Happy like Fxxk feeling (pardon my lingo)

This is the impression one gets of all the PRs and new citizens here. How could they not be happy when they waltzed into a banquet hall with a big buffet spread awaiting them. And many were hungry and have never tasted such goodies before, or be in a posh banquet hall to be served. When people are happy because of goodies, beware. When the goodies are not there anymore, the happy faces may turn ugly. There are many goodies for the PRs and new citizens. And PRs and new citizens will become citizens and pay the price for being citizens. Membership has its obligations. OK the lucky guys are the PRs forever, enjoying the best of both worlds. You see, our system caters to impress the newcomers, not so much of the citizens. As citizens there are commitments, including your money in the lockups. When the new citizens realise what is happening, they are not going to be happy like fxxk anymore. They will be whining like the old citizens.

National Day Rally 2009

The most impressive part of the rally must be the last video clip on the future Marina Bay area. It is a future worth looking forward to. With its completion, we will really transform into another level of economic progress. During the National Day Parade I was staring at the diminutive Asia Insurance Building, once upon a time the tallest building in the island. Today it is dwarfed by its undescribed neighbours, everyone towering above it by twice its height. And the new Marina Bay area is another leap ahead from the present waterfront at Raffles Place and Shenton Way. I could imagine myself strolling along the Sands IR and enjoying the great sights and the richness of the surrounding. Then I wonder if I can afford the luxury within. Or maybe I shall join Wally and pitch tent at Changi Beach where the air is free, the stars and the views are free. Easier on the pocket. Our infrastructure will be first class. The several MRT lines that will complete the transport grid will make moving around so convenient, if one can afford it. Come to think of it, travelling to Changi to pitch tent by MRT is not going to be cheap. What is needed but missing in the rally speech is how to upgrade the pay check of the average Singaporeans. Can the pay check be bigger to meet the higher cost that is expected in a first class city living? Or shall the people be told to spend within their means, and join Wally? I have a better idea. I will turn myself into a professional gambler to qualify for a VIP card, free room and services and free food. I don't have to step out of the Marina Bay area anymore. Just live in the IR, for free. With my miserable income which I can confidently said is at least 3 or 4 times what Wally is getting, or more if he is a pensioner, I still think I will not be able to afford that kind of luxury. Now, for all the pensioners and would be pensioners, unless they have a couple of millions in their savings to last 20 or 30 years, they better find a job that will keep them employed till they are 70 or 80. Retirement or unemployment is no longer an option, but for the yodas. Yes, Hsien Loong did show a pic of Yoda in his presentation.

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.