Hospital tents as temporary buffers

Gan Kim Yong: ‘the tent used for the Admission Transit Area Extension at Changi General Hospital is part of the “buffer capacity” to respond to unexpected surges in demand. It was built in June last year.’
 
Well, in many services there is this occasional need for additional facilities when there is a surge in demand. Restaurants could put up side tables in any space available when needed. Our housing crisis over the last decade was due to the lack of tents to accommodate the influx of a million foreigners. The MND should learn from MOH to built tents as buffer capacity when the next population surge arises when they did not see it coming.
 
It is understandable that such buffer capacity wouldl be needed when there is an epidemic like the Sars crisis. Just wondering why there is a need to cater for a surge during the end of the year holiday season? If this is a seasonal thing, there must be better ways to cope with such demands and the number of additional beds could be fairly predictable after years of repeated demands.
 
When such buffer capacities have to be activated in a non crisis state or when there is no outbreak of a contagious disease, does it not say that our hospital capacities are already fully loaded or insufficient? One can imagine what the needs for beds would be like when there is a major outbreak like the SARS. The only good thing about this shortage is that it will be quite similar to the housing shortage and the huge demand could be translated to good profits with higher ward charges. Or maybe not since the ward charges cannot be subject to market forces and market pricing mechanism of supply and demand.
 
Incidentally, would patients housed in such temporary tents be charged the same rate as those in the normal wards? Oh, are these ‘Admission Transit Area Extension’ going to be a permanent temporary fixture of hospitals?

Protection from Harassment Bill, all the good intentions

The anti stalking and harassment Bill looks so innocent and angelic that the victims of such acts would be all too glad to receive it with open arms. And factually many innocents have fallen victims to the aggressive behaviors and acts of their harassers and stalkers and badly needed a law for their own protection. We have laws against physical body harm but most of the time the laws were proven useless as the victims of physical abuses are left to seek justice in the courts if they have the money to do so. No money means they should quietly accept being beaten, resign to their fate, it is a private matter.
So, we have this great bill, like the white knight coming to the rescue of people in distress. Would it be so or would the victims ended up like those being physically attacked and have to buy justice with their own money? No money no justice.
 
The other aspect of this Bill can prove to be more hazardous other than the tediosity in its implementation. You would need an army of police and judicial officers to enforce this Bill. And there will be the battles of definition as to what constitute harassment and to a lesser extent stalking. An example of the definition in the media, ‘ Speaking or acting in a threatening, abusive or insulting way such that a person becomes harassed, alarmed or distressed’ looks more frightening than good. A thin skin asshole will see himself being harassed, alarmed or distressed even by the look of another person that he disliked. He would feel ‘very threatened’ even by the person’s voice or singing or the sight of his post. How is the law going to protect the other party who actually did nothing to harass such a thin skin ass who could probably be faking?
 
The other danger provided by this law is for the so called ‘victims’ to harass and threaten the innocent party by invoking this law. It is so damn easy to fix anyone for harassment with the slightest and skimpiest excuse. This law could prove more deadly and dangerous to the innocents than its intent to protect the real victims of harassment. The men in blue will be very busy as every asshole that has an axe to grind, a hatred or grievance or dislike of another can go to the police post to make a police report. Would the police be in a position to throw out the wanton and spurious accusations? Would they be in a position to sieve out the nonsense? Or would they simply do the necessary to assist, facilitate and perpetuate another form of harassment using the police report as the tool? Would the police and the judiciary become the accomplice of harassment?
 
And, just another point without being exhaustive, is that this law could be the law that is needed to curb and gag the social media. Any damn thing spoken can be an act of harassment. It is only a matter of whose opinion and who feels harassed or ‘hurt’. There shall be no more criticism of the govt or any policies as that would tantamount to harassment. Political satire too would be harassment as someone would act and feel like a victim and seek redress from this law. How is this law going to differentiate fair discussion on social political issues without being slammed by this law?
 
With its comprehensive and wide ranging coverage, even covering the spurious, what is the real intent and purpose of this Bill? We will need another Bill to protect the victims of this Bill.

Kopi Level - Yellow

US militant doctrine of permanent warfare to dominate the world

US Terrorism And Its Militant Doctrine Of Permanent Warfare To Dominate the World.

USA evil plans for world domination    (    PART   ONE    )

After the Second World War the world thought that at last  there would be lasting peace led by the Americans. From the first day of German and Japanese defeat and even before the eventual  German and Japanese surrender the Americans laid broad plans for world domination and conquests.Their strategy was to use the bogey of  fighting communism to preserve freedom and democracy. It has been seven decades and more, does American concept of freedom and democracy achieve any positive result and peace for the world. No, American  focus on peace , freedom and democracy means only one thing and that is every country big and small should be brought under the aegis of American rule and control. And American control means not only complete and total military domination of land and space but also domination and control  in the  political, economic, scientific and financial lives and activities of all countries in the world. In its attempt for world domination US uses all kinds of evil stratagem to bear on its design and this can be seen in its most wanton terrorism in every corner of the globe using its military might to bomb countries via drones into fear and submission. This evil American terrorism has brought great and countless deaths and endless suffering all over the world.

In Europe the Evil Empire - USA, almost succeeded in bringing every European country under its control via NATO which is under direct US control and manipulation. Under NATO US has the final say in all military, political,  economic and financial affairs. However, when comes to Russia, the Evil Empire meets more than its equal and was checkmated by Russia.

US tries to bring down Russia by establishing a string of military bases all over Europe. The CIA and Pentagon the two most vicious and destructive arms of the Evil Empire would infiltrate into many small neutral or pro Russia countries and stirred up internal problems and strive to create choas and uncertainty. The Evil Empire would then step in to break up these countries and establish ultimate control by setting up pro American stooges in power. The Evil Empire has broken up Yugoslavia into three or four separate countries and Albania into two smaller states.

