this as a joke. Of course not, the foreigners could hang such a notice in Shanghai in those colonial days. Singapore would not do such a thing especially in Australia. Now that it has incurred an unfortunate racist protest, maybe to do some damage control and at the same time to advertise how happy we are to welcome foreigners to Sin, it can hold another Singapore Day for foreigners only to make amends and to soothe the nerves of the offended foreigners. It would be good PR and money well spent if more white Australians would visit Singapore and make it their home.

In job adverts in Sin, the foreigners are saying, No Sinkies and PRs needed. This one is true. No bluff.

Xenophobia frenzy in Singapore

The anti foreigner trend is gaining momentum in this city. The intolerance of foreigners is becoming second nature and openly flouted by the perpetrators in job advertisements. A few cases have been quoted with many violations sent to the MOM who are now investigating. The victims of this xenophobic outlash are furious and are standing up in protest and taking matters into their own hands. They are doing their own investigations and feeding the whistleblowing section of the MOM with more cases of outrageous and demeaning discriminations against the Sinkies. They know that if they don’t help themselves, they can only expect lip services and nothing will happen.

Yes, the victims of xenophobia in this city state are the citizens, the Sinkies. It is true, the citizens are quickly becoming an absolute minority if the trend is not stop or reverse. There will soon be more foreigners in the city state and they may think that the Sinkies are foreigners. The following are examples of job advertisements that have been posted in the social media and the respective CEOs have made apologies and retracted them. They are only the tip of the iceberg.

1. FST, a British firm, in its advert for an Art Director, ‘Must have Singapore residency(PR) status or PEP visa status.’

2. Randstad, a foreign recruitment company looking for a Merchandiser Planner, ‘The position is open to candidates who are not Singapore citizens or PRs.’

3. La Fondue Swiss Restaurant that wanted to recruit a Pinoy chef and proudly claimed to have a 100% Pinoy crew and Pinoy working environment.

What is happening? Sinkies are xenophobic or victims of xenophobia in their own country when discrimination against them is open and blatant, without the need to be polite and to disguise for fear of offending the Sinkies. Where is the sensitivity that is demanded from the Sinkies to be understanding and kind to the foreigners when the foreigners are bloody rude and abusive and discriminating against Sinkies?

Why like dat?

Thrift is not our national ideology

Just look at a few examples one would not fail to notice that thrift is not the ideology of this sinfully rich country called Sin City. The third world countries were once sneered at by the rich and matured countries of the first world for wasting money on grand projects like building mausoleums and palaces or anything that is good for nothing but costing a bomb. How much did it cost to build the artificial garden at Marina South, $1b? And much is needed to maintain it annually, another $300m? Anyone knows the actual figures?

And this is not the end. Another similar crown jewel is coming up in Changi to attract visitors to visit Sin City. Beg your pardon, is Singapore a destination or just a convenient gateway to the region? Like it or not, as long as the Airport is good enough, the people will come and go. But the Airport is never a destination. Neither is the artificial garden. The casinos maybe.

Then there is the F1 when everyone keeps telling that it is money well spent. Ngiam Tong Dow compared it like paying for the English boys to come and race their sports cars as a hobby. And we paid for it. How many hundreds of millions for playing host for the English boys to party?

And look at the money they are paying themselves. It is now a world record and would put Obama to same. Even a minor minister would have taken back more than the President of the USA, the Emperor of the American Empire. Thrift?

And what about the people? They are made to buy properties according to how much money they have. They cannot buy smaller properties from the govt if their income is more than the affordable formula. And if they are earning a bit more, they must squander their income, over 30 years, to buy private properties. Thrift? No, it is spend if you have it. Retirement no money? Who cares?

And the same formula applies to being warded in govt hospitals. The patients are frowned upon to ask for lower and cheaper class wards. There is also a mean testing to make sure they cannot get admitted to lower class wards. And if they do, the disincentive is that they will not get the same subsidies as the lower income, very meritocratic. And it is not the intent of the hospitals to build more lower and cheaper class wards with more beds to cater to the demand of those who do not want to splurge or squander their hard earned money away. Getting sick and admitted to hospital is a great opportunity to spend, to show how much money one can afford to spend. Spend until no money left for retirement or go bankrupt.

And the latest, spending millions on Sinkies living overseas. Some are questioning why the need to spend such money when the money can be put to better use at home, to feed the less fortunate. Is this about thrift? No, it is spending in style. We are the envy of even Europeans who insisted that they be invited into our eat all you can parties for free. My God, we are truly rich beyond the imaginations of the people of rich countries.

We have the money, we have a lot of money in our reserves, and we can afford to spend, to buy the latest and most expensive military toys at several hundred millions a pack. Who says the money is for rainy days? If the money is not spent, if people are thrifty, how can the economy expand, who is going to buy all the expensive homes and cars, how can the GDP keep growing?

Spending is good. Over spending is better. After all, money value shrinks quickly with the high inflation, and saving and not spending are as good as letting the money to rot away.