the sun will rise from the east!

Today Chok Tong said tomorrow the sun will rise from the East, or something like that. What he actually said was that with globalisation, the income gap between the rich and poor will continue to widen. Anyone does not know or have not heard this statement of unquestionable and irreversible truth? Is this going to be a fact that the poor/govt must accept? Or are conditions gravitating towards the pre revolutionary days when the only way out for the poor is the destruction of the existing system, to start all over again, a revolution? An uncontrolled capitalist and free market system will move in this direction, up to a point when the division is so stark that only a confrontation of the two extremes will level the playing field. It is natural that the rich will want to be richer. And if they are some crumbs to be thrown around, some will. The other truths are greed and selfishness. Nobody will complain that they have too much money. And Chok Tong then posed the question of how to distribute the wealth of the nation to the poorer segment of the population. There is no need for supertalents to make super money using public fund and the authority of the state and state mechanism. Any idiot can do that. The real test comes when they have to uplift the less able people, a large group of people at the bottom rung of society. How to return some wealth to these less endowed and less fortunate people, the lazy and lost ones? It is time the supertalents use their talents that were paid by super salaries to tackle this enormous problems and justify their existence. An easier solution is to let this lot die naturally, or fade away, their problems contained and unseen. Unfortunately, this lot is like the lallangs. They will keep returning to be trampled. The waste lands will always be covered with lallangs unless big effort and resources are applied to keep them away. Landscaping caused money. Making the poor look less miserable needs a lot of money and attention.

myth 58

'We frown on Quitters!' This statement has become a joke. Or is it? We were so unkind to Singaporeans who quit and left for foreign shores. Today, we are praising all the quitters of foreign shores and welcoming them here with open arms. We want to make non Singaporean quitters feel that they are a highly desirable commodity and we will go all out to make it easier for them to be here. Double speak, double talk, forked tongue? Heads I win, tail you lose. Quitters are no longer frowned. Quitters are good and precious.

should we invest in the southern johore econ zone?

The Southern Johore Economic Zone is going to take off. Now we are seeing the two trade ministers talking about cooperation and developing the concept. How about Khairy's talk of the SJEZ purpose of making Singapore begging Malaysia if it is a success? Shouldn't Singapore stay out of this project if that is the purpose? Time to talk sense and do business instead of politiking for personal interest and stirring up inter state rivalry and emotions.

cpf my money!

The people's right to their CPF money must be revisited everyday to remind the authority that it is the people's money and not the govt's money. Wonder what the IMF would have to say if they know about such things? Oh, perhaps we should privatise the CPF to make it more efficient and effective in managing the people's money. At the moment it is so happy just to hoard the people's money, paying minimal interest rate and even charging administrative fee for withdrawal to pay medical bills. The CPF board should start cracking its head on how to get the best insurance policy for old age and return the bulk of the money to the people instead of thinking of increasing the amount of money retained by the board.

anti missile shield for singapore

This is the headline by a Defence Correspondence, David Boey, in the Straits Times today. The main point in the article is that it is prudent for Singapore to have anti missile shield now that it is within the range of ballistic missiles from North Korea, China, Russia and the USA. Now let me see, does any of these nations has a reason to shoot missiles at us? North Korea does not even know that we exist. China is our good friend and has publicly stated that it will not be the first to use nuclear weapons on any country. Presumably firing an ICBM and to be cost effective, it must have a nuclear warhead and not 20 kilo of TNT. Russia, well, think it will be too busy with Eastern Europe. The USA? Our closest allies, but could be a threat if they decided to leave us out in the cold when they found a more valuable friend. It has all the capabilities and has been threatening everyone they don't like with pre emptive nuclear threat. So shall we buy an anti missile shield from the US to defend against American missiles flying at us? And if they do so, I don't think any anti missile system can hold them back. What about the others, including potential new enemies from the Middle East? Now, why would we have enemies who would find us so naugthy of deserving a missile strike? Possible, if we keep perching on top of our HDB flat and show our two fingers to people we have nothing to do with or showing them monkey faces. I would think it is more prudent to take a low profile, be friends to everyone, and use the money to build a few more IRs. PS: In the case of Malaysia, by the time the missile is airborne it will be in Indonesia.