US then focus its strategy on establishing a strangle hold on the Middle -East Arab countries. Here it adopts a three prone strategy. Almost all Arab countries are under just as evil  theodocracy dictatorial regimes. These Arab theodocratic dictators treat their subjects especially women like slaves and rule them in a servile manner. The Evil Empire is able to see that the Arab dictators do not feel safe from its own people and so it signs alliances with the numbskull Arab dictators to help them preserve their dictatorships. Having eased into the favours of the Arab kings or rulers the Evil Empire took no time in establishing an economic strangle hold on all the rich oil producing Arab countries thus controlling practically hundred per cent of their oil resources. The unsuspecting Arabs were then asked to sign a trade treaty based on the use of US dollars as a standard unit of monetary transaction. It must be pointed out that US had earlier scrapped the international Bretton Wood's agreement on using gold as a standard support and back up for all international trade transactions. In trying to impose the American dollar as a standard unit of international exchange the US has an evil intention to manipulate the US dollar with impunity to cheat and swindle every trading nation that the Evil Empire conducts business with.  Thus with the effective control of the US dollar the Evil Empire had for many decades were able to peg the price of Middle East oil at only $US5.00 per barrel. Under the same agreement even if the Arabs sell the oil to other countries they must only accept payment strictly in US dollars.

Just imagine how much US squeezed the Arabs and the world when it imports thousands of billions of barrels of oil almost for free when it then in turn sells these barrels of oil to other countries or international markets at many multiple times its original cost of $US5.00 per barrel. For years and decades US has been shipping billions of tons of cheap Arab oil to dump into disused old underground salt wells as reseerves for future use. However the game was up when Saddam Hussein of Iraq and Gadaffi  of Libya refused to continue with the unfair spurious treaty which binds the Arab hands . Saddam would accept payments for Iraqi oil not only in US dollar but also in other major countries currencies. Gaddafi did the same thing and also try to establish a pan African gold standard for trading purpose and in payment for Libya or Arab oil. It was the last straw for the Evil Empire which saw Saddam and Gaddafi as a threat to American control not only of the Middle East but also the whole world. The result was that the two countries were attacked and destroyed and Saddam Hussein and Gadaffi were killed and murdered for trying to do the right thing for their countries and for the Arabs in general. The main enemies of the Arabs are the theocratic rulers of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait , Jordan and Tunisia who for their own selfish ends connive with the evil Americans to thumb down on their own people.These evil Arab theocratic rulers must eventually be destroyed for the good of the Arabs and for the world.

The next strategy US used to have a strangle hold on the Middle East is to make use of its deputy sheriff, Israel. US and the West have been helping Israel to build up a strong and mighty military state so that it can act as a deputy sheriff to help US and the West to control the Arabs. Israel military power is second to none in the Middle East and it has been able to constantly carry out wars of aggression against the helpless Arabs with impunity. With a strong and powerful Israel US and the West feel safe of its continuing dominance and control of the Middle East.

What does control of the Middle East mean to the world and to China ? It implies that US and the West can block or cut off supplies of oil to countries which they wish to sanction or contain. China view this American control of the Middle East very seriously and will endeavour to make every effort to help Africa and the Middle East countries to break off these evil and insidious American dominance.

Southernglory1
Tuesday,4th March,2014

Kunming, 29 killed and 143 wounded

10 Xinjiang separatists dressed in black with faced hooded, went on a killing rampage in Kunming Railway Station. They went killing anyone in the station. The Police managed to shoot and kill 4 of the terrorists, wounded 1 and hunting for the rest. It was reported that the terrorists were Uighurs from the Xinjiang region demanding for self rule. 
Xinjiang has been part of China since time immemorial and the Uighurs minority group is getting more violent in demanding to break away from China.
 
In many countries around the world, the minorities are challenging the central govt and wanting to form their own govt. Some of these minorities have been there for centuries. Some minorities are new to the land, especially those in Europe and the Americas. As the minorities grow in number and strength, there is a natural tendency to want to be their own masters. The fragile states of Central Asia, China and Russia, even Myanmar, Thailand, Philippines and Malaysia, are countries plagued by the presence of a more vocal and demanding minorities. Violent protest and violence as a means to achieving their political goal, often with external support, will only embolden the separatist movements.
 
Would Europe and countries that practiced free immigration laws end up with a substantial minority population that would make demands for their existence, for territorial and sovereign rights or political representation from the adopted countries? When their populations are small, they are like benign cancerous cells. When they grow in size, many would turn malignant and become a social and political problem of their host countries.
 
When would the pressure from the substantial presence of foreigners as new citizens in Sin City become a real problem and to challenge the original citizens for a bigger say, representation and the economic pie of the state. When would these apparently very nice people turned to become not so nice or even violence when they feel their interests are not satisfied or their expectations not met?
 
Are we planting the seed of communal violence for the future by bringing in so many foreigners into our midst? We have managed to keep the lid on for the last 40 plus years with the 3 major racial groups and a smaller Eurasian community living in relative harmony and co existence. With the new intakes, this delicate balance is going to be challenged and we can’t be so naïve not to foresee what the future has installed for us by our reckless immigration policy.
 
In the Kunming incident, it looks like China will no longer be acting nice to the terrorists and separatist movement. A dragnet is likely to be cast over Xinjiang and the strong arm of the law will inflict pain on the reign of terror of the separatists. Historically China is like an ocean of people and even the larger minority groups like the Mongols and Manchus ended up as Chinese after their conquest of China. The minority Uighurs would hardly stand a chance to think they could separate themselves from China. They are asking to be whacked real hard on their butts for their violent and wanton killing of the innocents. There should be no pity should the perpetrators and their supporters be dealt with in the same way they killed the innocents in Kunming.

