Budget reading – A path to self destruct

The few key words about budget are raising fees or taxes, grants, safety nets, rebates etc are words related to a welfare mentality and are not sustainable. Where are these money coming from, our reserves? Where do our reserves come from, CPF savings?

Just the thought of a 30% increase in water fees can become a nightmare to many households. To those that are earning millions, what is a few dollars more? To those who don’t have, even $1 also don’t have. This is the divide that the natural aristocrats would not be able to understand. When the day the subsidies stop because all the reserves are used up or the govt could not find enough money to pay the million dollar salaries of the elites, the full might of no subsidies would fall on the lower income households and all hell will break loose. The people would have to pay all the high fees without subsidies one day. A society cannot live forever on subsidies and grants.

The ministers talking in parliament were like chanting verses from the holy books. The Chinese said ‘liam keng’. ‘…water prices would go up after remaining unchanged for 17 years. The scarce resource has been underpriced…and the increases are due to higher operational costs and greater investments in water infrastructure’. Said Masagos Zulkifli.  Heng Swee Kiat added, ‘Water sufficiency is a matter of national survival…We have priced water to reflect the higher costs of desalination and NEWater production because every additional drop of water has to come from these two sources.’

And they are so happy to quote two so called FT experts that water is too cheap and must be priced higher. Some twits would definitely be in line for National Day Awards next year, if they have not already been given. Dunno how many low income households are going to suffer from this water hike, to price to market, to price to be sustainable, too cheaply priced?

And the increases for non domestic users were higher than households. What a comforting statement. What do you think the commercial users would do to cover the cost of higher water fees? Pass it down to the consumers of course. And who would be screwed at the end? No need to tell you who.

Singapore’s households consumed 45% of the water used and this would go up to 70% in 2060. How come? Why? What is the main cause of this higher consumption and the need to build more water desalination plant and laying more pipes? Dunno leh.

The basic cause of all the problems in the island, particularly cost of living, like super expensive housing, expensive transportation, food and now water, is high population. Why the fuck is there a need to keep building and building and building just to add in more people into a land squeezed piece of rock, to bring in more foreigners into the island? Is this the reason for the existence of this island, to bring in all the rejects from around the world here, so that we can build more flats and sell more properties, to build more shopping malls, more hawker centres and food courts, therefore needing to build more water desalination plants? What would be raised next, electricity?

Raising the costs of basic necessities is a very serious problem to the general population. When would this govt stop this silly trick of increasing population thinking that it would solve economic problems but refusing to see the serious consequences to the cost of living and the quality of life of the people? Oops, sorry, I am referring to those that don’t have million dollar salaries. The few dollars of increases here and there would not affect the natural aristocrats in anyway, maybe go to their salaries like another few plates of char kway teow.

We don’t even have a little room for a few cocks to run around but got space to bring in another 2 million assholes. Stupidity has no cure. This forced fed population growth is a road to no return. Everything and everyone would be squeezed just to accommodate more assholes for superficial and unsustainable economic growth.

Know your history and your past

The Syokan Gallery, not sure if I got the spelling right, is history. The untimely reappearance of this word and the painful memories it aroused and the disgusting discourse are a good reminder for Singaporeans to know their history and their past. Without these knowledge, it is easy for one to innocently embraced the names of the rapists of their country without question and walking around like a fool.

The abominable crimes committed by the Japanese invaders were more than just being slapped by a low down Japanese soldier for not greeting him on the street, they were more than the brutal massacres of innocent civilians by the Kempetai soldiers assisted by hooded local informers. Many women were raped and had their guts cut and disembowelled, babies were thrown into the air to be skewered by bayonets, for bayonet practices and for fun. Heads were chopped and hung everywhere. Many were tortured by pumping water into their stomach, and many unspeakable forms of torture that would put Guantanamo Camp to shame.

There were many horror stories of victims that did not live to tell. As the survivors of the time like Elizabeth Choy, not the deads like Lim Boh Seng and Adnan and the many unnamed soldiers at the Kranji War Memorial. Ask the British, Australian and New Zealanders that lived through the days as POWs in Changi Prison and lucky enough to walk out alive to live another day of their sufferings under the hands of the Japanese beasts.

 

These are the painful memories of the days when Singapore was invaded, conquered and ruled by the beastly Japanese, the  type that looked so innocent like Abe and his gang in Japan. Remember, they have the same DNA and they are not hiding their true nature till this day.

Know your history and your past. It is a favour you do to yourself.

Trump making Singaporeans angry

It is not what you are thinking. No it has nothing to do with the killing of the TPP. Trump could not do much to the believers of the TPP as the TPP is still alive in their scheme of things. The believers of the TPP would soon change tack and be very nice to Trump as they are hoping to be in Trump's good book. Abe has been trying to cosy up to Trump and got himself invited to the White House twice in less than two months hoping to gain Trump's favour and revive the TPP in whatever form.

Now what did Trump did that is making so many Singaporeans fuming? Let me give you a clue. Kishore said that anyone who believed that the western media is objective, fair and unbiased got to have their heads checked. Kishore refrained from calling these mindless unthinking creatures twits.

Neither did Trump. Trump just said simply that the western media were selling fake news, even the most reputable ones. The more reputable they are believed to be, the greater are their lies and fake news.

What has this got to do with making Trump a hated person in Singapore? Many did not know or took it for granted that the Singaporeans are well educated and well informed and thinking people. In some way this is true. But there is a catch. Many Singaporeans are brought up with a diet dished out from the western media, from their days in schools, their breakfast, lunch and dinner, even teabreaks and supper, are all western, potatoes and hamburgers. Their minds are now filled with potato chips and hamburgers. They believed every word, fullstop and comma printed in the western media. They will swear by the truths printed in the western media, without question, fear to question as if they are questioning the bible. How can they question the words of the white gods?

And now Trump is telling the Americans that the words of the white gods printed in the western media are bullshit. Oh my god, how could this be true, that they have been fed with bullshit all their life and swearing by it, without noticing the stench? Now they are supposed to vomit all the shit out. Trump has done the darnest thing, to make these dumb twits to want to throw out. But no, they would not throw out. They would say it cannot be true. What they were told were the truths, the western truth, the white gods told them.

