Kwan Yin made a vow

Kwan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy, made a vow that she would not ascend to buddhahood as long as there are people to be saved from this earth. She is more than qualified to be a buddha eons ago, but she would remain only a bodhisattva, and looks like this is going to be forever.

We have a govt that we elected to look after the interests of citizens. Shall the citizens hold the govt responsible for as long as there are Singaporeans that are jobless, that want to be decently employed but unable to do so, ended up as underemployed, as contract or part time workers, or forced to retire prematurely?

And while Singaporeans are caught in these difficult situations, there are hundreds of thousands of foreigners working here in good jobs that the Singaporeans would love to do. Why is this happening and should this be the case?

Should there be a priority for Singaporeans to be the preferred candidates, to be given the first right of refusal when all things being equal? Entitlement mentality? This country belongs to the Singaporeans, not to the foreigners! Maybe I am wrong, this country belongs to the foreigners except the Singaporeans.

Should the govt be held accountable and responsible to ensure all Singaporeans are decently employed befitting their qualifications and experience? Why are hundreds of thousands of foreigners be happily employed while Singaporeans are not and many driven to depression and even suicide?

Is the popularly elected govt responsible to ensure Singaporeans are decently and suitably employed? Are Singaporeans citizens of a country or nobody’s children?

Oh, the Govt is working very hard for the Singaporeans, so that the PMETs can be trained to downgrade and become service staff. But if they want to be more independent and be their own bosses, they can become taxi drivers. And they have set up a new institution by the NTUC called e2i to train Singaporeans to compete in the world since they are not competitive in Singapore. 

Singaporeans are so lucky. Go overseas, quick, the world is your oyster. Forget about your home Singapore, they are for the talented foreigners, the playground of the rich and the nobles and aristocrats.

The train bully deserves a public service medal

Oops, I should not use the word bully otherwise I will be offending his followers and patrons. The Caucasian man who stood up to tell the local young man who wore a T shirt with offensive words deserved to be commended and recommended for a National Day Award. He is behaving like a civic conscious, high moral, and public spirited citizen vigilante. He saw something unpleasant and offensive in the train that should not be there. So he told off the young man for his rudeness and wearing his expletives. Such acts of honour and heroics cannot be missed and not rewarded? We need more of such brave men of exemplary conduct to walk the streets to put the rude boys in the right place.

In this paradise city state, like all paradise, there must be an unusually high code of conduct and decency, at least in public places, like the trains and buses and the internet. No one is allowed to say horrible things to offend the angels and immortals. The state just dealt harshly with a young boy for posting offensive words in the net. The message is very clear. No nonsense and no unbecoming conduct or behaviour is accepted in paradise.

The bully, oops, the civic conscious Caucasian was just reading the message and understood the high level of decency and conduct expected of everyone in paradise. And he must be thinking that he was doing the right and proper thing, in line with the policies and regime of paradise. Probably he must be telling himself, as a good person, I am not sure if he is a citizen, he just must help to make things right for the privilege of being invited into paradise to enjoy the wholesome goodness of this city state. He probably goes to church twice a day.

I think, looking at it from this perspective, the person who interrupted him and not allowing him to do the right thing, to teach the young man with his horrible T shirt a lesson, was doing a disservice to the public. The rude young man must be taught a lesson like stripped of his horrible T shirt, smacked in public, (how about caning?) for conduct that are not acceptable in paradise and then thrown out of the train by the big Caucasian. It would be like something you see in Hollywood movie, and the people clapped joyously to acknowledge the gallantry of the brave Caucasian.

And the concluding chapter would be the folks of paradise all invited to a big celebration to witness the award of a medal to the hero, and a public dressing for the man that attempted to stop the hero from doing what was expected in paradise.

Amen.

What do you think? My script acceptable or not? Can turn it into a short movie for Channel 5 or Channel 8, still in time for SG50. This incident really tells how badly we need foreign talents to help and save us from debauchery and decadence.

AIIB – Positive results without doing anything

Many are still quibbling and trying very hard to smear the AIIB with all the fear mongering before it starts to operate. The critics are behaving worse than being sour grapes. Fear this fear that, this bad that bad to frighten everyone trying to join the grouping. How can something be bad when it has not done anything or decided on how it is going to function and the rules that it will play with? The same thing about China, everything is bad, but did China commit any of the crimes so fear and talked about? The real fear is that AIIB will undermine their domination and control of the world and give the poorer country an alternative source of fund to access for their needs. The fearmongers know that their power over the rest of the world is weakening. That is the real threat.

What has AIIB done so far? Nothing. All the fears are pure negative imaginations and fabrications. But before the AIIB starts operating, it has already caused a lot of positive and tangible benefits to Asian countries. The IMF, World Bank and ADB cannot behave as they used to be, acting like warlords and bullying countries to toe their lines or else. AIIB is now a credible competitor and alternative for those countries needing financing to go to. Yes there is an alternative and with competitive terms. No more arm twisting to yield to demands.

The most tangible result is that Japan is offering more financing to compete with the AIIB. It is offering more financial assistance by topping up another US$500b to the ADB and throwing more carrots to countries on a bilateral basis. The IMF and World Bank too would have to act and be more generous to the applicant countries for assistance. Trying to play hard ball is no longer acceptable. The needy countries would say keep your money, we will go to AIIB.

