Thomas Friedman - A most entertaining piece

Friedman had an article in the Today paper reposted from the NYT a couple of days back. The article titled ‘War on ISIS: It’s about Arabs, not Americans’. What Friedman did was to add in some humour in the way he ridiculed the Americans and their allies. I would be doing him injustice to paraphrase what he crafted. Let me quote a few of his wise jabs here.
 
‘There are 3 things in life that you should never do ambivalently: getting married, buy a house and go to war. Alas, we’re about to do No 3….How could he(Obama) not? Our staying power is ambiguous, our enemy is barbarous, our regional allies are duplicitous, our European allies are feckless and the Iraqis and Syrians we’re trying to help are factious.
 
Consider Saudi Arabia. It’s going to help train Free Syrian Army soldiers, but, at the same time, is one of the biggest sources of volunteer jihadists in Syria….Turkey allowed foreign jihadists to pass into and out of Syria and has been an important market for oil that ISIS is smuggling out of Iraq for cash….Qatar is with us Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and against us Tuesday and Thursdays. Fortunately, it takes the weekends off.
 
Back home,… the Republican Party who are urging him to bomb ISIS will be the first to run for the hills if we get stuck, fail or accidentally bomb a kindergarten class.’
 
Still he has good reasons to want Obama to start the war. His reason, ‘if ISIS jihadists consolidate their power in the heart of Iraq and Syria, it could threaten some real island of decency, like Kurdistan, Jordan and Lebanon…’ Here he was a bit evasive and not telling the whole truth. The island of decency is Israel but not politically correct now to say it is all about Israel’s interests.
 
But he has his fingers at the pulse of the conflict. If the Americans were to enter this war and turn it into a Christian against the Muslims or the West against the Arabs, it would be disastrous. ‘ISIS wins if it can make this America’s war with Sunni Islam.’
 
So, would the Americans listen to him and stop making this an American or Obama’s war against the Arabs? Would America be roping in the non Muslim states to fight the Arabs/Muslim states or would American be able to get the Arab/Muslim states to fight among themselves?
 
For a start the Americans and the ‘Coalition of the New Willings’ are going to start training more fighters to fight IS and Assad. And they jolly well know that these fighters would be the new Al Qaeda or Talebans or ISIS of the future, and will be more deadly when will be fighting the Americans.

Kopi Level - Green

Xtron models after GIC

Roy Ngerng’s article comparing GIC with Xtron got him into a legal suit for defamation against Hsien Loong. So touching on this issue demands extra sensitivity to keep Sue away. I have avoided this issue for a long time not so much because of Roy’s law suit but more because it involves a religious organization and a religion. They said it is better to stay away from religion and race. So I took the good advice. I barely read or follow the discussion in the media on the Xtron’s case, perhaps at most glancing at the headlines and giving it a casual glance over.
 
Yesterday someone pointed to me an article in TheNewPaper on the City Harvest Church Leaders Trial. It is very interesting to note that as early as 2008, according to the news report by Ng Jun Sen, Xtron and its relationship with CHC was compared to that of GIC and the Govt. And to be very safe, I quote, “Xtron Productions is like City Harvest Church’s (CHC) own GIC. Its founder Kong Hee had told church members in a speech…Just like the GIC, Xtron was meant to protect the interest of CHC, he had said in August 2008.”
 
These words became the main topic of discussion in the court. And the revelation included how Xtron models and functions, and in a way very similar to GIC. Were they trying to say that Xtron not only modelled its functions like GIC but also works in the same way?
 
And I quote again, “You know, in Singapore, we have GIC? Every time you ask the Govt what is a GIC, they say ‘national security, we cannot make it known to everybody.’” And using this example Kong Hee told his members to keep Xtron’s relationship to the church “within the four walls of the building”.
 
The report in TheNewPaper has many other interesting quotes and revelations as to how Xtron works and the need not to tell the world. Go look up the article yourself, dated 16 Sep. Get a copy of the paper.
Finally, let me conclude this post with a final quote. “Tan(Sharon) claimed that Wee(Serina) had told her not to record minutes at board meetings that pertained to Xtron’s decisions because the church ‘was not supposed to be aware’ of them.
 
The trial continues. This case is getting more and more interesting by the days. Let me double check to ensure that I have not misquoted anything. Please let me know if I have said anything that I am not supposed to say.

Kopi Level - Green

Did Roy Ngerng mean anything to you?

Here is the programme of the vigil on 17 Sep at Hong Lim Park. If Roy means something to you, if Roy has done something good for you, hope you will be there to reciprocate, a show of support at the very least to Roy for speaking up for your CPF.
 
