Foreigners create jobs for Sinkies

Is this a myth or a truth? Why is it that whenever this is spoken, everyone is giving it a dirty look? The polite ones will give a cynical smile. The not so polite ones will show their middle finger. Sure, if a foreign company operates here with 100 of its own people and employs 10 Sinkies it is still creating jobs for Sinkies. On the other hand how many jobs are Sinkie companies and organizations, including govt and GLCs, creating for the foreigners instead? And is the equation beneficial to the Sinkies overall?
 
Leong Sze Hian and his expertise could be put to good use to show some real figures on how many jobs that the foreigners have created for us and how many we have created for them and put the numbers on a balancing scale. We need to know whether this is true or false and whether this is good or bad. And are we creating good value jobs for foreigners and foreigners creating low value jobs for Sinkies?
 
So far we only hear people repeating this myth like a golden truth. Leong Sze Hian, if you are reading, I would suggest a few tables like foreign company hires. Look at the PME levels will do. The lower levels are not too significant as many of the jobs are not lucrative enough for Sinkies. And don’t waste time on construction workers and manual labour. Only people who want to change the subject will be talking about foreign workers when the crux of the matter is the PME category.
 
A list of companies showing how many foreigners, PRs and citizens will be good. And do not lump PRs and citizens together as locals. I know Leong Sze Hian will not do that. Also a list of the GLCs including the universities and some high profile institutions with many foreign hires to show the pattern of distribution. We need to know the truth and not allow a repeated myth to become a truth.
 
Heard that the some local universities have more foreigners than locals in their academic staff. Not very sure if this is true. What about the big institutions with the high percentages of foreigners.
 
We need to see real data to dispel this myth. To allow the myth to continue to spread and shaft down our throats only makes us more daft.

Kopi Level - Green

True Lies about Universities Rankings

True Lies about Universities Rankings - Michael Heng

The London-based Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World Universities Ranking has been called “a Fraud on the public.” Another Eminent Professor said: “QS simply doesn’t do as good a job as the other rankers that are using multiple indicators”. 

Singapore University NTU has secured top placing as the world's best young universities, according to QS Ranking, one of three major international university ranking systems.

The United Nations Education agency, UNESCO, has challenged the validity and reliability of University Rankings such as QS Ranking:

“Global university rankings fail to capture either the meaning or driverse qualities of a university or the characteristics of universities in a way that values and respects their educational and social purposes, missions and goals. At present, these rankings are of dubious value, are underpinned by questionable social science, arbitrarily privilege particular indicators, and use shallow proxies as correlates of quality.”

It is highly questionable whether the 5 Criteria of QS Ranking actually indicate or measure University Excellence to any extent. No study on their validity and reliability has been produced by the Ranking organisations themselves.  At best, these Criteria are just “popular” notions imagined by the Rankers themselves and have no true bearings on University learning impact on their students.

Too much time has been obsessively invested by NTU and NUS in collecting and using data and statistics in order to improve their ranking performance on a bogus ranking standard of dubious excellence. Universities should be more concerned about innovative ways to enhance our universities’ contributions to society through their students. This is the Real payback for the millions of public fund spent on our Universities.  

Kopi Level - Green

Read More here:

True Lies about World Universities Ranking     

Singapore NTU is Number 1 University

The American system you don’t know

Below is an extract of a BBC report ‘Secret tapes pull back curtain on Goldman Sachs’ By Anthony Zurcher Editor, Echo Chambers. It dealt with the wrongful dismissal of a Fed employee assigned to audit the accounts of Goldman Sach and why she was fired for wanting to tell the truth. The full report is available at: http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-29388019
 
The main point in the report is not the wrongful dismissal of a Fed employee but the revelation of the irregularities and malpractices of the Fed and big businesses. They seemed to be in cahoot, working hand in hand to deceive the public that everything was fair and above board but was otherwise. The big businesses were above the law and can violate the laws with impunity or at least with the approval of the Fed. How outrageous can this be? The big businesses can actually commit crimes against the small players and operate under a different set of laws. And this is the US of America, the Federal Reserves Bank of New York.
 
Can’t imagine how many innocent people have been duped and cheated by the big businesses and lost their pants. It is criminal! How relevant is this state of affair to our system as it is more like a carbon copy of the American system?
 
Here is an extract of the first part of the BBC report dated 29 Sep 2014.
 
In 2009 the Federal Reserve Bank of New York set out to investigate why US government officials were so blind to the Wall Street crash of 2008. Why were they unable to forecast the oncoming financial crisis? Why did the economic contagion nearly topple the whole global financial system?
 
