Boon Wan the Sweeper

When the housing problem reached a stage that was waiting to blow up, Boon Wan volunteered to take on the task to clean up the mess. Actually it was no mess as far as his predecessor was concerned. It was all expected, prices determined by market forces, prices were affordable, and there was no queue and no demand even. It was a beautiful situation except that the home buyers were making nonsensical noises.
 
If a junior minister were to tell the MND Minister that there was a serious problem, he would be shooed out of his office. When the MND Minister said no problem it meant just that, no problem. Who had the audacity to tell him otherwise? Luckily Boon Wan was heavier and could use his weight to shove the MND’s objection aside and to do what was necessary.
 
So Boon Wan went on a ramping programme to ram through all the barriers against building more flats. Eng Hen was full of praise for Boon Wan for decisively tackled the housing problems created by his predecessor who would not admit that there was a problem in the first place and thus no actions needed.
 
With the housing problems stabilized, Hsien Loong should move Boon Wan to the MOM to tackle the growing problems of foreigners, fake degrees and discriminations against our own PMEs, to remove the term ‘local’ to tell the real story of how Sinkies are fairing in the job markets, to ram through the walls of local and foreign owned companies that are refusing or discriminating against Sinkies for employment.
 
Here again, Boon Wan’s weight as a senior minister would come in handy to bang his way through. He could decisively tackle the employment of PMEs and the fake qualifications problems just like he tackled the housing problem. He could order the CEOs of foreign companies to wait outside his office instead of crawling to their offices to beg them to be nice to Sinkies looking for jobs.
 
I support Boon Wan to take on the MOM and deal with the crisis immediately. No more dilly dallying. The mess is real big, bigger than the housing problem and growing by the days.
 
What do you think?

Kopi Level - Red

MH370 – Misinformation and fuzzy logics

A few days after the disappearance of MH370 and the failure to locate any debris in the surrounding seas, the possibility of it being hijacked became very real. And the few evidences available pointed to a highly sophisticated team of hijackers who were doing everything they could to avoid detection by radars. And it took 6 fruitless days to discover nothing, absolutely nothing to tell anyone where it could have gone to.

Then on the 7^th day after its disappearances there was a flood of information, even confirmed to be genuine, coming out to tell everyone a completely different story. The aircraft did not disappeared but was seen all over the sky and making all kinds of illogical manoeuvres to tell the world where it was and where it was going.

When such things happened, when logic becomes illogical, when the information made available, volunteered even by normally reliable sources, even by friendly sources, one must raise the antenna of doubt. If the information does not make sense, and telling some wild stories, one has to be suspicious and to question its validity and reliability.

Often information can be offered for the wrong reasons, mischief, misinformation, spurious, given under duress or circumstances that are unacceptable. And why, when this information was supposedly known, was not made known earlier and led so many nations on a wild goose chase in the South China Seas for almost a whole week?

The new information that was withheld and now made public include: Aircraft flying to 45,000 ft and descending to 23,000 ft. Aircraft flying to the west and under military radar screen. Aircraft flying at 29,500 ft and towards Penang into the centre of Butterworth and Penang radars with no attempt to hide its position. And subsequently aircraft flying towards the direction of India, presumably towards central Asia, where it would be seen by civilian and military radars. It was like the hijackers telling the whole world here I am, see, come and catch me. Why no longer trying to avoid radars?

All the information is saying that the first premise that the aircraft was manoeuvred to avoid radar detection is not true. The aircraft did not have that intention and was on the radar screens of military radars. Why didn’t the military raise an alarm and scramble fighters to intercept an unknown aircraft flying into Malaysian airspace? If it had hostile intention, it would have succeeded in whatever it wanted to do.

MH370 was claimed to have climbed to 45,000 ft when its max ceiling height is only 43,000 ft. It is not easy to fly an aircraft beyond its height ceiling. The pilot would have to fly it like a fighter aircraft, accelerate on descend to max speed and pull it up to hit a new high. A commercial aircraft doing such a manoeuvre would subject the fuselage to excessive stress and the wings could fall off. Is it believeable?

And the aircraft was happily flying into Penang and Butterworth radar zones at a height that it could not be missed. How ridiculous could this be? Are the hijackers suddenly became that stupid?