Program for the Candlelight evening:
 
7.30 pm People gather for a short welcome speech
7.35 pm Lighting of the Torches at the mound
7.45 pm Singing “We Shall Overcome”
“How many roads must a Man walk down?”
“ When we walk through a storm………..”
8.00 pm Well wishers light up their individual candle and plant it along the white carpet walkway, near the mount or the tent. After that they can sign their good wishes on the cloth banner.
8.30 pm Light refreshment of moon cake, chai tow kuay and tea
9.00 pm Sing or rap to your heart’s content:
“To dream the impossible Dream”
Songs from “Les Miserables”
 
Midnight: Goodnight farewell we hate to say goodbye.
 
We hope you will use the occasion to get to know each other better and share your hopes and dreams for a better tomorrow.

Convenors:
Teo Soh Lung

Kopi Level - Green

Hsien Loong’s popular TV show

‘Ask the PM’ is indeed a popular show with 700 questions tabled and the talk of the town. The questions varied from the serious national issues, bread and butter issues to entertaining the juveniles. It was actually asking too much to expect 700 questions to be answered in all seriousness in a one hour slot. As a result some viewers were disappointed as they did not get what they wanted to hear. Only the children were the happy ones.
 
Let me put up a few suggestions to make this show better and more thorough so that no one will be disappointed and left feeling hungry and unhappy that many issues were not adequately tackled. The serious adults must be demanding for a detailed discussion on national issues. But the children must be very happy knowing the PM also shared the same passion for comic heroes.
 
With this in mind, one thing the producer could do is to classify the TV show into different segments to cater for different groups of people, the PG14, PG16, PG21 or X rated. No NAR please. This will in a way separate the viewers so that their interests would not clash and start to blame one another, or be bored by the different issues raised by the different age groups.
 
Another thing is to turn it into a serial to give more time to the different category. Otherwise there is no way to answer 700 questions within one hour. With only a handful of questions answered, nearly 700 people would be very angry for putting up the questions and the effort knowing that it was a waste of time.
 
And the 700 questions were only the beginning. When the serial is on air, more questions could come in and the streets would be silent. People would all be rushing home to watch the programme, Monday for children, Tuesday for youth, Wednesday for adults, Thursday for aunties and Friday for uncles. Oh, Saturday night primetime can be reserved for foreign talents. It could be a long running series to better the Taiwanese Life drama. And no one can complain about the questions being too shallow, naïve, jokes and nothing serious. The adult series would definitely be serious and the children would be light hearted. They might call Hsien Loong uncle in the programme. The interesting one could be the auntie series, and they may regard Hsien Loong as an auntie killer.
 
There is great potential for this programme to be as famous as Yes, Prime Minister! It could generate a lot of revenue for Mediacorp and propel Hsien Loong as a TV idol, a heart throb of the young and the aunties.
 
Think my suggestion is good.

Kopi Level - Green

Are we printing fake degrees?

We are recruiting so called foreign talents en masse from the capital cities infamous for degree mills and selling fake degrees. And there are more than a million of these things here. And how many fake degrees have been uncovered? 10, 20, or 30? Incredible is the word. Either these fakers are damn street smart or we are damn stupid that barely a handful could be found among the millions that have entered our system over the years. Is it something of an accolade that we should shower over our heads or should we bow in shame? The cavalier attitude towards the presence of fakes in out system is frightening and simply irresponsible!

Never mind, never mind, it doesn’t matter. Only a few losers got fired and replaced and they are not complaining. So where is the problem? No complains means no problems right? Let’s just ignore their abundant presence. Since no one bothers so let it be. Let’s move on. Employers are happy, the fakers are happy, the govt is happy, except for the few that turned taxi drivers. Maybe they are also happy as they are now their own bosses managing their own time and trying to better their services by being more courteous and gracious to their customers.

Fake degrees are simply fake degrees, obtained without the need to attend classes or lectures. Some may attend a few fake classes by fly by night operators calling themselves Universities of Oxbridge or Camford, or New Harvard or Old Yale, something like that. We also have quite a lot here in our streets. Some have been caught and closed.

What if an university is very reputable but the professors or lecturers are fakes? Would their degrees be considered fake degrees as well? 

Kopi Level - Green

Reincarnation Truth shall set Tibetans Free.

