Grappling with new problems and looking for new solutions

Public transport is a serious problem with rising cost and growing number of commuters but limited lines and roads. The population growth will outrun the availability of trains and buses and will cripple the economy and social life of the citizens earlier than you think.

The bigger problem is this new demon called medical cost. The Medishield Life and all kinds of insurance are fake or insincere attempts to solve the problem. It is not solving the problem but forcing the people to pay more and creating a bigger financial problem for the people. The stone mills of housing and owning a car and now a medical stone mill to hang on the people’s neck. For the rich it is no problem. To many Sinkies it is serious problem. When you don’t have the money means you don’t have the money to pay and 10c can also be a big problem.

Life insurance is a good thing that the pioneering generation did not to protect their families in the advent of premature death and the lost of household income, or the only breadwinner. Medical insurance was a luxury or something that was a non issue, not needed in the past. There was never a need to have medical insurance until the medical profession was allowed to turn into a money spinning machine and to hold ransom on the sick, rich or poor. Today they tell you your life is priceless and so you must pay as they demand from you.

The new generations have got used to the new normal of paying for expensive medical care and for having to wait for months and years for a medical appointment. It wasn’t like that before. It should not be this way until greed took over from the top to the toe. Greed is good, so let it be, just make the people pay.

We had free medical services, even free medicine in the past when our country was far from being rich. The country was a developing nation and thrift was the order of the day. But the govt of the day could provide free medical services and you don’t have to wait for more than a few hours to be admitted into a hospital. There were few hospital beds but enough to be waiting for patients. There were few doctors but enough doctors to see the patient even on appointment basis.

We are filthy rich today, if that is the truth. We have more hospitals than the past, more doctors and specialists, and we are caught in a bind. And medical cost keeps ballooning as if a natural phenomenon, a good thing for the GDP and a good justification for those whose income depends on it.

What went wrong? Nothing? The philosophy was wrong, the policies were wrong, the mission was wrong, everything was wrong. But no one wants to know what went wrong. The only thing they know is to make the people pay and pay. If people cannot pay today, make sure they pay by instalments for the whole life. There is the Medisave Minimum Sum waiting to be milked dry. It is so convenient.

When the Medishield Life is in force, the demand for medical services will hit the roof. Why not, when everything is already paid out front? There were no medical insurance in the past and there was no over over demand for medical services. There is high manipulated population growth today, but why are medical services, facilities, professionals lacking the population growth? Who allows the cost of medical services to run wild by not manipulating it to a reasonable and humanly affordable level? The cost of medical services today is only affordable to the immortals, not ordinary human beans.

Without addressing and arresting the high medical cost, all the solutions are fake and feeble attempts to solve a real problem.

In the past, the doctors charged the patients according to their worth, not so much as according to the illness. There is some wisdom to it. Rob from the rich and pay the poor. There is another reason, the lives of the poor are less worthy and the cost of medicine could be more than the patient’s worth. How much is a down and out loser’s life worth compares to a super rich talent? The idealist and naïve will tell you that every life is valuable and priceless. Really? I choose to disagree and respect your views that all lives are priceless and must be saved and everyone must dutifully be forced to pay a ransom to be kept alive, like it or not, worth it or not.

Everyone shall be entitled to place a value on his own life and decide if he/she wants to pay the price and what price to live. It must not be a compulsion by some other beans that may have other agendas to make the poor pay for something they don’t need or cannot afford when their little money could be put to better use.

It is better to have a little money to live well than to have no money and live miserably, with no dignity.

Kopi level - Green

Running out of space now matter what

Sitting at my office in MBFC and enjoying the vast expanse of the sea and the marina gives me a very strange feeling. The very spot where I was sitting was the sea, nearly a kilometer from the former shore line at ‘Ang Teng’ or Clifford Pier. And looking ahead, there is another kilometer or more of reclaimed land before the new coastline. So much land has been added but will never be enough.

Practically every piece of the new land created is now occupied, built up or in the process of development. Instead of creating more land for recreation, to improve the life of the people, oh yes, the development for economic reasons is also to improve the people’s life, the new land are being filled up and used up immediately. And soon people will be demanding for more land.

If we don’t kill the idea of putting more people on this island, no amount of land reclamation will be enough. Even building a few more Towers of Babel will not be enough. We are small, very small, a speck as far as land is concerned. 

There is a serious need to rethink on what we should do with the lives of the citizens and the limited land that we have. It cannot keep going on like this and thinking that it can go on and on. There is a heavy price to pay for going down this road. Why keep creating space only to fill them up with more people? We would never even be bigger than Bintan. We need to be very prudent in the use of our land. And the last thing, to bring in more people to occupy them.

Saw an Army recruitment advertisement in the ST this morning. It has this flashed, ‘How far would you go to protect our home?’ Do we need to protect our home when it is occupied and stuffed with foreigners, many with new pink ICs? Wait for the day when Sinkies would have to rent a place to sleep from foreigners and foreigners turned citizens.

Maybe this would not happen as many foreigners are buying the properties and accepting the pink ICs temporarily. They would sell the properties back to the Sinkies at a high profit before returning or departing to somewhere else. Only daft Sinkies have to grab a home at whatever price to put a roof over their heads.