In my earlier posts though I mentioned a westerly route, 280 to avoid the Butterworth radars and staying at the verge of Phuket air traffic radar, I ruled this out as flying further would make it visible to radars in the west, unless it is hitting some deserted islands in the Indian Ocean. The best route to take is the easterly direction where there were no radars to pick it up on their screens.

The new information throws all the earlier premises into disarray. It suggests that the hijackers are likely to be associated with the Uighurs and their destination is central Asia. They could not fly there without being picked up and it was exactly that way, it was not picked up by anyone at the level they were supposed to be flying. They could not fly low level without burning out fuel for that kind of distance and not seen across India or countries in the region.

Najib spoke as if the latest information were gospel truths, unquestionable.  Really? Could the information offered, that were concealed for so long, be misinformation, fabricated information or spurious information?

A new dream, not owning a home

Nina Brown lost her townhouse to foreclosure due to recession. That was not the only house she lost, but another three. She now lives in a rented home. The American Dream of home ownership is crumbling. With recession, foreclosure, and more recession in the pipeline, more Americans are giving up on home ownership. This seems to be a new trend in the world’s biggest economy.

Could this be something that Sinkies would be looking forward to, renting their homes instead of home ownership, though some are saying that we have been renters all the time, at least 80% of them living in HDB 99 year leasehold flats? This is another story.

At the moment many are still in the property speculation game when money makes money and lots of money without having to work. Would the same outcome in America hits us the same way when a major recession comes along? Would our young and new home owners, with their massive debt from housing loans ended like Nina Brown, facing foreclosure and become the statistics of a new fad, renters?

We are following closely at the heels of the Americans in everything they do. When they got a cold, we will surely have one as well. How long can we hold before the next wave of recession and foreclosure hits the City? The only way to avoid such a crisis is to push property prices higher and kick the can further down the road.

But if we are to listen to what came out of Parliament, the problem crisis is over and we should be congratulating the ministers and ourselves that all is well. No longer a problem, all problems solved. In fact it is time to raise the prices of properties or else the developers would start to kpkb again.

What do you think? The next dream will be not owning cars.

Kopi Level - Yellow

MH370 – Many questions to answer

At this point in time, all fingers are pointing to a hijack. This prompts many questions on how a hijack could take place. Presumably there must be a pretty big team of hijackers to be able to over power and control 239 passengers. And they must be heavily armed.

So, how could so many hijackers board the aircraft and were they in the passenger’s list,  and went about unnoticed? Also, how could the firearms be smuggled into the aircraft? I am presuming they have firearms to be able to control so many passengers. Were they aided in some way by the ground crew? It is not easy to bring so many pieces of weapons on board.

And on Mar 8, when was the aircraft discovered to be missing, and what were really seen on the radar screen? Were they really detected on the radar screen, civilian air traffic radar or military radar? Could someone be telling lies and misleading everyone?

KLIA’s radar is unlikely to see the aircraft. Military radars could be off for the weekend or on skeleton crew, and in a relaxing mood as it is peace time and no intrusion is expected. It would be pure good luck for an operator sitting in front of a screen and monitoring all the happenings to MH370, a routine flight when there could be other civilian aircraft in the air.

What was real and what were speculation and misinformation?

While I was pondering over the above, I heard over the news that Najib had more or less confirmed that MH370 flew towards Penang and then northwest towards the Indian Ocean at about 29,000 ft. The information seemed to be confirmed and the aircraft actually was seen on military radars, probably one in Kota Bahru and then seen again by the radar in Butterworth. He also said that it was confirmed that someone deliberately switched of ACARS and the transponders in the aircraft.

What he did not say but implied was that the aircraft was deliberately flown to wherever it wanted to and to be seen on military radars and to be tracked. This is something that is contrary to the view that the aircraft was doing all it could to avoid being seen on radars. Over the last few days it was reported that the aircraft was not seen by radars at least from the spot when it last disappeared and all the way to Penang and only appeared over Pulau Perak. Now it is reported that it was seen flying from where it last disappeared, yes reported disappeared but was seen flying to Penang, tracked by military radar!

If the information is true, Malaysia is doing the right thing to search in the west and stop all searches in the South China Sea. But if the information was fake or misleading, it could be misled to search exactly away from where it should be searching.