The fault, according to an independent review by Columbia University Prof David Beim, was that the government regulators were too deferential to the banks they were supposed to oversee. Within the New York Fed, employees were urged by their supervisors to look the other way when they found violations and to temper critical reports.
Continue reading the main story
 
“Start Quote
Even the best set of rules is totally insufficient if paired with an enforcement system that applies them inconsistently or not at all”
End Quote Dylan Matthews Vox
 
For many this isn't exactly news. What would be news, however, is evidence that shows that even after the financial collapse, and even after congressional attempts to institute more stringent oversight, nothing has changed. And there are secret recordings - made by a former New York Fed employee - that many are claiming provide first-hand evidence of continued government neglect.
 
These allegations are contained in an investigative report published on Friday by ProPublica in partnership with the radio programme This American Life. The author, Pulitzer Prize winner Jake Bernstein, spoke with former New York Fed employee Carmen Segarra, who was originally hired to boost oversight efforts following the 2008 collapse.
 
She was fired seven months later after clashes with her supervisors - but not before she secretly recorded more than 46 hours of meetings to support her claims that she was terminated because she wouldn't tone down her criticism of Goldman practices.
 
She sued the New York Fed alleging wrongful termination, but a judge dismissed her case in April. She is currently appealing the decision.
 
Michael Lewis says that Wall Street regulators are too deferential to the banks they oversee
In her recordings a Goldman employee says that "consumer laws don't apply" to their wealthiest clients, for instance, and that she should pretend she didn't hear incriminating statements.
 
Bernstein recounts one of the recorded confrontations with a supervisor, Kim, which he cites as evidence that Ms Segarra was told to back down from sharp criticism of her Goldman colleagues:

Kopi Level - Green

Hong Kong is never about Democracy

Historically, Hong Kong is never about Democracy. It is about a refuge, a haven for industrious people to engage in business and enterprise to live well. No politics.  Under the British rule for 150 years, the Hong Kong population was disinterested in the politics of the island colony as long as they were free to do business and look after themselves. The govt of the day could be corrupt or whatever, the people could be second class citizens, but as long as they were left alone, both could coexist under a system of non interference. So what if the Hong Kong people were subjects of the British Empire, bowed to the King and Queen of England? They would bow to anyone as long as they can have a good life. Hong Kong people are practical people, non political but economic animals, at least until the farcical democracy shafted down their throats by Patten, the last British governor of the island in its dying years.

When China took over Hong Kong, it wanted to let the Hong Kong people continue to do what they want, continue to prosper and live well. They thought this was good for the Hong Kong people and for China as long as Chinese sovereignty is recognised. China even pumped in money and resources to make it happen and Hong Kong is better and richer than before.

The recent Occupy Central has changed the political landscape. The Hong Kong people now want not only economic prosperity but independence from China. They do not regard themselves as Chinese, at least those at the demonstration and those supporting them from a distance, but as Hong Kongers. They want independence from China.

The economic animal has morphed into a political animal. This is inconceiveable and intolerable as far as Beijing is concerned. This is worse than the positions taken by Taiwan and Tibet. Both accepted that they were part of China and only demanded for autonomy. Are the students and their backers real in pushing for an independent Hong Kong? Remember what Chen Sui Bian and Lee Teng Hui tried and how closed they were to a war with China.

In the case of Hong Kong, there is no justification whatsoever to talk about independence. Are the Hong Kong people really wanting to trade their economic freedom and good life for this thing called Democracy and independence from China? Nothing is impossible, so they said. But in this case, this is Impossible.

Do the students and their supporters believe that they could hold China to a ransom with Western govts and media egging them on? How foolish! China would do another Tiananmen if they dared to push the independence boundary. Another Tiananmen Square would not be too many when the risk is a broken up China and a people that would be oppressed by foreigners, ridiculed by foreigners and becoming the Sick Man of Asia once again.

The stake is too high and Hong Kong is too insignificant to China’s game plan. Hong Kong can be sacrificed and China has many options other than Tiananmen to deal with the protesters. Youthful idealism is one thing, old wolves in sheep clothings must be sensible enough to know that this is not a game they can win, and the consequences are too severe and would go only one way. They have no cards to play. There is no end game. China would just switch off the power supply.

The Hong Kong people would not only lose their democracy, they would lose their economic freedom and good life. Hong Kong would be shut down and turn into a reservation for the Red Indians similar to those in the US. It will no longer be a haven for free wheeling enterprises, an economic marvel, a jewel of rich capitalism.

Businesses will collapse, property prices will collapse. People will want to flee the island when the doors are shut. What are the students and their behind the scene supporters fighting for? Political power and control? They have all the economic freedom that they want and many democratic rights that the mainlanders did not have. What more do they want? Poverty and ruins? Do they know what they are risking?

This is not about Hong Kong but about the well being of China and the Chinese people.