You can imagine how mad they are with Trump for waking them up from their delusion and knowing that they were so stupid to believe everything the western media said but was fake. How could they take it other than hating Trump for exposing their stupidity? Trump would not know that he has thrown a stick into the hornet's nest. He is now their number one enemy, for telling the hard truth they did not want to know but so gullible to believe in their entire life as silly adults.

Trump better don't visit Singapore or he will need more security guards to ward off the rotten eggs and mash potatoes.

Talking cock in Parliament

David Attenborough did a small series called Wild City to parade the few and little wildlife that he could squeeze from this island of concrete jungle. He was really hard pressed to show to the audience what were left from the invasion of the forest by the specie homo sapiens for their selfish interest to make more money, to exploit every little inch of land to be sold as properties with little regards to the wildlife that they destroyed.

The handful of wildlife captured on film by Attenborough include white belly sea eagles, jungle fowls, otters, monkeys, bats and a solitary ant eater plus a few snakes. These are the fortunate and surviving inhabitants left on this little island and were the pride of our possession. We have a sanctuary to protect these wildlife headed by a MP for doing such a great job.

It was so disheartened to hear that the AVA had culled the handful of jungle fowls in Sin Ming estate due to some complaints from intolerant homo sapiens, of noise and fear of bird flu. If these little reasons are justifiable and strong enough to warrant such an execution of the harmless but beautiful jungle fowls, then there is no place for the crows and mynahs and the sparrows living in our midst. It is so regrettable that our children would now have to see what a chicken looks like in the supermarket, all featherless and lifeless. AVA has came out with the explanation that it was about health of the people, about bird flu.

How could such people be so intolerant, so small hearted, to demand the culling of these fowls when the homo sapiens are the invaders of their living space? And they could not find alternative space for these fowls and needed to terminate them? How many? 5 or 10 chickens? Would it be so difficult to dump them in the nature reserves like Sungei Buloh or the neighbourhood of Lim Chu Kang?

It is not nice to cull chicken in the Year of the Cock. Not a very good start, not a good omen.  All the cocks are reminded not to anyhow crow or you will be dead meat. There is no tolerance for irritating cocks,... and hens too.

I bet if Attenborough were to be invited to do another series on wildlife here he would show the middle finger to the hypocrites of this wicked city. 3.5m people and stuffing more millions of foreigners here but cannot spare the space and life of a few jungle fowl!

Parliament now finds it important enough to talk about the cocks in the coming session. This time talking cock may save a few wildlife before they are terminated forever. Killing cocks in the year the Cock is not a good omen.

Singaporeans have the chance to elect their president

Some Singaporeans still did not know that they did not elect their Prime Minister. The Prime Minister was elected by a special group of elites within the party. Maybe now more Singaporeans know that the electoral system is such that they only elect the MPs and the rest of the ministers, including the PM, are elected by themselves, not the choice of the Singaporean electorate.
 
But come September Singaporeans could enjoy the benefit of electing their president by casting their votes to the candidate they like. Yes, they are going to elect the president directly. But who would this candidate be? By the way, who would be selecting the candidate for the Singaporeans to elect? How many candidates would be selected for the Singaporeans to elect? Some think there will be one candidate selected, some say maybe two.
 
What is important in this election of president process is that the Singaporeans would have the chance to go to the poll, which is compulsory, to cast their vote for the elected president. This is a privilege rarely bestowed to the electorates in many democratic countries. Singaporeans are so lucky. They can choose their president and elect the person of their choice. This is democracy at its best. A president from the people, by the people and will be for the people.
 
What more do you want? Just be grateful. By the look of things evolving, it looks like the Singaporeans would have the chance to elect Halimah as their next president. And Halimah, when elected, would have the mandate to check on the govt. This is called checks and balance to prevent a rogue govt from running away with the country's reserves.

Kim Jong Nam assassinated at KLIA

The South Korean media were swift and detail in their reporting of the assassination of Kim Jong Un’s half brother at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. They reported that two women attacked him with poison needles and fled by taxi.

The Malaysia authority only managed to say that Kim Jong Nam was found sick after someone splashed water on him at the airport and he was killed and an autopsy was being conducted. These info were splashed on every media on the next day after the incident.

How did the South Koreans know so many details so fast about an incident in Kuala Lumpur when they were so far away but the Malaysians knew so little? Were the South Koreans monitoring and following Kim Jong Nam everywhere? And they knew that it was an assassination by poison needles! Who could have known or seen the two women injecting poison onto Kim Jong Nam at the KLIA? Interesting story. The South Koreans did not have accessed to the recordings of KLIA’s cctv.

Why would Kim Jong Un want to kill his half brother and do it in public in an airport for all to see and for a foreign authority to do an autopsy to prove and confirm that his half brother died of poison? This is like a murder done in public for all to witness, to broadcast to the world that he did it. Kim Jong Un must be the most stupid leader in the world to do such a thing, to be condemned and to add to his bad reputation painted by the West.

What is the truth? Yes, Kim Jong Nam was killed. By who? He had the same bloodline as Kim Jong Un and could be a threat to his leadership, so must be killed. Ok, a reasonable theory if you believe so. Now more stories to support this theory. The North Koreans have records of trying to assassinate Park Chung Hee. But who eventually assassinated him? Did the agency that assassinated Park also has such records of committing assassinations, more assassinations, in fact assassination is like having breakfast daily in this agency? Could the same agency or agencies did this in a false flag incident?

The South Koreans even know that Kim Jong Nam wrote a personal letter to Kim Jong Un asking the latter to spare him and his family’s lives. How did the South Koreans know? Kim Jong Nam must have sent them a copy for record purposes so that they can publicise it now that he is dead.

The suspect arrested could even be a North Korean, a turnaround defector forced to do the killing. What is the truth? Who knows? But the media already know, it is the work of Kim Jong Un, so obvious. Anyone wants to question the credibility of the media or the intelligence services that provided all the evidence?

I wrote the above two days ago. Now more interesting details are available. An woman, looking quite like a Korean, holding a Vietnamese passport was arrested as the first suspect. This is quite expected. The plot thickened when an Indonesian woman was also arrested as a second suspect. How an Indonesian got involved in this assassination is going to raise the level of intrigue. She looked Indonesian alright, at least does not look like a Korean. She could not be a member of the Korean assassination team, could she?

