Money or your life?

This was the infamous catchphrase of the 60s and 70s when the island was infested with triads and secret societies. It was a common occurrence to find a knife at one's throat while walking alone and the phrase, 'money or your life' would threaten the intended victim. Many would just have their wallets emptied and walked away a few dollars poorer. Today, 'money or your life' has taken a new meaning. The amount is much much bigger. And the victims were not healthy people walking alone at night, but walked with a whole entourage of family members into a posh hospital. There, the extortionists were not the gangsters or triad boss but clean and sophisticated professionals armed with the best medical degrees from the best medical universities. And if the potential victim happens to be suffering from a critical illness, it is as good as hearing the catchphrase, 'money or your life' being repeated. And they are not asking for a few dollars. It can be in the hundreds of thousands, or several hundred thousands of dollars. But there is a big difference between the gangster's demand and the demand by the professionals. After paying the gangster, the victim walked away alive, though a bit shaken. In the other case, they may go home in a casket after paying the huge ransom. There is no guarantee that after paying the money asked for that his life will be safe. Money or your life, or maybe money first, then we see how it will go.

S Chips in the news for all the wrong reasons

Well, after warning about the corporate governance and trustworthiness of S Chips, finally the old media is catching up on this act. Two reports, one in the ST by Yang Huiwen and another in Today by Conrad Raj, posed the same concern about the dangers of playing with S Chips. At the rate the S Chips are turning turtle, just give another couple of them going into the rubbish dump, I think it will be enough for the investors to dump them completely. They are looking to become so wild, as wild as the days of Malaysian Clob shares. Be warn. Tread with care. We have very little control and knowledge of what is going on. For those who are not in stockbroking, S Chips refer to Chinese stocks listed here. Now the there is a new version of this which refers the S Chips to Scam Chips.

The ingenuity of Wall Street thieves

They knew that the outrageous bonus game is over. So they have come to terms with it and decided not to pay huge bonuses any more. But pay themselves well is something that they must do, by hook or by crook. Their new game plan is to pay out front. They will raise the basic pay of their CEOs and senior management by as much as 70%. So a CEO who is getting US$180k will have his basic pay raised to $300k. This kind of robbery is only on the personal side. At the corporate level, they have been hookwinking the Obama govt that all of them are going bust without a bailout of several tens of billions of dollars. But the moment the Fed decided that they could not pay indecent bonuses when receiving govt bailout fund, they started to tell the govt they don't need the money, they are starting to make profits, and one even want to return the govt money immediately. These are the exceptional talents of Wall Street. We must be salivating to welcome them on board as shining examples of out of this world super talents. America main street and Europe need a revolution to rid the country of such thieves.

The shifting timeline

We are still hearing complains that above 40 years need not apply for jobs and these relatively young and healthy people are getting angry and desperate. I call them young and healthy because the timeline has changed and many are not realising this. Today's 40 is yesterday's 30. And many of them are having kids in primary schools. So far the only organisation that is taking this into consideration is the civil service. More and more civil servants are working past 60, with some noticeably past 70 and 80. Why is it that the private sector is refusing to acknowledge or recognise this shift? In the 60s and 70s, people get married at 21. Today the marrying age is 30 or 35. Then people retired at 55 and died at 60. Today people die at 80 or 90 but retire at 55 with a few exceptions. Then people started to work at 16 or 18, after O or A level. Today they start work at 23/25 or later, after university and NS for the guys. They used to make babies at 18 or below 20. Now many only do this after 30. The anomaly is now a reality. The prime of a person's life is 60 and he/she can go on to 80 or 90, another 20 years to go at least. 30 is still a child wet behind the years. With improving living condition, food and health, and medical careful, people are definitely healthier today than yesterday. When will the human resource practitioners and employers understand this shift in timeline and adjust their expectations? Perhaps we are in a state of transition. The first batch of healthy 60s will come from the baby boomers, or maybe the later baby boomers. Or shall we bring out all the million dollar 'Yodas' in the public and private sector to prove this point? They are many of these hiding in their top floor or penthouse offices and calling the shots, still alive and kicking in their 70s, 80s and perhaps 90s.

The business of keeping people alive

Mediacorp had a few news clips of the happy senior citizens in the homes or community hospitals over the weekend. They appeared healthy and enjoying every moment of their time alive. What they did not know is the heavy cost to keep them alive. From the look of it, the cost was paid by their children. Obviously they did not know that they were bankrupting their children or straining their financial resources just to keep them there. It is not cheap definitely. Ignorance is bliss but not for those who have to struggle to pay the bills. One is deemed financially able to foot the bills if the household income is above $1,500. Unbelieveable! Khaw Boon Wan has been in charge of the MOH for several years and have been working very hard to keep medical cost down. How successful has he been? Has medical cost come down or still spiralling up? The recent increase of fees in community hospitals is a testament that the cost is just going up. For those who are still healthy, pray not the day you have to be admitted to any hospitals or nursing homes. Many will not be able to afford it even with their Medisave and medical insurance. Some of their savings may not last even one month when the bill can go to tens or hundreds of thousands. With the high cost of hospitalisation and medical fees, everyone who is sick or ageing is a walking liability to himself and the family. And we celebrate for being able to keep people alive to 80, 90 or 100 years.