Sinkies need foreign recruitment agencies to get jobs here

The proliferation of recruitment agencies owned by foreigners is not something to be trifled with. We have crazily, under the notion of free market forces, to issue all kinds of licences to foreigners to compete against our own citizens. Insurance agencies, student recruitment agencies, housing agents, and recruitment agencies, all that can be run without much talent is given freely to foreigners. In the case of recruitment agencies, there appears to be an unwritten modus operandi, where the employers choose to work with these foreign owned agencies, or new citizen owned agencies, and the target group of employees is foreigners, has led to a situation where jobs are given to foreigners instead of citizens.
 
Not only the citizens are losing out on jobs, the citizen owned agencies are having a tough time getting a share of the recruitment pie as their local data base with mainly local applicant CVs are not in demand by employers, local and foreign. The talk is that if one is thinking of getting a job, the chances of success are better with a foreign recruitment agency. The catch is that it is very rare that a foreign recruitment agency would want to job match a citizen. There seems to be a lot of under table practices that made it so lucrative to place foreigners than to place citizens and that made the latter not a worthwhile effort.
 
A free market system, a ‘meritocrazy’ policy that only naïve little boys and girls think will work, are working against the citizens in all areas and making them look like fools, hapless, unwanted, and with no one to turn to except to look for a taxi licence when all things failed. The failure of the govt to ignore the plight of its citizens for good jobs will be translated into negative votes for sure. The citizens may be daft but not daft to the extent that they did not know who they should vote to Parliament to look after their interests.
 
The nearly cooked citizens will feel the pain soon, other than those that are already cooked. When they start to jump out of the boiling water, things can be ugly. The lethargy, the lack of will to change the nature of things to their own advantage, the stupidity to believe that it is all their fault, that the foreigners are smarter and more deserving than them, have kept the daft Sinkies in a state of resignation and despair.
 
Either they wake up their ideas or they will be the new beggars in this super rich island of super opportunities that are going to the foreigners. Is there a conspiracy that jobs should go to foreigners, that employers rather work with foreign recruiters than the citizens to recruit foreigners? Or is it how the system has been designed and allowed to do the citizens in?
 
What price to pay for being daft and to be treated as daft even by foreigners? No one knows what is going on, really?

American war plan against China is called ‘JOAC’, pronounced joke

While China is making plans to deny the access of American warships patrolling its coastal seas, the Americans are countering this plan by a war plan called ‘JOAC’ for Joint Operational Access Concept. Obviously the Americans do not meant it to be a joke. The Chinese area access denial plan is a defensive strategy to keep the enemies away from its shores and for doing this, they are being accused to being provocative, if not, aggressive.

The Americans have been strutting their military hardware along the Yellow Sea, East China Seas, right at the door step of China and telling China, what can you do about it. And when China declared its first ADIZ in East China Sea, another defensive act, the Americans aggressively flew 2 B 52 nuclear bombers heading straight into China. Such a hostile act could easily trigger a nuclear war as the nuclear capability of the bombers cannot be ignored. China could have shot them down if they came a bit closer to the firing range of their nuclear weapons.

The arrogance and hostility of the Americans and their intent for war have been taken for granted by the West who spoke about it as if it is their right to attack anyone they like. And China’s acts to defend itself with ADIZ and area access denial missiles are read as aggressive and war mongering.

So the Americans are serious about this joke, oops, I mean JOAC. What is this plan all about? According to Geoff Dyer in an article published yesterday in the ST on his book, The Contest Of The Century: The New Era Of Competition With China, this plan is being devised to counter China’s area access denial plan to keep American warships away from Chinese soil to prevent them from launching strikes at China mainland. How it works? The plan calls for a massive strike against all the missile targets in China to disarm Chinese missiles from hitting American warships. And they made a few assumptions, 1, the Chinese would not doing anything and allow the Americans to launch the strikes without hitting back, like the cruise missile strike against China’s embassy in Belgrade. 2, it assume that the strike can be a limited war and China would not dare to launch its nuclear arsenal against the US mainland.

The probability of a massive counter attack by China and an all out nuclear war cannot be ruled out. Which country would allow another country to strike at its heartland and resist from retaliation if it can do so and has the weapons to do so? The war crazy Americans cannot be so mad to think that a massive strike against China could be done without the Chinese hitting back with all they got. They could not be more right to call their plan a joke.

While they are planning to counter the Chinese defensive strategy with a hostile and aggressive war plan, do they believe that the Chinese would stop at their defensive plan and would not be planning to counter strike should the Americans carry out their joke? This is very similar to some countries that think they would have a big advantage to have a first strike strategy without thinking that the enemy too could have the same first strike strategy against them.

Just pray the Americans are joking and continue to have more jokes up their sleeves. The idiots still think war is an option between nuclear capable super powers and are risking for war. And they are claiming that the Chinese may flirt with adventurism when they are most guilty of this act. The Americans could be adventurous against smaller and military weaker countries. They should plan to have peace with other nuclear powers if they are sane in their heads.

Kopi Level - Yellow

Four Horsemen – The Age of Decadence

A blogger in TRE recommended the Four Horsemen as a good documentary to watch. The producer Ross Ashcroft gave an analysis on the rise of civilisation and the falls of empires. It is the last stage in the decline of empires, the Age of Decadence, particularly in the USA that is most relevant to what is happening here. Why not when we are just a small replica of the American system, borrowing and copying everything American to the T? And if America is failing, the symptoms appearing there will also be here in a graduated scale.