The third positive development is that Asian countries would be less dependent on the American and Japanese controlled financial institutions for aid. It would give them a lot more freedom to act without having to please these warlords. There must be a greater sense of relief among Asian countries and they could push the IMF, World Bank and ADB to offer better terms than AIIB if they want to remain in the game. No more blackmail and ransom and to swallow bitter pills like during the Asian financial crisis.

How’s that for the achievements of the new kid on the block, and it has not even started its business. When it starts to dole out its funds, and with promise of more funds, the playing field will not be the same again. And there is also a twin brother in the BRICS Bank to offer similar loans to challenge the domination of the IMF and World Bank.

AHPETC a big case of incompetence?

Everyone reading the media would come to one conclusion, ie, the biggest case of public service incompetence must be the AHPETC. You hear the ministers talking about it practically everyday. You read in the media just as often until ‘jer lat’.

Are there other cases of public service that are more serious than the AHPETC?  Just think about it. I say just think about it, not to talk about it. Think of anything? Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know. I left this article at this point yesterday not very sure how to proceed from here.

This morning, 16 Jul, I was greeted by two articles from the Auditor General’s Office on lapses in the NLB and the Admiralty CCC. In the above paragraph I said I chose not to know, but with these cases in the front pages of the media, even I closed my eyes, I cannot refuse not to see them. It is now common and public knowledge.

Now my problem is how to comment on these lapses? Shall I put them side by side with the AHPETC case and show the similarities? Better not. With the GE around the corner, it is better to change tack and read it from the right perspective. Issues like these would become election issues and the opposition parties would definitely compare them and their severity with the AHPETC case. Comments already flooded a thread on the topic in TRE.

What were the cases about? The facts first. In the NLB’s case it was the procurement of a $7.3 million e-resource system from a vendor and apparently without looking at other alternatives or no tendering or something like that. The exact words,  “ ‘without any evidence’ of having considered other alternative materials that were similar”.  In the case of the Admiralty CCC it was about the Chairman approving seven of his own claims amounting to $114,767 and the approving and award of two contracts amounting to $32,000 when he held a senior position in the company. No one can miss the similarities in these instances to those of AHPETC. Conflict of interest anyone? How serious compares to husband approving wife’s application for payment?

I will look at these cases as lapses in procedures and how to rectify them. They happened, let’s move on. Oh, based on the AGO’s recommendation the Ministry of Communications and Information had made a police report on this case. Before anyone started to use strong words, it is important to understand that some of these agencies and people are new to these things and have to start from scratch. With their inexperience, they are likely to be lapses in procedures but with no intention to cheat or foul play. They would not understand the meaning of conflict of interest. How to expect people from the villages of a 3^rd World to understand such concepts of impropriety?  Being too harsh on newbies is not very kind and a bit unfair.

In the case of the NLB and Admiralty CCC, are these new institutions? Would they have precedents and existing practices and procedures to work on?  Would they have paid expertise like govt officials and procedures to guide them? These are important factors to determine whether their actions are mischievous or innocent and due to ignorance. I think NLB is a new organization. The old NLB is history, so they have to start things all over, to reinvent the wheel on operating procedures.

Another angle to look at is that being a 3^rd World country and without foreign talent, such lapses are bound to occur. We just don’t have the expertise and the experience about such things. It may be good to hire 3^rd World experts with the experience to show our ‘going to be’ 3^rd World no skill and no talent people how to run public organizations and how to develop proper procedures on checks and controls. This thing about approving own claims or approving jobs or contracts with connected parties are things that are new to a new 3^rd World country like ours, only 50 years in existence. We should learn from older countries and govts that have all these procedures worked out and in place. They are very experienced in such matters when such things are part of their culture.

I would suggest we hire more 3^rd World talents to help us iron out all the administrative loose ends and lapses. Alternatively we can send our people to 3^rd World countries to learn from their best practices. I think these should work. Are we a young country? Oops, we are not even a country, a city, going from first World to 3^rd World and these lapses should be considered normal, our new normal.

We should thus be more forgiving and not to act as if the sky has fallen down and go for the kill. It is so embarrassing and so unbecoming to jump up and down like little brats accusing inexperienced people for such lapses.

What do you think?

Sino Indian relations – A breakthrough

Heard over the news last evening that there is a major breakthrough in Sino Indian relations, at least in the economic front. The pro business and pro development PM Modi has given the green light for China’s largest mobile phone maker to open a factory in India. This has never been allowed before, not even to western countries. It sure spells good news for more cooperation between the two Asian giants.

The only catch that is holding back this development is the condition that all the top management staff must be Indians. This sounds very reasonable to a very nationalistic Indian govt. What it entails is that the whole manufacturing company would be operated and run by the Indians with the Chinese footing the bills and providing the technology and know how. Would the Chinese agree to it? Putting money in India and losing all control over their money and investment? Would there be stupid countries to allow such an arrangement to take place?

As a Singaporean, I find this strange. We have no problems with MNCs setting up business and employing whoever they want. We do not insist that they must employ Singaporeans, at least not a condition for them to be here, at top management level. We only hope that they will employ more Singaporeans and in some professions, they may be a certain quota to ensure that some Singaporeans are employed. But we definitely did not demand that the top management of foreign companies must be Singaporeans. How can we do that when we don’t have the talent to offer them, when our top talents are misfits?

In fact many foreign companies are free to hire as many foreigners as they want at top management level. Even local companies are doing the same. Even govt ministries and GLCs are doing so. But we got no choice, we got no talents. We need the foreign talents or else we will end up in the 3^rd World, no growth, no progress and our people will suffer.