 Kopi Level - Red

mysingaporenews wishes all our Muslim brothers Happy Hari Raya Haji

The damn solutions

It has been recognised and acknowledged as a natural truth that today’s solution is tomorrow’s problem. And we have many examples of our great solutions that have turned bad, turning into big problems and liabilities. The most commonly quoted solution of the past that has created many deep seated problems today must be the Stop At Two policy. We are now suffering from its consequences today, some 40 odd years later. When it was introduced, the problems it was trying to solve was serious, a growing jobless population and an economy that could not create the jobs to meet the demand. And further harsh and ruthless followup measures and policies were added to reinforced the Stop At Two policy, like no priority for school places for the third child, ligation, abortion, fines etc etc. Some of the victims of these policies are still feeling very angry with what they had to go through.

We have in the course of the last 40 years introduced many policies that were good in the beginning but starting to turn foul or becoming a problem today. The CPF schemes and its related schemes, housing allocation policy, pricing and asset enhancement policies, are now hounding down on the govt.

High economic growth, high inflation and high ministerial salaries are now a burden to the govt. And of course the high population and high influx of foreigners, high prices of car ownership policies, high medical costs and a long list of other policies that are causing the govt to have ‘one head and growing twice as big’.

And we are still pushing for high economic growth and high population growth. This is very troubling. The problems of yesterday’s solutions are being repeated with the same zeal to implement new policies and solutions. They only think about how good the solution is without bothering to look at how bad it can become. If they have the foresight, to think ahead a little more, many of today’s problems would have not happened or would be lesser and not so severe.

Yes, economic growth is important and growing a bigger population is a must for economic growth. If only economic policy is so simple. Again they are not looking at the consequences and problems from these solutions. Did they know, did they bother, did they think about them, talk about them, or they simply do not want to talk about them and do not want to think about them. Tomorrow’s problems are best left to tomorrow’s leaders to deal with, and tomorrow’s people to live with.

Just announced a few day’s ago that they have a new logo for the Army Volunteer’s Corp. Another nice creation. Did they think about the problems and consequences? Every solution and policy is a double edged sword. The frightening thing it seems, they are only interested in hearing the good stuff. No one wants to know about the bad stuff or want to tell the people about the bad stuff. They are OPP, Other People’s Problems.

Is this the way to go? You want economic growth you must want big population? You want a strong defence force, you must want volunteers to carry arms. They are inseparable, just as inseparable as every solution comes with its associated problems. You cannot have your cake and eat it. The govt has to be seriously looking at the problems that can come about with their solutions. They cannot runaway from them.  The Volunteer’s Corp is a very dangerous animal that is being created if any jokers, citizens or not, can join. It can turn into an enemy of the people. Would the terrorists be eyeing it as their training ground?

Where is the solution should the Volunteers Corp turns bad? Where are the solutions to problems caused by high economic growth and high population growth? No, no problems?

Kopi Level - Red

The pictures that tell the mood at HLP

This was the moment Teo Ser Luck was mobbed by his fans/protesters as he started his round. Notice the boy sitting in the foreground, oblivious of what was going on? What did it say?

Ser Luck doing his round. Notice how calm and comfortable he was?

These two pics of children dancing were taken a few minutes after the 'heckling' incident. Anything unusual? Any tension?

This is the famous mound of Hong Lim. Speakers need not bring their own stools or boxes to stand on like in Hyde Park.

These 3 pics are the friendly protesters demanding for the return of their CPF money. There were more younger people coming to join them. Would these people heckle the children?

Is America ready to be Number Two

This was the topic for discussion in the CNA programme Perspective hosted by Teymoor Nabili on  prime time 3 Oct 14. The panel guests included two American dons, Prof Thomas Magnanti and Assoc Prof John Donaldson, the American Ambassador Kirk Wagar and Manu Bhaskaran, a CEO of a consultancy. This is a good programme to watch not so much as to the subject matter but the temperature generated and how sensitive the subject was to the American dignitaries present. Watch the repeats on CNA

From the very beginning the position of the Americans was clear. Teymoor used the Great Roman Empire as an example of everything that goes up must come down.  He hit a wall. No such thing as America being Number Two to a rising China. Even if China becomes the biggest economy, so what? What they avoided saying was that they carried the big guns and could turn the table anytime they like it and China would be history. That’s the message.

It is interesting to watch the nuances and the body language of the American panellists, especially the Ambassador. I could not believe that an academic discussion on an ‘iffy’ question could cause so much uneasiness and sensitivity. And Teymoor, one of the best presenters you can find, was doing his best to balance the tension and you could sense that he too was affected by it. But being an old hand and very adept at what he was doing, he did manage to control the situation very well without upsetting anyone, but still not able to hide the discomfort in him.