But the obvious, it is a North Korean job. Kim Jong Un ordered it. Hehehehhe, how simple is the story you can get. Yes, so simple. No need to think. The media are saying so. The South Koreans are also saying so. But two very high profile countries that have just as much interest to want to put all the blame on Kim Jong Un are keeping their lips very tight, like the missing MH 370 case. Definitely got nothing to do with them, so they kept very quiet. Credit must go to them not to interfere with other people’s business when it got nothing to do with them.

Would Singapore be renamed Syonan To?

Below are a few paragraph from Tan Wah Piow in London on the naming of a new Singapore War Museum.

‘I was about to release a photo essay on my visit to the London Imperial War Museum on Sunday when I saw the  news about a Singapore museum to be launched on Wednesday.  I was shocked.

Who in his or her right mind would name a museum in Singapore, Syonan? Syonan-To is the name given to Singapore by the Japanese invaders during the War World II.

It is even more bizarre to time the opening of the Syonan Gallery on the day Japan conquered Singapore. To complete the joke, the Singapore government might as well invite the lunatic fringe of the Japanese ultra-right to officiate the opening of the museum.

The decision with the name, and the timing is an affront to the memory of the 50,000 Singaporeans who were executed by the Japanese, the majority of whom were from the 600,000 Chinese communities....’

The insensitivity in using Syonan with ‘affection’ for this war museum is totally unacceptable. I am equally dumbfounded. OK Yaacob Ibrahim in reply to public outcry said this was not the intention. How on earth could a name like Syonan, Syonan To that is a reminder of the massacres of 50,000 Chinese during the Japanese Occupation be resurrected in bold letters in Singapore soil as the name of a War Museum? Maybe this is the second best name. Did they ever consider naming it Yasukuni Museum or Kempeitai Museum to get better impact of the atrocities of the Japanese Occupation?

No one objected to this naming? Sure they did but why continued with it despite the controversial nature of this name? Is there no other option? How about doing the favourite like calling the Singaporeans to give it a name? Or try the second favourite, pay half a million to a foreign consultancy to come out with a better name like Marina Bay? Would a simple name like the Singapore War Museum or WW2 War Museum do?

 The painful memories of the barbaric Japanese crimes committed on our soil are etched deeply in the heads of a disappearing ageing population? Some of the oldies are generous and would forgive the cruel Japanese for their war crimes against out forefathers. But it is something that cannot be forgotten. Some would not want to forget knowing that the barbaric Japanese are unrepentant and trying to whitewash their evil deeds committed during the invasion and claiming they were doing good or did not happen at all. How to forgive and forget when the evil perpetrators did not want to admit their guilt?

Tan Wah Piow has a good suggestion, invite Abe to officiate the Opening of the museum and the Japanese community here and in Japan would be most happy to participate.  We would get a lot of Japanese tourists and Japanese money. Abe would book the first flight here and cancel all his other official appointments just to witness the resurrection of Syonan To, the jewel of Imperial Japan’s invasion of South East Asia. They would love to see what their Syonan To would look like if they have won the war, their prized war loot.

Seriously, is this a name that Singaporeans should be proud of, to be associated with a national monument? Syonan To is the darkest chapter of Singapore’s history. This name should not be glorified in any form but stayed in ignominy. There is nothing glorious or cute in this name. It must be spoken with contempt and not be on the lips of tourist guides and advertising material to be spoken as if it is just another tourist attraction.

Running out of ideas even in choosing a decent name for a national monument? How about getting a foreign talent for a better suggestion?

UN Security Council Meeting on North Korean missile test

The US led a charge to hold an urgent UN Security Council meeting ‘seen as a challenge to President Donald Trump’. What hogwash, a missile test to build a country’s defence capability is a challenge to a newly elected American president? Can you believe this American shit? Tomorrow if Kim Jung Un celebrated his birthday and drink cognac it would be an insult to the Americans for not drinking whisky and a reason to call for a UN Security Council Meeting?

How dangerous are the North Koreans versus the Americans? The North Koreans still have no capability to strike the US, no second strike capability and could be decimated should they dare to press the button first. North Korea would be blown up in smoke if they dare to launch a nuclear attack on anyone. Are the North Koreans really mad, to want to attack anyone, for what reason, and to bring about their own destruction?

Look at what the Americans have, more than 7,000 nuclear warheads that can be launched by land, air, sea and space. They could strike any country with impunity or absolute superiority and could guarantee the complete destruction of even China and Russia. It is this overwhelming superiority that allows the Americans to threaten everyone with nuclear strike. It is this overwhelming superiority that makes the arrogant American to refuse to commit to no first strike, meaning it is willing to strike first, knowing that no one would or could strike back and get a way with it. It is the Americans that had used Atomic bombs on Japan, used all kinds of chemical warfare on their enemies. The Americans have a scintillating track record of bellicosity, to strike and have shown the intention to want to use nuclear weapons many times.

Who is the more dangerous one, the Americans or North Koreans? Why is the UN being made to impose all kinds of sanctions against a small country that did not have much capability and nuclear weapons and has a greater fear of being attacked by the Americans? Why is the UN not imposing sanctions on the Americans for building the biggest arsenal of Weapons of Mass Destruction and refusing to commit to a no first to use principle?

The biggest bad wolf is the USA and it is pointing its fingers at everyone and pulling the UN by the nose to do its dirty job of demonizing every country except themselves, the one that is conducting incessant warfare and killing millions of Arabs and Muslims in the Middle East. And this is not enough, the US is going to spend more trillions of dollars to build mor e destructive weapons of mass destruction that would put what the North Koreans have to shame.

What a silly world. This is what Donald Trump said of the USA. ‘“Lot of killers. We’ve got a lot of killers. Boy, you think our country’s so innocent? You think our country’s so innocent?” We have carnage and we have irony.’

This is the big bad wolf in the classroom and no one wants to see or say that it is there. Point the finger at North Korea, at Iran, at Iraq, at China, at Russia…! And the stupid around the world believe in these lies, and the UN being made to look silly over and over again. Some clowns even said USA is a benign super power, invited to be the policeman of South China Sea, to maintain peace!

