northstar v

the emergency drill conducted on sunday is something that singapore is very good at. our uniformed groups and the civil servants are highly efficient when come to matters like security. we can expect them to be ahead of things, things that can be planned will be carefully planned. so many agencies were tested on sunday. it was a very comprehensive and well thought of exercise. and given the number of people involved, the complexities of events and people, it can be very chaotic even as a drill. just imagine when it is real. the tension, anxiety, panic and nervousness, and fear, will be ten fold. i was thinking, what would happen if, just before the first simulated bomb blows off, a call came from a non exercise station telling the controller that it is the real thing. a bomb has exploded in say jurong east and there were casualties. caught in the midst of a major exercise and a call came in and it is real. the authentication and confirmation and the redirection of the forces to a real and new destination can be a very massive exercise. let us pray that it will not happen. somehow i think it will, only when.

let's start a charity - a proposal

as i meditate, there is nagging concern that something needs to be done for the poor kidney patients. it is, or it was the only charity that i regularly donated until i stopped a few years back. i did received many thank you letters from durai before. i find it unacceptable for people to have to pay to live. we pay for our food. everyone pays for food. but why should this group of people pay for dialysis without which they would die? and the dialysis is not cheap. it is a life sentence that they did not inflict on themselves, unlike aids or some diseases that you went out to court it. we now know that private hospital is charging $180 per dialysis. the new nkf charges $162. working on these two numbers, if we can start a charity that subsidises the full amount, or the patients need only pay whatever they can afford up to a maximum of $50, would not that be helpful? the donors money is like god's money. the money comes from the heart, never ending. the intent is to help. we should help the willing donors to process their money to the needy with minimum cost. if the patients cannot afford to pay a single cent, the charity must be able to pick up the full tab. the charity shall support as many patients as the donors are forthcoming and the fund is available. mission: to provide subsidies to kidney patients for dialysis treatment as much as the charity can afford. concept: the charity is to be run by volunteers who need not be paid market rate salary. all volunteers may be given an honorarium for their charitable work. only 20% of the donation shall be set aside as expenses, which will include honorarium, refreshment and transportation for the volunteers. no need to build hospitals or clinics. maybe no need for an office. but if funds allowed, a small office will do as the function of the charity is only to process funds, applications and administration of the patient and charity records. thus the operating cost of such a charity is very minimum. 80% of all donations shall go towards subsidising the dialysis fee. no other hidden cost, no big manpower bill, no big organisation to feed, no medical staff. maybe a few full time admin staff, if necessary. the patients can be referred to the charity from members of parliament or any charitable organisations. they will do the processing and screening for eligibility. a kidney patient is a kidney patient. this no one can hide. and all payments shall be directly paid to the hospitals or nkf or kdf or whichever approved providers. when to start: all those who are reading this can actually sound out to potential donors whether the concept is acceptable and ask for an indication of intent to donate to the charity. no collection of donation until the charity is officially approved and registered. ideally we would like to have donors donating like the lifedrop scheme of nkf. this we should thank durai for his concept. when the concept is well accepted and there are sufficient donors willing to come on board, some of you can come forward and volunteer to be founding members and sit in the board. warning, no big fees. only 20% of donations will be set aside to defray all expenses. all expenses and payments will be fully accountable and transparent. and if the charity really kicks off and substantial funds are flowing in, this 20% may be further reduced. this is a charity and people coming forward shall see their rewards in the service they provide to help the needy patients. ALL OF YOU WHO HAPPENS TO READ THIS, PLEASE PASS THE WORD AROUND. WE WILL USE THIS BLOG INITIALLY AS THE SOUNDING BOARD AND FOR FEEDBACK. LET'S SEE IF WE CAN REALLY DO SOMETHING AFTER ALL THE TALKS. REDBEAN.

in the real world, how good are you?