Full time MP not a good idea

A very strange article by Rachel Chang in yesterday’s ST made me wonder why she wrote it and what made her came to such a conclusion. At the end of her piece she finally said, ‘MPs here rarely draft laws, and the scrutiny process over government Bills is brief and uncomplex compared with other legislatures…no need to travel long distances to get back to their home constituencies from the capital, nor are they required to raise huge amounts of funds for political activities…’ She took note of the Meet the People Session and the increasing workload but not enough to justify full time MP.

There is also a lack of interest among MPs and potential MPs who are successful professionals to want to give up their profession to be full time MPs. The $16,000 is just not attractive enough for the big income earners to want to become full time MPs.

So, which is the more important justification to say that full time MP is not a good idea, not enough meaningful work or the income of professionals is too good to forgo? It is understandable that top income earners would have little inspiration to want to go into politics and to sacrifice their huge personal income. But this can be resolved in two ways, one, make them ministers or ministers of state when the multi million dollar package will be fairly compatible. The other golden goose that could be a good alternative is to allow them to take up as many directorships as they like. After all the workload of an MP does not need the attention of a full time MP. A caveat is that high earning professionals will make good MPs or even ministers. The reality has proven otherwise. Professionals with their hearts misplaced can caused more harm than good.

There are other views of why people want to become an MP. Some see it as a calling, to serve the people and country, and money is not the most important thing to them. A good example is Chen Show Mao. Some may have made enough bucks and would want to do something more meaningful than just trying to fatten their bank accounts for several generations to feed on.

Seriously, who gave Rachel Chang the idea that MP’s workload is nothing more than a part time job? Actually, an MP’s job can be a part time job and also a full time job. It depends on how much the person is willing to put himself into the affairs of the state and the welfare of the people. If an MP thinks his job is to just spend a little time to meet the people, have a few walkabouts, shake a few hands and kiss a few babies, and suka suka attend a few parliamentary sessions since they are not much legislative work to do except to vote yes or no, then it is indeed a part time job. A machine could do just as fine and cheaper for sure. A machine also does not have a heart.

On the other hand an MP could be so involved in the affairs of the state and the people that there is just not enough time even for a full time MP. It is relative and how one looks at the MP job and how important is his role to better the lives of the people in his constituency and across the nation. Voting in parliament without having to think does not need much time, just 30 seconds to raise the hand.

In a way, a PM or a Minister too can be a part time job. But some will need 25 hours a day to do his job well, or still cannot do his job well. And there are MPs that are so free or so efficient that they can take on as many directorships as they like, advisory roles and full time jobs and still got time to spare to play golf or engage in their favourite past times.

What do you think, MP should be part time or full time?

Kopi level - Yellow

MOM hiring Indian agency to check on CVs and certifications

Dataflow Services has been engaged by the MOM to do random checks on the certificates of Indian professionals working here. About 500 to 600 checks will be conducted annually at $100, and each search must be completed within 4 weeks. With about 200,000 Indian PMEs here, at 500 a year, a complete inventory checks, assuming no more new PMEs arriving, it would take about 400 years to do the job. Maybe Dataflow is not the only agency doing the job. Also maybe a sample check will do as not the whole 200,000 PMEs will be submitting fake qualifications and CVs.

And of course the cost to conduct such investigations is going to be a multi million dollar business with such a high volume of traffic. It becomes a case of want to do or not wanting to do and how much to spend to be effective. What is certain is that hiring foreigners is not going to be a cheaper option anymore. This hidden cost, other than other social and security cost, and the cost of making fools of local PMEs and making them jobless and affecting the soundness of our society, all added up to make this option not that simple or desirable. The best way out is to pretend that everything is ok, don’t check and bury the head in the sand.

How effective will this move be, it is something that has to be done, when the employment of foreigners has become a highly complicated system of fraud with many layers of supporting services to hide the fraud? The problem is so complex that it would need a whole series of counter measures to remove all the fakes that have gone pass our immigration doors. It is becoming a spy vs spy or spooks vs spooks game. And many of the fakes have been so deeply buried that by now they would have chalked in a series of genuine CVs that they could erase their fake CVs of the past. It is like a successful and rich criminal walking around in suits and being driven around in limousines without a trace of their dirty past lingering around them.

We have let this problem to fester for too long and the damage done is so serious and damaging to the citizen PMEs and even the lives of the innocents who have to go under the hands of the fakes. It really beats me to think that it takes so long to realise that we have been cheated by lowly 3^rd cheats. And now the problem has grown so huge that it will literally take hundreds of man years to unravel the mistakes of the past.

There may be a new profession, something like who is to check on the watchdogs assigned or paid to be watchdogs?

The big bangs that went poofs

There were several big bangs that were supposed to cause a big excitement or causes for jubilation. The first was the attack on the WP in the cleaning of hawker centre ceilings. If the accusations stick, it will definitely undermine the credibility of the rising political star party. Unfortunately the story had to come to a premature ending when some notes in the minutes were not in order. Nothing was heard since then.