Committee for Future Economy – CFE

It is very easy to make comments about the CFE reports. Just sit down and put a comb over it to pick put the white hair and the fleas and dust. It is also just as easy to make 7 or 10 motherhood statements about what should be done in the future. Just gather a few heads and within a day or two you could get all the motherhood statements you want. The big question, how real and how useful are these motherhood statements?

To gaze at a crystal ball, to foresee the trends, developments and challenges, is not the normal cup of tea for anyone not armed with the width and depth of intellect to look into the future. You need very serious thinkers and dreamers to make out something from nothing or from what we have today. Who would be up to it to make such great insights into the future and come out with workable recommendations to benefit from the changes? If only you can find someone who could make the right intellectual and educated guesses, this guy would be as good as God.

As a small little country with limited resources and limited aspirations, we need to be real and practical about what we want to do and what we can do. No doubt having big and wild dreams and wet dreams are ok, as these are just dreams. It is better to look at more realistic and practical targets and solutions like capitalising on our strength and how to fit into the changing world, and make the best of it. We have several good starts but due to the lack of foresight, the lack of dreamers, the lack of support, we let them passe. Sim Wong Hoo's sound card was at the fore front of the computer industry. Hyflux's water purification system too was well ahead of its time. Now they are just ordinary, one among many and fading away. If only the govt had invested and supported them in bigger ways, they could be the Samsung or the Xiaomi today. Samsung and Xiaomi did not have any proprietory products to start with. They simply copied and improved on what others have done and make it big time. We were the leading transportation hub for many decades but now going to be eclipsed too.

A more down to earth and more mundane model to understand how we have gone wrong and missed the opportunities, and missed the boat is public transportation, the train. When we laid the ground work for the first MRT, China was still an impoverished country. Transportation in China was Second WW train system, running like tortoises on coal. Today China is the front runner in high speed train system, an authority and a big mover in building international train network and infrastructure. They have developed many in house expertise and patents in every aspect of the train system, from design to manufacturing, turnkey projects to operations. They are building the train infrastructure for the future and for the world.

What have we achieved in managing our train network? What have we achieved for having a head start in mass rapid transport? Nothing. We are still struggling to make sure the train runs without fault daily. We did not have any expertise in anything concerning mass rapid transport. When a fault occurs, we start looking out for outside expertise for help, even stupid enough to pay for expertise from third world dysfunctional train systems calling themselves experts in modern train technology. We have not acquired any expertise in mass rapid transportation to turn it into a business except as an operator. After 50 years in the business, no experts in the business.

This example applies to practically every industry. Should not Singapore be exporting our expertise with our own experts in areas of air and sea port management and development? No, we are dependent on foreigners to run our ports, to manage our ports, to find new directions for our ports. We have zero expertise to talk about when we have been big operators for decades ahead of other countries. We are top air and sea ports but have no expert in these fields.

Look at the banking and finance industry. This is another joke. We are the financial centre of Southeast Asia and competing with Tokyo and Hongkong to be the top financial centre of Asia. Ask what kind of expertise we have, what kind of local experts and professionals we have that are sought after by other financial centres? It is a joke that we have to import all our top financial talents from abroad, even from the third world countries with rudimentary financial system and village banks. Soon there will be no local bankers left in the finance industry and all the top bankers would be foreigners. And I remember someone saying we are starting to develop our top bankers that would come on stream in 50 years time. No need to talk about the IT industry.

What is this CFE all about? Should we be bothered with gazing at the crystal ball of the future? How could such an exercise benefit the country and people when there are very serious challenges facing the country that no one could see or want to talk about? We may not have a thriving Singapore in another 30 years if we don't address the serious fundamental problems of the country and the shallow mindset that is supposed to be driving the country forward. We have happily awarded the contract to build the HSR terminal to foreign contractors when we should be building it ourselves and bidding for such contracts overseas like the Korean companies. Maybe we should start to bid in a big way for contracts in other countries to build hawker centres. This is about the last area of expertise we still have, but not for long. Is there anything that we are good at today to compete with the rest of the world?

Kishore - China bashing has to stop

Finally, after a year of absence, there is life in the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy to air an alternative view from the Rajaratnam School of International Studies. The China bashing must stop. Singapore is a price taker, so stop deluding yourself that Singapore could dictate the direction in international relations, to punch above its weight, to bash China happily thinking it is something that is untouchable by China. Kishore did not say it this way, that China bashing must stop but it is as good as it is in his article in the ST on 11 Feb 17 titled Treat China and Trump with respect in 2017. Oh, in case someone got ultra sensitive, in Kishore’s article, China bashing is done by the Americans, not Singapore.

Kishore started off by quoting an asshole in Washington by the name of Peter Navarro with his idiotic and psychopathic comment on China. 'The Chinese government is a despicable, parasitic, brutal, brass knuckled, crass, callous, amoral, ruthless and totally totalitarian imperialist power that reigns over the world's leading cancer factory, its most prolific propaganda mill and the biggest police state and prison on the face of earth.' No dignified man in public office would utter such stupidity but this man is the head of the New Trade Council in Trump's office. This is bad upbringing.

Anyone who knew what the Americans have been doing to the rest of the world would find his remarks an apt description of what the American Empire is today. It fits perfectly like a glove, a despicable parasitic country living on debt by borrowing from the rest of the world and trying to print fiat money to erase its debt, brutally killing Arabs leaders and their people using brass knuckles, crass, callous, amoral and ruthless in the murdering of the Muslims and Arabs, not counting the slavery of Africans in the past and the genocide of native Americans, and reigning the world with unspeakable prison camps without trial and abusing the prisoners that have not been proven guilty in a court of law with all kinds of evil and cruel tortures. That is the American Empire that this idiot Navarro refused to see and admit but pointing the finger at China.

The westerners, especially the likes of Navarro, chose to turn a blind eye to their crimes against humanity by misleading the world that all the problems of the world are caused by the Arab/Muslim worlds and by China. And I quote Kishore, 'Few in the West are aware that the West is responsible for aggravating turbulence among the more than two billion people living in Islamic and Chinese civilisations. Instead, conjuring up images of the two Asian hordes that Western minds fear most - two forces that invaded Europe, the Muslims and the Mongols...(The Mongols were not Chinese but invaders of China).

