GIC $59b loss

The Wall Street Journal, 28 Sep 2009 SINGAPORE (Dow Jones)--Government of Singapore Investment Corp. suffered a loss around S$59 billion in the fiscal year ended March, making it one of the worst years for the sovereign wealth fund since it was established in 1981, a person familiar with the situation said Tuesday. "The equities investments suffered the most, followed by falls in property valuations. It was one of the worst years ever," the person told Dow Jones Newswires. Does anyone got a feel of what $59b means? If a private condo costs $1m each, $59b can buy 59,000 unit man. My guesstimate is that the sum of money could buy up all the HDB flats in Ang Mo Kio or Toa Payoh. That is what $59b means when translated to purchasing power. But no one is battling an eyelid for the loss of such a hugh sum of money. It is just paper money, some digits churned out by the accountant. On hindsight, GIC should have put in more money in CitiBank. If the investment in CitiBank was 10 times of what CIC put in, it could recoup $46b worth of profit in one go. Wouldn't that be nice? Ok, the initial collapse would mean many sleepless nights and shivering in cold sweat. But it would be worth it.

End of the Dark Ages

With the advent of cyberspace we are seeing the dawn of a new era of freedom in mass communication. The days when the govt controls all the modes of communication are over, or about to be over. Or at least we are now allow to hear alternative views and news. Gone were the days when the masses were fed with fairy tales, legends or stories of comic book superman and superheroes. Today we are seeing and hearing different kinds of heroes. In our local context we are hearing news and views that would not have the chance to see in prints. Now we have Ngaim Tong Dow, Seah Chiang Nee, Lucky Tan, Gilbert Goh, Alfian Saat, Tan Kin Lian, Andrew Loh, Choo Zheng Xi, Leong Sze Hian and many others who are saying things from the way they see it. Without them and all the infamous bloggers in cyberspace, we will still be like little children, reading fairy tales and comic books, and feeling very good. All bloggers should continue to contribute to the diverse views of truths and coloured truths, to challenge the truths in the old media. Only then can the masses break free from the oppression of one sided media transmission.

We are 5 million strong

Thanks to PRs and new immigrants, that's the front page news in 'my paper' today. Our population has hit 5 millions with the help of foreigners. We shall thank the foreigners for helping us to shore up the property prices as well. We shall thank them for providing jobs for our people. We shall thank them for helping to grow our economy, for without them we would be plunged into a recession or collapse. And thank you for helping to fill up the seats in MRTs and buses and the roads, and all the places that need people to patronise them. Without the foreigners we will be a dead city. Thank you, thank you. We are eternally grateful. And please come. We need another 3 million to reach our ideal target of 8 million. After that everything will be fine. We will not need any more foreigners or babies for growth when that magic number is reached. And our economy will continue to grow, and we will live happily forever.

Weeny warlords and draconian policies

Singapore is seen by the world as an authoritarian state rightly or wrongly. We have many 'draconian' laws ranging from banning of chewing gums, caning and the death penalty. From a Singaporean point of view, especially from the angle of law abiding citizens, such laws don't really affect them as they are targetted at the irresponsible and criminals. In fact such laws are seen as good by many, including foreigners who came from their land of disorder and near anarchy. This culture of handing down tough laws and policies have over time seeped into the veins of many weeny little warlords who have no qualms in dishing them out to the masses. One favourite item is to make things compulsory, even to the extent of impounding the people's money under whatever guises. And we even have jail penalty for commuters who cheat the bus company of a few cents. In today's ST, Goh Eng Yeow wrote a long article about the stiff penalty that the Stock Exchange is handing down to small traders for carelessness. The fine is a hefty $1000 for data entry error or a mistake that may be worth a few hundred or a few tens of dollars. Goh Eng Yeow's article explained fully the whole gist of the matter which he described as another form of draconian laws that this island is infamous for. The sad thing is that many poor buggers were punished for a small unintentional mistake. Maybe a $1000 fine is not worth mentioning in the eyes of the little warlords. What is $1000?!!! It is so little, so small, and people should not quibble over it. Well, when one can be fined for a few thousand dollars for chewing gum offence, this $1000 fine is not even close to a peanut. And nobody cares. Everyone of some importance will have more important things to do than to bother about little people being fined for $1000, rightly or wrongly. Small people should count themselves lucky if their heads are not cut off by the warlords within us.

No Yellow Ribbon for Ris Low

More efforts and revelations are needed to destroy this 19 year old girl. Do more research and dig deeper to bring out more unpleasantness of her life, and it is only a matter of time before she be buried and done away with. First it was her poor English. So she is bad. Now it was her credit card fraud. She was found guilty for cheating using stolen credit cards. This must have done the job. Attacking her for bad English was snobbish. Revealing her cheating conviction was hitting her below the belt. For the latter, I too find it difficult to defend her case. Having committed a crime is something that would put Ris Low and the organiser of the Miss World campaign in a very awkward position. And the attackers gone to town with everything they had against her. Oh, wait for more. It is not over yet. And I am reading very carefully between the lines to pull out the mastermind behind this whole sordid affair of character assassination in the name of good fun and righteousness. Forget about forgiveness, forget about Yellow Ribbon. Forget about gracefulness. We Singaporeans are just a bunch of rats! Talking about grace, forgiveness and having a Yellow Ribbon campaign is only an aspiration and not meant to be real. We are honestly just low down human beans. Let's bury Ris Low in the most humiliating ways we can think off and use the media to its best advantage.