The rise of an empire coincidentally dealt with a familiar subject called pioneers. It all began with the pioneers digging the road and paving the way for a brighter future for those that came after them. It then went through the ages of conquest, commerce, affluence, intellectual pursuit and, just before it came to an end, the age of decadence described as bread and circus.

The prominent features of the onset of decadence are as follows:

1. An undisciplined over size military that is over extending itself. This is self explanatory in what we are doing today and how cocky we have become.
2. Conspicuous display of wealth. We have seen many Ferraris and Lamborghinis and French mansions around us like the Antons and the Michaels.
3. Disparity in wealth or a big income gap. No need to elaborate when the wealth of the nation concentrates in the hands of a few families and the high incomes of top people in number of times over the low level workers are there for all to see. The people benefiting from it will tell the daft workers it is the hard truth, can’t be helped.
4. A bloated govt or over size govt. No need to explain on this, big in numbers and big in salary.
5. An obsession with sex. Funny that we have so many court cases about sex recently.
6. Debasement of currency. We used to be able to buy a semi D for $40k but now it needs $3m to $4m to get one. We could get a 5 rm HDB flat for less than $30k but we need $500k or more to get one today. The value of our money has gone bananas.

There are many other features of a decadent state like apathy, amoralism, no one cares a damn. Think Hong Lim Park when several very important issues were raised but hardly anyone bothered to attend. And housing prices kept spiralling and people said it is good. Ashcroft described it as the squandering of a generation of its inheritance. I wonder what he meant and how relevant it is in the City of Sin. One interesting comment by Ashcroft that I feel very strange and astonishing, is the glorifications of chefs in the society. Are we also glorifying our chefs too?

The Americans got rid of the Glass Steagall Act to allow the banks to do as they liked, creating money and gambling in a way that put the casinos to shame. And this is facilitated by the call for deregulations and they did, leading to the financial disaster of 2008 and the massive bailout of the banks that were too big to fall to the tune of U$8.5 trillion. This was several times the amount used to reconstruct Europe after WW2.

The decadence continues unabated after the bailout and the banking and finance bandits dug in even deeper and waiting for the big bang to come. The banks continue to gamble and cheat their clients while the stock exchange was designed for the computer traders to cheat the innocent and hapless investors. Crimes of such nature that are blatantly flouted like in a state of lawlessness by the bankers and the crooks in the financial system without anyone thinking that they were wrong, crimes sanctioned by the states and with the regulators assisting the criminals to become more efficient and bold in the plundering. They don’t even know that these acts were criminal, they did not want to know.

Ashcroft said, ‘When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorises it and a moral code that glorifies it’.

How far or how deep are we in this state of decadence? All the features of a state of decadence described by Ashcroft are apparent and here with us.

What is next after the state of decadence?

Here is the link to the Four Horsemen - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fbvquHSPJU&feature=youtu.be. A good 90 minute documentary.

Kopi Level - Green

How much an average Sinkie needs to live in Sin?

This is just a broad brush estimate on how much it would cost an average Sinkie to live here from birth to death, or the sum of money he needs to earn and to pay for the privilege of living in Sin City. It will only consider a few basic factors without going into nitty gritties of living.

For the first 25 years, it could range from $500k to a million to grow a child to an adult. The same amount would be needed from 65 to 80 or more during the golden years. These two phases of life will cost between $1m to $2m for each person.

For the duration of 25 years to 65, the working life, it will need something like $2.5m to $4.5m. At $1k pm for personal expenses, this will work out to about $500k for 40 years. Add in two children will be an additional $1m to $2m. The flat will cost between $500k to $1.5m. A car, at $100k per car for 10 years, it will cost $400k for 40 years.

Just using these simplified numbers, an average Sinkie will need $3.5m to $6.5m to survive in Sin for a period of 85 years. And assuming that the cost for the first 25 years is paid by the parents, it is still between $3m to $6m to get by. And where is the money coming from?

A Sinkie must make this sum in his 40 years of economically active life. This works out to be about $5k to $10k pm, using the minimum and maximum estimates. Any Sinkie earning less than $5k pm is likely to struggle all the way to survive, ceteris paribus.

Can you afford to live in Sin?

Kopi Level - Green

The revelations of the Little India riot

We have heard of brave policemen and of policemen running away from the mob. We have heard of praises and medals for bravery and brickbats for not holding the ground, and worse, policemen fleeing for safety. And the dominant view, the policemen are the law enforcers and must make a stand, face the mobsters and deal with them with force and authority. The alternative view is that the police on the ground were outnumbered and there was no need to risk life and injuries, no need to attack the mob to escalate the tension and create a nasty situation.
 
At the moment all the comments are academic as the commentators are detached from a reality, from the tense situation where personal security were at risk. And from the comfort of sitting behind a computer and punching the keyboard I thought it would be easy for Arnold Schwarzeneggar or Robocop to deal with the mob single handed. It would be a piece of cake even if the mob were illiterate villagers that were used to violence, to pelting policemen with stones and anything they could lay their hands on, to overturning and burning police cars. One thing for sure, they were not the nice school children that could be shouted down by a school teacher. It was a violent and incensed mob.
 
What would happen if the orders were not given to pull back but instead for the handful of policemen to charge at the mob before the arrival of the SOC officers is moot. There could be a few serious casualties among the men and women in blue. Did anyone suggest to the police women to charge at the mob? This sounds like the soldiers in Kota Tinggi during Confrontation who thought it was a picnic and they could take a break bathing in the river unguarded.
 
It is quite fun really to make all kinds of postulations and even gungho ideas in the comfort of an aircon room with tea and cakes to munch. The riot could throw up a few heroes like Arnold or a few policemen in black plastic bags. Who is wiser?
 