Interviews with an ex FBI agent Steve Cutler and a Singaporean expert Paul Yap, both still believed that whoever was flying the aircraft he was trying to avoid radars. How to explain the new facts that the aircraft flew into the thick of radars in Penang and Butterworth and even seen by the one in Kota Bahru? They are now claiming to be seeing the aircraft all the while since it last disappeared or reported to have disappeared up to the Indian Ocean?

What is going on?

Policies Good, Politics can do better

This is what sums up the views of Chua Mui Hoong about what’s happening in Parliament and what the Govt has been doing. Before anyone starts to throw chairs and tables at her, let me make a point here. What she wrote is just her opinion. And this is what she called herself, Opinion Editor. Her title says it and you are free to disagree and also you may have your own opinions that may not agree with hers. I think that is fair.

How many of you agree with her that the Govt policies are good? I am stretched to find any. Maybe I will do a contortionist act by agreeing with a few that are good depending on who you are. High ministerial pay is good and helps to fight corruption too. And it gives our President a lot of dignity too.

High property prices are good as they turned Sinkies into millionaires without having to work and can collect higher rentals.

All the changes regarding CPF are good as they made Sinkies smiled at their monthly or quarterly statements that informed them how rich they are till they died. The money is guaranteed to be there, and would not runaway even if preventing the owners from squandering it.

Allowing medical cost to go unchecked is also a good policy as it means the quality must be damn good as good things don’t come cheap. Our medical fees are now like branded goods, paying for quality for those who can afford it. For those who can’t, just stand far far away to admire.

Our policies on foreign talents are even better, starting from paying for their education with generous scholarships to giving them high paying jobs to replace Sinkies that are not good enough despite world class university education that emptied their savings. And fakes are also excellent for the economies, don’t disturb them as long as the employers are happy with them, and the displaced PMEs are not complaining and happy driving taxis to be their own bosses.

I could go on with another long list of good policies, but that would become too boring.  Let me quote Ignatius Low on Housing. ‘It has been this resolve to move quickly without being encumbered by the decisions of his predecessors that has been the basis of Mr Khaw’s success.’ He went on to ask Boon Wan to take a bow for a job well done. I don’t know how many of you would agree but I don’t think it is such a difficult thing to do when someone shitted and vomited all over the place and one has to clean up the mess. But the stench stayed, a lot of money and effort wasted with many home buyers forced to buy sky high priced properties that would strangle them one day when they lost their jobs. They would be displaced PMEs as a matter of time. And there are many high income earners that were either forced to buy expensive private properties, migrated or still depending on renting properties, booted out from buying cheaper public housing.

The damage had been done and the prices are still in high heavens. Good job done?

And how many would agree that the report card for Health and Manpower be rated as satisfactory? As for Transport, appalling is quite appropriate though the report card said, ‘Can and must do better’.

Anyway it is all about personal opinions and it is good that we can share our opinions on things without being personal. A bit of civility will go a long way.

Kopi Level - Green

TRE – The shadow Parliament

In a way the TRE is looking like the shadow Parliament where national issues are discussed furiously by the people and their representatives. Every issue is hotly debated and reflected the real feelings of the people, the tension, the angst, the misery, the pain and the frustration and exasperation, all came out as real as you can get. Though there might be some fakings, but it is hundreds of times more real than the real Parliament.

Here not only genuine issues are raised, genuine questions are also asked, issues that really affect the lives of the people. There is no time for superficiality and no material issues raised for the sake of raising just for fun.

The people’s representatives here are really the representatives of the people. If they are not and speaking 

against the people, they will be ‘goreng’ and chewed to pieces.

You can imagine how the parliamentarians or MPs and ministers appearing here and talking nonsense or incomprehensible things or things they wanted the people to believe are right or good for the people when they are not? They will be striped naked and whipped and torched here. Oops, cannot say such things like whipped and torched or some people will take it literally. Only figuratively like all the good things they said in Parliament, figuratively also.

What do you think, which is the more real Parliament? Or which Parliament is a talk cock session?

Khobragade won against the American bully

She was an Indian diplomat in New York and accused of making false submission on her maid and even suspected of drug smuggling. To make things more embarrassing, she was arrested in broad daylight in a public area and subsequently subjected to the most humiliating search conducted on a woman by the American police.
 