Kishore is using this quotation printed in the Guardian, a western media, as proof of the ugliness and untruth being churned out daily to feed the dumb and unthinking readers of which Singapore has plenty to go with, the so called bananas who would swallow such swill from any western media as the gospel truth. No need to question and see further than the words in print. Kishore said, 'Singaporeans are particularly vulnerable to be influenced by these negative Western biases against china since our newspapers reprint many articles on China by the Anglo Saxon media, without noting or highlighting that these articles are inherently biased and unbalanced...'

Kishore added, 'Anybody in Singapore who believes that the Anglo Saxon media is fair, balanced and objective in its reporting on China should have his head examined. It is biased against China on many counts.' If redbean were to say this, it is understandable that the daft bananas would swear at him and call him commie. I would like to thank Kishore for saying this out loud, hopefully a few bananas would wise up and clear the shit between their ears placed there by western media for ages and not resort to calling Kishore a commie as well. Again, stupidity cannot be cured and the stupid would stubbornly hug onto their stupid thoughts to their graves. For the uninformed, misinformed and the ignorant, it is time to know the truth. Go and read what Kishore has written on Saturday and do yourself a big favour, to be enlightened and to remove the blinkers placed over your eyes by the western media. Go google Kishore’s Harvard lecture on the topic When China becomes Number One to get a better appreciation of how the whole has changed.

Now that Kishore has spoken, would the content of our local media be different, to educate the readers fairly and objectively and not to blind them with cut and paste western garbage passed off as reliable news? Oh, would the MFA also change their tact in dealings with China, to show some respect as a small country, independent or not is subjective and irrelevant.

PS. Today’s media are flooded with articles about the fear of North Korea testing an ICBM as if the North Koreans are going to attack everyone, for what reasons I dunno. And the Americans and Japanese are crying wolf and wanted to take actions against the North Koreans. Would anyone want to ask why the Americans have an arsenal of more than 7,000 nuclear warheads with thousands of operation ready ICBMs? To save the world, to hug in bed? What are these missiles and nuclear warheads for if not to destroy the world many times over. Why no protest or screaming hell that the Americans must destroy their weapons but all the crying out loud when the North Koreans are testing a single ICBM and barely possess a handful of nuclear weapons? This is the kind of biased and shitty reporting that Kishore is talking about.

Trump's America versus Old America and the Establishment

Trump's America is all about American First, about shutting off illegal immigrants and about terrorists arriving in America to turn America into turmoil. The initial impression of Trump is that he is the 'Just do it' man, the man that fixed things. And the banning of 7 Arab Muslim countries is just the right thing to do, the right solution to protect and save America and American lives.

The commentators in mysingaporenews have rightly pointed out that Trump is missing the target by a mile and looking a bit silly, or did not know what he is doing. This is a very fundamental problem, to identify the problem, I mean the real problem, not wishy washy fabricated or self deluded problems like setting up your own strawman for target practice. If one does not want to look at the real problems, if one is silly not to know the real problem, and identify fake problems, then the solutions would be farcical and laughable to be kind. Can apply this to the CFE context. Ok, what are the real issues on terrorists attacking America? The guys here have rightly pointed out that the real terrorists or at least proven during the 911 bombing of WTO towers did not come from the 7 countries or at least the majority were confirmed to be from Saudi Arabia or Egypt. And the immigrants from these two countries were not banned! What is happening? Is Trump dumb, wayanging and not really wanting to solve the terrorist problem? Why the 7 countries and not those countries that are producing the terrorists? Not knowing the real problem means not knowing the real solution.

Then there is this US$21.6 billion wall to be built along the borders of Mexico. Can the wall really keep the illegals out? Can they come in by air or by sea? How deep is the wall to prevent them from tunnelling along the 2000 mile border? The relatively short border around Israel is already a huge hole to plug. Would Trump be building a Trump shield over the air and a marine net in the seas and hardening the grounds to prevent tunnelling? And the very open and big holes in the immigration check points, how to plaster them? The consolation is that building the wall is another way of creating jobs for the Americans.

Another big issue raised is the real ruler of the US. Who is running the country, the elected President Trump with executive authority or the judges in the judiciary? It is looking like the judges are running the country or at least ruling over Trump the President. Yes, should not the judges be dealing with legal and constitutional issues, on whether what Trump did were legal or constitutional and not about morally right or wrong. These are beyond the courts of law.

Trump was elected by the majority of the Americans just to do what he promised to do. That is democracy, the will of the people, but the judges are saying no to the American people. This is a strange development in democratic America. The judges are acting against the wishes of the people vested upon the president they elected. And it was rightly pointed out that the judges are not going to be responsible or to answer should terrorists blow up America. Trump will be held responsible. What an irony!

Another strange contradiction raised in the discussion is that the Americans voted for a President that wanted to champion American First. In Singapore, the people voted out a politician that wanted to champion Singaporean First. A logical conclusion is that a politician that contested on a platform calling for Foreigners First would likely to have a higher chance of winning an election in Singapore than one calling for Singaporean First.

This is turning into a mad mad world, or mad America and mad Singapore.

The Great Wall of Trump

I am wondering if this is something clever for Trump to do or something silly that only a dumb Trump could come up with. How much money is going to be wasted on this flimsy piece of scrap iron given today’s technology and destructive power of gunpowder. You only need a few pieces of dynamite or TNT to bring a part of the wall down. Even a bulldozer or tractor could do the job of pulling a section down or to create a big hole in it. Or is this Trump’s way of creating jobs for the Americans, to revive the long dead steel industry and other security industries?
 
Whose is going to benefit from this Simple Simon project? Who is making the steel, who are the contractors? How much steel and energy are going to be spent on this 2,000 mile wall? Or is Donald Trump out to build a monument to remember him when he is gone? It is now reported that a sum of US$21.6 billion will be needed for the Great Wall of Trump! Maybe Trump should consult the Chinese’s ancient technology they used to build the indestructible Great Wall of China.
 
Does any American out there smart enough to advise Trump about using cheaper modern technology to seal his border instead of wasting away resources on an ancient idea of erecting walls to guard the borders between states reinforced with electronics and cameras?
 
Dumb Trump or dumb Americans? China is building roads and rails to link the whole world and Trump is building walls to keep the modern day barbarians out of America?  China is building trade ties with the world, connecting with the world, and the Americans are isolating themselves behind a new Great Wall of Trump that is full of holes.

