Influx of foreign talents, good or bad?

1/3 of our population are foreigners and we are crying out for more. The mantra, they will help to grow our economy, our saviours. Is growing our economy the only reason for us to live by at the risk of undermining what we have built for the last 40 years? Nation building does not come easy and is still a work in progress. We have seen some results. But it is going into the oven again. How so? Our problem is our size. People may accuse those who want to slow down this process of globalisation for being small minded, xenophobic, short sighted, small town mentality. But before we throw the baby out with the water, let's think again and look at where we are to start with. Can we afford to have such a huge influx of foreigners in our midst in so short a span of time? According to demographic projections, Europe will be an Islamic region in 50 years when the muslim immigrants will form the majority of the European population. And Europe is a region of mature countries and civilisations and could not resist from being adulterated by new immigrants. We are only 3m people in a small island. As someone has said, our boundaries can be defined by the SLE, AYE, PIE and KJE. That is how big we are. A pail of shit into an ocean would not mean a thing. But a cup of shit into a pail of water will definitely change the content of the water. For 40 years we have striven hard to build a Singaporean identity, where the citizens associate themselves with this piece of rock and call it home. Now we are saying, let's start it all over again with new immigrants and new citizens. My reservation is that instead of we absorbing the new citizens and their traits and baggages and making them one of us, we may be absorbed by them when we become a minority. It can be good, but it can be disastrous to what we have being trying to build all these years. The conquerers of China and India were absorbed into these two huge and old civilisations. The conquerers of America vanquished the locals and change the landscape into something else. The change was good in the economic sense. To the locals, it can be anything but good. We are too small and the risk of rapid change will have its untold price. We will only see the consequences in 20, 30 or 50 years.

The people were delirious

Big savings come with new hospital subsidy plan. Since July, the 3 tier hospital subsidies of 25, 50 and 75% have been changed to an 8 tier plan ranging from 10 to 75% depending on the family income levels. This means that some patients that were cut off by the 3 tier plan could now enjoy a higher level of subsidies. And they were delirious as they could now save several hundreds or thousands of dollars from the medical bills. Wow. This is the good news part. The bad news part is that some hospitals had already raised their fees because of increased in operation costs and ‘patients had to pay between $300 to $1,500 more for a typical month long stay in the subsidised 8 bed wards.’ LPPL.

How much it costs for a screen door?

A $126m contract to instal screen doors for 36 MRT stations was awarded to ST Electronics and this has resulted in several discussions in cyberspace, all trying to guess how much is the cost of a screen door. The numbers vary from $60k to $100k per door. Let me try another guess. Each train has 6 cars with 2 doors each on either side, and only one side of the doors will be in operation at the station. And with 36 stations with one platform each with two sides, the number of screen doors should be 6 x 2 x 36 x 2 = 864. This works out to be $145.8k per door. If we add 2 more platforms for the interchanges at Jurong East and Tanah Merah, assuming each has 2 platforms instead of 1, then the additional number of platforms shall be 48, giving a grand total of 912. The cost of each screen door shall be $138k. Now, I think I am right on this number and any variation will be due to stations with more than one platform that are not accounted for and can be adjusted accordingly. So at $138k per screen door, this amount could actually buy a Mercedes Benz or a new 3 rm HDB flat in the new towns. In other words the $126m can buy 912 Mercedes Benz or 912 3rm HDB flats. The screen doors are indeed a little costly right? Correction. There are 24 doors on each side of a train instead of 12 doors as computed above. 4 per car instead of 2. Thus the cost per screen door should be halved, ie $69k. This is close to the actual number given by LTA at $65,600.

Growing numbers, louder voices, bigger demands

1/3 of our population are non Singaporeans. And if we are to maintain our economic growth rate, more will be coming in and we may have 2/3 non Singaporeans in a matter of time. And as their importance grow, and as we become more dependent on their presence and contributions, like a drug addiction, we will need them more. Singaporeans should lay down the red carpet and welcome them with a big hug. And it is quite disheartening to read about the neglect and problems faced by the foreigners, from a place for their children in our schools and their difficulties in communications in public places. They need translators to read menus and order food. How can this be? Their discomfort is our loss if they choose to go somewhere else. Look at the positive side, more foreigners means more demand for housing and our flats will appreciate in value. They will pay quadruples to buy our HDB flats and we can then upgrade to smaller but more expensive private apartments. There will be more demands for more facilities and services and these will help to generate more economic activities and growth. Maybe our taxi drivers will be happier with more foreign commuters. They will provide more and better quality labour at cheaper cost. Singaporeans will all benefit from their contributions. Singaporeans can provide more services to these richer foreigners, renting out their rooms if not selling the whole flats, set up food courts, laundry shops, retail shops or whatever shops, as housing agents etc to support them and making a profit from such economic activities. It is a win win situation. For Singaporeans who cannot see the goodness of more foreigners coming here and growing the economy, it is better that they pack up and go somewhere else. The foreigners are like our customers and deserve to be treated like our customers, to be served well, to be pampered, if we want their money and talent. A good place for unhappy Singaporeans is Lijiang in China or a similar place in India. Cheap and good, and they will treat you like we treat our foreigners, at least until your money runs out.

Making money above ethical considerations

We need ethical leadership. We need ethical management. We need ethical business practices. Making money at all cost, with no regards to ethics will make us look no different from the loan sharks, the pimps, the gambling den operators or prostitutes. The fact that I have to post this means that unethical leadership, management and business practices are prevalent in our system. The minibond fiasco and other unfair practices in the financial system, the fraudulent practices and corruption in public and charitable organizations, are only the tip of the iceberg. Everyone knows but no one is talking. Anyone who dares claim that he does not know is either pretending or lying. Do we have people with the guts to stamp out such violations of ethics and human decency in our organisations ? There are some individuals who are in very privileged positions to do so, to stand up against this degeneration in ethical standards in our system. Sadly, they are not doing anything, probably enjoying the ride. Has anyone learn anything from the recent fiascos and big sums of money lost, with many people at the brink of suicide for losing their life savings, for blindly following the American schemes and scams engineered by the Ivy League graduates? They are no better than the scams of loan sharks. When will we start to think, to question how we make money, whether the business model is ethical and fair to customers, to employees and to associates and shareholders? Or shall we just exploit the weak and the small, grab their money and run without feeling any guilt? While Hsien Loong would have his plate full with many hot issues in his National Day speech, I hope he will touch on the subject of ethics and moral responsibility in corporate practices, including ministries and govt linked organisations. We need moral leadership to bring back ethical conducts and human decency in the pursuit of profits and doing businesses. And actions are needed, not just motherhood statements.