What do you think? Of course it looked quite ridiculous and malu for policemen and women running away from a mob. It would be nice if they would strut out from the ambushed ambulance with guns blazing in both hands, taking down the mobsters in their way. This would be great stuff for Hollywood or even Mediacorp. Really great for adrenalin pumping and story telling and a great opportunity missed.
 
I am still having a lot of wild imaginations on what it could have been. If only I had a machine gun crew. But these kinds of wet dreams are best for the early hours in bed. One can only 'how lian' after the event and not being there.

No need sympathy, no need charity

This is an old story of a beggar in Chinatown. His hands were chopped off so he became a handicap and had to beg for a living. Jobless, unemployable, he sat at the foot of a pedestrian bridge waiting for someone to throw him some crumbs or handouts.
 
This guy was a bit different. He hung a placard on his chest and it read, ‘I don’t want your charity. I don’t need your sympathy’.
 
Many were puzzled by his poster. One day the MP came by and was caught by the eye catching phrase. He could not resist asking him what he wants. His reply, ‘I want to be independent to do my own things. But I am handicap, got no hands to do things myself. My balls are itchy. Please scratch for me.’
 
So?

PS: Didn't know I used She unintentionally. Has changed to He to avoid any embarrassment : )

Comfort women or sex slavery

Agongkia has posted several times in TRE and mysingaporenews that Sinkie PMEs are very fortunate to have jobs like taxi drivers and security guards to fall back on when they are replaced by fake and poorly educated foreigners. In a way it is true. It is better to have a decent job than to end up as sex slaves or as the Japanese disguised it and calling them comfort women. And Japan is revising its history to deny that this actually happened and the sex slaves, mostly Koreans with some Chinese and Taiwanese and other Southeast Asians were willing slaves. Some Japanese even claimed the women volunteered for it.
 
When a people lost their country, when they are conquered, they lost everything, their freedom, pride and dignity. The hundreds of thousands of sex slaves that were sent to provide sexual services to the Japanese Imperial invaders were a historical fact and a shame to those countries affected. And they could not do anything about it when their countries were conquered and ruled by foreigners.
 
Sinkies better prayed very hard that their country would not be occupied and conquered by foreigners or simply handed over to foreigners. Do not take the presence of huge numbers of foreigners in your country innocently and foolishly, even if they were given the pink ic and converted to citizens. We were one after nearly 200 years of co existence and 40 plus years as people of a nation. We must not take this lightly and think that the foreigners would be the same as us. In great numbers we do not know their agenda and what they are up to.
 
Many of them are still thinking that they are citizens of their former countries. This kind of mindset cannot be simply erased by a piece of paper over night. To think and behave like one of us, to be one of us, take a long time of living together. Human beans are not machines that can be switched on and switched off.
 
We have too many foreigners among us and it is as good as being conquered and occupied by these foreigners. You would not know what would happen if they came to power, with their numbers and fresh memories of who they were. We are seeing many rude and frightening signs of what these foreigners could be like. Being foolish, ignorant and the stupidity of being welcoming and nice could destroy everything your parents and fore parents have built for you and your future generations.
 
Sinkies cannot be so daft to think everything is so innocent. Yes, be grateful that with all the tertiary educations, degrees and diplomas, you can still drive taxis and be security guards. This is a kind of blessing that daft Sinkies are getting accustomed to today. Soon your wives, mothers and daughters would count themselves lucky to be maids of foreigners. The worse fate awaiting them is to be comfort women or sex slaves when you lose the very country that you have.
 
Be frightened, be very frightened. It is happening gradually and barely recognizable, but your country is slipping away from you if you don’t stand up to take it back. Think 2050 when the true blue Sinkies become an absolute minority.

Kopi Level - Yellow

A case for opulence

The mansion of Dr Michael Lim that was splashed across cyberspace and the media is a testament of the good life of our rich and famous. The scale of the mansion and the furnishing say that Dr Lim is very rich and living a very comfortable lifestyle that the heartlanders and even many private property owners could not dream of. This is the meaning of rich. Good for him and his success story.
 
In the 60s and 70s, the medical professionals were living well and many lived very well practicing their trades. The opulence in the class of Dr Lim’s was an exception though some did achieved that level of grandeur then. No medical professionals was complaining and people could afford doctors making home visits at very affordable fees.
 
And the best part, many medical services in govt hospitals and govt clinics could be had for free or for a song. There was no fear of unaffordable medical fees and no fear of getting sick and unable to pay for treatment. There was no fear of being bankrupt by a terminal disease. There was a nice balance between what the people can afford to pay for medical services and providing the medical professionals a good life. Many medical professionals could afford landed properties and the Mercedes Benzes.
 
Those were the good old days. Today we have medical insurances, the 3 Ms and now the 4th M in Medishield Life and the people are still living in fear of being struck by a serious illness that they cannot afford to have. Even minor outpatient treatments are not cheap and unaffordable to many. There is no such thing as FREE! What on earth is that thing called FREE medical services?
 
Today, medicine and medical services are all about money and how much to pay, and about affordability. And many are asking how did we arrive at this state of affair when medical fees are so prohibitive that you need so many fanciful schemes and insurance to try to make them affordable but still unaffordable to many? What have these things got to do with opulence?
 
Have we progressed or regressed in this life and death services that the people cannot do without? Several decades back we were looking in astonishment and awe at the excesses and abuses of western medicine and medical services. Today we walked right into the same trap and try to outdo the western medical industry in everything, especially the prohibitive cost of medicine and medical treatment. We never seem to want to avoid the same pitfalls of the outrageous medical practices of the west. We simply aped everything, lock stock and barrel, fearlessly doing what the west have been doing.
 