The topic was about a hypothetical case in the future, what if the economic statistics are correct and China surpasses America and becomes Number One economically, or the Number One superpower. Of course everyone can dispute on the definition of what Number One means as the overwhelming American military might is unquestionable for a long time to come. The American economy could slow down, but the American expenditure on military would always be maintained to keep this pole position unchallenged and unsurpassed. To the Americans, this is a non issue. They would ensure it would not happen.

Who would ever think of the Soviet Union being what it is today? Who would ever imagine, even 30 years ago, that China could transform itself from a poor backward communist state to challenge the Americans for the pole position in international affairs? Some crystal ball gazers would say that the rise of China is inevitable, like the fall of Singapore as equally inevitable. The chips are all in place for the rise of China and the fall of Singapore. Somehow everything is in place not by intent but it just happened.

Whether China would overtake America as Number One is a moot point as no one would agree with the definition. But the rise of China as a superpower, as an economically and technologically successful nation is on the card.

And it is best not to discuss such a topic with the Americans. It rubs the wrong way and nerves are extra sensitive, like special needs children.  America will never be Number Two! China can never dream of being Number One. No way, not in the near future, not in the distant future.

PS. The Chinese were given a pleasant surprised when they were shoved up the be the Number Two when the Soviet Union self destruct. They too could not believe that they could be Number Two so fast, without any effort on their own.

Kopi Level - Yellow

My proposed rules and regulations for protest rallies

Given the fiasco that happened on 27 Sep 14 at Hong Lim Speakers Corner, a site specially designated for free speech and public protest, ‘the protesters’ overall conduct was so egregiously bad that a few would think the public censure that followed was overdone’, I quote the ST editorial today, new rules and regulations must be introduced. I may further add, protesters must behave better, behave decently, not to shout, not to disturb the peace, not to look like thugs and gangsters, not to….I can go on and on. Basically, protesters in a public protest must conform to some expectations of decency by the decent and nice people.

Given these as the back drop and the expectations, I would like to offer some suggestions as to how a public protest rally should be like and how the protesters should behave. The authority may be pleased to take liberty to borrow my suggestions for future rallies in Hong Lim Park.

Not in any order of merit or importance, I will just rattle it off the hip, no need to think too much. Like the American cowboys, just shoot first and think later. It is easier that way.

Ok, first thing to do, protesters must bring along a decibel meter to measure the din they are making. What for? They must not be insensitive to the other park users, like special needs children, like babies in the prams, like senior citizens playing chess or having a snooze. Let the authority come out with the exact decibel they can make and the type of loudspeakers that are allowed henceforth.

The protesters must also bring along measuring tapes to mark the distance they should keep away from the other park users, and pay special attention to special needs children. These children like the Park very much for its special ambience and the heat. For this group, the distance must be double than the normal for other normal children.

Whatever the protesters do, they must not appear to be heckling anyone in the park, especially special needs children that happened to be there. Just because the Park has been specially approved by Parliament for protesting and demonstration, it does not mean that they can anyhow behave like protesters do. For this matter, it is good that they bring along their own video recorder to record the event in case there is a dispute as to them getting too close to the special needs children, ‘heckling’ them or disrupting their activities. This is for the own good of the protesters as people who were not at the scene may have the wrong impression and anyhow accused them of misconduct later.

Protesters are allowed only to march in rows of twos, not too many as it would look very rowdy. Look at how nice school children walked in schools?  If they could hold hands, that would be nice. This is the standard that the protesters should try to emulate. And yes, wear clean and nice clothing to look smart and not like hooligans and gangsters. Wear a badge if possible to read ‘I am a protester’ so that people can identify who you really are.

And when the protesters are protesting, please, put on a smile on your face. Don’t look so grumpy, so fierce, like gangsters. The authorities or public may think you are thugs and, yes, gangsters. Now that is really bad publicity and bad image if photographs or videos of them were to be flashed in the media.

And when the police or authority demands for their identification, please do not argue or be rude. Be polite, just hand over your identification papers and all will be fine. And don’t demand from the police or authority for their identification papers. That is outright rudeness. In this exceptional city, anyone who come to you and tell you they are the police or the authority, they must be real. No cheats or thugs would dare to impersonate the police or authority. So there is no need to go through that hassling.

And another thing, when the protesters go marching around the Park, please show some courtesy and friendliness and stop to shake hands with whoever is present for goodwill. Oh, an exception, perhaps this should be avoided when approaching special needs children as they may be too sensitive and can get frightened by the protesters. Be extra sensitive and mindful of the people there and shout only when you are at a safe distance from them.

If protesters are to follow the above suggestions, I think everything will be alright even if there are other events in the Park. And how can I miss this, please double confirm with the authorities your designated area so that you do not encroach into other people’s areas. In the past this was not required, but after the 27 Sep pathetic incident, this is necessary. All future applications will have designated areas allocated to them in advance, not last minute to avoid a clash or conflict by encroachment.