By Michael Heng PBM of miko-wisdom.blogspot.sg

Be Free at Last.  Reincarnation and the 15^th Dalai Lama.  The end of the Dalai Lamas, announced by the current 14^th Dalai Lama in an interview with German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, would usher the rebirth of Tibetan Buddhism as it abandons its wrongful understanding of reincarnation and return to original Buddhism roots to begin Tibetans on the long journey of enlightenment towards the Truth. 

Tibetans would finally be completely free to create their own future through the cultural transformation of the worldviews and mental paradigms which has locked them in a timeless medieval prison of theocratic serf bondage for centuries until the 1950’s. And with this change, ordinary Tibetans can prepare their children for the crucial reforms, radical social reconstruction and education towards a better, more modern future society with the rest of the world.   

"Reincarnation” is popularly, but wrongfully, understood to be the transmigration of a soul to another body after death. Each successive Dalai Lama thus justifies his continual entitlement as the spiritual and political Head of the Tibetans residing in the posh and luxurious Potala Palace overlooking the world’s highest plateau. 

There is no such teaching as Tibetan “reincarnation” in Buddhism.

Read More:

Reincarnation Truth Shall Set Tibetans Free

Reincarnation Failed Outside Tibet

War against the Islamic State getting closer

The Axis, from Washington and London, has reached Canberra. The three European colonial powers have joined hands to take on the ISIS. They have formed a ‘Coalition of the Willings’ once again to take on the Islamic fighters they called evil. On the evil Islamic fighters side there is a real coalition of more than 80 countries, fighters from these countries who marched there with their feet, to fight on the side of the Islamic State. This kind of volunteerism and martyrdom is frightening and very difficult to defeat.
 
When we were part of the first ‘Coalition of the Willings’, many knew it was the ‘Coalition of the Unwillings’, we could be excused for being forced into a situation when we were either with George Bush or against George Bush. We had no choice. Do we have a choice this time? Has the armed twisting started and we would again be volunteered to fight in this war against the Islamic State?
 
In the first instance, fighting to topple Saddam Hussein was a pretty isolated event. Invading Iraq on a fake charge of WMD, a serious violation of a country’s sovereignty, a very serious precedent set by the evil Empire to justify an invasion, given the predominance of the Empire, it was quite safe to do so with minimal repercussions.
 
To be actively involved against the Islamic State is not going to be a cake walk, and not going to be pleasant. In particular, living in a sea of Islamic states and with many sympathizers quietly supporting, it is deadly crazy to incur their wrath. We cannot afford to be involved in this war. We are too vulnerable and exposed.
 
May wisdom rule and we be spared from becoming a party to this Coalition of the Willings or Unwillings. We have no choice but to walk away. And pray there is no hero who thinks this is another party for a bit of glory and chest thumping. This war is disease. There will be plenty of gory.

Kopi Level - Green

Are we gaming the university ranking systems?

Within a few years, the rankings of NUS and NTU have shot up by leaps and bounds. It is like out of the blue we are world champions or nearly there in table tennis and nothing else. And every time when the media proudly splashed in their pages that we were ranked higher than the Ivy League universities in the US and UK, my goose pimples popped up instantly. Really ah? Even if we are really better than these Ivy League universities, why are our graduates ended up as rejects and unable to compete for jobs in our very own country, in our very own system, in our very own companies, organisations and institutions? Never mind.

Our universities are flooded with foreigners in the administration, the teaching staff and among the undergrads and post grads. Is their presence part of the gaming process? If they are, I say if, cause I dunno, how much are we paying for all these foreigners just to put a mask over our face? Foreigners in administration and teaching staff, mostly academically highly qualified, don’t come cheap unless they are from Timbuktu. But Timbuktu doesn’t count for high rankings, so NG. And there is the often repeated complaints of hundreds of millions, by now could be billions of dollars, given as scholarships to foreigners. Are the scholarships and money spent part of the gaming process too?

Now what is the gain, what is the return if the money were spent on gambling. Shit, why did I say gambling? It must be the influence of the casinos or the big gamblers managing big funds. I mean gaming the system, not gambling the system. Ok, just to be clear, I am not saying anyone is gaming the system, I am just asking if we are gaming the system and what is the cost of gaming the system?

Before I forget, what is the gain? Like the medals for table tennis, what is the gain and is the gain worth it for the money spent? So what if our rankings are in high heavens. What is the point? It would be better to use the money to build a few monuments, maybe cheaper if the maintenance is low. Just don’t build monuments that need hundreds of millions for upkeeping and to provide jobs for highly paid foreigners.

