Oil price hitting US$100 a barrel

Looks like the future of oil prices is only up and will be above US$100, maybe US$200 or more. We need to prepare our people for high oil prices and get use to paying for them at high prices. More importantly we must educate our people to cut down and save on wasting power and electricity, like going green. The situation of oil prices is like water. Oil is precious like water. We must do what we did for water. We have taken many measures to save water and educate the people from wasting water. I find all those measures very effective and should be adopted in the same way. To prevent people from wasting electricity unnecessarily, to teach them to switch off lights when not needed, we need to double the price of electricity. And we can include an electricity surcharge tax of 30% just like we tax for over usage of water. These measures will guarantee to be effective as it hurts the people where it hurts most, the pocket. People will then be more careful in the use of electricity and will not anyhow waste them. The other go green measures can come in. Don't get me wrong, raising electricity rates is only one of many measures to save on fuel cost. Now I am getting green conscious. I am going to save the world. I might even be awarded with a Save Mother Earth Medal like Al Gore.

Frightening but good for the people

A new bill is being tabled to protect 'patients who are detained or forced to be admitted to psychiatric institutions' in Parliament. To even think of people being detained or forced to be admitted into psychiatric institutions in paradise is really frightening. There is no such thing in paradise, cannot be. Such things only happened in communist regimes of the past or in some dictatorships. But of course it is good to have such a law just in case such things did happened and there is some protection for the people being wrong. Under the current procedure, according to Tan Hui Leng, 'a person can be admitted or detained for treatment if he is suffering from a mental disorder that warrants such an action, and if it is in the interests of the person or to protect others.' Hmmm, what do you think? Can bloggers be deemed to be suffering from some disorder and needs to be detained in the interests of the blogger or to protect others? My imagination is getting wild. But in the future, if paradise is taken over by a dictator, a bad dictator, this is a frightening possibility. So this new bill is good for the people and the victims. It is a proactive bill.

Same floor flat different price

Brother wanted to buy a 4 rm flat next to another brother but found price increased by $84k. It was $280k a year ago when his brother bought it from HDB. It is now $364k from HDB. This is reported in the New Paper. The price has gone up as it is marked according to market resale value of flats in the area. And this brother is unhappy. He found it unreasonable as the costs of building the two flats were the same. But he forgot. When his brother bought the flat at $280k, it was already subsidised. Now if he is going to pay at the same price, the subsidy will be whatever plus $84k! Now that is a very huge market subsidy. Further, the $364k is also cheaper than market price. I think he is expecting too much. Too unreasonable. $364k, good price, fair price. Cheaper than market price, and subsidised some more. What more does he want?

In praise of smelliness

Jayandran Sandra Alison posed an interesting perspective about giving Jalan Kayu a clean makeover and 'why smelly Jalan Kayu' should not be clean up like Chinatown. Chinatown has lost its charm and authenticity as the residents are moving out and all that was retained or came in to replace them were commercial outlets and business people. Chinatown will not be the same again. It will be clean, not smelly, and not very real. Should Jalan Kayu be retained for its smelliness and chaotic nature? One thing for sure, the tourists would want to see an old dilapidated Chinatown, with all its squatters and squalors than a clean and modern one.

No Estate Duties

This is a good piece of news for all Singaporeans, including the HDB dwellers. With the world's rich and infamous coming here to park their money and buy up the properties, anyone holding on to one will be seeing its value double or triple. This is better than the asset enhancement scheme. While the rich foreigners are buying up the high end properties, and some locals cashing out and downgrading, they will be a filtering down effect to HDB flats as well. How about a 3 room flat costing a million bucks? If such a price can be attained, who needs Long Life Annuity Schemes? Practically everyone will become a millionaire, in strong Sing dollars of course. While all the rich who are holding on to their properties and counting the gains, some thoughts must go to the new flat buyers, the young people starting out to buy their first HDB flat. How are they going to earn enough money to buy a 3 rm flat which by then the prices will outstrip their income? We can't be sitting on our fat arses and waiting for things to happen and say it is due to external forces, nothing can be done.