Myth 140 - Unsolvable Problems

It is a myth that Singapore cannot solve any problem. The latest problem on difficulties in finding taxis during peak periods has been solved. This is a problem caused by heavy usage and calls for taxis during the certain hours. The solution, raise the surcharge. This will reduce the demand for taxis. It's so elementary and so ingenius. And any expressway that is too congested, raise the toll fees. Then traffic will be directed from expressway A to expressway B. And when B is congested, raise the toll fees. Traffic will then be diverted back to A which is having lesser traffic. And when it gets congested again, raise the toll fees again. Traffic will then go to B again. Just keep doing it and the problem will be solved. And if people are consuming too much food and there is food shortage, just raise the price. Then people will consume less. Just like saving water. This is the magic formula to problem solving.

Abe not good enough

ABE not good enough. No, I am not referring to Shinzo Abe but A level grade. When a ABE grade cannot find a place in the local universities, this is going to be a bigger issue than the UNSW. In the latter, it concerns only 250 students, and maybe half are foreigners. For a university place, it is going to affect many Singaporeans, dotting parents and their precious wards. Now people are going to question why their children with reasonably good passes are not going to find a place in local universities. Admittedly what are reasonable grades may be subjective depending on the standard of the affected parties and the universities. What will eventually be dragged out to air will be the number of places given to foreigners, including scholarships using public money, and how many local children would have been displaced from such a policy. The parents are now up in arms. We are the citizens of the country. We are the taxpayers. We are the people to defend this country. I could here them say...Welcome to the Hotel California, such a lovely place, such a lovely place...

Faces of anguish

Everyday the papers and the TV flashed faces of anguish of distraught students from UNSW and their parents. It is truly distressing. A very sad episode to put so many innocent people in such a state of uncertainty with their hopes totally smashed.

6th most stressful country

Singapore is 6th most stressful country We are now ranked as more stressful than Hongkong, according to Grant Thornton International Business Report. Can you beat that? I know one sure reason why Singaporeans are feeling stressed. When you are earning $20k a year and queuing to strike toto every week but in vain, but you are told that many people are earning an equivalent of a toto win every 6 months or every 2 months, sure you get stressed. How not to when all the queuing for the next 30 years may not even strike one toto prize?

Najib's pledge of govt support

Najib was in Singapore selling the IDR. No one can doubt his sincerity and the sincerity of the Abdullah govt for what they want to do in the IDR. They will definitely be investor friendly. After so many years of comparing the nonsenses committed by the Mahathir regime and the Indonesians in Riau, and the no nonsense economic policies of Singapore and even China, they should be able to see the impact of economic growth if the policies are correct. But the Malaysian politics is as changeable as the weather and with so many kampong politicians in the wings, anything can happen tomorrow. In order for the present policies to be taken seriously, they need to cast them in iron with all the what if conditions stated clearly in the contract. If not, it will become, for future Malaysian leaders to say, "I don't know. It was the old regime. We are now changing our policies." And the investors will be caught again with their pants down, and pockets empty. And cannot pull out.