Education Great up to a point. Singapore's students are brilliant in math-science tests; American kids test much worse but do better in the real world. Why? Fareed Zakaria, NewsweekJan 6, 2006. i pick the above quote from littlespeck.com. what i would like to add, yes, in the real world, if you have a billionaire father, do you need to be very smart to run one of his companies? but if you don't have a billionaire father, or if your billionaire father is not too confident of himself or you, then he will employ an american who is so so but was made a ceo by his father to be ceo in your father's company. and you will have to smell his arse even if you have straight As. this is the real world.

not cost effective charity organisation has no right to exist

i was pondering over the two figures of dialysis treatment cost quoted in my earlier posting. $180 in a profit making hospital against $162 at nkf. the difference is really peanuts if one is subsidised by public donations, the govt and the charges paid by the patients. my main point of argument is that a charity set up with the help of public fund to help the needy must be able to reduce the burden of the cost of treatment very substantially, maybe down to 10% or 30% of what a profit making hospital or govt hospital is charging. what is the point of setting up a duplicate facility only to cut the cost to the patients by 10 or 20%? taking the nkf as an example, would it be a more cost effective charity if it does away with all its clinics and infrastructure and retains only the fund raising and administrative function to manage and disburse the funds to the patients? with all the cost reduced to maybe less than 10% of what it spends for the clinics, medical supplies, medical staff etc, would it be able to give or subsidise each patient the $180 charged by a profit making hospital? and the patients could actually be fully subsidised by the donations. isn't this what a charity should be doing, paying as much as it can for the needy patients? i am not sure if the nkf fund could subsidise the full $180. but definitely it could subsidise quite a big portion of this if it does not need to operate and pay for its huge medical facilities and operations. and this is applicable to all cost ineffective and inefficient charity organisations. they should not set up any facility and charge almost the same as a profit making or govt built facilities. just collect the donations and reimburse or subsidise the patients and needy recipients. if the setting up of their facilities only save the people they helped by a little, and if the amount of savings to these people is substantial without having their own set up, then they should do away with their facilities. let the experts in their fields manage the facilities at the most cost effective way. yeah, privatisation and efficiency and cost consciousness. charities shall just concentrate on disbursing funds to benefit most the people they are helping. if what they are doing is not cost effective, they are actually wasting precious donors money.

the stock market is on the run

the new year saw a revival of the dying stock market and running like a charging bull. this is contrary to what i have posted earlier, that the market is at the brink of a collapse. my rationale is a simple supply and demand equation. when the number of stocks, derivatives and other financial products keep increasing, and the number of investors and the value of their investments keep dwindling, the market will die a natural death through over supply and lack of demand. in the last few days we are seeing a surge of demand, with transaction value hitting more than a million daily. but this is nothing new as the same value were hit in nov but then disappeared again. the market is as real as it is unreal. the volume and value transacted are real. but they are fictitious in the sense that they are probably churned up by a few big fund managers or big players. and this churning will stop as abruptly as it started if there is no support from a wide base of investors. the value of a stock can be as low as the piece of paper it is printed on. it is a perceived value and the investors must be convinced that it is worth the money they put in. or often the reason is that the value is sustainable. this is only true when the funds continue to support the price and more investors join in the fray. the market makers must not pull out as fast as they push up the market. more genuine money from big funds must go into the market to provide the support it sorely needs. only then can the market's uptrend be maintained to draw back the investors. confidence in the market has to be built over a sustained period of time. just a flash in the pan surge can be dangerous if it is just a weak attempt to push up the market and support by talks only. the stock market is a very important institution in the whole economy. any mismanagement that leads to its death will have far greater consequences than one can imagine. we can only hope that people are seriously working to revive the market and nurse it to health. and the real demand in terms of investors and capital going into the market must be there. otherwise the bull will turn to bear faster than you think. so far the only major input into the market is the supply side, more stocks, derivatives, covered warrants, discount notes, equity linked notes etc. the demand side has been neglected. i see a little spark in attracting the muslim funds. at least it will boost up the demand side a little. let us pray that the stock market is in good hands.