Next came the PAP’s end of the year party caucus that was meant to be a battle cry, to raise the tempo ahead of the next GE. The young turks led by Chan Chun Sing declared that the party would take the fight to the people, to every corner of the island, to win the right to be the ruling party again. Again things did not go that way when the whole campaign was hijacked or thrown aside by the once in 50 year unexpected riot in Little India. That event shook the very core of the social fabric and got everyone’s attention. The pronouncement at the party caucus became a non event, forgotten, pissssed.

More bangs were lined up but fizzled out along the way. The Media Corp big bang at the Marina Bay year end celebration was meant to be another big PR event on how far and how successful we have been. It suffered the fate of another failed event when it was attacked for having too many Channel 8 artistes present and the use of Mandarin in a Channel 5 event even though Mandarin is an official language. It just did not go down well with the Channel 5 viewers and ended with many excuses and damage control measures.

A big party was also arranged in the 8^th Wonder of the World, though a miniature one in the form of the most expensive stretch of expressway cutting under the sea. It was touted as a great engineering feat and architectural wonder only to be bashed by the most massive traffic congestion the next morning. A great PR event, never mind the money spent, to create free flow of traffic ended with a 3 hour traffic jam and many angry motorists paying to be in the jam. No more harping about how great it was meant to be.

There are several other big bangs that were worth crowing about but faded into oblivion. Just to mention another piece, the wonder Jewel to be built at Changi Airport, touted as a game changer with a billion dollar price tag to propel Changi as the choice destination for air travelers was shot down by many quarters for a failed concept. A weak attempt to deflect the negative comments soon faded away as well.

These big bang potential events marked the closing chapter of 2013 and the new chapter of 2014. The big bangs went poof. Nothing much to cheer about or to jump in joy.

The latest follow-ups, the farmer festival in Little India, yesterday’s Thaipusam and the coming Chinese New Year could bring a little joy and normalcy back to a city trying to celebrate and party the whole year round, signs of more good years and more good times. A nation in perpetual celebration and joy.

Kopi level - Green

Anarchy in Thailand

In Sin City, anyone heard mumbling about burning or beating up an MP would see the law coming down on him fast. No one can simply harass or threaten an MP by words or actions and get away with it.

In Bangkok, the protesters openly announced that they will arrest or kidnap not only the Prime Ministers but also all the ministers. And nothing can be done about it. The protesters are now acting like they are above the law or there is no law. Some are throwing bombs at politician’s houses and some taking pot shots at protesters and killing them and nothing happened to them.

What is happening in Bangkok is that the PM is not allowed to act or cannot act, for any action against the protesters will lead to violence and the army will just step in to remove the PM and the govt. Not doing anything by the govt will also give the army the excuse to do a coup anytime it sees fit that the govt is hapless and ineffective.

It is a strange mind game with the chess players playing behind the scene. The game is played by very powerful forces and calling on all the tricks in statecraft and treachery to outdo the opponent. The devil or the angel is now so well disguised and distorted that no one really knows what is real. How long would Bangkok remain lawless, with no govt? How long will Yingluck’s govt last?

The game plan of the army is quite clear, waiting to take over in a coup for any misstep of inaction by the govt.

What is the game plan of the Yingluck govt? She can be arrested or force to flee anytime. She is now even under investigation for corruption on her rice programme for the poor farmers. When that happens, it is likely that the army will take over. When that happens, the Red Shirts would likely to flood the streets of Bangkok. Another possibility is for the Red Shirts to abandon Bangkok and declare a breakaway with a new independent state in the North and North East.

When this happens, the likelihood of a civil war is very high unless the military is also divided and both sides agree on a truce and a parting of the country into two states. And there is also a likelihood that amidst the chaos, the southern muslim states would also want to break away and form their own state.

Is the army strong enough, united enough, to hold Thailand together? Is the military, the combined arms, willing to take the same path or they are all having different dreams?

The accusation of Yingluck’s govt as being incorrigibly corrupt is gaining momentum. The support and turnout of the Red Shirts would tell if they believe what the Bangkok power elite are claiming or they believe that the Yingluck govt is there to uplift the life of the poor farmers. Which truth will survive?

Whither Thailand?

The latest bombing of the protesters is forcing the hands of the army. It is unlikely that the Yingluck govt will want this to happen to bring to its downfall. It is unlikely that the police that support the govt will be the culprit to do the govt in. The evidence, unfortunately is that the police or the anti protesters are behind the bombing, to provide the reasons to bring down the govt. 

False flag theory anyone?

Lucasfilm’s crazy gambit

When George Lucas decided to plant his Asia regional HQ in Singapore, many thought he was crazy, maybe just as crazy as Sheldon Adelson of Marina Bay Sands. In the latter, with so many strings attached against gambling and a govt of priests and priestesses, how could a casino make money here? And as for Lucasfilm, a country that is so uptight and hell bent on media control and so stifling for creativity, how could Lucasfilm make any headway with a population of proverbial nerds?
 
The success of Lucasfilm here with its signature seven storey complex called Sandcrawler speaks for itself. There is no lack of creativity, and real talents are allowed to shine in their fields of expertise. George Lucas has no regrets and full of praises on his new ship here.
 
This is the kind of industry that the govt should be encouraging, creative, innovative, high tech and high value add. Not those cheap and low cost set up with low tech, low skill, low talent, and those labour intensive cheap labour sweatshops found in some of the business and industrial parks here.
 