Would the Medishield Life help to reduce medical cost and the anxiety of the people? Would medical cost be really affordable or be as affordable as our property prices under the same definition of affordability preached by the govt? Or would Medishield Life help to increase and spread the level of opulence?
 
How did our medical cost get to be so expensive?

Kopi Level - Yellow

A new law on stalking and harassment

This is a law that should be supported given the prevalence of harassment by dubious people particularly in cyberspace. I am not too familiar with the incidents on stalking but that is definitely a violation of a person’s freedom to be stalked by someone everywhere. And some of the stalking incidents reported were serious in nature.
 
In cyberspace, incidents of harassment are so frequent that they have become an unacceptable normal. People are harassed constantly and viciously by perpetrators under the veil of anonymity. This has to be stopped. It is ok to disagree with someone else but to constantly hurling abuses at another person for reasons of hatred and grudges or simply differences in opinion is not an act that should be tolerated. Let’s be more civil and discreet with one another. Disagree for as much as you want, have your say and your views, but personal attacks, character assassinations and harassments must not be condoned.
 
One of the usual tactics that is being adopted, seemed so legal and proper, is to file police reports or threaten another person to file a police report against him. This is harassment of the worst kind. This is abusing the police and making use of the police in harassment. Should the police allow this to happen when many of the complaints were either very minor, spurious or unjustifiable? Should the police issue warning to such vile and wild accusations and charge the complainants for abusing the law, yes, for harassment instead?
 
I hope the men in blue are reading this and review their protocol and procedures to stamp out such harassments, like the saying, using the police hands to catch snakes. The police are being made use of by unscrupulous troublemakers in many such cases. What have the police to say about this kind of harassment?
 
There are also misgivings about this new law on harassment and stalking. Let’s hope that the law will be applied judiciously and fairly and not be abused by anyone to settle a personal feud. The law is good but can be bad in bad hands and can be badly abused for objectives that the law was not meant to serve.
 
Would it be abused or misused against individuals on the wrong side of the equation?

China’s meekness as a super power is courting trouble

China has never learnt from its past mistakes. It is a super power that is afraid to use its clout and allowed pesky little countries to climb all over its head and kick its ass. Look at the USA or even India, who dares to trifle with them knowing for sure they will be whacked?
 
China is being threatened and provoked by the Japanese daily and not doing anything. The worst case is to be provoked and threatened by the Philippines. The Pinoys are threatening to use force against China if its fishing boats are attacked by the Chinese. So what can China do? It did sprayed water at the Pinoy fishing boats in the Scarborough Shoal or Huangyan Island. And this has angered the Philippines govt.
Why is China behaving so meek to the Philippines? In the past, the Pinoys had towed many Chinese and Taiwanese fishing boats into Manila Bay from the area and demanding fines and ransoms. The Pinoys even fired and killed a Taiwanese fisherman. Neither Taiwan nor China could do anything.
 
The precedents set by the Pinoys should be used to China’s advantage. China should simply tow Pinoy fishing boats to Hainan and fined them for fishing in Chinese waters. There is no need to go further and shoot at the fishing boats like the Pinoys. Is China acknowledging that the Scarborough Shoal/Huangyan Island is a disputed territory so it has no right to do so? This kind of meek behavior is unbecoming of a super power and little pesky countries like the Philippines would see it as a sign of weakness and would continue to tease China, even threatening to use force against Chinese ships.
 
When is China going to learn to behave like a super power, to be respected or if not feared by little irritating countries? The inaction or meek reaction will only embolden little pests to continue taunting at China. It is time that China put a stop to the pomposity of little countries like the Philippines to make them behave and know their proper place in its relationship with a super power. If the Pinoys were to try the same act to the Indians, they will be whacked until their butts bleed.
 
A super power must behave and act like one to avoid trouble from trouble makers.
A super power must behave and act as a super power or it will be plagued by constant irritations from little pests. China cannot be nice to trouble makers and think they will go away.

The troubling fate of Sinkie PMEs – A sad story of Mr Tan

‘Mr Tan was let go by a prestigious MNC company located in Science Park some years ago. Until today, in his late 40s, Mr Tan cannot secure any permanent job. He tried to find a job in his industry but was consider too old. He went to try other sector to be a property or insurance agent and did not meet any success.
 
Mr Tan shared his struggles. He is paying off his debt and had to cut down extensively on their family lifestyle. Gone are yearly holidays and meals in restaurants. He sold off his car to pay off some of the debt and started taking taxi course. This is the ONLY protected industry in Singapore from FT invasion.’
 
Please read the story of Mr Tan in TRE under the title ‘FT converts to S’pore pink IC but ostracizes S’poreans
 
How long would Sinkies be willing to bear and endure such discrimination by foreigners in their own country? When would Sinkies put an end to their pathetic plight and suffering from unemployment in the hands of foreigners? It seems that the story of Mr Tan is a familiar one and many affected Sinkies suffering from the same fate simply swallowed their pain and misfortune and turned to taxi driving which some jokers claimed was a good alternative, that they could become their own boss. And foreigners happily kept coming in to replace Sinkies one by one with impunity. This is a crime against the citizens.
 
Boh cheng hu!
 
About 60 years ago, the colonial govt was running the island as their prized possession and fed themselves handsomely while throwing a few crumbs to a small group of local elite. A group of young men was driven enough to want to take over the running of the country from the colonial govt for the good of the people. They could not stomach the disinterest of the colonial govt while they took care of their self interest and the excesses of the elite. They fought valiantly to wrestle the island from the British and eventually founded a new nation. They saw a bad situation and turned it around.
 
Today we are seeing quite a number of citizens being forced out of their comfort zone by foreigners into a corner with no jobs. And the foreigners exploited their haplessness to the fullest, to replace them in good jobs by bringing in more foreigners with impunity. This unhealthy state of being is becoming intolerable to many citizens, even those looking from the sideline.
 
