stroking of the stock market

We have seen the first intervention in the form of an assuring statement by a top MAS official to calm the nerves of investors on Thursday. Then the visiting MD of IMF also added his two cents worth towards the same objective. And on Friday confidence returned to the stockmarket. Not that credit should all go to the two officials for their timely comments. The Dow gained more than 90 points the following night which gave more support and assurance that the world equities markets were not going to go on a free fall. And all these help in their little ways to arrest the slide further down. Despite all the above, it is still not enough if the mutual funds refused to take heed and continue their selling. All it needed was a handful of stocks to register double digit falls and fear will creep in again. And the herd instinct of running for safety during uncertainties will lead to an eventual crash. Our market is so precarious because of its minute size, and more frightening is the lack of any contigency plan to prevent a repeat of the financial crisis. The need and urgency for such plans to be incorporated and be ready to activate cannot be ignored and delayed. The mutual funds and foreign capitals could behave like financial terrorists. And a timely hit can create damages that could be devastating to our economy and would lead to blood on the street. What could happen is for some bad news or rumours to spread. Even without that, all it needs is for a blue chip stock to fall by 10-20% in price and people will scurry for cover. All the weak holders of the stock, the punters or short term traders will just sell out. And the shortists will jump in to accelerate the fall. And the fall deepens. Programme selling kicks in. More sell off. Then margin calls will be triggered, leading to more force selling by the banks. By then the price would have gone more than 20%. When a stock is hit this way, broking houses will impose curbs on trading the stock. Mostly it will be a case of sell only, no buying allowed except with cash out front. It becomes a vicious downward spiral. This can happen to one stock or several stocks or the whole stock market. There must be systems and procedures to prevent such incidents, from a spark turning into an inferno. An example is to halt the trading of a stock or even the whole market. Print out the data on the big sellers. Call up the company of the stock affected to confirm that there is no genuine bad news. Assess the damage and the real contributors to the fall. In the case of a funds selling out, especially shorting of the stocks, a standby fund can be utilised to buy into the stocks. The big sellers should also informed that intervention will come in and be advised to stop their selling. Public statements be made to explain the truth and regain confidence in the stock or market. And when nerves have been calm, sanity returns, the stock or market can then resume trading, maybe the next day or a few days later. This is only a layman's simple suggestion. The people managing the system will have better and more comprehensive ideas to protect the system. The attack on the stock market can be treated and handled like a terrorist attack. Plans can be made in advance. Operational teams and details be worked out, even simulation be test run to measure the effectiveness of the countermeasures. It is reckless to leave the fate of our stockmarket to chance and to the manipulation or assault by foreign financial terrorists. Or should it be licence to kill for the mutual fund operators?

singapore idol, change the casts

The Singapore Idol should be about talent, in whatever form. Or if it is a programme to generate fun and laughter, then it should be one of pure fun. I cannot find it funny when I could not even bare the sight of the participants, contestants and judges. How then could it be entertainment? Sorry I am saying this out of my own prejudice. I know some are enjoying every minute of it. I find it difficult to see the young imitating themselves to behave like nerds and imbeciles. And to make matter worst, the imitation was so plastic. Impersonation of other celebrities is an art form that when done well can be extremely entertaining. This applies also to the judges. Their impersonation or attempt to be like the personalities in the American Idol, failed miserably. So fake by over acting. Their expression, both physical and verbal, were so unbearable to watch. It would be much better if they be themselves, be a bit like Ah Beng or Ah Lian, be more natural. Now where are the directors? When are they going to come in and tell the judges not to over act? Simon Cowell is about playing himself. And he is naturally him. I think the only guy here who can outdo him by being himself is LKY. Cool and precise in dissecting the contestants into bits. And when he said the truth, people listen. The popularity of the programme will shoot up skyhigh. Tt will also be an excellent opportunity for him to connect with the younger generation. How about that huh? Change the cast and script and bring in the number one Ah Lian, Zhong Qin as well. Did I get her name right? And maybe the nasty Flying Dutchman. I have seen him in his nasty self once at Raffles Place hitting out at an innocent viewer early in the morning.

are we teaching or learning?