We have a good place, good environment and infrastructure for the world’s best companies to operate here. I won’t add good talents since our talents are called daft and need to be replaced by 3rd World talents.
 
We don’t have to sell ourselves cheap, like Geylang prostitutes, selling to 3rd World fake talents and low skilled and cheap labour intensive shops. We must know our real worth and market our facilities to quality companies around the world. We should not go for quantity and turn our island into another 3rd World slum.
 
Lucasfilm can provide the necessary pivot for us to move into higher gear and higher value add industries. We may failed to be the Silicon Valley, but we can be a digital media valley supporting the film industry. Let’s have more of such businesses here, let’s welcome them and not the scums and low value shops and waste our valuable land and to crowd our city with undesirables. We need to reinvent ourselves up the high tech world and get out from our reliance on cheap 3rd world factories and sweat shops. If not will may spiral downwards to become the next call centre in the region.

Fare hike, no point crying over spilt milk

The fare hike came as they intended and planned for. You can expect the same of 6.9m. No amount of natcon or kpkb will change anything or change their minds. They are the masters and they shall decide what is best for the people. No matter what is being said or how much is being said, nothing will change until the next GE when they will be crying and begging for forgiveness.
 
Today they are in charge and the logic is their logic. What they think is logic, what they think is good, must be logical, good and the best. Period. It is the logic of power.
 
The fare hike is adding another $53.5 m profit to the transport companies. What was the profit last year and how much more will it be with this $53.5 m? Why is a monopoly public transport system be guaranteed of profits, handsome profits every year, and still be given a cash grant of more than a billion to buy new fleet of buses, put aside the increasing frequency of disruption? Why can’t the transport companies be run on more or less a breakeven basis or smaller profit margin? Why can’t the MRT raise its revenue from its retail rental and other businesses rather than squeezing more money from the commuters, many of whom are not the filthy rich, some scrimping for a living?
 
Why are there now more differentiation of price mechanism and season cards? Why are they still feeding on the students and seniors that are mostly non income earners?
For so many years, with so many models to pick from, why are these ideas not thought of? The answers are obvious. They did not send overseas missions to study their systems.
 
Would they really refine their thinking of what a public transport system’s main mission is? Would they ever think of not making money from those that are not economically productive or living on handouts or charity from parents or from children’s generosity?
I think they are more concern with helping people to buy the latest sports cars to test the road system. No use kpkb. Nothing will be heard. Natcon, listening to the people? Tan ku ku.
 
Wait till nearer the GE and maybe there will be some pretensions of wanting to listen to the people.

PS. Kopi level - Green

Spending OPM is so easy

Singapore would be spending more than $2b to upgrade the fleet of F16s in service now. With better avionics and weapons system, would the upgraded F16s be good enough to stand in for the trouble stricken F35s until they are proven to be as good as they are made out to be? Or would this $2b plus be on top of the several billions earmarked for the f35s? It would definitely be a nice fit to have the most expensive fighter aircraft on earth to match the most expensive salaries of the ministers.
 
Sure it is no problem when a fake garden cost easily just as much and a 5km expressway cost more than double the amount. It is chicken feat. And if money not enough, the citizens are always there happy to contribute to the kitty. A lot of money in the CPF, really, no joke, just spend.
 
Why would not Singapore consider the Russian MiGs and Sukhois that have proven to be as good, or even better than the trouble infested F35s? The Russians not willing to sell? Or there is no choice and we must give the money to the Americans? Or we are just a part of the American pivot strategy and must operate the same aircraft to fit into their game plan? If this is the case, shouldn’t the Americans be subsidizing the cost of our aircraft as they are the one getting a free ride from us, a safe and dependable base and probably with our flyboys at their disposals?
 
Are the F15s, F18s, F22s, all inferior to the Russian fighters? If so, why not buy Russians? Would the $2b plus allow us to buy brand new Russian fighter aircraft that are superior to the F16s and the whole lot of American aircraft? Would it be better to have another brand new top of the range Russian fighter aircraft and diversified our defence needs to more than just one source?

It is easy to demand the best when it is not your money you are spending. What if the best is not the best and why pay so much for something that is not the best?

Ghost cities versus ghost buildings

We have heard of ghost cities in China when whole estates were built in anticipation of occupants taking over after being relocated from their villages. The Chinese are no fools and the empty cities are not built simply by opportunists developers who built without knowing if there is a demand for them. The cities will be filled by resettlement cases from the villages, to replace the old homes, just like what we did to our old shanty villages in Bukit Ho Swee, Ang Mo Kio and many other old estates.
 
Many reports have been written on these ghost cities in China but the Chinese govt is not unduly worried as there are more than a billion people waiting for new and better housing as the country goes into a nationwide rebuilding and renewing programme.
 
The recent fire at the Marina Bay Suites exposed an untold story of blocks of new housing development, all sold but with few occupants. These ghost buildings, a smaller scale than the Chinese cities, are likely to be spread around the islands. Or maybe the Marina Bay Suites is only an exception. If it is a common phenomenon, then property prices are primed to crash when so many flats have been bought and unoccupied, waiting to be flipped for a profit, for the next sucker to come along.
 