Anyone knows if we are hooked on gaming the university ranking systems and who gives the green light if we are really doing it? It costs a lot of money that could be used for better things. My gut feel is that we cannot be so stupid to waste public money on such cheapo reputations. Our administrators would have better sense and circumspection not to waste public money. Our rankings are high because we are good and the presence of the foreigners is coincidental. There is nothing to it. Go look somewhere else. We don’t game the system for some cheapo unrecognised subjective rankings that really mean nothing.

Kopi Level - Green

A little wisdom from the wise ones

For many years many people were wondering why the stock exchange of a financial centre, aspiring to be the top financial centre is Asia, is allowed to go on a self destruct mode. Don’t agree? The SGX is in the pink of health? Again, I love to resurrect George Yeo’s famous comment, what you see from the outside, everything is so perfect but is not real. Some would say the stock exchange is doing fine, damn bloody fine, with the latest technology, the most expensive computers, the newest tricks in play, and a top foreign talent in charge, things must only go right. Or maybe I quote another eminent, look at the long run, the pains today would be worth it, like how we suffered in the early years of nation building and being rewarded today. Everything will be fine in the long run. It is all in the schemes of things.

All those who are in the stock market business know very well that the market has collapsed. And no one knows why or wants to know why. The broking houses are encouraging their clients to trade in foreign markets, not to touch this dying market of inactivity. It is like a cemetery in the day. I too have been scratching my head wanting to know why. And when the experts also claimed that they are clueless, paid millions to be clueless, you should know why.

I raised a few obvious observations. I was told that they knew what they were doing. I did not get that. Few day’s back, met a businessman who spoke the simple plain truth. When they do not want your business, it means there are vested interests involved and there is no need to hit your head against the wall. Go around it, yes, like trading in other markets. The various parts of wisdom are coming together and making sense now. And this morning a blogger put in this comment in my blog, ‘RB, u smoke some pot is it. What inquisition? No way they do lar why slap your cheeks for what? Tio Bo?’

It makes good sense, the situation is getting clearer. The people may be screaming their lungs out crying foul. But nothing will be done. No way. Just to mention a few, the influx of half bakes and fake foreigners to replace Singaporeans, you really think they don’t know? Why is there inaction? The CPF issue, high cost of living issue, the wasting of public funds on scholarships for foreigners, the replacing of the academics in the academia with foreigners etc etc. You think they don’t know, they are stupid?

And Zuraidah Ibrahim in her morning article said scholars are not smart. I must say I totally disagree with her. The scholars are damn smart. They know exactly what they are doing, and what they would not do or should not do.  The only problem is that the laypeople did not know what is their agenda?  They have their agenda that may be different from what the people want, or they have different priorities. It is not nice to say they have vested interests.

Mao Zedong was not an exceptionally brilliant man. He was a librarian. Ok, this is subjective as a person without a string of degrees from the best universities and branded as a scholar can also be very brilliant. Mao Zedong, despite many huge errors he committed in his last few years as a ruler, is still revered and highly respected as the founder of modern China. Some outsiders like to condemn him as a murderer and the obstacle to China’s modernisation. The Chinese people know best. They are the beneficiaries of what Mao Zedong did for them and for China. It is a long story.

Would our elite, the smart scholars, please don’t be dismissive to say they are not smart, be revered and respected by the generations to come? Or would they be condemned for selling out the country and people? Only history will judge them. There is one big difference between Mao Zedong and our elite. Mao was doing what he did for China and the Chinese people. There were some exceptions, he is not immortal. Oops, our elites are also doing everything for Singapore and the Singaporeans. You can have your contrary opinions.

Why is Singapore heading in a direction that the people are so exasperated and very angry about? Is it that the people are stupid, or is there something else? Why are the smart elite allowing the country to slide down a slippery road of no return? Of course they did not think so, like the CPF thing and the influx of foreigners thing, it is all good for the people and country. Have faith.

What would the wise ones said?

Kopi Level - Green

Singaporeans exasperated for a nation wide Inquisition

With the flooding of foreigners, affectionately called talents in some quarters, to the tune of more than half a million, and many millions have came and gone, and to think that they were all genuine is foolishness in the highest order. And to think only that this state of affair is real, only a few fakes and the rest are genuine, is pure stupidity, grade 99.9999 purity. Reverse this it is like 99.9999 purity for daft.

The token discovery of a few low level fakes to show that something was done and the people were appeased, is a sad reflection of the kind of mentality and ethos of the elite. We have checked and only a few fakes. No more problems, all is well. Remember what George Yeo said? Everything looks so perfect on the surface, but it is not real.