How nice if we are like India, with so many talents to offer and can insist that foreign companies operating here must employ Singaporeans in top management. But that is too much to expect. We don’t even have enough Singaporeans to fill the top management positions in GLCs and the ministries. We need more, we need to sign more free trade agreements to ensure that more foreign talents are here to replace the no talent Singaporeans.

When will we have the local talents for our own needs in top management? Oh, the govt has started to plan for this eventuality. Maybe we will be there when our population hits 10m.

Je suis Elfy

The Police will not pursue the matter with the train bully according to Shanmugam. And if one is to read the penal code on assault and criminal intimidation, it is quite clear that there is a prima facie case to haul the bully to court to charge him for both offences.  Shanmugam was also quoted as saying that he hoped the employer would deal with him. Is this the right thing to do? No action from the Police, not a Police matter?

What is the message? Would more bullies be encouraged to bully the locals in public places as and when they like, knowing that the Police would not act against them? What does it tell the Singaporeans, that they can be bullied, threatened and abused by anyone in public places and they cannot depend on the law and the Police for protection? Does it mean that the public must be able to defend themselves if confronted and attacked by bullies, to take the law into their own hands, or to let the bullies bash them up first before the law would step forward to deal with the bullies? Or are the Singaporeans supposed to accept this as the new normal?

All the above options are bad as many locals are just too small physically and meek to take on a big bully. Looks like the only hope they can depend on is for more Singaporeans to stand up like Elfy to protect the weak and the meek.  Would there be more Elfys to stand up to be recognised as the protector of Singaporeans?

In this incident it was lucky that the bully chickened out. What would happen to our hero Elfy if a fight broke up and both got injured, or the bully got injured? Would the law go after Elfy for standing up to defend the victim, or would he be charged for not minding his own business and got involved in a fight?

Is the govt expecting the people to take the law into their own hands or expecting the weak and meek to stand there and be abused, insulted, threatened and even beaten?

What kind of rule of law country is this? Is the safety of the public the responsibility of the govt? Who is there to protect the people when abused and threatened with harm in the public?

Elfy?

Let me take this opportunity to say thank you to Elfy once more and wish all our Malay brothers and sisters a Happy Hari Raya Aidilfitri.

Muhammad Hanafie aka Elfy, our hero

This young man of medium built, only 25, stood up to a bully more than double his heft, to defend another smaller young man who was being bullied and threatened with violence. The sin of the younger man was to wear a loud T shirt with the words, ‘I’m F—king Special’.  I did not see anything wrong about that except for the prudes and the priests. This is nothing to a westerner, and that bully is a westerner. For westerners, saying fuck in every sentence even in the corporate office is normal. Now what is so fucking unacceptable about the young man’s T shirt that gave this big bully the right to threaten to beat him and to throw him out of the train? The one that needs to be thrown out of the train is the big animal! And he was shouting and cursing at the young man all the while until our hero stood up to stop him.

When I read that both were let away by the Police, I shared the concern of many netizens that our hero might suffer the injustice of being rude to a foreigner instead.  Thankfully it is reported in today’s ST that Elfy was invited by Shanmugam at a ceremony for his bravery. I can now breathe a sigh of relief knowing that it ends well for Efly.  Thank you Elfy, proud of you!

Now what about the bully? Is anything going to happen to him for intimidating another person and threatening him bodily harm? Was it not criminal intimidation or threatening the peace? Who is he, what is his name, what does he look like? We want to know. The public has a right to know that there is such a bully in their midst and to avoid him at all cost for those who could not stand up to him.

Would the media or the Police publish information on this bully? Why is there a need to protect his confidentiality like an underage boy of 16? If he dared to behave like a bully in public, to threaten to beat up people in public, there is no need to hide his face and identity.

Would the Police be taking action against this bully now that Shanmugam has acknowledged that - ‘The bullying was unacceptable, and what Elfy did made me feel proud – standing up to a bully’.  The bully must be taught a lesson to send a message to all the bullies that they will be dealt with by the law, harshly, for threatening to harm another person and for disturbing our peace.

We are waiting to see what the Police would do to protect the citizens from such bullies. PNG him if necessary and sent him home. We don’t need such rogue here!

China’s intervention in the stock market doomed to fail

There is another standard doomsayer’s article in the Today paper on 13 Jul 15 with a title, ‘Is China’s use of state control, money to stem stocks rout doomed to fail?’ When I look at the author, Tom Mitchell, Gabriel Wildau and Josh Noble, I can guess the answer. This kind of China bashing literature has been flooding the western media and our local media for decades.  China is doomed to fail in everything it does. There is nothing clever or sustainable in what the nerds and backward and unintelligent leaders in Beijing could do right. China is full of flaws and the economy is waiting to collapse. And the intervention in the stock market is another unthinkable thing to do. Bound to fail.

In the meantime, for the last 40 years, China quietly plod along, growing from strength to strength and is now the biggest economy in the world in real purchasing power terms, overtaking the USA. How could these foolish Chinamen do this? Unbelievable, cannot be true. China must be doctoring their numbers to bluff the whole. They are all fools. Just wait for the collapse to come.