This sparked a diplomatic row and the Indian govt cried foul, brought her home and then appointed her as a counsellor to India’s mission in the United Nation. This immediately raised her status and protected with diplomatic immunity. Though this was technically foul as it was done after the accusation and charges, so what? This is the only way to deal with American treachery and devious plots against their political target.
 
After months of diplomatic chest thumping, the Americans finally backed off and dismissed the charges. India has succeeded in facing up to the international bully by being tough, as tough as the Americans to win this case.
 
Well done India. Other countries must learn from this episode and take the Americans by the horns when they turned devilish if they are to get an even chance to shrug them off. China better learn from India in how to deal with the American bully.

MH370 and Mas Selamat similarities

When Mas Selamat disappeared from the detention centre, it was like falling out from the radar screen. Troops were activated to search the estates around Bukit Timah. And the search extended to all the parks in all corners of the island. The only area that was left untouched was the water catchment area around the reservoirs. Not a trace was found of the disappearing act.
 
MH370 had disappeared and all the searches were in the area around where it was last seen. This is perfectly logical on the assumption that it had crashed or exploded in mid air. Now these two possibilities have increasingly been written off and the theory of hijacking is gaining prominent. And the search started to cover a wider area and into the Straits of Malacca and Indian Ocean. And like Mas Selamat, the South China Sea is left practically untouched except for the vicinity of the last sighting. And like Mas Selamat, not a trace was found.
 
Both cases are like they have disappeared into thin air a la David Copperfield’s magic show. And there were even leads or false leads pointing towards the Indian Ocean and the Straits of Malacca. Could the aircraft be sitting somewhere safe in Peninsula Malaysia or somewhere in the east, in the islands of Philippines?
 
When a crash is ruled out, the next logical thing is to look at the possible destination of the hijackers and how much fuel the aircraft had and how far this would take it to. It is likely to be an isolated or deserted location that has little human traffic or activities to conceal its presence. And by now, if this theory is to be true, the hostages would have been splitted into smaller groups and scattered in many safe houses very far apart to avoid detection or rescue by any task force.
 
The aircraft and the passengers/hostages could be like Mas Selamat, sitting safely somewhere by now.
 
PS. If the aircraft would to fly another 4 hours as rumoured, the destination is likely to be the Philippines.

Medisave tweaks, to save pockets?

So many reports on how the Medisave is being tweaked and becoming more flexible to allow the people to use to pay for more medical services, including drugs. These must be music to the ears of the people who are short of cash.
 
One thing has been silent through out the reports and all these months when the cost of medical services were reported. It was all about how to pay, and even the buffet spread of Medishield Life is also about how to pay. Though the equation has two parts, the Govt seems to be only interested in how to get the people to pay and nothing much really was said on how to bring down medical cost.
 
Not a word, yes, not a word in this as if it is something that nothing can be done to it. Why? You think and tell me.

Kopi Level - Yellow

Changing the DNA of Sin City

We acknowledged the pioneer generations for building this great city into what it is today. And this is a one time exercise for a good reason. We are paying our debt to the pioneer generation once and for all and good riddance. We don’t need these coolie stocks anymore and by making this payout we have settled our debt to them.
 
We are going to start a new Sin City with good stocks, not coolie stocks anymore. We are having our own formula for Year Zero, unlike those of the Pol Pot regime that massacred their adults to start a new generation of people without the old thinking. We are doing differently from Mao who started the Cultural Revolution to delete centuries of superstitions but also in the same stroke, wiped out centuries of wisdom and historical treasures.
 
We are going to do it better than Mao but not as vicious as Pol Pot. We would not commit genocide. But we will replace our coolie stocks with good and clever stocks of the rich and famous all over the world to start a new city of Sin. (Shsssssh, 3rd World also can lah. But please don’t mention about fakes). We would only take in all the talents of the world, we will called them foreign talents. This would form the immediate need and the current elite.
 
We would spend money to buy other sporting talents also for our immediate needs in these areas. At the same time we would spend money to train and educate foreign talents in our schools and universities to be our new citizens of the future. We will budget hundreds of millions annually for this goal. We would ignore the coolie stocks and would not use the budget to nurture their poor stocks when we could have better foreign stocks.
 