Below is a perceptive and telling it as it really is article from a citizen. A young girl called Gayle Goh. She tells the truth that no traditional media would dare to say. And this is what citizen reporting is all about. Her title is 'Teaching China Lesson.' I would think a better title will be like ' Learning from our own experience in China', or something like 'Shall we be duped a second time'. Teaching China Lessons - Really Interesting blog from Gayle Goh, 17-year-old student at Anglo-Chinese Junior College. May 24, 2006 http://i-speak.blogdrive.com/ Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew has gone to China with the confident declaration that Singapore can help the emerging giant to 'connect' with Southeast Asia and the West. China has received him warmly, with much pomp and goodwill, complete with showing him a little plot of orchids and a mini merlion as part of his welcoming ceremony. Promises are bandied about, as are grand words; Beijing says it wants Singapore to participate in China's development, and Singapore says its doors will always be open. The diplomats are all smiles and good cheer, and what could look more promising? Yet it is not the first time that we've seen this 'wayang' (word of the year) unfold. We saw how in the 1990's much pomp and acclaim were given to the launching of the Suzhou Industrial Park joint partnership between China and Singapore. Often touted as Lee's brainchild, it was to combine China's cheap labour and manufacturing costs with Singapore's expertise, experience and yes - national reserves. Before that, China had already professed its intention to follow the 'Singapore model' of development, which gave way to the rather unusual cooperation between the two nations; rather like a slumbering dragon ambling in the wake of a precocious younger lizard, strutting along, annoyingly full of itself. The China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park, for all its grand fanfare, was a complete embarrassment. Ruined by corruption, nepotism, delays, and incompetent management which saw the park facing competition from the Suzhou New District, another industrial park in the region, the affair tapered down quietly into a complete handover of administration from Singaporean to Chinese hands, and a subsequent drop in investment from Singapore into China. My own father's business would know. Seeing a massive flow of customers shift into Suzhou, he thought to follow the exodus of demand into the province as well, and set up operations there a number of years ago. Today, we still have not been able to begin trading there, due to the inefficiencies and corruption that seem endemic to China. We have faced problems in everything from having our logo registered as a trademark, let alone obtaining a permit to manufacture and trade in Suzhou. My father's company was one of the 'dupes' of that hype, and it begs me to wonder if anything at all has changed in this new rapprochement between Singapore and China. Singapore seems to be vigorously blowing its own trumpet in order to stay relevant and needed to the region. But to be honest, I wonder if China really does need us, or intend to follow our advice. How much clout do we really have? We say we want to connect China with the West. They hardly need our help for that. China's booming markets and its huge potential for contribution to the global trade volume and the expansion of Western markets ensures that East and West are very much connected in a 21st century form of Silk Road. Since Mao-Nixon detente in the early 1970's, relations between China and the USA have been carefully cordial. And insofar as connecting China in Southeast Asia, Singapore honestly has no truly friendly ties to any SEA nation save for Indonesia at the moment. We most recently pissed off Malaysia and Thailand - are we really any authority on ASEAN friendship and cooperation? Furthermore, China-ASEAN trade is already booming without Singaporean assistance, it would seem, since the signing of the China-ASEAN Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation on Nov 4, 2002, and the scheduled commencement of the FTA in 2010. Given this, I wonder what Singapore can truly do for China besides drink tea, look at orchids, and advise them to learn English. I guess we're doing all this just in hopes of snatching up a bilateral FTA deal after the China-ASEAN one comes into effect, as has already been announced as to be Singapore's intention by Lim Hng Kiang in 2004. Until then, it seems we have nothing but diplomatic hot-air overtures and a history of failure to offer. By GayleGoh._________________

two sides of the truth

The Straits Times devoted 8 or 9 pages of today's paper on a subject that was shunned during the election. It was taboo to talk about it then. During the election or prior to the election, all the news that the paper were pushing out were 'good news' or feel good news. The economy was doing well, all the data and indices were up, export up, GDP up, trade up, stock exchange doing roaring business, people doing very well, all prospering and happy. And billions of dollars will be given away. And the Straits Times was telling the truth. There is no doubt that all the reports in the traditional meda were all truth. But another side of the truth were kept in the dark, not to be spoken as it was the wrong time for them. So today we are reading the dark side, the other side of the truth. Every page is heart drenching, and tugging at the heart string. How could there be so much poverty and sadness in this land of opportunities? How could people be so happy and every thing so affordable, if not, even cheap like hell, when a section of the population is living in despair? This social disparity must be the fault of those people who cannot keep up with the changes in society. They are the ones to be blamed. If they are not able, or they must be lazy, then they deserved to be in the state they are in. This is the kind of thinking among the smart and able who pride themselves for being so clever, to helping themselves to every opportunities to make all the wealth, and to live in paradise on earth. Let's throw some crumbs at them shall we? It makes us feel so good, so magnanimous, so generous, to shed a few tears, to help the suffering poor. And don't worry if the prices of public transport are going up, or medical cost going up. They are all affordable....to who?

heresy of a single power domination

A world that is dominated by a single superpower, like a country with a single ruling power, is a dangerous place. As a single source of unchecked power, madness creeps in easily without them knowing. Just hear the rhetorics of our domestic politics. During the election and after the election, the terms the ruling single party govt are familiar with are fixing, managing dissent, or making conditional offers or else. This is what an unchecked singular power system will be. And people are 'polite' by not calling these attitudes the appropriate terms they deserved. No one is going to call a spade a spade for obvious reasons. In the international arena, the emergence of China as a power broker is good for all the smaller countries, but for the Americans. It allows the smaller countries more freedom to negotiate their national policies, falling back on an alternative source of counter force in China against the domineering empire of the USA. For that matter, the world will be a better place with Russia and India and the European Union taking centre stage as equally strong source of power to balance a single power world under the USA. A multi polar world is the same a a multi party political system of a nation. The world order has been structured, maintained, and has become the preserve of western powers and their domination since the industrial revolution a few centuries back. How the world should behave, economic, trade and even political systems, must be approved and accepted by the West. And this is the status quo that the Americans and the West are determined to uphold. The rest of the world shall be weak and managed or fixed the way the West wants it to be. China should desirably be a broken up country, poor and disintegrated, and ravaged by the foreign powers, and to be exploited like in the 19th and early 20th centuries. And it is very unbecoming and audacious for China to think of changing this status quo, to break free, to want to decide its own future and to stand up as a respectful independent nation. China must always be subdued and managed as a country and be dependent on foreign or western aid. All the analysts and thinktank reports are based on a perspective of western domination of the world. None of them would want to put themselves on the side of China and see the world in the interest of China. China's rise or gain is their fall or loss. So China must be contained and be a good boy, speak softly with its head bend. That is what a responsible and benign China should be, in the interest of western powers and intellectuals. Much as they want it to be so, it is China's right and national interest to stand up on its own, to build its national capabilities in all fields, including defence, so that it does not have to be manipulated or suppressed and exploited by any country any more. The same kind of interest and aspiration that every nation would want to have. The same as what the USA would want to be as an independent and sovereign nation. Would the rest of the world continue to let the USA dominate world opinion and tell the world what to do, even calling wolf every day, and believe in the American deceit?