Boon Wan blogging in MOH blog

This looks like for real. Now we have a real minister blogging to share and exchange views in cyberspace. According to the report, Boon Wan is going to blog regularly, not blogging just for show. Given his busy commitment, it will be quite demanding on him to reply to the issues that will pop up in the MOH blog. I think he will cope. The cyberspace, blogging etc is the most effective means of communicating with the masses and vice versa. And handling it well, it can achieve a lot of goodness and goodwill. Goodbye to snail mail and writing to the media forum and hoping it will be printed. The main medium does not have the space to provide a meaningful two way communication which is something cyberspace is best designed for. Look at the number of letters on HDB prices that are filtering out into the main media forum and you can extrapolate how many have written in but unable to see the light. Welcome to cyberspace, Boon Wan.

Obama fighting sophisticated thieves

When the thieves landed in Wall Streets, the regulators and administrators were awed by their sophistication, confidence and rich manners. They promised to generate a lot of businesses and wealth for all, including the regulators and administrators of course, if they were allowed to do what they wanted to do, freely. In other words, deregulations or little regulations, and a free hand to write their own rules of the game, print their own money or worthless papers to be sold for hard cash, and also write their own pay checks. This went on and on until the Lehman and subprime crisis. And all is history. But history is repeating itself. The same game is being played again. The thieves are loading themselves with huge sums of money. When they piled themselves with all those ill gotten gains, someone must pay for it. The money must come from somewhere. Obama is not going to be duped by these thieves like those bright eyed and eager beavers in Wall Street. And he has no reason not to stop them as he and his team are new and their palms were not greased by the thieves. So you can expect Obama and his team to come down hard on these thieves. And you can expect the thieves, their lobbyists and those regulators and administrators in their pockets, including congressmen and senators, to be stand up against whatever regulations and control that Obama may want to impose. When the regulators and administrators are on the side of the thieves, nothing will change. The robbing of the ignorant masses will continue and the thieves will get richer and more blatant in their acts. No regulations is good for them. No one is learning the lesson. No one.

Only two letters in the papers!

Two letters, one by See Leong Kit and another by David Soh Poh Huat, were harping about the high cost of HDB flats. If there are so many flat buyers in the island and only two bothered to write to the media, then it is concrete proof that it is not a problem. The minister and HDB are right. HDB prices are affordable and the people are happily buying them. See Leong Kit raised the issue of the real causes of high HDB prices which nobody wants to know or talk about. High profitability, market pricing and unrevealed cost and what else? David Soh quoted a case about why people could not afford to pay high COV. But this is only one odd incident. Not counted. The minister and HDB are right. People can go flat shopping for the best deal. No question about it. And if they cannot afford a 3 rm, go for 2 rm. If still cannot afford, go for rental. See, no real problem. All imaginations or people trying to live beyond their means. Hardlanders are basically losers and should not aspire to live better or in bigger flats. Be happy and grateful for a roof over your head. Many third world people don't even have a thatched roof over their heads. Would the hardlanders take my advice? Do they have a choice or any choice?

When uncaring, aloof technocrats take over

We have seen some measures taken to curb the property bubble. But such piece meal reaction to a dangerous trend that could make and break a person's home is nothing to cry about. There is a need for a deeper thought on what housing is to the people. We are a country and a nation in the making. Housing is an essential component that welds the people to the country and call it home. If housing is turned into another commodity of exchange, going to the highest bidder, the natural law of a free market will see the rich grabbing all the good properties and leaving the poor at the bottom of the heap. This will only breed discontent and undermine the foundation of this country as a nation of people. From the excuses uttered, I find them all rubbish. Shallow and selfish and arrogant. Young people want to get married, go and register and queue for a flat that will be ready in 3 years time. Are people just machine and getting married is something that can be methodologically programmed 3 years in advance? There are many instances of people deciding to get married over a drink or over dinner and you expect them to wait for 3 years for a place to make babies. And you complain not enough babies when these people are forced by your policies to delay making babies? And another reason, don't pay the price asked, or don't pay COV. Go shopping around for the best price. So easy mey? What kind of silly comment is that? When the supply is not there, or 3 years away, and when the buyers, for some reasons, cannot wait, they are price takers. With limited land, and a growing population, the think tank must start working to redefine what is the housing need, and the important role of housing in nation making. Public housing must not be a commodity of trade. For those who are speculating in properties, the developers, the bankers etc, the more expensive property prices are, the better for them. What about the losers, the people who cannot afford and have to keep on tightening their belts to keep a decent roof over their heads? Property speculation is a zero sum game. Can the speculative element, the investment game of properties be taken out of the formula? Can the govt treat property as an essential item for the citizens, and to provide good and cheap properties for the citizens to bind them to the country, to root them here? There are many areas and industries to speculate and make huge monetary gains. Just leave property out of the game. Building flats in anticipation of needs and demands like in the past is not necessary a bad thing. The citizens need a home, a good home, not just a pigeon coop that is getting smaller and smaller. Other luxuries are secondary. Give the people a good place to live in and bring up children without breaking their banks, or their backs.

More palliative care in the pipeline

And those who can pay will have to pay. Now, what would I want to spend my life counting beans, drawing little circles, painting little red dots, or walking on a ramp, and pay for it? What kind of living is that? Do I want to look forward to 85 or 100?