Would this pathetic situation be good enough to spawn a few good men to stand up for the good of the people, to take back the country and run it for the good of the people before the country is taken over by the foreigners? Would there be people driven enough to want to change this despicable fate of the PMEs?
 
Ask yourself, when would you be next to be replaced by foreigners?

Kopi Level - Green

Consider local contractors for MRT projects

Chin Kee Thou wrote in the Today forum pleading to the authority to consider local contractors in the award of contracts. We have been in the train business for about 40 years and there should be enough expertise to do it ourselves. Why continue to award contracts to foreigners, to be forever hoping for the transfer of know how to our local boys. China opened up for less than 40 years and they are building bullet trains on their own and many other things without the need for foreign talents. Or shall we wait to recruit train experts from the recently commissioned Mumbai LRT to run our trains as they would then be deemed as foreign talents and better than our no talent locals even after so many years of running our train system?
 
Actually I am crossing over, or bought over by this craze for foreign talents. I think I am getting the disease. We really need more foreign talents or we will sink. Let’s have more of them. We have foreign talents in DBS and the bank is getting better and better. No bluff. And our stock exchange is so vibrant, the best in the world.
 
And we have quite a number of foreigners in the stats boards. Ok, let’s open up the ministries to foreign talents, and to make it more palatable, any position that is equivalent to the premier admin service the employee shall be given the pink IC to be seen as one of us. We can start by replacing our permanent secretaries, deputy secretaries and assistant secretaries with foreign talents.
 
I think all our senior civil servants will love the chance to work with foreigners as their bosses, more oomphs and creativity. They have been the ones pushing for this policy and they would not oppose it for sure. Let’s start with SPH, MHA and Mindef.
 
What do you think?

Salma Khalik kpkb about medical insurance

Following closely behind Han Fook Kwang’s unhappiness about the free hand given to medical insurers to change their premiums and terms of coverage, Salma Khalik has written another piece to highlight the ‘abuses’ or liberties given to insurers at the expense and interests of the insured. Not only can insurers raise premiums, but could stop insuring someone with serious conditions, change the coverage or not even paying for what they deemed should not be covered under the insurance plans. And the insured is stuck with an insurer and changing to another insurer would be difficult or not possible. Salma is yelling at the MAS to do something for the good of the insured.
Medical insurance has always been a commercial transaction with the insurers thinking only of profit as their main objective. And the insured would be at their mercy, to be made to pay for their profits all the way. And this can become a scam to the consumers. And this is something that is not addressed in the proposed Medishield Life Scheme.
 
To be serious, for the interests of the the people, the Medishield Life must not be farmed out to any private insurers. It must be managed as a govt service like the CPF, ‘for the good of the people’. I know some of you are sneering. Nevermind that this is a truism that is found wanting. The profit motive of the Medishield Life must be taken out from the equation. And to ensure that this will be the case, all the excess revenue from premiums should be ploughed back to lower the premiums of the insured in the scheme.
 
This is a govt initiated compulsory national scheme and must be managed with morality and social responsibility as the key principles, not profit. No one should be allowed to covet the revenue churned out by this Medishield Life Scheme and to lay their hands on the surpluses for whatever devious schemes they have in mind in the future. Any surpluses must go back to the people in the Scheme.
 
In a small way this could ease the buffet syndrome and cut down on excessive consumption of medical services if the insured know that by not over consuming they could end up paying less, paying just enough.
 
And it should remove totally the desire by anyone to think there is money there for harvest. Oh, there are so much money in the Scheme, let’s make it more affordable, or the money can be put to better use. Take your hands off the money!
 
Don’t touch the money in this compulsory Scheme. It is the people’s money, forced to pay ‘for their own good’ and it must stay that way. If the govt is serious in its intent ‘for the good of the people’, keep this out of private insurers or any insurers. This must be a non profit making govt scheme, with govt regulated terms and conditions and coverage for all with no exceptions and exclusion clauses.
 
Not that I have agree to a compulsory scheme, but it is not going to be otherwise, so everyone must make the govt know that the surpluses in the Scheme must be retained in the Scheme for the benefits of the people in the Scheme.

Kopi Level - Green

Jin Soh Lee apologises to Desmond Quek

Singaporean commuters are feeling so guilty for causing the frequent breakdowns of MRT trains that a Jin Soh Lee felt obliged to say sorry to SMRT CEO Desmond Quek for making him work so hard to solve the breakdown problems. Another Singaporean, Boh How Seow suggested that Sinkies should stagger their time to board the trains to prevent overloading so that the trains will feel lighter and no need to crawl at a snail pace. He will be going on a diet to reduce his weight to have ease the load on the trains.
 
And another Singaporean, Jin Kay Khian, suggested that more electronic boards be installed at MRT stations to inform the commuters on the capacity of arriving trains and how many spaces are available, like signs for carparks. He credited this suggestion to an MRT station that have installed ‘traffic lights’ to regulate the flow of commuters. With such advance information, the commuters can decide which train to take or not to take. It will help to ease the load on the trains too.
 
I think MRT should follow other organizations to call for feedbacks from the public on how to improve its services, on how to maintain the trains so that there will be no more break downs. Conducting a COI will be good as there are many experts among the commuters to offer specialist advice for free. The aunties and uncles and Boh Tak Cheh will have a lot of clever ideas to offer.
 
What do you think?

Usman Harun – What was the drumming all about?