The Anoop Shankar case is not only just the tip of an iceberg. It is a revelation that there is a huge iceberg of fakes living generously at the expense of real hardworking Sinkies that have been turned into PME taxi drivers and security guards.  And these fakes are the so called talents with the skill sets that daft Sinkies did not have and must be imported to replace the daft Sinkies.

There is a need for an Inquisition, to sieve through every single foreigner hired and employed here. The problem is big, bigger than the white elephant in the room. It is time to throw the 3 monkeys that see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil out of the window. Singaporeans must not live under such a big lie at their expense and being laughed at like fools by foreigners all over the world, even from underdeveloped 3^rd World villagers that called themselves geniuses and making a fool of our talents and elites. It is like ‘they came, they saw, and Singaporeans got replaced’.

When would there be a nation wide Inquisition? When would they dump the Jobs Bank into the waste bin? How many fakes are here? 30% would be a very conservative figure. We have been had by the fakes for so many years and refused to do anything about it. Whose great idea is that? Does anyone have a vested interest to flood the island with fakes without wanting to question or do anything about it?

Who is endorsing the fakes to be here, gainfully employed with impunity?

Kopi Level - Yellow

Anoop Shankar – Would NUS World Rankings be affected

The revelation of a ‘genius’ professor (Singapore has this fetish craving for geniuses) who was an academic staff of NUS but got caught with his pants down, with fake credentials in the US is sending a little tremor around our reputable institutions of higher learnings. We have carefully honed our skills by gaming the ranking systems, oops, I mean by making sure that we followed the norms set by international agencies, not intentionally of course, to raise our rankings to be among the top universities in the world. We are definitely not gaming, otherwise if the criteria demand having a monkey as a professor, they would have appointed a monkey to the staff too. Now doing that would be gaming. We are quite near to the class of Harvard and Cambridge, beating many top Ivy League universities in the US and UK. And we achieved this by sheer quality of the institutions and the staff.

Now we have this dubious honour of sharing in the hiring of a fake as an academic staff and publishing many papers to help in our rankings. How would this affect our university’s rankings? Is this another one of those, ‘it happens once in 50 years’ cases? If it is so, then we should thank God that it would not cause too much damage to our reputation. If it is not the case, and many more are fakes, then we will have a very embarrassing problem at hand.

How would we know that there are other fakes in the academia? The only way to find out is to comb through with a fine brush, the academic qualifications of the staff, especially the foreigners. The question is, do we want to do this and risk our rankings and reputations tumbling to the abyss? My suggestion is not to do anything. Let it be. Then we can keep our rankings and the integrity of the institutions? Did I say integrity? Oops, wrong choice of word definitely. Change that to reputation.

How many people really think that there is a need for a thorough investigation in the academia for fraudsters? This disease of having fakes and fraudsters in the whole island has been spreading and the writing has been on the wall for too long. And it is not only in the academia! It is something that must be done and in a hurry. But no one bothers. Or is this problem already known in the closed circles and the solution is to announce that no degrees also can if one can perform, and can be promoted to high positions too. Definitely not! These are two separate issues.

Do we have a problem? Yes, no? Do we want to acknowledge that we have a problem? Do we then want to address this problem? If all the answers are no, then we have no problems and Rip Van Winkle can go back to sleep for another 50 years. We can continue to plan for the big 50 year celebrations and party.

Some say the best solution to a nasty problem is to look the other way. Don’t talk about it, don’t do anything is the best.

Kopi Level - Green

This is my country

You want to come to my country, you behave properly. If your behavior is unacceptable, we will not let you in, even for a holiday. ‘The Immigration Officer  has the right to take stern action if Singaporeans behave in an inappropriate manner, he said. “Expulsion is allowed under the law.”’ An Indonesian spokesman confirmed this on air.’

When people visit another country, it is only expected that they behave well and stop making themselves a nuisance to the country. 50 Singaporeans have recently been barred from entering Batam for talking loudly. Why not, this is their country and you don’t treat it like it is your fish market. The visitors need to respect the rules and norms of a country as a guest.

But in some countries, or non countries, visitors can go there and do anything they want, like littering, shitting in public places, scolding the citizens, insulting the citizens and beating the citizens. And there is no law to put these disgraceful visitors away. Maybe the people of these non countries forgot the meaning of ‘This is my country’. They do not think they have any country anymore. Their countries belong to everyone. And they are the guests, the visitors and the visitors, the foreigners are the owners.
Got this type of country meh? Oops, got this type of non country meh? When a people become daft and silly, this will happen. Then they start to emigrate voluntarily from their ‘used to be country’ to other countries thinking they will get a better deal. They simply gave up their ‘used to be country’, gave their country  away, eased out of their country by the foreigners they invited to their country.