Our open door policy to immigrants is to prepare the ground for them, too lure them to breed here with their good genes, make them comfortable and wanting to sink roots here. It is their children that we are coveting. This forms the third part of a three part strategy to fill the island with good stocks.
 
By Year 2050 we should have a new population of good stocks forming the bulk of the population and Sin City will be the model of the world, a City of sinfully intelligent people with super talents.
 
What do you think? Good idea or not?

Kopi Level - Yellow

Singapore Turf Club - My personal collection of Singapore's history

I just saw the Channel News Asia programme called Treasure Hunt with the items being exhibited at the National Museum. And I recollect that I have this scrip of paper which is a betting slip of the Singapore Turf Club dated 4th October 1958. It is quite a long time for a worthless piece of paper to survive that long. Its reason for longetivity is the herbal prescription written on its back, I think. I am not sure what it was for.

This is something I found left behind by my mother. A little legacy of the past.

MH370 – More misinformation

The more people questioned the information coming out from the Malaysian Govt, the more they corrected what they said and the more misinformation came forth as a result. The latest from General Rodzali Daud, ‘the military received signals on Saturday that, after the plane stopped communicating with ground controllers, it turned from heading north east to heading west, lowered its altitude and flew hundreds of kilometres across Peninsular Malaysia and over the Straits of Malacca before the tracking went blank.’
 
First point, under which radar was the aircraft tracked? Kota Bahru, KLIA or Butterworth? At the last spot quoted, none of the radars could pick up the aircraft signal. The second point is that if it were to head west from that point, it would be heading to the Isthmus of Kra, towards the direction of Phuket. It would not have been travelling hundreds of kilometers across Peninsular Malaysia unless it was heading southwest. Then it could possibly be picked up by KLIA if travelling at high altitude. If it was flying low, all the residents along its flight path would have been awaken by the noise it caused early in the morning.
 
What is the truth? Why all these misinformation?
 
Hishammuddin said Malaysia was transparent and had nothing to hide. Are they really not hiding anything? Could the aircraft have turned back and landed in Kota Bahru and they are negotiating with the hijackers all the time?

Water rationing, a wake up call for Sinkies

A Christopher Teo Kian Lam wrote to the ST forumer on the dry spell and how water rationing would be a wake up call to Sinkies who still treat the water supply as a God given right. They need a taste of what water rationing is like to take water conservation seriously. He said, ‘Do we need our reservoirs’s water levels to deplete further, or wait for a NEWater or desalination plant to malfunction under the increased production, before reality sets in?’
 
I agree with him the Sinkies must not waste water unnecessarily. But who is the real culprit in excessive water consumption? Wait till the population hits 6.9m, another 1.5m people in the island, then you won’t need a dry spell to ration water. You may have to ration water daily throughout the year.
 
Do we really have enough water sources to feed the need of 6.9m or more? Maybe the wake up shall be addressed to the govt. Do we need 6.9m population to feel the squeeze on our water supply? At the moment we have just about enough for 5.4m people and this applies to many other facilities and infrastructure. Can we really cope with 6.9m? Maybe we can, and by then, we will have to live with ERP on our water supply as well.
 
Is this dry spell a wake up call on the Govt to think thrice about the 6.9m population rather than on the Sinkies?

Little India Riot- Was it life threatening?

This question popped up in the COI hearing after people questioned if the Chairman was seen to be more concern with the burning of police vehicles than the safety of police officers. Selvam came out to explain that he did not mean that and the situation was not life threatening then and that was why the burning of the vehicles became an important issue. Or, if it was a life threatening situation, then the burning of vehicles would not be such a vital point in his comment.
 
‘A lot of people (have asked me that). I never said that. What I said in the proceedings was, on that day, it was not a life threatening situation. That means these rioters weren’t after the lives of anybody,’ said Selvam.
 
‘So what the responders were faced with was a simple rioting situation, where rioters were burning property, overturning cars. They never threatened the life of anybody, so there was no justification to pull out the gun and fire.’ This second quote did not mention who said it but presumably must be by Selvam, or is it, as the content was contrary to what he said and doubting that the rioters were not going to threaten lives. And it was reported that ‘the retired judge agreed that if the police had pulled out the guns, it could have changed the situation.
 
