Fake degrees in the Education Hub

We want to be the premier education hub of Asia. We want to attract hundreds of thousands of foreign students here to pursue their studies. We had a spate of frauds coming from the private school providers. Now we have more revelations of fake degrees being offered over the years, undetected. Undetected!!! My god! Could all these be avoided? Is it so difficult to weed them out before they even enrol the students? It cannot be that difficult than sending man to the moon. Alas, the squeaky clean and administratively efficient state is now no better than a third world country. How could we be an international education hub when such simple frauds like accreditation from reputable institutions can get pass so easily? It is definitely a case of negligent, no one or organisation being assigned to administer it. Another equivalent of selling toxic products. Come on Singapore, you can do much better than this, to allow such blatant frauds to exist right under your nose, Terribly disappointing. Exactly like the motor insurance fraud. Nobody's child, nobody's problem. Not my problem. Soon we will be known as an island of super first world infrastructure but operated by third world conmen and tricksters. This is a reputation we cannot afford to live with. Rip Van Winkle is still enjoying his nice nap.

2 more pics for viewing pleasure

Stop crying to papa and mama

There was this little tiff between Lionel De Souza and TOC of which the former complained to MDA about the contents in the latter's forum, claiming that the postings were harmful, bordering on perdition and sedition. MDA has made an official reply to the complaint stating that not everything or everyone should go crying father and mother to the authority. If anyone is not happy with the content, speak to the forum owner or moderator first. And MDA will only take action if the content is serious and damaging. Otherwise, grow up. The internet is there and will be there and MDA will continue to handle it with a light touch. Bravo, MDA!

Property sales and prices going up

These must be good news. And the better news is that more of the buyers are HDB upgraders, 46% of them. The actual number is 673 for the 2Q of 2009. It is good to note that HDB upgraders are able to move on to the private property market, thanks to the higher resale values of their HDB flats. The other side of the coin is that with resale prices going up, prices of HDB flats, new and old, will also move up accordingly. While the upgraders have the benefit of owning flats that are appreciating in price, the new buyers, those who have yet to buy a flat will have something to worry about. And with their income not keeping pace with the rising prices, the new flats that they are going to buy are going to cost them more. But they should not worry as there will be more new flats being built in the new towns. And if they cannot afford 4 rm flats, go for cheaper 3 rm or 2 rm flats. They must tailor their expectation according to their income level. This is only a reasonable advice. Would we reach a stage when our young graduates could only look forward to buying a new flat in a new town, and probably a 3 rm one as their income will not be enough for the bigger flats? We used to have graduates being seen as someone who have made it and on a career path that will lead to a better lifestyle. With the rising HDB prices keeping up with market prices, future graduates should attune themselves by lowering their expectation of bigger HDB flats or private properties in their first buy. Things are different now, and they got to get use to the higher cost of everything.

Singapore River Festival

Just a few pics of the Singapore River Festival that I shot.