Just look at the Indonesians and the Malaysians or any other countries, they hold on to their countries closely to their hearts. For some countries, even if they seized some other people’s countries, like Australia, they would not allow other foreigners to come in freely. But some non countries like the USA, seized from the natives, the Red Indians, it is ‘free’ to other immigrants, provided they want you. But they make it very sure they are the owners and the visitors are called aliens.

Only silly non countries will turn themselves into aliens and let foreigners take over their jobs, their countries, with open arms. And then got kicked around by the foreigners and ended being evicted from their own countries without knowing why, without fighting or trying to defend their rights to their non countries.

And everytime a foreigner threatens to go somewhere or take their business somewhere, we wet in our pants. We even have to send our ministers to affirm ties with other countries when we sense that they are not happy with us. Is this true?

Kopi Level - Green

Tibet’s Going Back to the Future?

A Democratic Theocracy is an Oxymoron

Few knew the Tibet under the Dalai Lamas. Belied by the enchanting charismatic smile and wonderfully pleasant personality of the 14^th Dalai Lama, and under his and his predecessors’ direct political, social and religious leadership, was the darkest corner of China and possibly the world.  

Before 1959, Tibet was a feudal serfdom created by the integration of religion, politics and the dictatorship of monks and aristocrats, and one even darker and more backward than medieval Europe. The 14th Dalai Lama, like other Dalai Lamas before him, ruled over a Tibetan society which had integrated religion with politics as a feudal serfdom under a theocracy ruled by a combined dictatorship of monks and aristocrats.

The Dalai Lama’s Tibetan system tolerated no democracy, freedom or human rights in any form. In fact, the Tibetan serf slavery system was the darkest human slavery system in the history of mankind, and which spanned many centuries longer than the 400+ years of black slavery in the USA.  The Tibetan conditions were also more debasing and dehumanizing than medieval Europe in the latter’s darkest periods....

by Michael Heng PBM of MIKOspace

Read on:

http://miko-wisdom.blogspot.sg/2014/09/tibets-going-back-to-future.html

 

Kopi Level - Yellow

Ex NUS prof resume fraud

In the ST today, former asst professor of NUS ‘who landed a prestigious position at a United States university is now at the centre of a sensational fraud investigation’. Anoop Shankar’s resume includes ‘a doctorate in epidemiology, graduated from India’s top medical school when he was 21, was a member of the prestigious Royal College of Physicians and had been awarded a “genius” visa to America’.
 
I must say that was impressive. And more impressive, he was at the Duke NUS Graduate Medical School and his 3 papers with Associate Professor Koh Woon Puay must be so good that she had no reason to doubt his talent and is standing by the joint papers.
 
Now that this professor Anoop Shankar has lost all his positions in the US, maybe he can come back to this talentless island to resume his position here. When a person is good he is good. Just like when a person is good, without a degree doesn’t matter. Singapore has made a quantum leap forward by looking at real talent and performance and not about a piece of paper.
 
The Americans were not impressed and have regarded this as ‘among the most serious of its kind, has now also sparked scrutiny into the larger issue of fraud that goes unchecked at some institutes of higher education’.
 
Singapore has no such worry and has no need to go on a witch hunt. All the talents landed in Singapore are genuine talents with real certificates and degrees. Even got no degree never mind, can be promoted also if they are found to be good. And best if they can impress their fellow professors that they are really good.
Shall Singapore extend another welcome to this “genius? Give him a pink IC and we will have a good catch, another talented new citizen.

Kopi Level - Yellow

Our stock market is in the pink of health

I learnt something yesterday. Had this discussion with some very well versed businessmen on how to clinch a deal and was told that in many cases there were vested interests at stake. It is not a matter of how good is your service or product. They just would not give you the deal as that would mean losing their own stake. The best way is to go around it. One way is to include their share. Another is not to ruffle their feathers. A third way is to tell them their service or product is good but they can use your product or service and be more rewarding.
 
