Preparing for Change

Is it time for change? Obama took almost one year to prepare the Americans for change. If it is time for change, the people must be mentally prepared for it. Who can do the preparation? The political parties or the media? Which media and who wants change? When people are talking about change, I presume they are talking about political change, a change of govt and a change of policies. There cannot be any major changes or change of policies without a change of govt, or at least a big swing in votes with more opposition candidates in Parliament. And for such a momentous event to happen, a lot of preparation and effort must be put into it. It cannot happen overnight. Neither can it happen spontaneously unless there is a crisis of earth shaking proportion. Then there will be the supporters and forces that will resist change, who would want the status quo. These forces will be working equally hard to avoid change. For the moment the forces against change are having the upper hand. What can be done to keep the call for change and its momentum going? The forces for change will have to start thinking and working now. And I think cyberspace can play a major role towards change by harping about it day and night to create the awareness. The people must be prepared for the change to come if it is to come.

In a state of shock!

Have we been so stunned to inactivity by the financial crisis? After the Reliance Package there were some talks of upturn the downturn and belt tightening. Subsequently there were more calls for trainining. Then what else? With the economy grinding down, with some industries limping, where are the supertalents and their super solutions to the problems facing us? Could more be done to alleviate the situation? Or are we just sitting there waiting for the storm to blow over and then pick up the pieces? Or really there is nothing else that can be done? The people have no talents and they can't do anything. Those with great talents and are paid for their talents should be showing their talents at times like this. We really need them now, badly. Where are they?

Slit wrist or no slit wrist

This is the latest controversy being discussed in TOC. It has taken issue with the facts of the NTU student, David Hartonto Widjaja, who stabbed his professor and was reported to jump to his death but not before slitting his wrist. Nearly every one of the media reported this. TOC had interviewed a student, Edwin Lesmana Tjiong, who said that there was no slashed wrist and this was confirmed by police reports. How could such a big gap of evidence happen? What is going on?

Waiting for Pipe Piper to blow his tune

The Shanghai and Tokyo stock markets have started to stabilise and turned around. Australia has extended its curb on shortselling till the end of May. Proactive govts who are concerned with how their stock exchanges are performing and how to shore up the falling values of the stocks are actively doing their parts. We used to have commentaries to talk up a falling market when the situation justified it. We used to distinguish our markets from the rest as our market was sound. And our market is sound. At least many of the companies are still reeling in millions and billions in profits. Some have cash hoards in the billions waiting to prey on distressed companies. Compare them to the companies in the US when many are insolvents, then we ask the question, why are the values of our stocks being battered down? Taken that some of their revenues will be affected. But they are still healthy companies, especially our banks and blue chips. When will the Pipe Piper stand out to blow his tune? It seems that everyone is just waiting. No one dares to utter his bit if the Pipe Piper does not act. It is like a headless corpse waiting for something to happen. And in the meantime the stockmarket continues to be slammed irresponsibly and billions being lost. There must be a return to value for the sound and profitable blue chips. It would also shore up the values of Temasek and GIC when the values of their stock holdings improve. Their books will definitely look better too. Where is the Pipe Piper?

Monitoring the transport fare increases

Can anyone provide the information on the number and amount of increases by the transport companies over the last 3 years? I am trying to get this info to keep track on how much have been added onto the fare prior to the generous deduction of 2c per trip which commuters are very grateful. Monitoring such increases is very important as it will keep track and a check on what the commuters are paying. More often than not, most tend to forget or ignore the increases as they were done in small bite sizes. Some don't even notice them, like me. I am going to put extra effort now on to follow this closely. I am waiting for a reply from the SMRT on my query.