Basket, why I spent so much time, thinking so hard, for all these suggestions and not getting paid a single cent for them?

Kopi Level - Yellow

The drumming continues

Roll out the big drums and keep drumming.
Stoke the amber and fan it into a fire.
Now who is beating the drums and fanning the fire?
Who is doing the heckling and who is being heckled?

What do you think?

Free university education?

Can this be true? Even if it is true, the quality must be bad. How can free things be good? You want quality you must be prepared to pay for it. The more you pay, the higher the quality. It must be, like our world best govt.

Effective this year, the whole of Germany will provide free university education when Lower Saxony decided to abolish university tuition fees. Wow, this is like fiction. Actually many countries in Europe provide free university education. Bloody hell, I am like a frog in a well. Only today then I heard about it, read about it. Scandinavian countries like Norway, Denmark and Sweden have been providing free university education for many years and it seems that this is a trend and other countries are following suit. In UK, Welsh university education is free for Welsh.

According to a chart from Source: http://www.zmescience.com/other/germany-education-fees-01102014/  Scotland and several East European countries are also providing free university education for their citizens. University fees in Spain, France and Belgium are less than 1000 euros per year while Portugal, Italy and a few East European states are charging less than 3000 euros. No wonder their rankings are lower than our world best universities.

How much are we charging our students? Britain charges more than 9000 euros for their universities, the most expensive. I think we must be modeling after Britain and using Britain as a benchmark in fees and quality. Our universities are comparable to the best of the British in both counts so it is only appropriate to benchmark against them.

Why are some of these countries starting to offer free university education to their citizens? Simple. It is an investment. The better educated the people are, the more productive they are and better serve the country and its economy. Put it the other way, if the university education is so expensive that the people are not university graduates, how are there going to contribute to the economy? Would they be happy to be hawkers and crane drivers? In Sin City, many graduates are now good enough to drive taxis.

What if our citizens are all non graduates, would we be importing all the top and highly paid employees from abroad, the foreign talents? Highly skilled jobs and professions need university education. You cannot have doctors, engineers, scientist etc without tertiary education. Wait a minute, I may be wrong here, there were doctors in the past without university education, like sinsehs, dentists and many other professions. Could be self taught. Is this a contradiction? Never mind if we can live with fakes.

We need high quality university education. And of course quality means money. The buildings, the foreign talent professors, the land, very expensive here, the material, everything needs to be paid for. No money how can?

And providing university education is a big commercial business and can bring in a lot of revenue. Maybe this is one of the main reasons why our universities are so obsessed with university rankings. It is a big money making business. But can we also follow those countries to provide free university education to our citizens and make foreign students pay instead of providing free education to foreign students and make ours pay? Funny right?

The Welsh are providing free for their citizens? The European Unions are charging their member country students a lower fee than those outside of the EU. Is there anything we can learn from this news? Are we doing the right thing or the wrong thing?

Kopi Level - Green

China Speaks for all Hong Kong, According to The Basic Law.

By MIKOspace

Democracy is about the Rule of Law, Not the Rule of the Mob. Never mind the size of the Mob Crowd or the loud noise of the Rabble. They have no place in a Democracy when illegal. HK students represent NOBODY.

It is clear that the Hong Kong demonstrators, mostly students encouraged by politicians with their own agenda, do not care about the livelihood and well-being of the rest of Hong Kong, who is really the majority. The Hong Kong demonstrators are fighting only for themselves, NOT for the majority of HK people. They should now keep quiet and listen to the rest of Hong Kong whose families has lost much needed incomes from reduced tourism and disruptions to transportation.  The loss of tourism earnings by 7% must seriously hit the pockets of taxi drivers, retail shop owners, amusement centre operators, tour guides, tour operators, restaurants, hotels and, yes, the parents, uncles/aunties, relatives and siblings of the demonstrators.  The earnings loss will never be recovered.

Never has the abuse of Democratic freedom so blatant.  The inherent right to peaceful protests has been openly misused to riot over unfounded fears about the future.  Nothing is more frightening than to lash out at shadows when believing monsters residing within.  

WHO will speak for those hurt most by irresponsible Hong Kong demonstrators? According to the Basic Law of Hong Kong, it is China.      

Under British common law, the owner’s right to the return of his “stolen” property is absolute.  And any agreement to abridge or limit such rights by stating conditions for the lawful return of rightful property has no basis in law and therefore unenforceable. Whither the HK Basic Law?  