This is a good topic for the reporters to do some investigative journalism to tell the full story on the housing bubble and speculative play, to warn unsuspecting Sinkies from taking a plunge and avoid being caught in a sinking property market.
 
How many more homes are coming into the market and how many are bought and waiting to be resold? What is the combined total or supply available for sale? The supply is not just those under construction but those in the unoccupied ghost buildings waiting for buyers.

The implications of Asean Economic Community or FTA

In 2007 Summit ASEAN leaders affirmed their strong commitment to accelerate the establishment of an ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by 2015.
The AEC aims to make ASEAN a more dynamic and competitive economic block by making it a single market and production base by 2015 governed by the principles of an open, outward-looking, inclusive, and market-driven economy.
 
As a single market and production base, the AEC comprises the following five core elements:
1. Free flow of goods
2. Free flow of services
3. Free flow of investment
4. Freer flow of capital
5. Free flow of skilled labour
 
The above paras were copied from a post in TRE by a Honest Singaporean. Presumably the 5 core elements are true. This is another FTA in the same nature as CECA that is starting to destroy the very fabric of our society and causing many PMEs to lose their jobs as well as social and security problems. The more serious implication is the flooding of foreigners to replace the true blue Singaporeans if not managed carefully.
 
The AEC has good intention and is meant to help all the Asean countries to grow and prosper together. What if the result is the reverse or what if there are adverse consequences that outweigh the benefits? We have seen how destructive the CECA is. We are at the verge of signing the American initiated PPT with so many hidden terms that are unable to see the light or they did not want the people to know. Anything that cannot be known or must be hidden is unlikely to be good. When people say I can’t tell you, it is likely to be bad.
 
Now this AEC, in particular item 5, Free flow of skilled labour, will undermined the whole foundation of our meritocracy and education system. We have set a very high standard for our students and they are now being forced to compete with the graduates of other countries with doubtful and funny education systems and standards. Are their qualifications equivalent to ours? Are we going to recognise any backlane universities or degrees from the degree mills? Are we being fair to our graduates that sloppy and questionable papers will not be accepted wholesale as equivalent to our local universities?
 
Further, we are only 3.5m people and we can be easily overwhelmed if we blindly open our legs even wider. We can dream big but we must also know that we are small and have a lot of limitations and weaknesses. We are already feeling the pain of uninvited forced entry, being raped unknowingly and unwillingly. The AEC could amount to legalised raping across the whole island in all industries and at all levels if there are no restrictions placed on them.
 
If not skilfully managed, we will be absorbed into a sea of humanity from the Asean countries and be lost completely. The govt needs to explain the implications and consequences to the people before committing to the AEC. We do not want to be a Britain standing out like a sore thumb in the EC and after messing it up has to quit the community with scars and wounds that would take a long time to repair.
 
What is this AEC? What is CECA? What is PPT? Do the people know what they are in for? Does the govt think it owes the people a responsibility to explain the demerits of joining and not just about how good they are, like the Medisave Life, only telling the good stuff, the influx of more foreigners and 6.9m population, again only saying the good stuff.
 
Tell us the whole truth, the whole picture. How many of our professionals would want to work in the Asean countries to earn pesos, rupiahs, ringgits, dongs, bahts or whatever? They are plenty of opportunities for business and jobs, but to earn less. Is that what we want to trade our professionals with their professionals? It is likely to be a one way traffic and our PMEs being left on the shelf.

China strengthening its hold onto its territories

This is the right thing for China to do, to make sure the world knows that the islands in the South China Seas belong to China. Failing to do so would encourage more adventurism from near and far to make claims to the islands. If they are Chinese territories, China better makes doubly or triply sure that they are in control. Don’t be like the Diaoyu Islands, half hearted attempt to regain control only encourages the Japanese to act more aggressively thinking that China is too weak to make its claim a reality. There must be no doubts to ownership.
 
The South China Sea islands were long claimed by China with historical records and maps. If China is not going to do so, it would be a free for all affair with all the littoral states and the United States or European states coming in to stake their claims. India too may want a piece of the action. This will make the region even more volatile for inter state rivalry. By putting its foot down, it makes it clear to all that the islands were taken. Do not have wild ideas. Stay off. The Americans have claimed their continent across the Atlantic Ocean. The Australians have claimed their continent across the Indian Ocean and across the continent of Africa. They cannot dispute the claims by China outside its front yard when the precedents have been set by them.
 
Once the dust settles, the lines drawn clearly, it will be better for peace in the region. The tension in the East China Sea between Korea and Japan, Russia and Japan, China and Japan, is due to the muddling policies of these countries against a fallen Empire that is reasserting itself. Of the three countries, Russia is handling the issue the best by being very firm to the Japanese. The Koreans and the Chinese are still showing weak hands and the Japanese read that and continue to force the hands of these two countries leading to higher tension and allowing the Americans to play its dirty hand to reap while the neighbours quarrel among themselves.
 
China must not allow the situation in the South China Sea to be like the East China Sea or it will have endless troubles with the Americans pulling the strings from behind. The new status quo will stabilize with time and so will the tension subsides.

The immigration door closing in Europe

A personal experience by AM Bakalar in NYT and reposted in mypaper yesterday told of the rising misgivings of having too many immigrants in European countries, not only in England and France but also in Poland.
 