The judge continued to insist that it was not life threatening, ‘The situation you have was purely confined to property damage, not life damage. Fact of the matter is, they is no evidence of them wanting to kill anybody.’ Someone seemed to know what were in the minds of the very nice rioters who were behaving like spoilt children burning their toys and had no thoughts of killing anyone.
 
Really? I remember one of the earlier witnesses who understood Tamil was saying the rioters spoke in Tamil saying they wanted to kill the bus attendant. And in a situation like a riot, can anyone be so sure that it was not life threatening? All it needed wa a police officer to make the wrong move like charging into the crowd alone and you wanna bet that no life will be threatened?
 
I am just thinking aloud. But they are the experts the ‘knows all’. So the experts must be right. Let me guess, it is, it is not, it is, it is not....

What do you think?

Kopi Level - Green

From Sin City to City of Ruffians

Anton Casey was an angel. He only made some funny remarks and faces, did not hurt anyone physically. In today’s report in MyPaper, a petite Singapore young lady, Dawn Ho, was punched in the nose by a Caucasian man twice her size for trying to stop him from bullying a taxi driver. This Caucasian ruffian is called Aaron Jeremiejczyk. His female companion, not sure a SPG or a foreigner, hit Dawn’s friend, a Munir Alsagoff with a beer bottle.
 
The police were called and it was reported that they were investigating. Not sure if the Caucasian ruffian and his woman ruffian were arrested. Very likely not. And very likely the two Singaporean victims would now have to get their own lawyer to sue them. Otherwise they would just be a punching bag and nothing could be done about it. And if the ruffians’ passports are not withheld, they could be on the next flight out of Ruffian City and laughing their guts out for having a good time punching daft Sinkies.
 
And the daft Sinkies would continue to invite more of such ruffians into the city to punch them. They would even spend millions to integrate them to be like timid and meek Sinkies. Can it happen? Would it work? Would wild Caucasians be turned into meek and daft Sinkies? What a joke?
 
No, they are saying it is not a joke. The Sinkies are serious, spending real good money to embrace these ruffians to be one of them.

Are Singaporean PMETs hungry enough?

Below are parts of a post by a ‘Return Singaporean’ on his experience and advice to Sinkies to go seek employment elsewhere to gain the overseas exposure. I removed a few paras to make it shorter to read.
 
The first point I like to make is that not all jobs required overseas experience. How many jobs needed that? The second point is that from what he said, Sinkies are just poor workers and those foreigners he recruited are good workers. Presumably he is getting all the good candidates with genuine qualifications. And this is possible as they came from the world pool where there are hundreds of millions out there.
 
So what’s the beef? In the Sinkie context, in many cases it is not because the Sinkies are not good and the foreigners better but Sinkies were simply sacked and replaced by foreigners. Two, in many cases, even with my eyes closed, many of the foreigners faked their qualifications and CVs. Three, many jobs don’t need overseas experience or exposure. And fourth, the most important, why are Sinkie running away from home and be willing to be replaced by fakes or people that are not better than them? By doing so, Sinkies are losing their homes and country by default when the foreigners keep coming in to replace them by cheating and Sinkies running away without a fight.
 
Returning Singaporeans may be writing his piece with good intentions but his reality is an illusion. The reasons for Sinkies losing their jobs are not because they are not good enough. And with so many jobs that don’t need overseas exposure, it is something good to have but not necessary most of the time.
 
The most important thing for Sinkies is to get their house in order and kick out all the fakes and foreigners that are practicing discrimination against the Sinkies. Ideally the govt should take the lead. If the govt is not going to do so and condoning the discrimination and alienation of Sinkies in jobs, that a new govt must be voted in to do the right thing for Sinkies, to protect their jobs, their homes and the country. Running away or going overseas is a defeatist thing to do and very dangerous, as Sinkies will lose their country by default. All Sinkies must look at the bigger picture of country and the people as a whole and not at individual cases. If one is looking at each case individually, I would suggest we replace the whole cabinet with more competent and cheaper foreigners.
 
What do you think? Should Sinkies just run away and be replaced by fake foreigners and ruffians in their own country?
 
You may now read what Returning Singaporean wrote below.
 