Unfortunately in the case of this monetary intervention by the Chinese govt in the stock market, I must agree it is a silly thing to do. They cannot hope of artificially propping up a market by throwing money at it and think it will work. It is unsustainable if the fundamentals are wrong. Any PE of above 40 or 50 times is questionable. If there are a few exceptions, it is understandable. But for the whole market, for all the stocks to have such high PEs, in the hundreds, how can it be sustainable?

The Chinese may be banking on their huge surplus and a huge population turning investors against a small number of stocks. Even these factors may be abnormal relative to the rest of the world, but still the enormous PE cannot hold. The general PE in the market may tolerate a few more points higher than international norms, but when it is at a ridiculous level, it must come down.

State intervention is not a flaw per se. State intervention is necessary under the present market condition when there are big boys manipulating the market. The manipulations by the big boys are not different from state intervention. The criticism by the analysts against state intervention is as flawed as allowing the big boys to do what they want in the market with their huge war chests. The big boys are also intervening in the normal functioning of the market. They are not the real market forces by an oligarchy out to manipulate the market to their favours in the guise of free market forces.

Without state intervention, the small investors would be at the mercy of the big boys and their intervention to reap them off. The big boys could push up the market or whack the market down to the abyss.  They are demanding that govt and stock exchange regulators stand aside and let them do as they pleased. And state intervention is unacceptable but their intervention is acceptable, normal and good for the market.

State intervention is now a necessity in a market dominated by the big boys. Without state intervention, the small investors would be at the mercy of the big boys and turned into gun fodder. States and govts must be strong enough to intervene in the stock market to balance against the big boys rigging the market in their favour.

What is wrong in the China intervention is to prop up a market that is already too high with very high PEs. China better think twice and change their strategies to something more down to earth and more real, if they want their markets to function normally in the long run. This short term intervention must be unworn in a matter of time. Yes, this intervention is doomed to fail and will cost the Chinese govt heavily in financial terms.

Let’s be kind to Swee Say

Swee Say said several things he wanted to do to correct the crimes against Singaporean talents in Parliament. These were quoted in a thread in TRE titled ‘Lim: FTs still needed to transfer knowledge to us’.  Here are a few paragraphs of this article.

“The MOM is also looking at how we can support those companies that are able to help us to transfer the know-how and the capabilities to our workforce, over the near term.”

“If we identify that certain areas of skills are in deficit and if we feel that those sources of expertise are available out there, somewhere in the world, we would like to work with companies to bring those expertise to Singapore and put in place a know-how transfer programme so that over time, this skills deficit can be narrowed,….

Mr Lim also revealed that his ministry is acting on concerns over firms with foreign HR directors, who may prefer to hire their own kinds.

“In fact, this is an area I’m looking into as well,” he said.

But he seems to have his doubts over such complaints from Singaporean PMEs.

“I’m not accusing them of being biased. But I would like to know if this concern by many PMEs is founded or unfounded.’

For saying the above, which was nothing new, many commentators took him to task with very stern remarks. I can’t blame them for I too wanted to say the same things. But on hindsight, I think the commentators are being too harsh on Swee Say. Though the concept of transfer of skills and knowledge were 30 years old, practiced 30 years ago but somewhere in time forgotten and lost, it is not fair to expect Swee Say to know these things. He was in NTUC and not in charge of productivity and the transfer of knowledge and knowhow to Singaporeans. He was not in charge of creating a Singaporean core of expertise in the banking and finance and IT industries. He was not in charge of hiring of foreigners to replace Singaporean PMETs. He did not know that Singaporeans were discriminated in the hiring process.  

He just took over this hot seat a couple of months ago and needs time to know what is going on. These problems have been there for years and not resolved, how to expect someone new to the job to know them and solve them immediately?

Let’s not blame him and be kinder to him. At least he is trying to understand the problems in his new job and he needs to know what went wrong and needs time to under concepts like transfer of skills and knowhow. You can’t expect him to know that this was the mantra of the day 30 years ago.

Let’s give him the chance to do the right thing and to correct the wrongs against Singaporeans in the industries. He has very little time to do so as the GE is around the corner.  He has to work very fast if he wants results to show that has indeed done something good for the PMETs and to build a Singaporean core.

And I think he is on the right track, tackle the HR heads and the companies with a lot of foreigners first. He has to be serious and any wayang will only expose his insincerity. All the eyes are on him now as the problems are serious and well known. If he cannot prove anything to his credit, the GE will be very harsh on him and his party.

Whatever you like, he is the best bet among all the MOM ministers in the past. He is the only one that appears to be serious in wanting to do something real. And he knows that time is against him and he cannot wayang anymore like past MOM ministers. The problem is going to hit his party very hard if not tackle immediately and seriously.

Ok, I have done my part to speak up for Swee Say. Now it is his part to produce the results.

PS。If only Swee Say has taken over the MOM 20 years ago, maybe things would not be so bad.

Serving Redbean Soup

Hi Guys and Gals,

I have just received my books from the printers and will be sending them out in the following days.
Only limited copies are available and those who have yet to order, please do so.

And Virgo, can you confirm you have ordered one or 3 copies please.

Thank you everyone.

PS. For Singapore address and multiple copies, please note that one envelop will contain one book and the books may arrive on different days.

Redbean

SMRT lessons: Look at the positive side

It is not good to be negative. Look at the bright side of things. The recent and past breakdowns of the MRT should not be cause for alarm and depression. We need to look at things positively then we can put on a brave and cheerful front and go about life feeling good.

Just look at those countries that don’t have MRT, count yourself lucky to have MRT to move around.