I have been singing the song that the stock market is dying. That is obviously wrong. It is better to sing songs of praise, that the stock market is in the pink of health, the best. That way everyone will be happy. Now that they are feeling elated, maybe I would like to suggest to them that the market can even be better if they restructure, revitalize, remodel the market to make it better. One way is to remove computers from being linked to the SGX computer system. This way would make the funds to trade more without the aid of computers. The volume will increase definitely as everyone will then be trading on a level playing field.
In addition, raise the bid value, minimum lot size go back to 1,000 shares. This way the computer traders would have to pay more and the exchange and brokers will stand to make more fees and commissions. London is more expensive than us, and we should aim to be like London at least in terms of trading fees or commissions.
 
And because everyone will be trading furiously, they need to have a break. Computers no need to take breaks, human beans need to. It will be healthy, kind and humane to reintroduce the lunch break. The traders can take a break, the punters can take a break, and the restaurants and foodcourts would be doing roaring business. Everyone will be happier and healthier and be very grateful to the SGX for such a great move.
And when everyone is happy, they will trade more and a positive cycle will result. And the stock market will become more active and trading volume will increase. The management of the stock market will be rewarded with bigger bonuses too.
 
See the contrasting approaches? Now everything is sounding so good and looking so positive. I am sure these suggestions will sound more palatable and can be implemented. One caveat, if things have not rotted to a state of beyond redemption.
 
Other suggestions to make the stock market more active: Follow the casinos, let each punter have $200 free to trade. Set up trading halls with a lot of TV screens like before for the punters to gather and chat, and better still, free kopi for them. This will replace the lack of stock price info removed from the TV. There are many more incentives to bring the crowd in.

Kopi Level - Yellow

Japan never fired a shot in anger – Another Japanese lie

A REUTER report in an article in the Today paper on 10 Sep on the discussion between Japan and the USA on how to arm Japan with offensive weapons had this quote from a Japanese official, ‘ …a country that has not fired a short in anger since its defeat in World War II.’ Now why is this a lie? Actually it is a misleading statement. The Japanese has never fired a shot in anger since the First World War. Every shot fired was for conquest and aggression. The Japanese fought the Chinese, Russians and invaded Korea and China, never in anger but with colonial and imperial intent. It bombed Pearl Harbour in perfect serenity of mind. No anger, pure ambition to destroy the American fleet in the way of its conquest of Asia and the world. Every shot the Japanese fired is premeditated, calculated, planned coolly to achieve a military objective.
 
Today, the two most belligerent countries are negotiating on how much offensive weapons Japan should be allowed to have to conduct wars of aggression again. And again it was all done in quiet civility, no anger, business like. It was all about world domination, about controlling the world. The Americans and the Japanese are plotting to control China and East Asia today, two willing partners of war.
Which is more dangerous, a country going to war in anger over some wrong done to his country and people, or one going to war in all civility, with no anger, but only the desire and ambition to conquer and rule over other nations?
 
There are very serious enmity between the Americans and the Japanese. The sinking of their Pacific Fleet and the destruction of the Japanese dream of controlling China and becoming a world super power were clipped by the Americans. And the anger and deep hatred for the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the colonizing of Japan, a high humiliation of the Japanese pride were all etched deeply in the Japanese psychic. And the Americans are thinking that for immediate political expediency, they could afford to rearm the Japanese to the teeth. They believe the Japanese have changed and have forgotten the defeat by the Americans.
 
Americans, just you wait. The samurais have not forgotten, and playing good boys for now. Letting out the Arab genie from the bottle was bad. Wait till they release the Japanese samurais armed to the teeth with WMD.

Kopi Level - Yellow

A little degree problem

One company worked up one day to find that all its top management and senior staff did not have degrees. The degrees they declared in their CVs were all fakes. They only found this out when the govt started to check on their qualifications.
 
So how to solve this problem? They went to the ministry and told them that their staff were all competent, very good workers and knew their jobs very well. They didn’t need to have any degrees. And they were very happy with all the staff in their employ. They would have to close down their business if they could not keep their no degree staff.
 
The ministry panic. How, the company would have to relocate and there would be one company less and many jobs would be lost. And horrors of all horrors, many companies are also in the same situation, with many staff with fake degrees.
 
What is the solution?
 
PS. This story is fictional.

Kopi Level - Green

Candle Light Vigil on 17th September at Hong Lim Park

Pl note change of date to 17 Sep. My article posted on 7 Sep said the event would by held on 13 Sep. The organisers have confirmed the date is Wed  17 Sep 14. The venue is Hong Lim Park at 7 pm to midnight.

Bring a candle to light to a dark place.

Kopi Level - Green

Film on Guantanamo banned for national security reasons

A film producer from Sinkestan, called him Mr Tan, made a film on the Guantanamo Prison. He tried to get it screened in New York University’s film festival. According to Mr Tan, the purpose of the film was to better understand the country and to start a national conversation for the citizens to understand their country better.
 