The Hong Kong Basic Law is a purely domestic legislation deriving its authority from the Constitution of the People's Republic of China (PRC). In fact, Basic Law’s Article 158 specifically vested the power of final interpretation of the HK Basic Law in the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPCSC) which is the highest organ of state whose power is derived from the Constitution of the People's Republic of China. Ergo, YES, the PRC Constitution supersedes the Basic Law of Hong Kong SAR.  In fact, it was the NPCSC who adopted and approved the HK Basic Law on 4 April 1990, and came into effect on Handover Day, 1 July 1997

Essentially, the HK Basic Law, which is the outcome of the Joint Declaration between PRC and the British government on Hong Kong, acts as the historic interim (50 years) agreement on the rightful RETURN of Hong Kong back to the People's Republic of China.

Hong Kong is NOT Scotland. Scotland conquered England (plus Wales) in 1603, and UK was formed in 1707 together with Ireland. Unlike Scotland, Hong Kong has always belonged to China, who was forced to cede it to the British under the shameful Treaty of Nanjing in 1842 when China lost the Opium War with Britain after failing to stop Britain from selling the profitable poison to the Chinese people. It's like the Mexican/Latin American Drug cartels demanding the State of Texas as payment and compensation for American destruction of their lucrative cocaine trade in the American war on drug.

Unlike Scotland, the option for Hong Kong independence is not available since she is just a SMALL Chinese city and an integral part of China. Hong Kong people must learn HOW to live as part of China, not apart. 

Read more:

China Speaks for All Hong Kongers, According to Basic Law

Kopi Level - Green

Another stock market story

Looks like the remisiers and traders are very free these days and have a lot of time to activate their creative juice. Some are turning into poets.

There is a big playground for adults in Singapore ...
It's called the stock market
We used to love to play here
There were many people with similar objective playing in this playground
There used to be much excitement here
But in the recent past many months, this playground is deserted
On any given days, there is hardly any people going there
I still go there everyday, I want to play, I want to try
No matter how I do, I can't find any other people playing here
I always played with the same people and ...
With each passing day, less & less people dropped by
It's getting harder & harder to be motivated to come here...
I used to look forward coming here ... but now
I dread coming here ... It's like going to those Sentosa apartments,
There is hardly anybody there ...
Something is wrong in this playground, very WRONG indeed!

Kopi Level - Yellow

A desperate plea to the foreign talents

40% of the population in this island is foreigners. And depending on the parameters one is using, or the definition, true blue Singaporeans are now an absolute minority in their city island. The Singaporeans have been told to be grateful to the foreigners for they are here to help them and create jobs for them. And the foreigners know that they are the white knights that are here to save the daft citizens for without them the little island will go down the chute to the 3rd World. For recognition of this hard truth, the daft citizens are all grateful to the foreigners and welcomed them with open arms and open legs.
 
The foreigners, especially the fakes, knew how important they are to the citizens and their good life. They know that the good life of the daft citizens will be an issue without them. It is a nice balance with both sides understanding where they stand. The citizens even sent love letters to the construction workers to show their appreciation for building the flats for them. The citizens with the help of the govt are helping the foreigners to integrate and adapt themselves to the island, to make their living pleasant, and to feel very welcome. The citizens have been coaxed to be nice to the foreigners. Even when a group of foreigners rioted, they were referred to as very nice people. No offensive words must be used against the foreigners to hurt their feelings.
 
The foreigners even demanded for equal rights with the citizens and privileges like places for their children. Some foreigners are starting to lose their patience with the citizens. They found the citizens really daft, no skill sets to be employable, university graduates but unemployable. They got so frustrated with the local retards that they insisted on bringing in their talents from their village universities to replace the so called local talents from so called top ranking universities. Many local PMEs were booted out from jobs that they were doing well for ten or twenty years only to be made redundant and be replaced by talented graduates from degree mills universities or unheard of universities.
 
The replacement of the locals by the foreign talents is like a coordinated movement and organizations are increasing filling their positions with more foreigners than citizens. They are taking more and more of the top jobs that locals are unfit to do.
 
In the streets, foreigners are losing their patients with the locals too and would not hesitate to take the law into their own hands, to wallop the lazy, slow and daft citizens.
 
This is a plea to the foreign talents not to take all the good jobs from the locals. Please leave some jobs for the citizens or they will all end up as taxi drivers. And don’t forget that they have a huge mortgage to pay and children to send overseas for their education. So please don’t take up too many university places as well. Many parents had to sell their flats just because the university places were taken up by foreign students. And please, our citizen lecturers and professors also need to work, to teach. Please do not replace them with talented foreigners no matter how good they are. It is undesirable for our citizen university dons to drive taxis.
 
You talented foreigners have taken a lot of our top jobs and middle management jobs. We are not complaining if you are taking over the manual jobs in the construction industry. But leave some cleaners jobs in the food courts to the citizens please. They need to work to have a bit of dignity even at 70 or 80.
And please don’t beat us whenever you are unhappy or provoked by the daft citizens when they got into your way. They did not know that they should be out of your way. And please don’t cheat our oldies. They have a lot of money but they are all suffering from dementia or simply gullible and are easy targets. They worked very hard for a life time. Please don’t cheat or rob them of their life savings.
 
