HDB releasing 7000 units of flats in next 3 months

What a big deal. Is it enough? The pent up demand and frustration of our young men and women waiting to buy a public housing flat is threatening to blow up. Many have been waiting for yers only to see their dream flat disappearing further and further into the distance. And they were told, patronisingly, that they should scale down their expectations and go for something they could afford. This means smaller and smaller flats, and further and further away from the city. What have caused these problems? High demand, including new citizens and PRs and a flawed policy of building flats when there is enough demand as if HDB is baking cakes, ready in 30 minutes. Hey dummy, 3 years to wait and many things can happen. One thing for sure, some would have found that during their search for a new flat, their income has gone pass the $8000 ceiling and they would be kicked out of the queue. Not eligible anymore. And if they have only worked for a few years, there will not be enough savings to plonk as deposit for even a small and cheap private condo. How is HDB going to appease this restless and angry group of young people whose incomes just exceeded the $8000 limit but without a fat savings account to pay for private flats? Would there be any changes in HDB’s ruling to accommodate this new sandwiched class of first time home buyers? Force them to buy from the resale market, and not eligible for subsidies, at market prices? Many young couples are getting a starting salary of more than $3k on graduation and will be hitting a combined income of $8k in two or three years. How realistic is the $8000 ceiling when applied to these young people? Or is HDB so rigid, a huge mammoth that cannot change or would not change simply because it is the authority, another weeny warlord, and when it says it is fair, it is fair, like market pricing? There is nothing wrong with comparing the prices of 20 years ago as long as the basis is reasonable and logical. Nobody is saying that when it was $7k for a 3rm flat, we should be selling it at that kind of prices. We should be comparing affordability by comparing income over price. And it is very wrong to use recent data to justify that the prices are affordable when the basis is wrong. Why is a 30% expenditure of income be reasonable and affordable over 30 years? Why not 30% over 10 years or 10% over 30 years? Who should be the best judge of what is affordable, the buyer or the seller?

How to measure a Heart

It may be time to measure the heart of Singaporeans, from the poor hardlanders to the immortals. We have read of jobless man being taken to court for arrears in S&C charges, the malicious attack of a 19 year old girl in the name of having fun, or exposing her conviction in court as a public interest story. So, what shall we measure, or how to measure a heart? The first step is to check if there is a heart(oo sim). If the answer is no(bor sim), don’t bother. If yes, answer the next 4 questions. 1. Is the heart (a) big or (b) small 2. Is the heart (a) red or (b) black 3. Is the heart (a) broad or (b) narrow 4. Is it a (a) lean or (b) greasy heart If the answers are all (a), good heart, if all (b), bad heart. But the answers can be a mixture of (a) and (b). The normal interpretation is that small heart is bad, black heart is bad, narrow hard is bad, greasy heart due to too much good oily food also bad, and vice versa. A point of clarification. The conclusion may not be medically correct. As a distraction, the Chinese have various descriptions of the heart. 'Hor Sim' or good heart, 'Pine Sim' or bad heart, 'Hong Sim' or windy heart, 'Ya Sim' or wild/ambitious heart, 'Tam Sim' or greedy heart. And there are many more to list.

ERM should send Ris Low to Miss World

The attacks continue. She cheated, she was convicted, she was dishonest. No second chance, no forgiveness even to a kid who committed an offence at 17. ERM should take this opportunity to send a message, that a wrong act should not destroy a person's life. A silly act or deliquency does not deserve a life sentence. ERM should put Ris Low there on the high pedestal and say, 'We are forgiving her and giving her a second chance!'. What is so wrong about that? Why so adamant to taint a child for life? Are we so unforgiving as a people? Jesus said, 'Let the one who has not sinned be the first to cast the stone.' And don't forget that she is suffering from a bipolar sickness. Now for the real objection. Murali Sharma wrote, 'Our representative must be fluent in an official Singapore language - in this case English.' What utter rubbish! Why just English? On one hand she said must be fluent in an official language and on the other hand it must be English. Can our representative speak in Tamil, Malay or Mandarin? English is never a condition for such a contest. Ris Low speaks good English according to the ERM. She stumbles at times because of her sickness. This weakness could be turned into an advantage, that we have a big heart to accept someone that is not so perfect. And I am wondering how many of the contestants at the Miss World contest are perfect or with no criminal records or ugly backgrounds. Let's send Ris Low to represent Singapore, to tell the world that we are all mere mortals, with our flaws and weaknesses. Or maybe we should send an immortal or a demigod to represent us.

A shocking case in ST forum

A Lim Beo Thiam, 52 years old, and have been unemployed for the past 18 months. Business collapsed and lost a leg to diabetes. He was taken to court for arrears of $432 owned to Town Council for S&C charges. His debt kept ballooning. He wrote to the ST hoping that help is on the way. He must be one of those guys who have slipped out of the safety net. He must be desperate. It is shocking that such cases actually exist. I thought all the craps of people falling into hard times were fiction. Got such things in paradise meh?

I am terribly disturbed

I am very disturbed by the way Singaporeans look at problems and their inability to shift out the truth from all the information available. Many Singaporeans are complaining about the high property prices, especially of HDB flats. And we all know what is the main cause of the high prices. Now what is the problem? I have read letters and suggestions that in order to bring down the prices, HDB should build smaller size flats or build basic flats with bare concrete and bare fixtures like in the 60s/70s. Are these the cause of high prices? Don't Singaporeans know or understand that the high prices are caused by market pricing and the notion of affordability? If the supply and demand, and market pricing dictate so, if the affordability fiction says so, no matter how small is the flat, or how basic it is, it can go to $1m for a 300 sq ft unit. Come on Singaporeans, stop being silly. Stop being foolish.