The FBI stepped in and banned the film. Hilarious Clintan, the Secretary of State, said the film put the legitimate actions of the security agencies to protect national security and safety of the Americans in a bad light, in a distorted way as acts that victimized the innocent prisoners in Guantanamo Prison. And also the prisoners have given distorted and untruthful versions of how they were tortured inside the prison by the officers. Hilarious added that these prisoners were committed to armed struggles to overthrow the legitimate govts of the state of Israel and the USA. And the film conveniently omitted the crimes of the prisoners in kidnapping and terrorism and attempting to laundry their crimes as innocent acts.
 
The State Department did not think that these ex prisoners should be allowed a public platform to disseminate their distorted and untruthful past, to mislead the public and to absolve themselves from their criminal activities.
 
The news on the banning of this film has travelled across the Pacific Ocean and scholars have made comments on the case. One professor Eujin Tan said that the banning of the film was right as these prisoners must not be allowed to distort the truth as it would be unfair to those that suffered from their terrorist acts. Another professor Tan Kum Hong said it was natural to have two sides of the story and the gov’t ‘s account need not be the unequivocal truth.
 
It is not sure how Hilarious Clintan and the FBIs are going to react to the comments from across the Pacific Ocean. The film would definitely be banned in the America, like it or not. Hilarious Clintan has decided and Mr Tan would just have to accept the decision, which is normally final.

Kopi Level - Green

The genuine problems of the MOM Jobs Bank

After more than a month of the Jobs Bank coming into operation there were high expectations that many Singaporeans would have found jobs through this strictly pro Singaporean apparatus of the Govt. So I was looking for some happy statistics to clap for my star minister for a job well done. But no data, really, can’t find any data. Now want to cheer for him also no chance to do it.
 
Then I read a few comments in the social media, including the authoritative comments of Leong Sze Hian, and it is confirmed that anyone hoping for some useful data coming out from this Jobs Bank Scheme is going to be disappointed. I am of course. And I was angry initially. I want to cheer, I want to clap and tell the citizens, especially the jobless PMEs and the PME taxi drivers that there is hope. Now I can’t. So don’t blame me for being angry. Felt being let down by another scheme that looked so good on paper. You mean they didn’t know that everyone is watching and looking for some numbers on this scheme?
 
On reflection, on hindsight, admittedly foresight not very good, I have second thoughts. It is really an impossible task for our boys and girls to design a programme to track the performance of this scheme. No way they could do it. There are just no good programmers to do such a simple job as the programmers are all foreigners. And very likely MOM cannot use foreign programmers for this job to show that this is pedigree Singaporean stuff.
 
What about having a few boys and girls thinking through a manual procedure like we used to do before we become an intelligent city and people? Surely must have some procedures for the companies to make monthly reports to MOM would generate some numbers, not up to date to the last minute and not computer perfect, but some data would still be good and available.
 
Now I have to figure out why our boys and girls could not think through a simple administrative procedure that works. First guess, they never approach the Administrative Service where all the talented administrative officers work. So they probably depend on non administrative officers to do an administrative job that they are not trained to do, sure would not work.
 
Or maybe they need some financial incentives like a doubling in pay. I think a doubling in pay from the ministers to the clerical stuff would be a good start.
 
So there you are, the MOM could not produce any data to tell how many Singaporeans applied for the jobs in the Jobs Bank and how many were successful and employed by the companies putting up advertisements for jobs for Singaporeans. And definitely they would not know how many of these companies already recruited foreigners after failing to find any suitable Singaporeans for their vacancies.
 
But MOM has many good data, like 65,000 jobs available in the Jobs Banks and something like 10,000 companies participating. Dunno if they know how many Singaporeans applied for these jobs. No need to ask how many were successful as they have confirmed they did not have such data.
 
Let me volunteer a suggestion. Since no Singaporean can design a decent programme to capture all these necessary information that the people would like to know, perhaps MOM can make an exception and outsource this task to the foreigners to design one. Make sure they write the programme quickly so that we can have some data to chew on.
 
And please don’t jump the gun to kpkb that MOM is useless or the Jobs Bank is a another wayang. There are obviously some genuine problems like lack of programming talents or administrative officers to design an administrative procedure that could produce the results expected.
 
PS, I am just speculating and I did not have access to how they work. Maybe I am just drumming. Please forgive me for my ignorance.

Kopi Level - Green