Look at those countries that have people hanging on the trains from the outside, or sitting on the roof of the trains, aren’t you grateful?

Look at Japan, they have to hire pushers to push you into the trains. Here you wait for the second or third train and sure you will be able to get in without being pushed into it.

And where on earth can you find the best talents, paid in the millions, to manage the trains and run it so efficiently?

Be reasonable. It could be worst if you don’t have the best talents like ours running it, or don’t even have trains to take you around.

Don’t listen to people saying that only poor people take trains and you need to bath the moment you get home to rid yourself of the smell of poor people. Our trains are used by rich local people also. They don’t smell so bad like the snobs said.

Count your blessings. This is as good as you can get. Stop complaining. Wait till you get a rogue govt and mismanagement then you will know how good things are today.

See, positive thinking, I already feel better. Hope you people reading are also feeling better. And with the GE around the corner, things can only get betterer. Even the supply of COEs is more than before. And they have found out that Singaporeans are better for banking jobs also and the banks have started to recruit Singaporeans. Everything is so promising.

And there is a good chance that you may get a whole new train system to replace this ageing system. Now that must be something to look forward to. If we can scrap cars after using them for 10 years, we should consider scraping the train after 30 years and get a new and gleaming one with no problems to run again.

Smile, the sun is smiling.

Lin peh kong swee swee.

Transfer of knowledge from FT to Sinkies

After turning a swamp to a first world metropolis, being the best workers in Asia, we have reached full circle today. We are no longer the best knowledge based workers anymore. We are now no better than 3 world rejects. And rightfully we should learn from these 3^rd World rejects, hoping that they would transfer their skills to us even if they are still from the 3^rd World and would take another half a century if they are lucky to turn their countries into first World. Untalented Sinkies should not be shy to learn from the talented 3^rd World talents as they have longer experience being in the 3^rd World while we are rejoining the 3^rd World as a new member.

Now let’s see what skills the 3^rd World talents are better than us that they can pass it to us? What about building clean cities? Yeah, they have the experience in building clean cities. After all they built Singapore into what it is today. We better learn from them. Can anyone name some of the great 3^rd World cities that they built other than Sin City?

What about banking skills and knowledge? What is the name of the financial centres in Asia and SE Asia? Did anyone say Tokyo, Hongkong, Shanghai and did I hear Singapore? Now which 3rd World financial centre did the 3^rd World financial talents came from that is better than Singapore that we have to learn from them? They have the skills set and latest financial knowledge that we don’t have and we must learn from them, transfer of knowledge? Who built DBS, UOB, OCBC, Tat Lee, UOB, Chung Kiaw Bank, must be bankers from the 3^rd World.

Oh IT talents. Singapore got no IT talents. We need to learn IT knowledge from 3^rd World IT talents. What have our polytechnics and universities been teaching, Basic, Cobol or out dated IT programming knowledge? We are so lucky to have 3^rd World IT experts to transfer IT knowledge to us.

And medical knowledge too. There are so many specialists from the 3^rd World here and they can transfer their latest medical knowledge to us. Their hospitals and medical facilities must be world class and their medical techniques must be the best, better than out Mount Elizabeth, Raffles, our NUS and Tan Tock Seng and our general hospitals.

And yes, we need them to fill up our world class universities as lecturers. They are the best talents and our not so talented lecturers and students must learn from them before they are sacked.

Singapore, a first World to 3^rd World country has a lot to learn from 3^rd World talents and will greatly benefit from the transfer of knowledge from 3^rd World to first World talents? Or is it the other way round? Now I am very confused.

But one kind of knowledge sure we can learn. How to cheat in examinations, how to buy fake certificates, how to present degree mills degrees as the real thing? And how to con first World people that these fake degrees are the real thing. But the supreme knowledge or skill is how to make the daft first World talents believe they are daft and stupid by one with only a fake degree or a degree from the degree mills.

I think this is the most precious skill and knowledge that must be transferred to daft Sinkies to save them from being daft and continue to be cheated by the fakes and cheats and asking for more. It is time our world class universities start to teach this supreme knowledge before it is too late.

Seow liao.

Quotable quotes by Jess C Scott

Brain Drain: The emigration of highly trained or intelligent people from a particular country.

Jess C Scott posted this in her article in TRE titled ‘The main cause of Singapore’s brain drain’.

Let me try another definition.

Shit Drain: The emigration of highly untrained or shitty people from a particular country.

Singaporeans better in banking jobs

13 Jul 15, a Business Times article by Fiona Lam reads, ‘Banks in Singapore act to deepen local talent pool’. I am delirious. I think I might end up in IMH after reading the content and the comments made by the respective drones in HR. Why was Tharman talking about building a Singaporean core in banking and finance? Yes, you know the answer. For the last couple of decades, these drones could not find Singaporeans worthy of banking and finance jobs. So they went all out to hire foreigners, fakes and cheats also can, you can bet there are plenty of them entrenched in the banks.  Today, after all the kpkbs in the social media, they finally acknowledged that they had shortchanged and sold out the Singaporeans by replacing them with foreigners in this vital industry. Singaporeans were not talented, no skills set, in other words unfit to be bankers. Bloody hogwash!

