Mas Selamat mugshot on sale

Our new celebrity is getting a lot of followers. Thanks or no thanks to the well meaning people for the publicity he is getting. You can get his famous look on mugs, T shirts, posters etc at a small fee. Mas Selamat has been elevated to cult status similar to the greats of Che Guevera, Castro and Mao Tse Tung. The family of Mas Selamat should send to these entrepreneurs who are selling his mugshots a bill for royalties.

The Mean Western Media - What a shame!

The myth that western media were objective, unbiased, truthful and fair reporting were clearly exposed in a report in the China Daily/Ann, REUTERS. The report is supported by evidence, pictures and writeups of western media, supposedly very reputable ones, of distorting truth and creating misleading news to attack the Chinese authorities in Tibet. When all the violence and killings were done by the rioters, the reporting and pictures were doctored to show that it was the Chinese authorities that were the bad guys. Among the culprits mentioned were CNN, BBC, Washington Post, Germany's Bild, N-TV and RTL TV and Berliner Morgenpost. It is really disgusting and distasteful for such organisations to stoop so low in their reporting of untruth and misinformation. Where is the credibility, where is the ethics, the moral standing for these ass organisations to do such disgraceful acts? It is an abuse of freedom of expression and freedom of the media when such misinformation are published as truth. What tooth? These organisations have destroyed whatever credibility they have and drag down whatever little credibility the western media has in general. The full article can be found in MyPaper today.

Professionals to self regulate

Boon Wan has stepped in to the new buzz and decided that it is too much work for the ministry to regulate aesthetic medicine. It is now left to the professionals to regulate themselves. After the taxi bus implementation when the users rose in arms against the new regulations LTA also responded to modify the well thought out plans. It took quite a while though, and after many complaints before LTA relented to change. Kudos must be given to the MOH for changing their interventionist position to one of self regulation within a week of the announcement. And the professionals better to a good job to regulate themselves and not allow money to get in the way at the expense of professional ethics and the interest of the customers.

Time to go after the fakes

Fakes are increasingly common in this cosmopolitan city. We are being inundated with fake degrees, fake institutions of higher learnings and also fake physical attributes. If we are not going to accept fake qualifications, shall we also reject fake physical assets? Aesthetic medicine is now the fad. Anyone standing in front of you may be a fake, at least in some parts. If we allow the faking of one's look, why not the faking of one's qualifications? Even the food that we eat are fakes, genetically modified. And whether they will harm us in the future is yet to be proven. Should then be banned too? There are calls in this direction. Shall we accept or reject the fakes? : )

Buying foreign banks a bad deal?

With US$22 b spent on the buying spree for troubled international banks, and with crumbling values as more misdeeds or debt were revealed, many were chuckling in glee. See, supertalents messing up our reserves. Many are waiting at the sidelines hoping for such opportunities to take potshots at the highly paid and highly acclaimed supertalents in our midst. Are the criticisms justified? I was in favour of these acquisitions from the start. And I am still hopefully optimistic that these were good decisions and will bring in good returns in the long run. It is only in difficult times like this that these top banks have to go down on their knees to beg for fund injections. Without such a window of opportunities, we can wait till the cow comes home for them to divest their interests to a sovereign wealth fund like ours. The recent developments seeing these risky investments plunged in their values in the billions surely will bring up the questions of due diligence. Did we go in with eyes wide open or eyes wide shut? Were we told of the full story before parting with our billions? And did we protect ourselves from such an eventuality, or did we know how much risk we are exposing ourselves to? If the decision makers went in fully aware of the possible pitfalls and consequences, and the decision made based on acceptable calculated risk, then the public should not take issues with the short term fluctuation. We only need to fear if we are conned into parting with our billions by the banks that did not fully disclose their full liabilities and debt to us. And if that be the case, hopefully legal actions can recover some of the damages. And rightfully too, the decision makers need to be kicked in the arse. When all due diligence have been taken, and the losses were due to developments that were difficult to foresee, then the public should not be too harsh on their criticisms. We can now hope that everything is within our control and expectations, and in the long run we shall reap the fruits of risk taking and opportunism.