‘….Most of the locals lack overseas exposure/s and a rather severe skill-set mismatch with what the market currently needs (or will need in the future).
I’ve to confessed that I’d “lower” the benchmark for a couple locals, hoping that I was wrong in my initial assessment and that they will turn out to be a gem in the later stages of the selection.
 
Boy was I wrong! Not only do all the Singaporean applicants lack in-depth experience and knowledge, they also lack that sense of aggression, enthusiasm and that desire (or should I say… “hunger”) to succeed.
It almost felt as though as if, they are “entitled” to the job, because of the mere fact that they are….. Singaporeans.
 
I’d fought inch & tooth to increase the headcount in Singapore and not move it to lower cost bases in India or China. If this new hire is a poor match and does not succeed, it will be my neck on the chopping board….
 
This decision wasn’t made because of a “Foreigner-vs-Singaporean” conflict.
It was made because of the candidate’s suitability to the role. I’d to choose the best person, who can succeed and help us achieve the firm’s targets. It was just painfully sad that it was not offered to a Singaporean instead….
 
I strongly urge Singaporeans to widen their horizon. Go out to the world, try something new.
 
Increase your knowledge base, consistently venture out of your comfort zone/s and make this a habit….
 
If we do not make ourselves worthy of every single penny/cents, it is really that easy for firms to just unplug from Singapore and move on to the next “lower value cost center”.’

Kopi Level - Yellow

MH370 – Why radars cannot see and where it could be?

The MH370 disappeared from radar contact about 120 nm East of Kota Baru. At this point in time there is still no trace of debris to confirm a crash or explosion and both possibilities could be ruled out. Other than the Bermuda TriangleTheory, my view is that the aircraft was likely to be hijacked. The fact that there was no radar contact means that it was deliberately flown under radar coverage to avoid detection and leaving no trails as to where it was heading. The other point to note is that none of the passengers could make a call out with their mobile phones, a sign that all their phones have been confiscated and they are under duress.  Given these assumptions, my point is that the aircraft is hijacked by a team of professionals who knew exactly what they were doing and had a meticulous plan to fly the aircraft to a destination without being tracked or seen on radar.

How could the hijackers do it? How could they fly the aircraft without appearing on the radar screens of any radar or air traffic control stations? To do that the hijackers must have knowledge of the locations of all the radars in the region. The commercial radars of air traffic control towers are in Kota Baru, Penang/Butterworth, Bangkok, Phuket and Ho Chi Minh City. There could be some military radar stations in the area which I am not familiar with. The radars in the south would be Singapore and to the east would be in Sabah, Brunei and Manila.

Given the presence of these radars and putting aside the unknown military radar stations, the hijackers must chart a course from its last known position to their planned destination without entering a radar zone.  Two possible headings, 280 to the west or 100 to the east, would keep them out of the radars in Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City in the north and Penang/Butterworth and Kota Baru in the south.

The aircraft needed only to travel at below 10,000 ft in either direction for 30 minutes to be out of radar detection. Going west, however would not go far as the path would enter into Phuket if it tries to avoid Penang/Butterworth radars. The eastern flight path is safer, after 30 minutes heading 100, it could turn to 060 on a north easterly direction, climb to cruise level and fly for two hours while avoiding radars in Singapore and East Malaysia.  The aircraft would have to turn to a south easterly direction if it were to avoid the radar in Manila. Assuming that the hijackers are muslims, just assuming, they are likely to head towards the southern islands in the Philippines where they could find friendly forces to accommodate them or their fellow hijackers awaiting them.

The above are just speculations of what the hijackers could do given where they were and where they could fly to, and to stay away from radar detection. This is one of many possible explanations why the MH370 could not be seen on radar other than a total eclipse due to a mid air explosion or sinking into the ocean. If this theory is proven right, MH370 is likely to be in the southern islands of the Philippines.

Just a theory, an educated guess.

Japanese lie and western conspiracy

In a Reuter report yesterday titled, ‘No sign’ Japan’s plutonium stocks risk being diverted to military use, the IAEA Chief, Director General Yukiya Amano said, ‘there was no sign that nuclear material in Japan “has the risk of being diverted” to military applications.’ How assuring is this confession? How convenient for the IAEA Chief to be a Japanese overseeing the Japanese nuclear programme and guarding the weapons grade plutonium in Japan?
 