‘You are not from here.’ This was what another Pole told him in his home town. When he replied that he was born there, the Pole said, ‘but there’s something (different) about you’. Bakalar wondered if he was becoming an immigrant in his own country. Don’t worry, many Sinkies are already having that same kind of feeling in the train, becoming a minority in their own little island.
 
Bakalar accepted that ‘every country has the right to control its borders and the flow of immigration’. But objected to the heightened fear of immigrants. And this was made more stark by Cameroon, the British PM, who introduced several measures to discouraged new immigrants into Britain. The British were horrified by the new immigrants exploiting the public services and benefits systems.
 
Nothing can compare with the monetary rewards that foreigners are reaping the moment they became Sinkies. Instant cash rewards in tens of thousands from public housing and all the subsidies for medical, education and other handouts from the generous govt that do not think why new citizens should reap instant financial rewards while some citizens are suffering in pain from deprivation of public housing and other goodies.
 
What kind of immigration numbers is Bakalar talking about that are alarming? The Poles, with 521,000 in Britain, are the second largest ethnic immigrants after the Indians. For a country with 60m people, it is just a drop in the ocean. We have at least half a million PRC and Indians each, a few hundred thousands of Pinoys and Myanmese here, not counting the rest. Half a million against a citizen of 3.5m is 1/7th or 14% of the population of the locals. This is not a small number to be easily brushed aside.
 
The social and security impact to the foreigners are starting to show signs of stress on the small population in a small piece of rock unlike Britain. When would it erupt into a major crisis is only a matter of time. Only fools will thing it will not.
The Europeans are finding the number of immigrants flowing into their countries getting unbearable and we have fools keep harping on our immigrant history and must let in more immigrants.
 
There don’t call Sinkies daft for nothing. The ignorance of history be several decades of not teaching the subjects in schools have created a citizenship of ignoramus who did not know when they will be booted out of their country by the sheer numbers of foreigners coming ashore. Would Singapore become a state of China, India or the USA? We have been under the British, Malaysia and Japan before. A change of nationality is not really a far fetch idea. The only difference is the pain of losing it once for all and never having it back again this time round.

PS. Kopi level - Blue
Many thanks

New York Times fabricate lies about Singaore

I refer to red bean's article,  " America , we are your friends "

The Americans have always and since time imemorial been constantly fabricating lies to run down other countries. Their whole fabric of government in the White House, The Senate and Congress , the CIA, the military via The Pentagon  and their private sectors like banking , finance and stock markets are run by super intelligent crooks , rogues and scoundrels from the most prominent universities like Harvard, Princeton, Yale and California universities. These crooks and scoundrels are highly intelligent but lack wisdom and conscience and though they claim to worship god , they are the most ungodly and capable not only of the most blatent lies but also the most wanton acts of terrorism , murder and genocide. The native American natives have long ago taught us never to trust the white American invaders as friends. To the American natives white men always twisted facts to suit their own purpose and agenda and when they sign treaties they are meant to be broken at their point and time of convenience. When white men send you a gift you got to beware because the gift is meant to poison and destroy  you. This is exemplified by the gift of blankets to the native American Indians which resulted in the death of whole villages of thousands of the natives because the blankets were once used by white men who were afflicted with small pox or plague and had died from the disease. So it is no difference when the Americans claim so many silly Asian countries as friends and allies. To the Americans, friends and allies are meant to be made use of as tools for their insidious plots against other countries which do not toe their lines or follow their dictates and friends and allies are to be subservient to their overall plans of world hegemony and conquest.

We Singaporeans have our own pride and dignity. We should not let New York Times get away with its fabrication of lies about the riot in Little India to defame Singapore.  Is our government doing nothing about the case?  Why are the MPs, the ministers, the prime minister and foreign minister so quiet? Why are our local Indian brothers not feel outrage by the mischief and misdemeanour of New York Times and come out to refute the lies and misinformation which can be quite detrimental to the national interest of Singapore and cast a spell of bad relationship between Singapore and India. Singapore government should protest to the American government and demand an apology .  Singapore should following the official protest demand an open apology in the New York Times and all other  prominent American newspapers like Washington Post, The Herald Tribune and the Wall Street Journal as well as a printed apology in Singapore Straits Times. On top of it Singapore shoud demand through legfal means that New York Times pay Singapore an indemnity or a fine of sixty-nine million dollars and promise never to fabricate lies and defame Singapore and Singaporeans again in future.

If the US government and the New York Times refuse to apologise then the least Singapore can do is to tell the Americans to pack off and stop using Singapore as its military base and as a spy post to snoop on Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand , Myanmar , India and China. It would be good riddance of a festering and troublesome friend.

Southernglory1

Bed crunch has reached crisis level

Salma Khalik wrote an article on the bed crunch and wondering how this super efficient forward looking govt with the best talents paid out of this world salary could let the shortage of beds in public hospitals reached this chronic stage. And Professor Pauline Straughan concurred that this is now at crisis level.
 
Come on, don’t panic. There is nothing of this sort. Where got crisis? If got crisis the people will be protesting in the streets. No?
 
