Singing the Singapore Song

Obama and Congress are tightening the screws on the thieves in Wall Streets. And the thieves are screaming, 'If you don't pay us well, we will jump ship!' Now, after the mess they created, who or which country will be in the right frame of mind to want to pay them more to bring them into their fold? Or which country will have so much lose change to pay these thieves the ransom they are asking? I forgot to add that the restrictions placed on the compensation of these thieves are only good in paper. They are exceptional talents and will find ways to pay themselves whatever they deem fit. A thief is always a thief, no matter how much he is paid.

The inhuman factor of JB nursing homes

The netizens are getting violent over Boon Wan's suggestion that the old people be put up in nursing homes in JB. His idea makes perfect sense from the business point of view. Provide a service or product at a competitive price and sell. But he forgot the human or inhuman factor in his suggestion. The response from the caring and feeling netizens, unlike the uncaring elite, was furious. How dare he suggests putting the oldies in JB? For every oldie is either a father/mother or grandpa/grandma to somebody. It strikes hard at the emotional cord attaching to the heart, for those with a heart. They could not accept the idea of abandoning their no longer useful to society oldies in a foreign land. Somehow for the sake of being utilitarian, for being moneywise, prudent, we forgot that family, filial piety, love and care and the emotional attachments to parents and family members cannot be measured in monetary terms. Only animals could do that sort of things, calculating whether it is worth the while and how much can be saved. It is the duty of the family, the children, to look after their parents. It is the duty of the govt to provide the facilities at affordable cost, even at subsidised cost, to promote family values and human values of kindness, compassion, caring and loving for their love ones. In our selfish way, we even ignore the feelings of our neighbours. How would they feel when we want to resite our Sago Lane in the midst of their country? If we think our oldies are not good enough to stay with us, why is it good enough to stay with them? Are we becoming inhuman all because of money? Where is the milk of humanity?

Slowly but steadily

The people are getting wiser by the days, and so are the MPs. Both are beginning to realise that the money in the Medisave is the people's money, kept there to pay for medical bills. Why are there so many regulations preventing the people from using their own savings to treat their illnesses? When has it become the right of the govt to dictate how and what the money can be used for? It is not the govt's money, not a govt grant, not a subsidy, not charity. It is the people's money. Now there is a big debate on whether to let the money be used overseas where the medical cost is cheaper. Hey, think utilitarian, make the money work for the best value it can get, be it JB or Bangkok or anywhere else. Why should the people be allowed only to spend their money in expensive set ups here? It can be depleted very fast.

Notable quote by Lim Hwee Hua

Reserves won't be depleted They are long-term investors and Govt is confident they will deliver: Lim Hwee Hua In 8 months we have lost $58b or 31%. The numbers for GIC is still not disclosed. If one is to extrapolate the numbers, how much more can we lose? Not a reasonable assumption or trend of thought? When we bought into the distressed banks, did we think that losing 70% or 80% is possible? No, conventional wisdom says it was not possible. Can our reserves be depleted? God knows. Any human beans can guarantee that it will not? I don't think any human beans should ever try. But if you are not any ordinary human beans, maybe can. Also if the reserves can be topped up again and again, then it will never be depleted. Now, what or how much would it be considered as being depleted? Is 30% or 40% a depletion? If yes, it is already depleted, by $58b. Or $58b is just another peanut?

Our sacred reserves!

Don't touch it. This is our hard earned savings accumulated over the years. And only in extreme conditions will the reserves be made available, through a complicated systems controlled by two keys and trusted people. The officially declared reserves were over $200b, some parked in GIC, some in Temasek, some dunno where, but are there. We are so careful in spending our reserves. It is not to be touched by any flimsy excuses. It is protected by several layers of thick carbonised steel. But when they were in another form, in the hands of GIC and Temasek, they become easily available for investments. Acceptable that investments are not spending, just investing to grow the reserves. The current crisis and the colossal losses to our reserves, a sum many times more than the $4.9b we are dipping into it, called for a rethink in the investment policies of the two giant SWFs. How much risk is tolerable or acceptable, how much can we afford to lose. Shall our reserves be invested in 'dangerous asset class'? Putting it in simpler words, 'dangerous asset class' is not much different from taking unacceptable high risk, like gambling, double or nothing. When our reserves are near to a point of being untouchables, our investment policies must be one that matches the stringent criteria of protecting our reserves to ensure that it would not be washed out for any investing mistakes. If we protect the reserves like hell, and have an investment policies that compromise its existence, the contradiction is not acceptable. The other point that I want to make is very elementary. If we do not know what is our reserves, how do we know that it is there and not being spent? We may have a fortress guarding a piece of worthless paper for all you know. Can we just rely on the word trust as we were told to do so in Parliament?