Who is the first elected President of Singapore?

WP raised this question in Parliament and if I am not mistaken the question was turned into an attack on Hsien Loong’s integrity for using Wee Kim Wee as the first elected President to compute when a minority president should take his place in the Istana. Correct me if I am wrong.  I think the formula used to calculate the time qualification for a minority president is quite interesting for discussion. I must say the govt is right and I am not questioning anyone’s integrity, not Hsien Loong’s for sure.

Let me just put down some facts here, copied from the Istana website and wikipedia.

Mr C V Devan Nair was elected President of the Republic of Singapore by Parliament on 23 October 1981.

Dr Wee Kim Wee was elected the President of the Republic of Singapore by Parliament on 30 August 1985.

Mr Ong Teng Cheong became the fifth President of the Republic of Singapore and the first President to be popularly elected by the people on 1 September 1993.

Below paragraphs are from wikipedia.

The Singaporean presidential election of 1993 was the first presidential election held in Singapore. Polling day was 28 August 1993. Former Deputy Prime Minister Ong Teng Cheong became Singapore's first directly elected President.

In January 1991, the Constitution of Singapore^[1] was amended to provide for the popular election of the President. The creation of the elected presidency was a major constitutional and political change in Singapore's history as, under the revision, the President is empowered to veto the use of government reserves and appointments to key civil service appointments. He or she can also examine the administration's enforcement of the Internal Security Act^[2] and Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act,^[3] and look into investigations of corruption.

By virtue of transitional provisions in the Singapore Constitution,^[4] Ong's predecessor Wee Kim Wee exercised, performed and discharged all the functions, powers and duties of an elected president as if he had been elected to the office of President by the citizens of Singapore, until Ong took office.

The govt is taking the position that Wee Kim Wee is the first elected president, ah, yes and no if you understand the above facts. Wee Kim Wee exercised, performed and discharged the duties of an elected president once the Act was passed though he was not an elected president elected by the people but elected by parliament in 1985. This is a legal point only the court can make an authoritative interpretation. He did exercise and perform the duties of an elected president but not an elected president elected by the people, only as if he was elected by the people. This could be a point of contention even if he is legally and constitutionally accorded the status of being the first elected president.

The other point is that when did he exercise and perform the duties of an elected president? I think it should be sometime in 1991 or 1992 after the Act was passed in parliament. It must be as the constitution does not have a people’s elected president before this date. Before this date he was not an elected president elected by the people but elected by parliament.

The amendments for a minority president election have a qualification time of 30 years for a minority president election to be called. This 30 year time frame should start from when, 1985 when Wee Kim Wee became president or when he exercised and performed the duties of an elected president in 1991 or 1992? Or should it start from the year the Elected President Act came into force in 1991?  If 1985 is the commencement date, then by 2015 a minority president election is due. If the commencement date is 1991/2, then the next minority president election should be due in 2021/2.  Correct or not, this is simple arithmetic.

So the big question is which year should be used to compute when the next minority president is due, 2015 or 2021? I think this merits some discussion and clarification. Would WP take this up to the court for a legal interpretation? If there is any doubt or ambiguity, the High Court should be the authority to make the clarification and interpretation. Seeking a court interpretation on this matter cannot be an attack or questioning anyone’s integrity, I think.

97 marks out of 100 not good enough

A student scoring 97/100 for Chinese is considered not good enough, not qualified to take Higher Chinese? This was what happened in St Hilda Primary School.  Remember the media report, 99% passed O level with 1 pass?

Let me quote a few paragraphs posted in an article in the statestimesreview.

Speaking in Parliament today (Feb 6) representing the Ministry of Education, PAP MP Low Yen Ling defended a primary school that deemed students scoring 97/100 for Chinese language not qualified enough for Higher Chinese.

“We acknowledge St. Hilda’s good intentions in making sure students who want to take Higher Chinese are well-suited and also ready to take on the subject because it also entails extra curricular time and a heavier study load for the child.”

...Some of the students scored a near-perfect score of 97 out of 100 marks for the Chinese language but were still rejected nonetheless.

However, the primary school succumbed to public criticisms and opened an additional class to accommodate students who wish to take up Higher Chinese. PAP MP Low Yen Ling confirmed the knee-jerk reaction in Parliament:”

Why 97 marks not good enough? Then what is good enough? 100 marks? If 97 marks are not good enough, I think anyone getting 97 marks will get a A*,  what are the implications on the marking system? Are they saying that A* are not really good enough when everyone has the impression that A* is like distinction? How are the teachers going to tell parents that their children with 97 marks are NOT GOOD enough? How are the children going to face their parents and how are parents going to receive this ‘bad’ news, that their children scoring 97 marks, good enough for a celebration to most parents but really not good enough?

If all the students scoring 97 marks in their subjects are not good enough, what about those scoring 70 marks, 50 marks? Is this a way to tell the parents and children that the 97 marks are a farce, that the grading system is a farce? How on earth could anyone tell a child that 97 marks are not good enough?

What is going on? Is this an indication of something not very right in our education system or in the grading system? Is this the reason why our Singaporean graduates with their straight As are not wanted, not really good, not good enough because.....?

Is there something seriously wrong being revealed unintentionally by this case? What is the truth? Is this the reason why third world students and their funny grades are preferred to be better than the grades obtained in our supposedly world class schools and education system? Is this the reason why third world degrees are better than our degrees? The implications are very serious.   

   

The Mad men and women in Washington

They are going to install the THAAD anti missile system on the pretext that the North Koreans are mad and waiting eagerly to pull the trigger to shoot its missiles all over the world. And there are equally mad believing this is the truth and it is going to happen, especially those in the little red dot. They are cowering in fear that Kim Jong Un is aiming his missiles with nuclear warheads at Singapore to kill them. For what reasons I dunno but these mad cocks are so convinced by the mad men and women in Washington that Kim Jong Un has a grudge against them and wanting to destroy them.

Who are the really mad men? Who is talking peace and arming themselves with 7000 nuclear warheads, 10 carrier groups filled with offensive aircraft and weapons, including nuclear warheads and screaming that the North Koreans are the bad ones trying to build one nuclear bomb or trying to test fly one ICBM?

