11/03/2009

Singapore companies risk brain drain

According to a Hay Group report, and reported by Lee Hui Chieh in the My Paper front page today, 'Companies here may face a brain drain if they do not repay the "sweat debt" - or employees' sacrifices - that they chalked up during the recession, a global consultancy firm warned yesterday.' This is the most serious threat to Singapore companies to date. If they refuse to up the pay of their employees, many will quit and move from Jurong to Ang Mo Kio or from Raffles Place to Shenton Way. The workers will simply quit and look for companies that are willing to pay them more. And if this fails, they will move further ashore, to JB, Batam and maybe Chennai and Shanghai. Singapore companies must not take our world class, most productive workers for granted. They are in demand everywhere, from Ang Mo Kio to Queenstown to JB and Batam. And they will move. Where else can these companies find CBF workers except in Singapore, Cheap Better and Fast!? Cheap to hire, Better in work and Fast in moving if companies do not repay them their 'sweat debt'. Come to think of it, this 'sweat debt', this country owes a big 'sweat debt' to the old hags that are still crawling around, alive, or to their children and grandchildren for the hardship they went through to build this country to what it is today. When is this country going to repay them? Or better to take care of new citizens and foreigners?

11/02/2009

PAP Online, a welcome change

Blogging is important after all. PAP is getting serious about the information, feedback and criticism it is getting from the new media. It is going to engage the new media head on by empowering party members to debate with netizens directly. Long gone will be the days of sporadic responses by a few members or insurgents. Sporadic responses in the past should be differentiated from the sporadic attacks by wild people like MacDonald Bloggers aka Pee on it aka Empty Empathy aka Kristine, or better known as directless rubber aka emplorer aka awaking. I never believe that PAP will send this kind of hot heads to attack other bloggers. For if it does and kena found out, it will be terribly embarrassing. Netizens should brace themselves up to see PAP members coming out in the open to defend PAP policies without hiding under anonymity. This is a great leap forward to more engagement and discussion in cyberspace. And the good side is that PAP will have the chance of greater space to explain itself clearly, and the reasons and justifications for its actions. Now the fight is online. Again, who says blogging is a waste of time? If that be so, PAP will be wasting its time. No the PAP will not be wasting its time on an unworthy pursuit. Cyberspace is the new future.

11/01/2009

MacDonald bloggers aka Pee on it aka Kristine...

aka Empty Empathy is back. Remember the one who wrote things like directless rubber, emplorer etc? He is back. And he cleaned up his messages with all these infamous words in them. But he forgot that I was one step ahead. I copied those messages and gave it to my friends for safe keeping. It is in his file.

Small minds and big businesses

The land of Sintu was controlled by Godfather Ah Beng. It was not a big place but lying at the crossroad of the international drug trafficking route, it was where all the action took place. From human smuggling, vice, prostitution, gambling and drugs. And Godfather Ah Beng ran it as freely as he could by just collecting the dues for his retirement. And he spent his time partying with wine, women and song. As a result he was indisposed and left the running of his business to his son. His main source of income was prostitution. His son was not the only beneficiary. His mistress also owned a third of the business while his godson another third. The three ran the three cash cows separately under different entities and managements. It was a very closed cartel business and everything was within their control. As time passed, each tried to outdo the other to prove to Ah Beng that he/she could do better. The cartel protected them from new competition and they exploited the arrangement to the fullest. The prostitutes were like slaves to the three organisations, generating incomes to fatten them, which was all good and well. Then smart alec thinking appeared. They tried to compete with each other 'discreetly'. Three monkeys running the same business and trying to con each other by being discreet. Son brought in foreign prostitutes that were cheaper and better. His business prospers. Not to be outdone, mistress and godson did the same and their shares of the business was back to square one. When one offered free gifts or extra services the others followed in double quick time. When one cut the price, the others also cut prices. The consumers were the happiest when the three monkeys fought among themselves, 'discreetly'. The people that suffered the most were the prostitutes. They were the ones servicing the customers and getting paid lesser and lesser while working harder and harder. Even the foreign prostitutes had to compete with foreign prostitutes from cheaper sources. As far as the three monkeys were concerned, cutting prices was the only way to go. They could think of no other better ways. And they forgot that their business was a near monopoly. While they kept squeezing the prostitutes, they were not stingy to themselves. They still reaped big profits and bonuses. Ah Beng too was undisturbed. Whenever he needed more money to splash around, he just raised his protection money and the three monkeys would pay willingly. One day the three monkeys found out that the business was not lucrative any more as the prostitutes too were abandoning the trade. So they sought permission from the Godfather and sold their businesses to live happily ever after from the wealth they accumulated over the years of exploiting the prostitutes.

10/31/2009

A sermon from elle

elle(from UK) says: Here is my 2 cents worth. People who dare not speak out are afraid of the judgement of others who may penalise them or at least laugh at them. So how do we cure that problem? (1) To dare to speak out means that you have to be confident of your views, you must know that you are right with your views and that no one will be able to challenge your views. So how can you be sure you have views that no one can challenge? And how do you can you gain such knowledge? God gave you eyes to see. He also gave you a brain to use to analyse the good from the bad. Today, man has given you the tools to learn. It is the Internet. You could easily learn enough to write 10 PhD thesis from the Internet. There are all the libraries available to you on the Internet. All you need is patience, perseverance, and time to learn and to analyse. (This last trait, the ability to analyse, and to have cognisance of all the facts is up to you and may depend on your experience and maturity.) But this Internet university is open and free to all, if you have access to the Internet. Once you know the truth you will want to share your knowledge with others. Imagine being able to find out answers like, (1) Is there a god? (2) Whose god has all the answers? (3) Is that preacher or that Professor telling me the truth? Or does he know what he is talking about? (4) What is a Taoist? or Buddhist? or Christian? or a Jew? or a Muslim? It may take you 10 years of research, but at the end you will know the answers. Now, in the 21st century all this information is available to you, free, and on tap, and it is up to you to find out for yourself. If you care to find out, that is. But people are lazy and want to be spoon fed. Those who want to be spoon fed will never have the cognisance to see the truth anyway so they are a waste of time. SO MY CHALLENGE TO YOU IS; "IF YOU ARE IGNORANT, IT IS YOUR OWN DOING." (2) Now, back to my original article. (By the way I have replied to the author but have not yet received a reply.) Singapore has been a "Nanny State" for too long. It is time the people were weaned from it. That article clearly spells out why Singapore is a Nanny state. Today, Singaporeans must be able to speak out, discuss, and learn about the world about them. They have to know the real world, with "warts and all." So that they will know which way they want to go and what is there in the real world. You can only learn that when you can talk freely about it, not guided or controlled discussions. I know, most of the time I have acted as a "Devil's advocate" but I have not acted our of malice. I have wanted to entice more of you to discuss the issues of life, of problems of the world, and how it will affect the lives of people in South East Asia and the future of your children and their children. There I go again preaching a sermon. End off. The above post is in Redbeanforum in the World Affairs section.