Now you know what I am getting mad at? Listen to these drones and their comments. Oh, they are all starting to recruit Singaporeans to build a Singaporean core in banking and finance since yesterday. Wait a minute, aren’t they taking a big risk hiring untalented Singaporeans for banking? If Singaporeans are no good, (how can they be good overnight?) they must not be recruited into the industry just because we want a Singaporean core. They must be recruited based on  meritocracy, not nationalities. Are they not taking a big risk, compromising the interests of the banks? Who built OCBC, UOB, OUB, Tat Lee Bank, Chung Kiaw Bank and all the local banks? Not Singaporeans right?

Ok, here is one comment by a ‘Neil Clark, director of finance job site efinancialCareers, hiring managers here are showing a preference for local manpower. “This is because local candidates have a solid understanding of the operating environment and business culture, and are lower risk hires in the long term.” ‘ Wow, wow, say that again? Is he mad or what is he smoking? Are you telling the truth or you just discover the truth, that Singaporeans are better hires? Then why were the banking industry hiring foreigners in the last two decades instead of Singaporeans leading to this ugly and pathetic state that required govt intervention?  What cock?

JP Morgan’s de Josselin said, ‘wherever possible, it prefers to hire Singapore citizens and permanent residents.’ Pardon, me, who were JP Morgan hiring in the last two decades, Singaporeans, PRs or foreigners? How many Singaporeans are there in the bank versus foreigners?

Here is another one, ‘Theresa Phua, Singapore head of human resources at DBS, said homegrown staff also have a wider network and connect better with local clients.’  Ooooh, how come I dunno?  Thank you for saying that. Many people need to be educated on this, including the govt and CEO’s of banks and their top management. And here is the catch. ‘DBS has been recently focusing on local manpower…’  Recently? What was DBS hiring before recently focusing on local manpower? Why recently? How recent?

‘At Credit Suisse, the proportion of Singaporean staff has grown steadily over the past three years, said Lito Camacho, the bank’s vice chairman for Asia Pacific.’ So things are starting to change only in the last three years.  By the way, more than 70% of its employees are Singaporeans and PRs. Oh, how many are Singaporeans and how many are PRs? Can tell or not?

Why the volte face? Why the sudden interest in Singaporeans? As they said, the horse has bolted and they are trying to close the door to the barn. After two decades of damage due to reckless discrimination against Singaporeans, and a generation lost, the drones are droning a different tune. What would happen if Tharman had not spoken about a Singaporean core? Would it still be foreigners good, Singaporeans no good. Foreigners talented, got skills set, Singaporeans untalented, got no skills set? Is this another election gimmick to appease the angry Singaporeans?

My head is spinning and my eyes are rolling. What is happening? I must be having too much intoxicant? I am now in Alice’s Wonderland.

PS. Which bank wants to employ me, a true blue Singaporean, just to vet and clear the deck of fake degrees and degree mills? My biological age is 45 as fit as any 45 year olds.

Hsien Loong – Who will defend us?

This simple question used to be just that and very easy to answer. Today this is a very complex question and is very difficult to answer. The first part is the meaning of ‘us’. Who is this ‘us’, the elite, the new citizens, the PRs or the Singaporeans? Get the picture? This ‘us’ despite the Govt’s repetitive assurance that we are all inclusive is turning elusive. Are the new citizens ‘us’? Are the PRs ‘us’? Are the foreigners on employment passes ‘us’?  Or does ‘us’ refer to the elite, the PAP, the nobles and the aristocrats?

How many ordinary citizens would just take this ‘us’ at face value, that it means all of us, ie the Singaporeans, the people whose fathers, husbands, sons and brothers are NSmen?

Then there is the issue of what to defend? If you are not even eligible to buy a HDB and does not own any property here, what is there to defend, the foreigners, the elite, the rich property owners? 50 per cent of the residents is foreigners, or more if the new citizens are included. If one does not have a stake in this island, why should they be defending the foreigners and the rich?

Ask the taxi drivers and security guards or those who have remortgaged their properties to the govt, what is there to defend? Ask the displaced PMETs, what is there to defend?

The third point, defend against who? In the traditional interpretation of defence, the people of a country will defend against the invaders, the foreigners from taking over their country. If the country is already taken over by foreigners, if the foreigners have taken over everything, what is there to defend and to defend against who when the foreigners are already here have taken over the country?

Educating other people’s children

When Deng Xiaoping opened up China, what he found wanting was the lack of talents in the latest technology, science and engineering. He embarked on a massive education programme by sending hundreds of thousands of young Chinese to the West to learn everything they could. The number by now could be in the millions. And when asked what happened if they refused to return to China? Deng was confident to say that if some returned, that would be good enough. He was confident that many would return, knowing China’s history and being the home for the Chinese. Sure many would stay put in Europe and the US, by there would be some to come home where the families and roots were.

Confidentially he might be saying to himself, if he could build a rich and prosperous China, the graduated students would come home when the opportunities were there. China is now a land of opportunities, and not only Chinese students are returning home, the Americans and Europeans are marching to China for their pot of gold. The fear of an exodus of talented Chinese did not materialise. The Chinese are coming home. Communist, capitalist or whatever, when life is good, when opportunities abound, it would attract talents all over the world to China.

China was investing in their children and counting on them to return home to build their country and to prosper their country.

What have we been doing in the education of our children? We rather educate the children of other countries and hoping that they stayed to work here, or if not, they would be good to us and say a few good words for us when they returned home. Is this what we hoped to achieve by spending hundreds of millions or billions to educate other countries’ children? What about our own children? How much are we investing on our own children other than the 250 PSC scholars?