Can you believe and trust the Japanese that they needed to buy 300kg of weapons grade plutonium for research purposes when this could produce 50 nuclear bombs? Can you believe the Japanese for hunting and killing millions of whales annually for research purposes? The West believe it.
 
The Japanese have kept the 300kg of weapons grade plutonium since 1960 and finally gave in to US demand to hand over to the US. And this is done now with Japan having acquired 159 tonnes of its own plutonium from its nuclear plants as at 2012. And how many kg is 159 tonnes? It is 159,000 kg, which means Japan has enough plutonium to make 26,500 nuclear bombs! So what is the returning of 300kg back to the US?
 
And the question, what is Japan going to do with the 159,000 kg of plutonium in her possession? Amano declared, ‘All the plutonium…in Japan is under IAEA safeguards.’ So, Japan has never touch the plutonium and has not done anything to it and, ‘There is no reason for concern that plutonium held by Japan could be diverted to nuclear arms purposes,’ said the United Nations watchdog in Vienna.
 
How many of you trust and believe the Japanese have no nuclear bomb and have not done anything with the plutonium, including those acquired in 1960 for research. Maybe they were trying to convert plutonium to green tea.
 
Can anyone see this gigantic conspiracy between the West and Japan? What is the truth? The Americans believed that Japan was not going to declare war in WW2 and lived to regret their naivety and stupidity. Now they believe the Japanese have no nuclear weapons and would not strike America a second time.
 
How Japan is behaving towards China and towards its war crimes are testimonies to the character to the Japanese people and what they would do if they are allowed a free hand to do as they please, and with military might.

Mercedes sales getting a boost

The golden Mercedes Benz crashing through the cat claw barrier at Woodlands Check Point is something to watch and envy. The security officers must be stunned and in awe to see that machine smashed through the security barrier meant exactly to bring cars up to 6 tonnes to a stop. And here was a less than 3 tonnes Mercedes Benz running through the barrier like walking on tahu and drove off unscathed. Can you believe it? And no puncture on the tyres! And the car disappeared into the horizon like magic.
 
What kind of car and how was it made to withstand the special steel spikes designed to cripple any cars and even bigger ones like a 6 tonner? At least the tyres would be in shreds. Kudos to the tyre makers. Steel tyre tubes or what? The Benz was better built than James Bond’s Aston Martin I think, or that BMW.
 
Mercedes Benz has earned itself the right to call its Benzes indestructible or at least unstoppable. Good German engineering. Sales must have taken a boost with this life test, not a controlled experiment in the lab.

Roy Ngerng is taking you for a ride – Randall

There is this article by a Randall posted in the TRE with the above title. The author assured everyone that contrary to what Roy Ngerng had written, the money transferred from the Town Council to the Sinking Fund is safe and sound. No need to worry or be frightened, the money will not run away, and will always be there. This is what Randall said,
 
‘The accumulated surpluses are transferred into the Sinking Fund after every GE to safeguard the money from willful spending by the next MPs who come in, no matter which party they are from. It is to ensure that the Town Council is able to continue doing its duties to the people, even after a change in party.
 
So where does the Sinking Fund go? If Mr Roy is to be believed, then the PAP makes regular trips to the Town Council counter after every GE to cart away boxes of hard-earned resident’s cash. It cleans out the vaults, leaving Singaporeans and the Town Council bereft every 4 years. Never mind, we’ll just get the peasants to pay. Pay up you swine! You got millions to replace!
 
The answer (and try not to be too shocked): Nowhere – the Sinking Fund stays with the respective Town Councils itself.’
 
I must say I feel very assured that the Town Council is safe, very safe if they did not try to invest in any bonds again, just like my CPF savings. They are just transferred to the minimum sums accounts and would be there, would not go away. Oh, just a little refinement, Town Council Sinking Fund does not have Medishielf Life to deduct from your Medisave Minimum Sum Account. Other than this, the minimum sums for Retirement and Medisave Accounts are very safe. Don’t worry, they will be there even after you die as no one can touch them.
 
Smile, your money in the minimum sums and the money in the Sinking Funds are in good hands.

Kopi Level - Green