Putin was furious

Putin has been on a warpath against the high cost of living in Russia. He yelled at the grocer for selling sausages at $11! To him it was too expensive though the grocer told him it was good quality. He was on a rampage and took it personally to bring down the high cost of living. I was wondering what would he say if he knew that the flats at Duxton Pinnacles that could be sold at $300K was sold at $500k because the market forces said so, because people were willing to pay for it? Maybe if he were a Singapore leader he would say differently, and said, 'Very clever!' Or 'Good for the economy.'

Discrimination - Malaysian and Singapore models

We have discrimination on both sides of the causeway. In fact we have discrimination everywhere across the glode. Let's just look at some of the pertinent features of the two policies that discriminate its citizens. Discrimination Singapore style, not spoken too loudly but strongly felt by the Malay community, cannot be denied or brushed away. Among the other communities, they can hardly complained about discrimination as they were very well treated with hardly any discrimination at all. If they are discrimination, it is positive discrimination. In the case of the Malay community, discrimination is in the area of appointments in sensitive and strategic military appointments. If one look at this closely, one will notice that the discrimination was more of a contingency arising from the difficult relationship between Singapore and Malaysia in the early days. The tendency for the Malaysian side to target Malay Singaporeans was an issue that cannot be treated lightly or ignored. That was the gist of the discrimination policy. It was not intended as a racial discrimination policy to begin with. For that, the govt has tried in other areas to compensate for it by adopting affirmative policies to give the minorities more assistance and attention. Our policies towards the minorities is to favour them when all things are being equal. In contrast, the Malaysian discrimination policies were to favour the majority, with affirmative policies for the majority and discriminate the minorities in practically all fields. The discrimination is widespread and pervasive and without any need of disguise or apologies. Our govt, when questioned about the military appointments, has always been awkward and difficult. Hopefully, with time and better relations with Malaysia, and the different pace and development, we will become two distinct people with very different aspirations and inclinations that will put all forms of discrimination as a bad dream of the past. It is unthinkable if we were to practise the Malaysian kind of discrimination here. The best part of it is that the minorities in Malaysia are resigned to the discrimination policies and the govt is proud and think it is right to adopt those discriminating policies. PS. Are we able to discuss this issue in a mature manner without punching at each other?

A transient society

Seah Chiang Nee wrote about the transient nature of our society in www.littlespeck.com. Everything is transient and changing, from the traditional kopitiam to the population. Soon the original Singaporeans will be a minority in the island, at the rate new citizens and PRs are coming in. The original Singaporeans built this island from the leftovers of what was a British colony. The vestiges of our colonial past are well preserved and would probably be there for a longer while. Some of the old buildings in the clusters of Chinatown, Bugis and Little India may still be there to remind us of our inglorious past. When most of the original Singaporeans are gone, would the new Singaporeans, the more materialistic and in a hurry to make it good, feel any emotion or attachment to the things of old? Would they just wipe them off and build another phase of modern and high tech infrastructure? Would they harbour any misgivings or distaste for the less able Singaporeans and their history and think of economic and material progress, and erase all our past for a futuristic Singapore? Things are changing fast and our progress and economic development are built on the premises of pulling down the old and rebuild into new. For there is hardly anything or land left to generate more revenue. So build, destroy and rebuilt will be the key to keep the economy going. Don't be surprised one day a new batch of Singaporeans, hungry for growth, will tear down Chinatown, Bugis and Little India for the good of the country.

Revamping the financial system

Chok Tong talked about the changes in the financial industry and the fear of unscrupulous or toxic products. Investors are returning to basics, looking for smaller but steadier gains like bonds, govt bonds, not any cheap bonds. With all the cheats and thiefs exposed, and the American govt watching them like a hawk, hopefully they will not be allowed to design another batch of fraudulent products to cheat the masses. All the sins and crimes orginated from the US though they were brushed aside as something of lesser evil. Evil they were. So, how would all these white collar cheats and crimes affect us? Today we read in the ST that SGX needs to compete for IPOs. We either compete for good IPOs or be content with sub standard companies that ended up as another bunch of frauds. The confidence among our investors have also been hurt badly by all these fly by night companies. Many have been suspended due to frauds that were dressed up as pristine companies with great growth potentials. And the parties involved in the dressing ups, making all the fees, are still at large, laughing all the way to the banks. This is only one aspect of the financial systems that need to be placed under the microscope. The other are the practices adopted by big funds that capitalised on their muscle and technology to exploit the system to their advantage, often leading to the destruction of values of stocks. Dubious trading strategies and methodologies that are contrary to the well being of stocks and the stock market must not be allowed to be practised in our stockmarket. The gains of a little clearing fee and the fictitious churning to give the impression that the market is alive and healthy is not worth it for the huge losses incurred by innocent and small investors. There is a need to revamp the way the stock market is operating.

Proud owners of a $3m dollar piece of space

How many of you are proud owners of a $3m or $1m piece of space in the sky, with 4 walls that you called home? I bet there are many out there, some willingly forking our several millions to have a little space fancifully dressed up and called high end apartments. High end or low end, it is a big chunk of money that people are paying for. Imagine how many more things they can do with that kind of money to better their lives and the lives of other people? But relatively speaking, the money they spent is only a fraction of their worth. They still have a lot to spare to live a great life. At the lower level, at the HDB level, many are paying a relatively higher portion of their income for that space called flat or home. Why do we have to pay so much just for a place to sleep? The joke now is that the people who really enjoy the expensive flats or landed properties are the maids. They are the ones staying home while the owners slogged day and night to pay for the flat or houses. For many who just have one property to live in, a 4 rm or 5 rm flat is still a flat whether you pay $200k or $1m for it. High prices are good for those who want to trade their homes. And if the cost of a flat can be reduced, the savings can be used for a better quality of life, to purchase many other things. What is happening is that the money is now locked in this little flat called home. It is a deplorable allocation of resources. Asset rich and cash poor, and little money left for other things. Is this a good model?