Zage versus Rasif - what's the message

From the trend of the questioning by Hri Kumar, the Zages should bear part of the blame for trusting Rasif and not taking reasonable precautions to safeguard their money. Though Mrs Zage was not called stupid, she broke down after being asked if it was wise of her to leave her money in trust for a property deal. The moral of the story is 'don't be too trusting with your money to anyone, even an organisation.' And remember what Gerard Ee said? Someone may just helped himself to the money. And this is exactly what happened. And recently we have seen so many cases of such nature. I want my money in my own pocket where I have full control over it. Do not trust anyone with your money. Not even god. The other point arising from this case is related to the Singapore Brand. People have so much faith in our system that they will sign away a $10 million dollar cheque. Would one do it in countries that one have doubts about the system? But if it goes on like this, soon this Brand will become No Brand. Once we lose it, once we lose the trust, it is gone. There is nothing wrong with the practice of depositing cheques in clients' accounts. It is a common practice in the finance industry. Only the safeguards appear to be in question. Are there loopholes? Or is it a case of fraud when parties are involved in facilitating the fraud? Again, don't trust your money in anyone.

NKF story - Efficiency in law enforcement

Am I proud of our system? The latest I heard in the news is that Durai will face another charge for paying $5000 to a non existing company to recruit a senior manager. It is clear that no stone is left unturned in the investigation. After the first charge of a $20,000 cheque, now another charge of a $5,000 payment. Will more be revealed in due course and bigger amounts appeared in the picture. Or is this the trend? $20,000, $5,000, $500....

There was a time, when...

It was just 40 or 50 years ago. Not that long. But many of you may not be born yet. It was a time when the people in this island were mere travellers, merchants, passersby etc. Even the natives were not more than part of the flora and fauna of the landscape. There was no such things as citizenship of the island. We were called subjects as in the English grammar. A sentence must have an object and a subject. That was what was written in my birth certificate. A subject, without the rights that come with a citizenship. And the island was run, managed and control by expats, just like a hotel. yes, we were a hotel at one time. And our forefathers' lives were dictated by the hotel managers. They were allocated red subject zone, blue subject zone and green subject zone to live in. The choice part of the island were reserved for the hotel managers. That is not all. Employment of plum jobs or jobs of some significance were the reserves of the expats. The subjects were at best employed as chief clerks. And the expats would handpick and favour a few of the subjects and elevated them to half their status, which was a great honour for the subjects. And clubs formed by the expats were reserved only for the expats. Locals and subjects not allowed. Don't ever think of becoming a member of the SICC or the Singapore Cricket Club or any of the expat clubs. Those were the days when the people of Singapore were denied citizenship status. And those were the lives of subject people without a country. Do we want to go back to those days and give away our citizenship and the rights of citizenship and become subjects or flotsams once again? Do we want our little piece of land to be turned into a hotel and we be kept out of it?

another quote for the good singaporeans

"Changes are being made so Singaporeans can have more money when they retire." Minister Of Manpower Jan 2007 Singaporeans are so lucky. The govt is planning for everyone to have more money when they retire. For the mean time, please stretch your dollar, if you have one.

something unbelieveable

ST Forum June 14, 2007 $200 GST offset, but so much more to pay ad infinitum I REFER to StarHub's announcement that it will increase cable TV subscriptions by between $4 for basic groups and $10 for sports content. This is an increase of 17 to 67 per cent. The reason given was that 'the price hike is a natural result of ongoing increases in prices of pay-TV content", without any mention of the GST increase. When I received my GST offset letter informing me that I will receive $200, I began to recall the things that I have had to pay more for in recent months. Over the last 12 months or so, there have been media reports about increases or announced increases in electricity, taxi fares, development charge for non-landed residential sites, refuse collection fees, food courts upgrading and food prices, bus and MRT fares, one- and two-room HDB rental, university fees, Goods and Services Tax (GST), postage, property tax, registration fees for medicines, polyclinic fees, hospital fees, car park charges, Electronic Road Pricing (ERP), Nets charges, ElderShield premiums, removal of medical fees guidelines, plastic bags, hospitals means-testing, electronic share application fee, a second postage rates increase, and now cable TV, et cetera, in chronological order. All these increases or announced increases are not even related to the impending GST increase, except for SingPost's postage rates increase which is 'specifically to offset the GST hike'. With the economy booming, resulting in increased revenue, profits, surpluses, possibly lower costs due to economies of scale, et cetera, why is it that prices can only go up but never lowered, or at least kept level? With the assurance that government fees will be frozen for one year after the GST hike, I hope that particularly those fees for essential goods and services that are not in the 'frozen list", like electricity, taxi fares, ERP, bus and MRT fares, university fees, health-care costs, et cetera, will not continue to rise again soon. Leong Sze Hian Is Leong Sze Hian right or wrong? The latest figure released is that cost of living is up .4% over the last month. And looking at such statistics, even after July 1, the next 6 months' CPI will not be more than 2.4%. Why are people claiming that everything is up? Mee rebus up 50c only, what else? All the items mentioned in Leong Sze Hian's article? Sounds quite fictitious. Something is unbelieveable here. It must be Leong Sze Hian's article. CASE has set up a special section to monitor any unreasonable or unjustifiable increases. So Singaporeans need not have to worry.