Think how many of our children would have benefited from the hundreds of millions or billions invested in other people’s children? And think how many of our children will be home contributing to our economy and our growth? We have wasted a lot of money on foreign students with returns that are barely a fraction of our investments. And we have sacrificed the interests to our own children by depriving them of a good education as many could not do so.

And we are wasting more money to employ foreigners as lecturers in our universities, to fatten them, to make them more valuable, while our own lecturers were let go and left in the lurch. Is this a wise policy, a pro Singaporean policy?

We are losing a whole generation of our children by these flawed policies of educating other people’s children and fattening other people’s talents at the expense of our very own people and children. The long term ill effect would be worst as our people started to lose out and opt out of the talent pool and economic system.

What is happening? What kind of silly policies are these? Good? We need more foreign talents, we don’t need our own talents, our own talents are no good? Fakes and cheats are better? If we cannot get a fundamental policy like this right, everything down stream will be tearing our society and country apart. What is the point of a Singapore filled by foreigners and all the good jobs taken over by foreigners?

This is home? Really, surely? Or this is home to the foreigners? What would happen to the true blue Singaporeans if these silly policies are not killed immediately?

Is there a country called Singapore?

Below is a comment left in a thread in TRE on the bullying of a young man by a foreigner titled ‘Abusive Caucasian in MRT train caught on video’. What happened was that a burly Caucasian was not happy with the words on a T shirt worn by the young man. Such things are very common in the West and our young are just imitating the fad. And the brute shouted, taunted and threatened to throw the young man out of the train. The small built local man was obviously unable to match the burly animal and kept quiet. When the brute moved towards the young man a local Malay man stood up to confront him. There was a heated argument and both were called up by the police.

There were many comments of outrage againt this foreign brute but with some silly comments implying that we should be nice to the brute as he is a darling of the establishment, invited here to help us and our economy. Here is one of the comments.

Lim Pei Say Swee Swee:

July 12, 2015 at 5:13 am  (Quote)

1stly, BRAVO to our Malay bro for standing up for hid fellow citizen. Anyone would be honored to have him as a friend.
NEXT: SHAME SHAME SHAME on;
1) The cowardly guy being bullied for not even defending himself. Useless.
2) The commuters who hide quietly in the face of seeing a moron bully another innocent human being, let alone citizen.
3) And OBVIOUSLY, this lower than gutter TRASH Ang Mo, who sounds either British or Aussie, for THREATENING to cause bodily harm to another without provocation. This is clearly a CRIME!!! WTF is the SPF gonna do about this , now that video evidence is shown.
There is something very GRAVELY wrong and anaemic with the Sinkie society here. It slowly resembling China where spectators would rather ignore pleas for help and cheer rapists raping victims than help. Signs of a fast dying nation….


What is disgusting is to see the frequent harassment by these foreign brutes with size advantage and a meek people that would just bent their heads in shame and waiting to be bashed. What happens to the pride of being a people of a nation? Or is there still a country called Singapore with proud citizens, or a failed state with a sick people that, as the above commentator said, resembled the pariah people of a China known as the Sick Man of Asia where its people no longer believed in themselves and their meekness only invited bashing from foreigners?

What is there to be proud of as Singaporeans when foreigners come here freely and feel so free to taunt, insult and bash the citizens? And where are the leaders to stand up for the citizens? Never heard of, not a word to defend the victims of foreigner bashing. They only have praises for the foreigners and would reprimand the people and demand the people to be nice to the bullies and thugs.

And some commentators rightly pointed their fear that the Police may file charges against the Malay man whom they regard as their hero while the brute would be let off. Why are the people thinking that things would turn out this way and our hero would be punished instead of being honoured? Wasn’t this a case of criminal intimidation by the foreign brute against a local? It would be a dark day of shame if the brute is let off and the local hero charged.

Our country, or shall called it a hotel, or a prostitute den, is sick. It can only get sicker by the day if nothing is done to stop the foreigners from bullying our people. We used to have the secret societies or commandos that would take on the rogues and thugs that bullied our people. There was pride, there was identity, there were Singaporeans. Now our people are left defenceless and being taunted, threatened and beaten in our very own country by foreigners acting as if they are above the law, in front of the public as if they are more equal than the locals.

What kind of shit country is this? Why do we need to have such a powerful defence force? Who are they protecting? What is there to be proud about this country? What are we celebrating this SG50 for, the new Sick Man of Asia, to be bullied and bashed around by foreigners invited here to have good jobs and a good life and treating bashing Singaporeans as a past time?

No need to plan forward. No need to think what would happen in 50 years time. The shit is all over the place today, now. If we cannot take care of the problems now, what is the use of planning and talking about how glorious the future will be?

This is home? Really?

The privilege of reading history

Many of us did not have the privilege of reading history in schools. Many were bundled to do science as the in thing then. I read history before being streamed into Science. Fortunately I decided to read history again at tertiary level. The boredom and repeating of historical facts and dates took back stage and history was read differently, to understand how events came about and the players that contributed to the rise and fall of empires and civilisations.

There is one particular trend of thoughts in historical writings that often said the final hours of an empire were normally filled with duds and traitors and unwise policies. And the fall of empires and dynasties was just a matter of time with fools in charge, blinded to their own stupidity. Such conclusions are easy to establish with the benefits of hindsight. Historians simply pick up all facts and figures selectively to fit the jigsaw that they have set out to create, and books were written to confirm the findings.