Why would these mad men and women want to spend trillions of dollars and say not enough, must upgrade the weapons further and spend more billions or trillions when no one country, definitely not North Korea would dare to pull the trigger to fire a shot at them or at their allies? North Koreans really mad, or the really mad ones are in the White House, in Washington?

The North Koreans are dangerous but not the mad men and women conducting wars all over the world? Why would a sane people want to possess 7000 nuclear warheads, to sleep in peace, for peace?

In the Year of the Cock, many cocks, mad cocks will be in the spot light for being cocks, mad cocks and silly cocks.

Die ah, the North Koreans are coming, hide, hide, hide! Or should it be the Americans are coming? The South China Sea is now very calm and peaceful. Just wait for the Americans to come and stir shit in the region and little USAs will be jumping and shouting again, happily calling out, papa is here again.

Doesn’t the world get unnerved by this huge destructive arsenal that could turn the earth back to the Stone Age? Doesn’t the world get nervous with the assertiveness of the Americans flouting their military might, threatening and bullying every country that could not see eye to eye with them? And now with so many mad men and mad women in Washington and the White House, war is over the horizon and the cocks are still saying the Americans are peace loving people? Who is going to start World War 3? Definitely not the North Koreans. Who has soldiers and military bases all over the world and fighting wars non stop every where?

The Americans are calling everyone as villains but the real and one and only villain is the Americans, the biggest villain of the 21st Century, the belligerent war maker.

The world must act to counter Trump's ultra racism

Trump is a white ultra racist and white supremacist. His grandfather was a leader of the extreme radical Ku Klux Klan organisation a die hard white supremacist creed bent on eradicating African Americans and Mexican Americans from US.

During his election campaign he promised to clear the swamp. As he indulged in double speak people mistook him that he was going to get rid of all the robber barons, rogues and scoundrels in high places in the government, in the financial centres in the banks and stock markets and in the military industrial complex. Actually he did just that. People could never have been more wrong and they were grossly deceived. What he actually meant of clearing the swamp was that he wanted to get rid of all the non-white population in the country be they African Americans, Mexican Americans and other non-whites. He equates non-whites as useless swamps, a very disparaging and disrespectful remark. He wants to preserve America purely for white people and just like his forebears he will quote the bible to justify his wicked actions. He will promulgate policies and rules and institute actions to make sure all non-whites will be forced to leave America and return to their countries of origin. He conveniently ignores the fact that he and all the anglo-saxons, the Europeans were callous brutal invaders of the American continent in which native people were almost completely genocided by them.

Trump and his hordes of fellow white supremacists are too drunk with racial hatred and wanton power to realise that there will definitely be an equally violent and unstoppable backdash against him and his likes for the world will never allow him only one way to kill and destroy other people. Moreover Trump should return all the stolen lands from Mexico to Mexico forthwith. If he says non-whites must leave America then he and all the whites too must go back to Europe and leave America to the rightful original owners the Native Red Indians and the Mexicans.

Trump is the epitome of all things evil and a torch bearer of the satanic KU KLUX KLAN and should be destroyed sooner than later.

Southernglory1

Singapore does not need FDI

It was reported that Singapore attracted $9b of foreign direct investment in the year 2016, or was it 2015? This is about the lowest FDI ever attracted to invest here. Duterte paid a short trip to China and went home with $24b and more to come. Najib did likewise and was rewarded with $40b not taking into account the hundreds of billions poured into Malaysia in the last few years. Forest city alone accounted for something like $30b or $40b.

Is this pittance of $9b going to be meaningful to our economic growth? There is this obsession for FDI as if it is the steroid that all countries must have to register growth and a sign of growth. Even China is talking about attracting FDIs while investing trillions of its own resources overseas. In reality, the sum of FDIs attracted into China or Singapore are really insignificant to the sum they invested overseas.

There are definitely benefits to have FDIs coming into a country as these are new money. But when little FDIs are coming in, it is not the end. Just retain a small sum of local capital going abroad would be a handsome sum to replace the FDIs. How much is China investing overseas, trillions. How much is China receiving as FDIs, a couple of hundred bilions? How much is Singapore investing overseas? Hundreds of billlions! What is $9b? Just invest less of our capital overseas and plough them back into the local economy, $20b, $50b could be had to self inject and pump up the local economy.

What Singapore has is money, though not in trillions like China, but in hundreds of billions and relatively a considerable sum. Bring the money home, just like bringing the Singaporeans home instead of hoping for FDIs or foreign talents when we have our own stuff. FDI is something good to have but not critical except for countries that did not have much of their own capital to start with. There is no need to throw our money crazily all over the world and begging for a little FDIs to come ashore.
Singapore has hundreds of billions in the reserves but investing in funny stocks and ventures overseas, dunno making money or losing money. Why not invest in our own people and industries and no need to fear for the lack of FDI when it is so little to be meaningful? We can provide our very own steroid to boost the economy. What is there for foreigners to dump their billions here when there is really nothing to invest except properties, shopping centres and food courts?

Singapore doing all the wrong things

Singapore is still thinking it is doing all the right things and there will still be a prosperous Singapore to celebrate SG100. The writings on the wall are saying everything is failing but some jokers are claiming everything is number 1, we are the best. Has anyone really looked at the things we claim to be the best and know what they are, best in what, best in the wrong things?

Look at education, just a few days ago the ST gloated that Singapore is in the top four ranks for universities by Times Higher Education. Superficially it looked like a big achievement, like the headline 99% passed GCE with at least one pass. What is this fourth ranking about? It is about how many foreign academic staff and how many foreign students in the universities. These are things that can be bought by money. Just keep throwing tax payers money to these foreigners, the more we throw to them, the higher will be the ranking. We can even be number 1, just like throwing money to buy table tennis players and the silly dream of winning the World Cup by buying foreign talents.

And almost daily we have heard gloating about how good our education system is, how great our universities are, only to find that employers did not want their graduates and prefer graduates from third world countries, from dilapidated schools that have poorly qualified and poorly trained teachers that could not boast of having to paying thousands of dollars to get a place in kindergarten or the university.

