Notable quotes - Lionel De Souza

'The relevant authorities should take the necessary action to criminalise anti competitive practices before they become prevalent.' Lionel De Souza. Before they become prevalent? I support Lionel's call, but wake up, it is prevalent and blatantly practised in many industries by supposely professional and respectable top management staff. They are rightfully called criminals and need to be punished for not only the crime but immoral and unethical practices. It is a poor reflection of the high moral standards that these individuals eschewed and blared out loudly in public speeches. It is hypocrisy in the highest level of corporate management.

New NKF - Spartan but safe

This is the headline in Today on the new NKF. The new CEO, Eunice Tay, has gone in for about a year and has changed the image from a lavish setup of a business and profit oriented organisation to one that looks more like a charity organisation, emphasing on the well being of its patients and on thrift. She cut, reduce, reuse and recycle, and even manages to remove more than 10 vehicles and freeing 5 floors of its HQ office space for rentals! How could so much space and vehicles be made available or not made available by the previous regime? The surprising result is that patients that were unmotivated, depressed and suicidal are now happier. And so were staff morale and a lower turnover. All the little empires and bickering of office politics were gone, including the lavish office of the CEO and the golden tap. I think the new NKF will gradually regain the confidence and trust of its donors, supporters and patients. Other public service organisations could learn a thing or two from the concept of 'Spartan but safe' and discard the golden tap philosophy to benefit the customers they are serving. No need to have first class or world class dreams if the customers cannot afford them.

Myth 172

Saving that is not Technically Singaporeans are among the greatest savers, saving at least 38% of their income directly into the CPF and more for those who can afford to in their private personal accounts. But Singaporeans will never have enough for their old age. How so? Because the saving is not savings. The savings will be spent along the way and by the time they retire, they will be shock to know that there is hardly anything left. Savings of Singaporeans is a myth. Where would all these big savings go to? Housing will take a huge proportion over 30 or 40 years. This is perhaps the biggest item to be taken out from the saving. Then there is the Medisave that will be spent in world class hospitals charging world class rates. And if this is not spent, it will be kept out of reach of the Singaporean till he passes away. Then there will be the fees for education, the premiums to be paid for medical insurance and life long insurance. And Singaporeans can count on more schemes in the future to help them spend their savings in the CPF, and probably even compulsory spending. So whatever the Singaporeans saved in the CPF, they will spent it, in one way or another, in advance.

Indigenous population growth

We are getting 37,000 new births last year, slightly better than the year before but still not good enough. It is still not enough to replace the attrition rate. We need more babies. Go forth and multiply. It is easier said than done. How much does it take to bring up a child to adulthood? $250k, $500k? We have many pro family policies to encourage parents to have more children. The question is that how many can afford to bring up children to go through our expensive web of life? Everything costs money and the cost is going up very quickly. It will not come down. Having more children is easy. But how many will be able to reach a level of comfort, by paying through the education system and quality of living, to say that life is worth living? How many will end up struggling for an existence, a life not worth living? Come to think of it, it is better to bring in the richer foreigners to supplement our population target than to encourage the indigenous hardlanders to produce more babies and to end up living in drudgery.

Lasik surgery getting cheaper

This piece of news sounds odd. Very odd indeed when it was accompanied by news that Lasik surgery will now be done using an improved and expensive equipment with enhanced technology. The result is higher accuracy and safer, and of all things, cheaper. Can this be true? How could better medical services be cheaper? This is against the conventional wisdom of paradise land. In paradise, everything, or anything that is better must be paid with more money. The delivery of a child in a hospital, private or govt owned private hospitals, now cost thousands of dollars. Has the delivery of a baby been different today than those done yesterday? Why is delivery of a baby costing so much? Several of my siblings were delivered by mother, free of charge. She did it herself. Are the women of today constructed differently? Or are the women of paradise built different that delivering a baby is now high technology and requires modern science to assist? The way a child is delivered today, other than a complicate case, cannot be different from a child delivered a few hundred years ago. A midwife could do it, a mother could do it. It is a natural process, a motherly instinct. That's how the human race populated itself. The additional cost today is contributed by all the comfort and fineries, all the pampering and the assurance of professional help. Minus all these, delivering a child can be made very much cheaper. The increasing cost must be a choice by those who want to splurge on them. For the ordinary soul who just want to deliver a child the old way should not have to pay a bomb to do it.