Please, please, tolong, tolong. Be kinder to us, the daft citizens of this island. And when you foreigners eventually take over all the top jobs in the island and the govt, have mercy on us, the original citizens. We are very nice people too, really. We don’t mind inviting all of you and your village kins here to take over our jobs and our country. Just be nicer to us and leave some crumbs for us.
 
Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Koipi Level - Yellow

Is Madam Chung medically fit to revoke LPA

A LPA is a very serious piece of paper that accorded great powers to the holder over the finance and wealth and health of a person that gave the LPA to. Now Madam Chung Khin Chun is under an appointed medical expert to determine if she is medically fit to revoke the LPA. What if she is found to be unfit to revoke the LPA? Would the holder of the LPA still retain the power and continue to exercise that power legally?
 
I would presume that if Yang Yin is found guilty of fraud and declared unfit to be the guardian, the court could revoke the LPA on Madam Chung’s behalf. What if there is insufficient evidence to make a conviction and Yang Yin is discharged or acquitted, does it mean that he should still legally be the guardian of Madam Chung with the LPA?
 
Can it be so scary?
 
Madam Chung’s case exposed a serious flaw in the LPA process. These are likely to be people at a point of losing their mental capacity and lucidness. And they could totally lose their ability to revoke the LPA very soon after granting it and in case of a similar fraud, how are they to revoke the LPA on their own? Going through the due process of the law and OPG could be time consuming and by the time the matter is settled, all the assets could be disposed off.

Kopi Level - Yellow

Firm loses $2m to secretary

A local company is suing its secretary for theft amounting to $2 m. Apparently the secretary had been depositing the company’s cash cheques into her own pocket for a period of 7 to 8 years. And the cash cheques were in sums of $30k to $400k.
 
Taking this as an example for discussion, who is to be blamed? The secretary is at fault for sure. What about the company? How could a secretary keep on taking cash cheques from a company without anyone noticing it for such a long spell of time and for such a considerable sum of money?
 
What is the moral of the story? If you allow a thief to keep taking away your money without resisting, or did not want to bother, did not want to know or do anything about it, you deserve to lose your money. By not wanting to do anything, or not bothering, it is like telling the thief, actually not a thief, to take and take and take.
 
Apply the same logic to the jobs in the country, the space and the whole country. If we let foreigners to keep taking away our good jobs, our space, and eventually the whole country, and not doing anything about it, we deserve to lose everything, all our possessions and even our country.
 
Do you want that to happen, daft Sinkies?

Kopi Level - Green

Sino Indian border tension flared up during Xi Jinping’s visit

When Modi visited China, the border was peaceful. When Xi Jinping made a reciprocal visit, border tension flared with India ramping up its activities in the disputed region and the Chinese side returning the favour. This is looking like a repeat of the meeting between Nehru and Zhou Enlai. When they met in cordial settings with Nehru famous quote, ‘Hindi Chini Bhai Bhai’, border tensions flared up too. While public gestures were all friendly and warmth, the Chinese did not know that India was building up a special 4th Corp to capture the disputed territories from China.

India finally revealed its aggressive intent and invaded and captured some of the disputed territories with Chinese border guards on the retreat. But after reorg and with the arrival of backup troops, China launched its counter attack and sent the Indian 4th Corp fleeing in the most one sided humiliating military defeat in modern history. The great Indian Army fled in the face of Chinese peasant soldiers.

Would Modi do a Nehru against Xi Jinping? Today India is an aspiring superpower in the making. It has all the modern and latest weaponry money can buy. The Indian armed forces are many times better equipped and stronger than during the times of Nehru. Is Modi harbouring a desire to avenge the defeat of Nehru with a new Look East Policy? He is now in Washington after visiting Tokyo and negotiating defence pacts. What is the undisclosed agenda?

Should Modi ever indulge in another military adventure, he must take note that this time round, if the Indian Army could not succeed and went scurrying back, the PLA would not withdraw from the disputed territories anymore. This time the PLA will stay put and will not be as generous and kind like their predecessors. They would not repeat a mistake twice. They would settle the border issues once and for good.

What would it be the case? Another Sino Indian border war in the making to pave the way for an Indian Century?

Kopi Level - Green

Singapore is the safest place on planet Earth

Many foreigners are so impressed with everything Singapore. Most of all they are bowed over by the safe and secure environment for bring up a family. Young ladies and children can wander home in the wee hours of the night with being mugged, very low drug offences, very low crime. Our safety record is legendary.
 