For all of us who are living, we are living history as it is, at a point in time. What would be tomorrow is difficult to foretell. This is like the chartists analysing stock trends. They would not know whether the stock will rise or fall in the next minute, hour or tomorrow. But if they were to hold up a historical chart, they could tell you all the turns and when to buy and sell. At every moment in time, every empire or dynasty, or regime or govt in power does not know what tomorrow would be. The only thing they know is that they are doing things they think are good, be it for the country or to protect their self interests. They would not have the faintest idea that what they are doing are silly things or stupid things that would lead to their downfall. This is obvious isn’t it? If they know that they are doing daft and pompous things, they would not be doing it, like digging their own graves.

Take the current history that is evolving and happening right in front of us and the ruling govt and the slate of brilliant leaders they proclaimed as the best team they ever had. Isn’t it a truism that they believe that they have the best team in place to run the country for another century? Isn’t it true that all their policies must be the best to keep them in power for another century, and to make the people continue to vote for them? Isn’t it a truism that all the policies and decisions that they made, all the things that they are doing, are the best and right things to win the hearts and minds of the people?

Can be it otherwise, that the best team that they have collected is but a team of duds and fools? Cannot be right? Can it be that all the things they are doing, the policies, we all know what they are, the  CPF, housing policies, AHPETC, Amos and Roy, high minister salaries, influx of foreigners, foreigners replacing citizens,  etc etc, are wrong and they are digging their own grave and paving the road for their own destruction? Cannot be right? Everything they are doing must be good.

Current history or current affairs, in the eyes of the people in power, are the best thing that is happening and would ensure their continue popularity with the people and will be voted to power again and again. We must know that they believe that they are the smartest and most intelligent beings, some even claimed to be immortals, so they must have put in a lot of thinking to come up with what they are doing. And they must honestly, sincerely and wholeheartedly be believing they are doing the right things.

See, at this moment in time, the historians would not be able to tell whether the policies and things the govt are doing are the right things, the good things, or the contrary. That is why there in no one out there to say otherwise. Only the historians of tomorrow would have the wisdom of hindsight, when everything is over, when an empire, dynasty or regime fell from grace, would they be able to say, ya, all the writings were on the wall. The people in power were a bunch of asses and doing silly things. But today, no one would dare to say that. If they would to say anything, they would say everything is fine, the policies are fine, the things that the ruling govt are doing are the right things. And they can be right too, the error of being right or wrong is 50:50. It is like guessing black or white. Who knows better?

What would the historians of tomorrow be saying or writing about the events that are taking place today and their judgement on the leaders of today? We could say, and many agree, that we have had several very good leaders in the early years of the birth of this country and many right policies. How many could say anything about the current leaders, be they good or bad? Can’t tell, dare not tell, or waiting for tomorrow to tell? Or waiting for the next victor or future historian to tell the story of today?

Reading history is a privilege to know what had happened in the past. The only drawback is that the judgement were past by people after the events and could still be flawed. The beauty of observing current affairs or history in the making is that it is happening right before our eyes. And everyone who is an observer, is likely to be making his own judgement of what is happening, based on his own interest be it highly subjective, or objective, if one is lucky to be neutral.

We are seeing history in the making. We are participants in a living and moving history of our time, history now showing. Some may live long enough to write the history of today, or to say, I was there.

NDP - Yesterday once more

I went to shoot the NDP rehearsal this evening and here are some of the pics for your viewing pleasure. Top pic are members of the SADC and Naval Command, not sure what they called the Navy then. The respective insignias were an eagle and a marlin. Next pic is the Dad's Army, our early pioneers in the PDF. And the police wore shorts then. The next pic are members of our Fire Brigade. The rest need no further introduction, the POSB, Nurses and the SIA girls, what a great way to fly.

AIIB’s top 10 shareholders

The top 10 countries funding the AIIB is a very interesting mix of geography and wealth and politics. 

1.     China $29.78b

2.     India $8.37b

3.     Russia $6.54b

4.     Germany $4.48b

5.     South Korea $3.74b

6.     Australia $3.69b

7.     France $3.38b

8.     Indonesia $3.36b

9.     Brazil $3.18b

10.  Britain $3.05b

The BRICS countries are quite well represented except for South Africa, four are in the top 10 with 3 right at the top. Of the 10, 5 are Asian countries if Russia is included as it straddles across Asia with most of its land mass in Asia.  The top 3 European countries are also represented by Germany, France and Britain.

Politically, the pro American camp is represented by 5 countries in Germany, South Korea, Australia, France and Britain. India could be included in this camp but it often wants to project as a non aligned independent power of its own right.

It is interesting to note that Indonesia is among the top 10 shareholders, a sign of an upcoming Asian economic power, to have the billions to spare. This third most populous Asian country that was badly hit by the Asian financial crisis seems to have recovered quite well under the watch of Yudhoyono and is likely to continue to grow under another pro business and growth President Jokowi.

With the West well represented among the top investors, the crying wolf by the Americans and Japanese of transparency and accountability problem is going to be just that, two boys crying wolf. It is also a good thing that these two rascal are kept out of the bank and not allow to throw in the spanner in every decision making process. Looks like AIIB is going to have a good start with the right mix of shareholders in charge.

Not to forget there is another big development bank in the BRICS New Development Bank with another $100b to boot like the AIIB. These two new multinational banks would be the new pillars of the New World Order to give the American and Japanese controlled World Bank, IMF and ADB a run for their money.