And the sickest thing of all, everyday harping about training our retrenched workers, many with good degrees and experience and are displaced by third world half baked degrees or degrees from degree mills. The big question, why are these third world country products so super and no need further training, but the best workers from a first world country, spending more than 20 years in formal education to get a degree, supposedly the finest if not the most expensive, and all inept, misfit, mismatch and unworthy to be employed, and need more training, life time training? And third world products are perfect matches and no need any training? Heard of anyone demanding or recommending training for third world products?

Are we doing all the right things or doing all the wrong things but pretending that we are doing all the right things? Stop this silly shit about retraining and retraining when lousy half baked third world pariah education graduates, many not even graduates but fakes, could be happily employed here without the need for retraining.

Stupidity has no cure. Just listen and follow blindly.

NTUC FairPrice gives priority to Pioneers

I happened to have a chat with a few pioneers and up came the topic of priority queue for pioneers in FairPrice. There is a priority queue but not sure if pioneers are given first pass. And then I was inside a FairPrice outlet and there were queues everywhere. Then I looked up and saw two big circular signs hanging over one cashier counter. One read ‘Pioneers Priority’ and another ‘Give Way’. But there was a queue. So I thought I test the system and went forward to ask the cashier whether got priority for pioneers. She answered promptly, pioneers also must queue.

Oh, brilliant idea. Two big signs that said priority for pioneers and give way to pioneers, and actually did not mean it. Pioneers also must join the queue. My recommendations to NTUC FairPrice are like these: either remove the two big signs as they are meaningless, or to add two more signs, one reads ‘Pioneers must also Q’ and another ‘No need to give way to pioneers’. If not the signs either make the pioneers look silly queuing in a priority queue for them or NTUC FairPrice looking stupid having such signs that meant nothing. Did they think through what they are going to do before they hung those big signs up in the first place? Maybe it is too difficult for them to think how best to deal with such priority queues.

The cashiers must have taken instructions from their supervisors, and the supervisors must have taken instructions from their superiors, and up the pecking order. So who is the top idiot that passed down such a stupid idea to give pioneers priority queue but instructions to the cashiers to do the contrary?  Oops, the cashiers knew exactly what to do. Pioneers must also queue. The signs are for wayang only, tak pakai lah.

I had another encounter of such stupidity in FairPrice a few years back. I saw this senior uncle, more senior than me, in front of me in a check out queue. And there was this smiling and grinning cashier happily demanding to see the senior citizen cards before giving the 2% discount. It was a Tuesday and there was a 2% discount for senior citizens. Monday is for Pioneer Generation with a 3% discount.  The senior uncle showed the cashier his pioneer card but she said no pakai.  'Úncle, today for seniors only and seniors must show senior card. Pioneer card not recognized on Tuesday. Want pioneer discount, come on Monday.'

I wrote to NTUC the next day explaining to them that pioneers are older than seniors. Apparently they did not know, I supposed. At that time the youngest pioneers were already 65 years old while those qualified for senior cards were only 60 or 62 years. So why pioneer cards not recognized when the card was proof that the holder was older than the seniors? NTUC replied to apologise and said cashiers would be told that pioneer card holders would henceforth also be recognized as seniors and would be entitled to the 2% discount on Tuesday. If I have not been a busybody, the happy cashier/cashiers would be happily demanding for senior citizen cards on Tuesday and rejecting the pioneer cards.

This is how daft and stupid Singaporeans have become. They just follow rules or instructions without thinking. Like they said, cheng hu got say then do. Cheng hu no say, don’t do. No need to think. Cheng hu is doing all the thinking. Daft sinkies just listen and obey instructions. Life cannot be more simple and blissful than this.

I hope NTUC read this or someone got the link to NTUC tell them about my recommendations on priority queues for pioneers as mentioned above. The cashiers need to get specific instructions before they can do anything right. Instructions from the top very powderful, cannot disobey. It is not that the cashiers are stupid. They could exercise their initiative and can be very helpful when they wanted to.

Stupidity has no cure.

New serious political philosophers emerging in Sin

After the renaissance in Europe the world turned away from philosophers. The ancient philosophers were only read in the academia for fun. So were the Middle Age European philosophers. Good to read as a student in the campus all over the world. Such philosophies do not seem to be applicable in the modern context and have been bungled and thrown into the dustbin. From the rise of European Empires till today, there is a dearth of serious philosophers in modern history and politics.
 
But not all is gone. Sin City is the most fertile ground for the copulation of ideas, east and west, modern and ancient. Sin City has brought in all the best minds from the developed countries and the best minds from the Third World countries into this melting pot and their goodness is starting to seep through. New ideas or new thoughts to challenge old philosophical models and wisdom are being expounded by the super talents of the City.
 
The latest idea is that small countries must be ruled by a single political party. This is the formula for the success of small countries. Being small, lack of talents, there are not many talents to choose from anyway. This is one real limiting factor in a small city state. And small is good in a way if there is one party, without the bickering of a multi party system. A one party system allows the one party to be fast and agile to respond to changes and challenges that a multi party system cannot offer. With one party, everything goes, and can be done quickly and efficiently. This is a new political philosophy that would soon be taught in our world best universities and all the students will graduate with this brilliant idea. MOE will include this idea in the school textbooks for young children. One party is good, two parties is bad, multi parties the worse.
 
And Sin City is the living proof that a one party system is the way to go. Actually the formula is also applicable to big countries. The most efficient and progressive one party system is China. See how efficient a one party system can do for a big country. The one party system allows China to leap frog all the democratic multi party countries in 40 years to be the Number One or Two economic and military power in the world, depending on what yardstick you are using. The Number One economic and military power, the USA, is losing steam because of its multi party system and soon would be over taken by a one party system country.
 
One party is good and applicable not only to a small city state but for all states big and small. To progress, to do well economically, a one party system is the way to go. This is the 21st Century political philosophy.
 
Please do not challenge me on this brilliant idea. I am not the philosopher. I am just a dumb parrot. Please do not be angry with all the believers of this modern political philosophy as they are also dumb parrots like me, unthinking and daft, which are highly valued assets in Sin City.
There are many great and brilliant ideas emerging from Sin City that would take the world by storm by the few super talented talents.

Harvard, Princeton, Oxford, Cambridge and all the top universities would soon be learning from the philosophers of Sin City and teaching their students that one party political system is good.