'preserve our rights to use our cpf'

I read the above title in the Today paper and find it amusing. There was a hot debate after Tan Keng Soon wrote an article suggesting to modify the CPF scheme and children should contribute to the CPF of their mothers. And now readers are not agreeable to this and wanted to have more control of their CPF savings. Now why is this so amusing? It is amusing because whatever CPF one has, it is well known and has already been factored into the big picture of the country. How much the people have in the CPF have been computed to make sure that they can afford to pay for HDB flats and medical cost. When people have more CPF money, property prices will be priced according to their affordability. Now that people have lesser money left in their CPF, HDB will build 2 room flats to meet their lower affordability ability. And when there are more in CPF, bigger flats will be built again. And today's paper headline has this cheerful report that Singaporeans can now afford to pay for their medical cost. These are also priced according to affordability. According to the report, if Singaporeans seek to be admitted into C and B2 wards, then they should be able to afford to pay for them through their Medisave. But the report forgot that admission into C and B2 wards is not a matter of personal choice but depended on the means testing. So much as Singaporeans may want to save some money by opting for C and B2 wards, they may not qualify and have to pay for more expensive wards because they could afford to. What does all these mean, ie affordability, is to see how much one has in the CPF and how much to price facilities and services to use up these CPF. Now the cry to preserve our right to use our CPF. Fat hope. Every organisation is thinking of how to use up your CPF. Their rights to use your CPF come first. By then they would not be much left. And the final condition, you don't have the right to decide when you can take out your cpf and how much to take out even after you retire.

myth 54

'SMRT is doing well and should not raise fare' I was in the train this morning and something caught my attention. First the thought that SMRT is going to raise its fare after making more than $100 million in profit. Should that be enough to cover for the higher fuel cost? Lets say fuel cost will add another $50 million to its operating cost, just a guesstimate, they will still make another $50 million, ceterus paribus. Then I look around the train carriage all over again. I just felt that something was not right. The two tv screens that were supposed to bring in advertising income were dead silent. The screens were blank, black and not powered on. One big source of income not coming in. What about the billboard advertising panels? There were at least 20 of them on both the inner sides of the train carriage. What? Only one panel has an advert! The rest were empty. This means there will be a drastic fall in advertising revenue. I only hope that it was only in one train carriage. But very likely it will affect the rest of the trains. And this will also mean that many businesses are not advertising, businesses not doing well, or cannot afford to advertise. Or maybe advertising in train is not rewarding. Make your guess.

myth 53

'Need to protect the safety of the World Bank/IMF delegates' As a host nation offering our facilities for the World Bank/IMF Conference here, it is our duty to provide the best facilities, the most hospital and friendly environment and to look after the safety of the delegates. And when we know of public demonstrations that are being planned, we fear for their safety. We must do whatever we can to protect them. Further, we don't allow public demonstration for our people and there is no reason to make an exception for our guests. What if our guests wanted the demonstrations to take place? What if our guests are not concerned with their safety or if they don't see any threat to their safety? What if our guests encourage demonstration as that will make them do a better job? What if our guests requested that the demonstrations be allowed to take place? No, we still need to protect their safety. So no public demonstrations allowed.

year of the dog

There is a beautiful picture in the Straits Times today of the Suzhou Mayor presenting a picture of a dog to Kan Seng in praise of our contribution to the Suzhou Industrial Park, and to commemorate the Year of the Dog. It is an excellent and finely crafted silk weaving painting, a craft that the Chinese has perfected. A special and valuable gift as both men were born in the year of the dog.

we welcome the best of the best

I too am worried after reading the responses to the call for more foreigners. Without teaching history, without reading politics, this country can go to the dogs without knowing it. And all because of the innocence of wanting the best, meritocracy, talents etc. If we throw away politics, we can even sell the country away to the highest bidder. What is there left when a nation does not value its people and its citizenship, but instead hold in awe the talents and superficial talents of the world as must have? It is about time to resurrect Durai as a national hero, and who's the guy who spent Asia Pacific Brewery's money and be treated like a king in all the casinos? We should recruit all the drug barons and the mafia godfathers and triad bosses. Tell them we welcome their exceptional talents and send them invitations to be our citizens. Talents of all colours and stripes are welcomed to this island of super talents.