Time to build more shrines

In the land of the mortals, super beings and gods, it is time that more shrines be built for the gods and immortals. And the mortals or lesser mortals should do the building and the worshipping. Who knows, they may be blessed. I am starting to blame myself for being an atheist and not praying to gods. Looks like I better start praying to one. My preference is the 'cai shen' or money god. But now that there are so many gods to pray to, maybe I shall review my options. I am on my knees and bowing deeply, praying for more wealth.

Insensitive elite, insensitive media?

The Paris cooking class article is now seen as being insensitive, wrong timing. I thought the media was just trying to sing some merry songs in bad times, to boost up the sagging morale of the people. In bad times, we must not keep telling sad stories. A good story of success or what success can bring may brighten up the day for many people. We need more of such stories don't we?

The insensitivity of the elite

The lesser mortals shall not be envious when the super beings splashed their wealth. The lesser mortals must know their station in life. What's wrong with super beings spending their own money? This is the ethos of an elitist society. The expensive cooking class, oops, it is a culinary course, is the talk of Parliament. Cooking class is only conducted in community centres for the Ah Sohs at $50 for 4 lessons. What Chee Hean said is correct. It is a private matter for people to spend their own money. But being a top civil servant, flaunting of wealth is still not the right thing to do in times like this. What the story tells is that top civil servants are paid so handsomely that they must think of ingenious ways of spending them. Too much money that they have problem spending. Would a $100k personal grooming course or facial treatment be attractive, or a new hairdo? A tattoeing course may also look interesting. This reminds me of the Peanut Theory. What will be considered peanuts for such high paying elite? $600k or $1m? I think we will have problem motivating them with more pay in the next salary increment exercise. Anything less than a peanut will be meaningless.

How much does Singapore have?

MAS's foreign reserve is valued at $240 billion. GIC's portfolio is well over $148 billion. And Temasek is worth more than $185 billion. These are numbers as at Sept 08. If there is no overlapping of interest, it works out to an incredible $573 billion! Now what is the latest number given the collapse of the world financial market which has led to many tycoons jumping onto the equivalent of our MRT tracks? Whatever that is left must still be a large number. And this is only those assets that are officially valued.

Rentals, property tax and other costs still up!

Conrad Raj's article in the Today paper mentioned that rentals in Chip Bee Garden under JTC has just gone up by nearly 50%. A David H wrote that his property tax for year 2009 has gone up by 55% from year 2008. And this month CAAS raised the airport taxes at the main Changi terminals from $21 to $28 while the Budget Terminal is up from $13 to $15. Small feats actually. Small increases are affordable.