What it is like with a doubling of population

We need to DOUBLE the following: 1. Roads and public transport system and car parks 2. Housing, either sideways or upwards 3. Schools, polytechnics and universities 4. Hospitals and clinics 5. Recreation, sports stadiums and amusement facilities 6. Places of worship 7. Jobs 8. Shopping centres, markets 9. Land of course 10. Reservoirs 11. Air and breathing space 12. Food 13. And many more things But our land is shrinking because of global warming. When that happens, no more land reclamation and many housing and other landed properties will be under water.

Car Insurance Premium expected to go up

The Insurance association has given warning that car insurance premium would have to go up because of high cost and claims. It reported a loss of more than $13 mil for the first quarter of the year on a revenue of nearly $200 mil for the same period. Assuming labour and other cost works out to be 70% of the revenue, or $140 mil, the claims from car accidents must be $60 mil plus $13 mil or $73 mil. And if the total cost is 50%, or $100 mil, the claim was a staggering $113 mil. These are just ball park figure. What is alarming is that a whole year figure would be 4 times this amount or between $292 mil and $452 mil. Now that is a lot of claims. The question is whether the loss is due to high accident claims or other costs eg labour cost, rental costs or losses due to investments. The amount of claims due to car accidents was expectedly not reported. The motorists who are going to be charged with higher car insurance premium deserved to know the whole picture. If accident claims is really that high, then it is justifiable to throw back the cost to the motorists. However, if the losses were due to higher manpower cost or other losses, then it is unfair to expect the motorists to bear the hike in insurance premium. Would CASE look into this before car insurance premiums are raised?

My reply to Li Ao

Ah Bian was interviewed by Yang Ming over Channel News Asia. And Ah Bian was in his own self, speaking or misspeaking in words that he could not pronounce clearly, and explaining his policies and philosophy of life and politics. Yang Ming was his professional best, articulate, polite and perceptive. He was posing questions at Ah Bian, leading him along but Ah Bian evading all the sensitive issues related to China. The most important feature throughout the interview was Yang Ming's expression. Though he smiled very often, and very cool and polite in his questions and comments, he could not hide his frustration at the man sitting in front of him that he called President. His face was as red as a lobster. He must be wondering why the Taiwanese elected such a man to be their President. There was nothing in Ah Bian that could impress him as one who can lead a nation. Ah Bian was fumbling as he could not articulate his words clearly. It was not even Min Nan dialect. After this interview, my reply to Li Ao is that the Taiwanese are also stupid. How else would a people electe a President like Ah Bian when there are many capable men around. Even Yang Ming is a much better man, anytime, in all aspects. They need to raise their President's salary to attract better talents.

security threat is real

The terrorist threat getting serious. This is a threat that will not go away but getting worst by the day. It is a matter of time when we will cry for our brothers and sisters lying in pools of blood or dying after an attack. And the govt is aware that they cannot fool around with such threats and must take all precautions and preparations necessary to prevent such an attack. Chee Hean came out with a new scheme to train more soldiers to take on this task, to protect our beautiful houses, complexes, infrastructures and HDB flats as well. No amount of men is too many to carry out this task. Uniformed personnel will be first on the line to face the terrorists. Maybe it is time they pay the uniformed personnel in the millions for putting their lives on the line to protect the wealth, security and safety of the people. Some issues and concerns were raised in Parliament with this new change. There were fears of abuses. This is unavoidable. Lets hope that there is no repeat of the airport incident where uniformed personnel abused their power and threaten the people they are supposed to protect. In that incident, an innocuous remark by a mother and a child resulted in their plan family holiday ruined and subjected them to intimidation by uniformed personnel, held up or in a way prevented them from going for their holiday. What the govt needs to do, and the people needs to know, is that the uniformed people are there to protect the people. And the people also must know their rights and when such uniformed personnel abuse their authority, they must be challenged or a channel for official complains to bring them to task, and be punished severely. For it is a very serious situation if we allowed uniformed personnel to think that they can abuse their authority and mess around with the citizens. And knowing the sheeple that we have, they will allow such abuses against them to get by. We need to educate our people of their rights as citizens as well. And also what they should do when uniformed personnel cross their line of duty to intimidate the people. This is also a time when the people and uniformed personnel must work closely together as one against a common enemy.

Getting old or getting wiser

The age issue in employment is receiving more attention in a population that is growing with the baby boomers. This is the group of movers and shakers of the economy for the last 30 years and they refuse to go away. They are here to stay, like it or not. They will occupy all the seats of power and influence, and money of course, until they drop dead. Who says people should be retiring? Is there an issue with people working to their sunset years? Is 62 a reasonable age to retire? It all depends. It depends on the physical and mental health of the worker. It also depends on the nature of the job. In more physically demanding jobs, you cannot afford to risk the lives of workers who are physically challenged to continue what they doing when young. And in many jobs, the dexterity of the fingers and the nimbleness of the minds, as well as the pretty face of a sweet young thing make a world of a difference in getting the job done well. Can a straight jacket law be simply introduced to be applicable to all situations? What the law could look at is a real restructuring of jobs for the oldies instead of kicking the oldies aside. There are many jobs that are suitable for oldies that have been threatened because young boys and girls think that oldies should be confined to old folks homes. On the other hand younger and physically able people could be encouraged to take on more active jobs or jobs that require more mobility. There is no hard and fast rules when physical suitablity is concerned. But one thing of concern is the slow reaction and nearly blind uncles driving taxis. The physical checks must not just be confined to general health and the eyesight. The lost of attentiveness and slow reaction to a fast changing situation can be life threatening. We need job restructuring rather than stringent laws that are cast in stone. But don't send all the uncles and aunties to become table cleaners and dish washers, or road sweepers.