If there is a crisis the govt will be calling for a board of inquiry or setting up a committee to investigate why it has happened. And the Minister has said that more beds will be added to the tune of 3,700 beds by 2020. What is the problem? These extra beds should definitely be enough even with the population growing to 6.9m in 2030 right? Hope by then the situation is going to be the same and they claimed they did not know the population will go up to 6.9m. Salma, please don’t ask why not now.
 
No need to fear. The bed situation is in good hands. It is all in the plan, all the new hospitals and beds will be in place when we have 6.9m people. It is in the White Paper, including the number of nurses needed. Did the paper mention anything about the number of doctors? Nothing is left to chance when we have all the planners planning ahead of the problems. We don’t pay them so much for nothing you know.
 
Did Salma say that the hospitals are cutting corners, early discharge, two day surgery becomes day surgery, homecares also increased instead of keeping patients longer in the hospitals? They need to erect ERP when the holiday season arrives next year.
 
These are only temporary measures to create more beds for those who need them today. Let me see, 17,000 bed days annually were created by such measures. Good for the hospitals or else the bed crunch would really be a crisis.
 
Relac lah, take it easy man, no one is dying because of this temporary bed crunch. In the long run all the problems will be solved. Now don’t ask embarrassing questions like who have caused this bed crunch to become a crisis. There is no crisis. Period. If there is, a new minister would be moved in to take over and to clear the shortages just like the housing crisis. No change in minister means no crisis.

PS. Kopi level - Green
Thank you.

America, we are your friends. Please tell NYT

The NYT is publishing unfavourable reports on the recent riot in Little India. The paper is claiming that our govt is ill treating the foreign workers, abusing them, poor pay and poor living environment. How can that be, many of the dormitories are nicer than the homes of poor Sinkies. And some dormitories are like country clubs with recreation facilities that the foreign workers can never ever dream of in the little shanty huts in their villages.
 
Come on NYT, we are giving the foreign workers a life they can never have and an opportunity to be rich, to feed and uplift their families from poverty. And the riot is not due to exploitation or abuses. It is due to alcohol.
 
Our Ambassador has been trying very hard to explain and tell the true story that you have distorted. We agree that you have the right to your own news and opinion. At least allow us the right to reply. This is a sacred right that we offer to anyone or newspaper in our city. At least you should reciprocate. At least you must remember that we are your best friend, your most reliable friend to help you with your pivot to Asia, provide you with military base facilities here. If you don’t know, our people are angry that we are part of this military arrangement.
 
We even want to buy your crap futuristic aircraft that is not up to specs and willing to pay your country billions of dollars for something that is so inferior and will be rejected by other thinking countries. At a few hundred millions a piece, my God, you think we are that stupid?
 
Please, let our Ambassador put in his reply to give a balance view of the Little India Riot. We are your friend, don’t forget that. You scratch our back we scratch yours. And the last thing we can expect from a good friend is for you to print misinformation to hurt our reputation.

PS. Kopi level - Yellow

A daft understanding of Democracy

What is happening in Thailand must have annoyed the daft here. How can the Thais protest against a popularly elected govt? How can they demand that the democratically elected govt steps down and be replaced? This is not democracy.
 
The democracy in Sin City is one that the elected govt can do anything it wants. The citizens are not supposed to question, to oppose or to disagree. The govt can simply take a vote in Parliament, and the majority votes carry the issue. Once it is passed in Parliament that’s it. The elected govt is elected by the people to run the country for them anyway it likes as long as it claims it is for the good of the people or country. I choose to separate people or country as the good of the country is not necessary good for the citizens. A country can prosper with all the citizens being replaced by foreigners, and it is good for the country but very bad for the citizens.
 
The govt has all the right and approval and consent of the people to increase the population to 6.9m. The daft agree this is so because it has been passed in Parliament. That is how democracy works here. By the same logic, if the govt decides to sell the country away, it is the right of the govt to do so. They are elected by the people man, notwithstanding that many were walkovers, so they have the people’s consent to do as they pleased. No one, no citizens, can object to what the govt is doing, no protest or civil disobedience.
 
How many daft Sinkies out there interpret democracy this way? How many daft Sinkies believe that the elected govt has unlimited power to do as it pleases? How many daft Sinkies think that the govt can suka suka pass laws to lock your life savings away and force you to buy their insurance schemes? Forced purchase, forced consumption!
A democracy is meant to be of the people, ie representatives comes from the people,… by the people ie elected by the people, … for the people, ie to serve the interest and good of the people, and not to serve the vested interests of a political party or their cronies or the interests of foreigners or foreign countries.
 
To all the daft Sinkies, kee chiu please if you believe that an elected govt has unlimited power to do as it pleases.
 
Remember what is happening in Bangkok.

Fake certificates widespread in India

TRE reported an article from AFP that job applicants in India are so desperate that they have resorted to all kinds of sophisticated scams to get a job. This is the first 3 para of the article in TRE,
 
‘AFP published a news report [Link] on 12 Jan highlighting widespread use of fake CVs flooding the Indian job market.
 
In fact, the scam is so sophisticated that even when companies attempt to call the previous companies listed by the errant job applicant who said he had worked there before, there will be people answering calls and giving illustrious testimony about the person.
 
The scam was uncovered when an IT company in New Delhi was puzzled that 30 of the job applicants had listed the same employer which they said they had worked in….’
 
