innovative ways to get donations

Charity organisations are looking for more innovative ways to get donations from the public after the NKF fiasco. Taking the same course of actions like lucky draw prizes, charity shows, soliciting using the pretext of free medical checkups, signing monthly donations etc may draw an unpleasant taste. New and more innovative ways are needed. I can imagine that an opt in/opt out scheme for the money in the Medisave would be an attractive proposition. Just make a ruling that everyone must opt out of the scheme or else the money left after their demise will go to charity. And with so much money left unused, many will likely die without touching their Medisave, this will be a huge source of donation for charity organisations.

of vintage and artifacts

The Sunday Times reported on Lim Swee Say's talk to a group of young and bright eyes unionists. And the reporter, Keith Lin, reported that Swee Say gave them 'an insight in the challenges of governing Singapore.' For his insightful anecdotes, Swee Say was described as 'vintage'. I can imagine all the impressionable young unionists going ga ga with what Swee Say had shared with them. If Swee Say has risen to the level of vintage, and he is only in his early 50s, and bearly 10 years in politics, what would he be appropriately called in another 10 years, artifacts or antiques?

Extraordinary indeed

Hsien Loong was at the White House having a strategic dialogue with George Bush, the President of the world's number one super power. The Prime Minister of an island that has hardly 4 million people and sharing ideas and strategies on world politics with the President of a world empire. And Hsien Loong is giving kind words of encouragement to Bush to stick to his strategies. It must be very comforting for George to have a convert to agree with him openly in a time when all his friends have left him. This is extraordinary. I mean the getting together of these two leaders when size and capabilities, to call them a mismatch, is an understatement. The other thing that is extraordinary is the dominant role played by Pakistanis in the world of terrorism. The latest court case in Britain found that Pakistanis were the main motivators, and Pakistan is the home and factory to world terrorism. Isn't this extraordinary?

Consumers getting the short end of the stick

In the past, when car prices were astronomical, COEs shooting to the sky, a car buyer who bought his car on the 30th day of a month, say April, will be considered as buying the car on 1st April and his use of the car will expire on 31 March. He thus lost the use of the car by one month, due to administrative convenience. That means a lot of money. This has been rectified today and the COE will expire on the respective days when the car is registered. Today, a forumer complained in the Straits Times that banks are using 360 days as a year to compute interest rate for credit cards instead of 365 days. The net effect is that consumers will have to pay more. Another former complained that the debiting and crediting of a bank transfer of funds are not done on the same day in some banks which again is to the disadvantage of the consumers. Why are the consumers, mostly the small people, always receiving the short end of the stick? Are these ethical business practices? Big corporations should not squeeze for every little advantage they can get from the small consumers. And in the case of 360 versus 365 days, this is unacceptable as there can be no justifiable reasons for doing this.

Russians paying Indon leaders to grab Indosat

It is reported in the media that a Russian tycoon, Mikhail Fridman of the Alfa Group, is paying Indonesian leaders to wrestle control of Temasek owned Indosat from Singapore. And the methods used by Altimo, the company owned by Fridman, other than bribery, or they called it gifts, include a smear campaign to tarnish the reputation of ST Telemedia. Project Indosat, as the covert operation is called and reported in Indonesian media, is denied by everyone who has been named to be involved. It is a public secret that even the top Indonesian leaders are alleged to have known of its existence. If it can be proven, that taking money, or bribes or call it corruption in this case, would Singapore be able to use the newly inked Extradition Treaty to bring a few of them to our courts for a trial?