Out of the blue Singapore was caught in a verbal spat with Indonesia over the naming of a frigate after two terrorists that exploded a bomb in the heart of the city in the 1963. Were there any signs that something is brewing that the public do not know? Was the cancelling of the contract to buy natural gas a precursor to this spat? There was also an announcement by Indonesia not selling granite to us after the gas contract was terminated. Subsequent to the blow up of the frigate naming it was reported that the Indonesians were planning to erect statues in honour of the two terrorists they regarded as heroes in Batam, literally right at our door step. What else did the public were not privy to that drew the ministers to make their firm objections to the frigate naming? Did they know something more sinister than the public?
 
The sequence of events with publicity in the media, in the TV networks, revealed that a lot of work and resources had been involved in putting up the media reports and TV programmes on the issue. To the public it seemed to come out of the blue but to the govt it was a coordinated event to make a very strong point to the Indonesians with the risk of heightening tension between the two states. And if not managed carefully, if both sides were less restrained, we would have a crisis at hand.
 
Fortunately the event has now quiet down and relations are at even heel, I hope, after the ‘storm in the tea cup’. This prompted some to comment that it was an exercise to drum up the spirit of nationalism among the Sinkies that has ebbed. The people seem to be taking the relative peace and security for granted and a dose of nationalism with an external factor could be good for the soul of the nation.
 
Assuming that this is a possible reason, it makes sense for the leaders to come out one by one to talk tough and for the media to keep splashing spreads of articles on the subject daily. There was a hype to arouse the sense of belonging, a national identity and a need to stand up for the country.
 
If this is the objective of the exercise, the response from the people was muted. Not many took heed of the call to rise to the occasion. There was an absence of a public outcry to support the leaders’ call. There was not much anger or excitement towards a possible external aggressive intent. It was a non event.
 
Why didn’t the people answer the call of the leaders to speak as one voice against an external event? Is it another case of complacency, that the people did not see anything unto it, that the naming of the frigate was uncalled for but so what? Or was it that the leaders were not forceful enough to rally the people behind them? If the intent was to gel the people as one with the leaders, it did not happen. The people were not aroused, or was it a case of the leaders not inspiring the people to rise to the occasion, to take the cue and follow them? Was it a test of leadership? Or was it a gauge on how apathetic the daft Sinkies are?
 
There was no spontaneous outcry like what happened to Anton Casey. It was just like a rehash of a past event, a lesson in history. Period. The people did not feel the spurs on their hide to feel anything.
 
What do you think?

Battle of China

The forgotten history of American China relations was recorded in a film made by Frank Capra. This movie can be googled under the title ‘Battle of China’. Today China is enemy number One to the Americans for no other reasons than a challenge to its world domination as the number One superpower. China was friend and ally in World War Two but enemy when it turned to communism and joined the Soviet camp. The Cold War and rhetoric embedded in the generations of post war Americans see China through a tinted glass and reinforced by the daily barrage of western media and propaganda. The reason then was communism.
 
Today China was anything but communist. China is the number trading partner of America. China is America’s number One financier. China is sending its bright students to America to learn the American way of life. China is a capitalist state in the mould of America but with socialist ideas. China has many commonalities with America and has many common interests too. But China is seen as an enemy, promoted in all literatures as an enemy.
 
The Yellow Peril still lingers in the mindset of the Americans. But the Yellow Peril came and gone, in the form of little yellow Japanese, as quoted in Frank Capra’s movie, that sunk the American Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbour. The Chinese are arriving in America and in Canada as normal immigrants, economic immigrants, not the likes of little yellow Japanese with plans to conquer America as in the Tanaka Memorial of world conquest. The Chinese do not have such a plan.
 
In the Battle of China, America was China’s biggest ally. America provided all the logistics and weapons, from artillery pieces, vehicles, fighter and bomber aircraft, to China in its fight against the invading Japanese. The Americans trained and equipped Chinese soldiers and airmen in Arizona and New Mexico, and fought side by side with them against the Japanese Imperial Army. America played a vital role in saving China from the Japanese. And the British, Dutch and other European soldiers were also fighting on the side of the Chinese with the Americans.
 
Why is it that China today is America’s number One enemy and Japan is America’s friend? The craps about ideology and communism belonged to a bygone era. The two economies are intertwined and interdependent on each other. Both countries can prosper together and there is no real reason to maintain a mindset of hostility. China is not there to conquer America or the rest of the world like the Japanese. China does not have a plan for world conquest.
 
It was only opportune that America won the Second World War or else it would become a colony of Japan. Australia too would be a Japanese colony. Though it is no longer feasible for such an ambitious plan by Japan to rule the world, the psychic of the Japanese is very different from the Chinese. The former is still harbouring the desire to revive Japanese Imperialistic glory while China is only reclaiming what belongs to her and were taken away during the days when it was a semi colonized country.
 
Can the Americans tell the difference between the Chinese and the Japanese? Which is the real Yellow Peril? Let me quote a short passage by Craig White from his book, ‘In Search of the Origin of Nations’.

‘Documents discovered in military archives in 1993 uncovered
a Japanese plot to attack Sydney and Melbourne with bubonic
plague, the black death. In its Harbin biological warfare centre
in Manchuria, the infamous Imperial Army Unit 731 succesfully
bred plague bacteria (in addition to cholera, typhoid, anthrax
etc) and deliberately infected 3,000 Chinese, Korean and
Mongolian civilians with the diseases from which they died
horrible deaths. Plague-infected fleas were dropped over Changde
in Hunan Province and elsewhere, resulting in an epidemic which
killed several hundred in a few days. As the war was drawing to
an end, they planned to send plagues into Samoa, Guam and the
Philippines as well as Dutch Harbour in Alaska. Journal records
show that Unit 731 was ordered to ensure that the bacteria could
be taken by ship or submarine to Sydney, Melbourne and Hawaii and released to kill hundreds of thousands.’