After the Hong Lim Park Affair, we have another feather on our cap. The Singapore Tourist Board can proclaim to the world that we are the safest place on planet Earth. In this latest event, the parents were so confident of the safety and security here that they had no qualms or reservations to bring their little children to a party in the Park where a political protest rally was being held. They knew that nothing of any violent nature will happen and their children will be absolutely safe. And that was exactly what happened.
And the Park administrators also believe so. They have many experiences allowing different parties with different agenda in the Park at the same time and have been proven to be totally safe. The latest event vindicates their faith and judgement that we are a very safe country.
 
And to make a point, the protestors were made to apologise to the parents for making too much noise that frightened some of the children. And the protestors were truly sorry for interrupting the children’s party. And the Minister that attended the event also apologized as well for this little mishap.
 
And the public were so angry with the protestors for their rough and loud behavior that they chastised them publicly in the main media. This is our standard of social behavior. The protestors in a mass rally must be conscious and mindful of children having parties in the same Park. With this experience I think in future they will lower their voices and shouting when the children are around.
 
So, another new slogan for STB, ‘Singapore is the safest place on Planet Earth’. Come to Singapore for a safe and pleasant holiday with your families and have a good time. Tourists can also go to Hong Lim Park to watch a protest rally with no fear of being hurt. Absolutely safe! And if they are annoyed by the protestors, they can demand an apology from them too.
 
I think this slogan will be 100 times better than F1, and costs nothing except maybe say thank you to redbean for suggesting it.
 
What about the riot? What riot? Oh you mean the Little India Riot. There is nothing to it. The rioters are very nice people. And if you are lucky, they may arrange a tour package if a riot is on for you to have a ringside view of the rioting. Everything is under control and very, very safe. Only slight hitch is that the traffic could be so heavy that you may not be able to get near it. And you would also have to compete with parents wanting to bring their children to watch the riot too. See how safe Singapore is!

Kopi Level - Green

Singaporeans that made us proud

(30 Sep) – For a Secondary One student just crowned champion at the Asian Games, Jodie Lai was remarkably calm.

“I’m very happy because I won gold,” said the Singaporean sailor, cool as you like, as cameras flashed and reporters thrust phones in her face.

Lai, 13, finished clear of an eight-woman field in the optimist race Tuesday afternoon, after nearly a week of racing at the Wangsan Marina in Incheon, South Korea....

Raynn Kwok was awarded a late silver in his optimist race after protesting his initial fourth-place finish. The 12-year-old is now Singapore’s youngest-ever medalist at the Asian Games, displacing fellow sailor Ryan Lo who was 13 when he won bronze in the optimist event in 2010.

The above were copied from TRE.


Kopi Level - Green

Hong Kong unplugged

The Hongkies have their first victory with their Occupy Central movement. The huge turnout looks menacing. The world, especially the China doomsayers, are clapping their hands. China is in real trouble. An editorial from New York Times reposted in the Today paper said Xi Jinping is running out of options. In other words China could do nothing about it.
 
This last vestige of Western Imperialism, a stark reminder of China’s humiliating past, is slapping China in the face all over again. From the western lens, checkmate! Actually the best thing for China is to do nothing. Declare a golden week for Hong Kong, in fact a golden month, or a golden year.
 
While Singapore, a twin city of Hong Kong’s likeness, has the Southeast Asia and the whole world as its hinterland, Hong Kong practically has China and is solely dependent on China for all its needs and economic growth. When China unplugged itself from the Hong Kong economy, Hong Kong would be like a piece of driftwood without an anchor. It would be worst than a sampan.
 
The mass civil disobedience in Hong Kong is a golden opportunity for China to do what it wanted to do for a long time. The plan to let Hong Kong receded into the peripheral of the Chinese economy and main stream activities could be pulled out from the bottom drawer and receive a good dusting.
 
Shanghai has always been China’s top priority as the financial centre, not Hong Kong. China needed Hong Kong and world opinion to look good, and the stability to grow its economy. That stage has passed. Shanghai has been waiting as the bridesmaid and ready to take centre stage. All the economic and commercial activities in Hong Kong can be transferred to Shanghai and other cities. Shenzhen as the southern economic hub could run on its own without Hong Kong.
 
It is time that Hong Kong fades into the wilderness and other Chinese cities emerged to rival and prosper over Hong Kong. Hong Kong’s usefulness as the commercial hub of China can no longer hold China to ransom. Hong Kong is dispensable today.
 
Good bye Hong Kong. It will be confined to its rightful place as a colonial cantonment in history. China today does not need Hong Kong but will keep Hong Kong as one of its cities, maybe relegated to a second tier city. Life will go on without Hong Kong. Hong Kong can enjoy its autonomy and democracy without interference from the central govt, but remain a second tier city in China.

Kopi Level - Green