university fees: smu joins the fray

smu does not want to lose out in the race to be the most expensive university in singapore, which means the best education money can buy. the more you pay the better will be the university. smu has raised its fee the second time, each time by 15%. so on the same logic, the quality of its education is up by 30%. nus and ntu have raised by 8%. so in terms of percentage its quality is up by only 8%. so smu is now a better university. so we shall wait to see who will up the stake in the next increment. nus and ntu now have better reasons to up their fees as they can justify by quoting smu. smu is now more expensive than us. so we are charging below market rate. or smu up 30%. we up only 8%. that is a great anomaly. a miscarriage of justice. better up another 22% to make up. anyone dare to say our university fees are expensive? it is not even peanuts. what great universities we are having now. world class, in tuition fees.

ge: is there a coordinated effort or spanners in the work

it is election time and we can all expect everything coming out from the govt or govt related organisations to be carefully time for this big event. for any wrong move could make or break the ruling party, or at least the majority votes that it aims to win. we have seen and heard all the good economic, financial and employment data. for once the govt has stopped gloating over the greatness of foreign talents. and the govt is going to pump in a lot of money to beautify the infrastructure. a lot of giveaways, money going to be thrown down from the balcony. the people are all eagerly expecting some handouts. so far all these can only be good for the ruling party. but then we are also hearing irritating and sickening news coming out from other corners. we have had our transportation fee hike in bad times but ended with the transport operators laughing all the way to the bank. there were school fees hike for independent schools and now universities think they were given a blank cheque to fill in the numbers they want. the ire of the people is heightening. people are starting to grit their teeth. the money crazy people seems so distant from the politics on the ground. who cares, line up the pocket first. this country is not going to the dogs. but going to the greedy money grabbers. squeezing from the public seems to be the easiest way to grab money as the public are helpless and clueless. where are we heading? now the general election is around the corners. for every bad decision or bad news, it will take 10 good and pleasant news to remove the stale bitterness. when is the govt going to rein in this madness that money is the solution to all problems and money is there to be grabbed....from the people?

angmohs are really smart.

if i were an angmoh organisation, and if i want to spread my soft culture to influence the world, and at the same time provide high salary employment for my academics, this is what i will do. set up an agency to rank universities around the world according to my criteria. the same way the miss world or miss universe contests were organised and conducted. the same angmoh biased criteria. some of these criteria that will be important are: 1. the number of notable angmoh academics teaching in the universities. 2. how to judge them as notables? a lot of publications in renowned publications and professional journals. and for these, the angmohs have a comparative advantage as all or most of the renowned journals are angmoh journals. 3. and who to do the judging, the angmohs of course. so all the wannabe third world universities will be scrambling to meet these criteria to be ranked among the greats in this angmoh ranking organisations. they will end up employing all the great angmoh academics and pay them great angmoh salaries. and these great angmoh academics will be so highly regarded that it will be so easy for them to go out there to influence the minds and thinking of the future leaders of the third world countries. did i hear neo colonialism of the minds? and for those third world academics who ended up losing their jobs in their own national universities, just too bad. they are not good enough. don't fit the criteria of what is great. any angmoh reading this, please pat yourself on your back for such a brilliant concept. i mean it. the third world wannabes will be crawling on their knees to beg the great angmoh academics to grace their shores.

academics hired on merits and not nationality

for the past 5 years, 23% of newly recruited academics to our tertiary institutions were singaporeans. or put it the other way, 77% are foreign talents. at the rate it is going, we will need to rename the tertiary institutions as singapore world universities. singapore for the location of the universities. and world to tell people all the academics were recruited from around the world. now, a world class university is coming up right on our soil. now i know why the fees must keep going up. world class academics are really good and really expensive. now the question is whether our student quality is up to par to be taught and converted into world class graduates. then, whether the world will recognise our students as world class, on top of the world, after graduating from our world class universities. if our students are not of world class material, never mind. instant solution. offer their places to top students from china and india and neigbouring countries. by taking these measures, sure we will get world class academics and world class students to be turned into world class graduates. singaporeans who are not up to world class mark can go to polytechnics, or get a father's scholarship and go overseas to attend not so world class universities. we are the best. we are number one. we can buy quality, just like we bought honesty.

casinos: singaporeans are so lucky

after skimming through the newspaper reports on the casino debate, i spent less than 3 minutes, and that is how important or meaningful the debate was, i concluded that singaporeans are very lucky. and singapore is so very safe from disintegrating into a nation with loose morals. singaporeans must stand up and give a standing ovation to the strong moral standards on casinos that were displayed in parliament. many parliamentarians were worried for singaporeans and how singaporeans could be destroyed by the casinos. and they recommended many measures to protect the singaporeans. may i also take this opportunity to offer a few solid proposals for on the casinos. 1. do a means testing(i hate means testing) on any singaporeans who want to enter the casinos. and make sure they have at least $10,000 cash to lose. 2. make their family members sign a letter of consent before they be allowed to enter the casinos. with the letter of consent they can be issued with an ezlink card just for the casinos. 3. limit the number of times each person can visit the casinos. preferably once a month. too many times they will be addicted and become a danger to themselves, their families and society. 4. all gamblers must visit a psychiatrist once a month for pre addiction checkup, just in case they have been infected by the gambling bugs. they will then be issued with a pass to certify their clean bill of health. 5. more psychiatric clinics will be set up dedicated for these gamblers. 6. the anti vice unit shall set up a gambling squad to conduct surprise checks on these gamblers. i learn this from the snoop squads. they must carry their health cards with them at all times. 7. any gambler who skip their monthly appointment with the psychiatrist shall be fined and banned from gambling for 3 months. 8. the anti vice shall be empowered to call up the gamblers for interview when they deemed it necessary. wow, ain't i smart to come out with such morally correct recommendations.