Jokers in Macpherson

Why would the residents of Macpherson asked for free public transport, free travel in MRT and buses! What kind of mindset is that? It shouldn't be asked at all. And Raymond Lim was right to tell them off. Running the trains and buses cost money. If free, then money must come from somewhere to pay for it. The people must be sensible when asking for help. Better not to actually if they have a choice. Any money given to help must be taken from somewhere. When someone is being helped, someone else has to pay for it. The $200b reserves cannot be used for charities unless the situation is so bad. No one can anyhow spend the reserves to help the people.

The devil and Bernard Madoff

By Spengler Now that the whole horrible truth has come to light, I have no more reason to conceal my true identity. I am Bernard Madoff. Well, not really. But I wish I were. Few Americans have done more to punish stupidity, pretension and complacency than Madoff, whose apparent US$50 billion swindle calls to mind the caper by Mephistopheles in the second part of Goethe's Faust. The fictional devil persuaded the emperor to issue paper money against buried treasured yet to be discovered.... Most gratifying is the fleecing of the rich and famous - director Steven Spielberg, producer Jeffrey Katzenberg, and even actress Uma Thurman's financier boyfriend Arpad Busson got stung, along with a list of supposedly savvy investment firms. The man deserves a medal. Deplorable, to be sure, is the ruin of hundreds of families who entrusted Madoff with their life savings, not to mention charities and school endowments. Call them collateral damage.... The very rich believe what F Scott Fitzgerald said about them, that "the very rich are different from you and me". Serried ranks of lawyers, accountants and financial advisors surround them and keep them from harm. Madoff proved otherwise, making a few of them into paupers and humiliating a very large number of them. Not because of what they do, but because of who they are, the very wealthy consider themselves above the fate of ordinary people. They know the right people, they join the right clubs, and they have access to the right advice.... Madoff has given Americans a lesson in humility that is cheap and painless by comparison. America's elite - the people characterized as "one-trick wizards" who lived off leverage (see Obama's one-trick wizards, Asia Times Online, November 25, 2008) - turn up as a self-satisfied, feckless gang of incompetents who could not spot the wolf within their own sheepfold.... If that sounds deluded, what shall we say about hedge-fund investing for the masses, who believed that American home prices would double every 10 years, as the National Association of Realtors continues to claim in television advertisements? Perhaps they should call themselves Sur-realtors. Madoff offered small change compared to Mom and Pop America, who put 10% down on a home that appreciated 10% each year, for an annualized return on capital of 100%. I copied the above from SingaporeKopitiam and have deleted parts that were irrelevants. The leftovers are pertinent points that we cannot afford not to know before another MadeOff happens here.

Who is the devil?

Singapore-in-crisis The new heroes In these times, it is not the elites that that deserve mass public accolade - but the simple food hawker who keeps his fare down. A tribute to them from Seah Chiang Nee. Dec 20, 2008 IN TODAY’S crisis, what group of people do Singaporeans most likely accept as their regular heroes – politicians, company CEOs or bankers? Answer: None of the above! I believe it is the simple food hawkers who keep their prices low in adverse conditions, something that exerts a major, repeated impact on every family. Let me explain my choice. Recently, I was attracted by a queue in front of a suburban hawker stall that was selling breakfast at a price I thought had long been extinct in Singapore. An overhead sign reads “Economic Beehoon (rice vermicelli) @ S$1.60”, a simple, nutritious dish that included a fair portion of vegetable and an egg. During these harsh times, with the cost of living at a 26-year high, vendors who sell food at this price are few and far between. They have become Singapore’s new unsung heroes... The above is part of an article posted in www.littlespeck.com by Seah Chiang Nee. When the hawkers can think of holding down their prices at times like this, mind you, they are talking about saving a few cents, taking a little lesser from the people, how would this compare to the $180K price hike of Pinnacles Duxton by HDB? And HDB said it is fair, the fairest! And many Singaporeans agree that what HDB is doing is fair. Unbeliever, but that is how these Singaporeans believe in. The only reason for people to think like this, is that they must be benefitting from the inflated prices in some way. Just ask a simple question. Who is the main cost of high inflation and high cost of living?

Take a break

Sunday is a good time to take a break. God also takes his break on Sunday. Take the family to church or welcome all the children and grandchildren home for a family lunch. Go to the beach, to the parks, read a book or indulge in a little hobby of doing something just for the loveof it, for a little pleasure, not for money. Allowing oneself to unwind, to be free from the mundane and repetitive daily chores and struggling, it is the same everywhere, in a 800 sq ft HDB flat or in a 30,000 sq ft sprawling bungalow. It is a little moment of release from the material world. Looking at the sky without purpose, looking at the trees or the birds, sharing the sight and creation of nature. Won't it be nice if Sunday is everyday? Far from the maddening crowd? Leaving all the pursuits of material comfort to the following week when the mind is put to the gruelling threadmill of making more money, of surviving. How many people can take a simple break like a quiet Sunday, free from worries, free from the problems of this materialistic world? You be surprised that many are still caught in their own mess, unable to untangle themselves from the financial woes they have stepped into. And many are worrying themselves to death. Freeing oneself from worries seems so easy, so effortless. But not really. Our lives are not really ours to take charge. Other people are planning our lives everyday of the week, how we live, how much we have, and how much to take from us, especially our savings. In the end, many ends up with very little for themselves and have to spend their Sundays worrying how to make ends meet. And the best part is that all the hustlings to take your money away, or to make you spend or empty your pocket is for your own good. The old saying, if you have friends like this, you do not need any enemy. Has anyone ever wonder whether the people who are claiming to be helping them, who are doing all the things for their good, are the people who are killing them, slowly, like hanging heavier and heavier millstones on the people's necks? Give the people a break.

Obama cracking down on GREED

Our beloved model of progress, America, where we copied practically everything except for political system, is showing us how wrong that system is. The financial system has been a con game all the while and we imbibed everything wholeheartedly as the elixir of life. The culture of greed is mirrored in every aspect of our society to the extent that we idolised greed and brushing aside the little goodness that is left in the heart of the little man. We throw away all the goodness and virtues as nice sentiments that are not realistic in this brave new world of greed. The more greedy the more respectable. Allow me to quote a few phrases from a report by AFP, Bloomberg and AP in the ST today on what Obama will be doing. He slammed 'Wall Street for a me first mindset that fed the financial meltdown,...Congress, the White House, financial fat cats and regulators who, he said, "fell asleep at the switch".' There is the 'failure of oversight and accountability'. 'He pledged to "crack down on the culture of greed and scheming that's led us to this day of reckoning".' He thought the Americans were frustrated because 'there's not a lot of adult supervision out there.' The systems were supervised by a bunch of greedy old juveniles. The Madoff's case "has reminded us yet again of how badly reform is needed when it comes to the rules and regulations that govern our markets." We may not have cases of such a scale here, but we do have our shares of spectacular frauds. Maybe the big ones are waiting to be uncovered. The SEC under Christopher Cox, 'is accused by the critics of turning a blind eye to market abuses by well connected banks and financial firms. The agency failed to detect ample signs of trouble on Wall Street that lead to the global economic meltdown,...' Obviously the SEC were going after the small thefts committed by the little guys and closed their eyes to the big and powerful and well connected. The Americans have two systems, one for the rich and one for the poor.