Singapore is so lucky that all the Indian job applicants coming here used genuine certificates and CVs. I am confident, 101%, that all those in employed here are worth every cent they are paid. I have not heard of a single case of false CVs from India been discovered here. I swear.
 
With our first world talents and the sophisticated technology and smart people in charge, if there are any cheats, they would have been caught. The fact that practically none is caught is testimony to the good credit of our regulators and the authenticity of all the India graduates working here.
 
We shall celebrate this clean record and bring in more talents from India that used only genuine certificates and CVs. Maybe the Indians know that we are an honest and clean society, so only the honest and qualified Indians would want to come here.
 
Well done Sinkies, for having the top and genuine talents from India working here. Only the frauds and cheats remained in India or elsewhere. We have an excellent and dependable system and talents to fall back on. I really feel very good, very safe that we are in good hands. It is a good feeling to know that we are not cheated by 3rd World cheats.
 
The MOM must be credited for the clean record.

GDP increases when productivity decreases

This is the new contradiction that is keeping Singapore ticking and its GDP growing. While Thomas Friedman is grappling with the combination of exponential, digital and combinatorial growth in technology, high brow stuff, our govt is approaching economic growth in another way, simple cheap labour. Some called it KISS, ie keep it simple, stupid.
 
The equation is simple. One man needs a bed, 3 meals, a little extra like alcohol, a little entertainment, a little sex, clothing, transportation, communication, medical etc etc. Increase to 4 men you can add in a roof, a car, education for children, insurance, banking, leisure and all kinds of services for a family. Multiply these by 1m, by 2m, by 6.9m, what would you get on an exponential, digital and combinatorial formula? Add the tax or levy elements to this, and you have a colossal sum of money flowing and criss crossing in many ways.
 
You don’t need the brainy and highly intelligent talents. That is only a red herring. The consumption of goods and services by big numbers of lowly skilled and cheap labour will generate enough economic activities to keep the GDP growing. No need to think too hard, just keep adding the numbers to keep the trick alive. The population will keep the economic activities winding non stop. The additional headcounts are for growth on top of organic growth. Just keep adding and enjoy the multiplier effect of consumption without having to think too hard, to be creative, innovative or productive.
 
It is a simple number game. Who cares about productivity if growth can be achieved by simple addition of numbers, of people? The productivity of low skilled labour can fall or stagnate, no sweat. This can easily be overcome by quantities, not in the work they do, but the bigger picture, contribution to the overall GDP through all the other services and consumption.
 
No need to be too clever, no need to work so hard. Why bother with high technology, with frontier science, with KBE? Many would have forgotten what KBE meant. That is why the call not to pursue tertiary education but to be hawkers and labourers, as cogs to the matrix of growth. Low productivity but in increasing volumes would still lead to higher GDP.
 
It is elementary Watson. The more cogs you have, pronounce as cocks, the bigger will be the GDP.

Ok to print half truth?

An article in the ST yesterday by its editor Yap Koon Hong more or less says this is excusable given certain conditions when factual reporting is difficult. The article is in response to the criticism across the world, in the main media and social media, on Ching Cheong’s infamous report on the 120 hounds used to devour Jang Song Thaek, the uncle of Kim Jong Un and the second in Command.
 
What Ching Cheong set out to do, by quoting the report from a China source, Wen Weipo, to infer that China was showing its disapproval of the young Kim is understandable and acceptable. Many analysts adopt this methodology to understand the nuances in the news coming out from China to get a feel of the thinking in Zhongnanhai. What is unacceptable is to convey the false information as truth. Did Ching Cheong’s article did that or did he in some way conveyed that message or simply did not dispute or qualify the authenticity of the news?
 
The negative reactions to Ching Cheong’s article by so many sources, including reputable western media, say it all, that he did wrote in such a way that the misinformation could be construed as the truth by many readers and thus the rebuke.
But why is Yap Koon Hong trying to justify that a fifty fifty case is acceptable? His reasoning, it is difficult to get news or the truth out from North Korea. So half truth or misinformation can be published or else there will be no news to report. His second reason, unbelieveable, is that many truths would also be questioned or be reputed by the readers and not believed. Does this mean that since truth is not well received, what’s wrong with printing half truth, or to stretch the reasoning further, untruth?
 
There is a world of difference between printing half truths without qualification and can be read by the unsuspecting readers as truths, and printing them with qualifications that their authenticity is unclear or unsubstantiated. The readers demand a very exacting standard from the main media to print the truth and nothing but the truth. Half truths or rumours must be stated clearly as such.
 
Would the readers be willing to compromise the quality of news on the excuse that unverified news can be passed on as truth without qualifications? If this is the standard for news reporting in the main media, you can expect fictions to be all over the pages to sell papers for sure.
 
There cannot be compromise on truthful reporting. Even then, selective reporting is already the norm. When would the main media lower its credibility to report on questionable truths and facts and claim it is alright to do so? What is the meaning of integrity of news and professionalism of the reporters and agencies? Where is the point of morality if main media are allowed to report half truths as news and truths?
 
Shifting morality and integrity to fit the circumstances cannot be reasons to compromise on the responsibility of main media to report the truth for sure.
 
What do you think?