Another nail in the coffin of the American Empire

The Americans have just passed a health bill amounting to US$3 trillion to provide health coverage for the poor Americans. This looks good, generous and a pro people bill. But it does not address the causes of the high medical cost. America is just feeding the greed of the people in the system, from the medical professionals to the insurers and the lawyers. They are the ones who are benefitting extraordinarily from the poorly managed health system that generates billions into their pockets. Unless America stamps the extravagance in medical/legal/insurance cost, it is an exercise in vain. The hole will be bigger and bigger and will drag America into more debt. Now there are two big black holes, the financial system and the health system.

No greed in the animal kingdom

My experience in watching the animals and birds at Sungei Buloh told me one thing, there is no greed in the animal kingdom. The crocodile will not kill more than one prey. It kills only when it is hungry. So are other predatory animals. Even the stray cats will not kill unnecessarily. And the birds do not build more than one nest. They are contented with just one nest. The only specie that exhibits greed to the extreme is man. They not only want $10m, but $10b or even more if they could get their hands to it. And houses, the more the merrier. 10 houses, 20 houses or 30 houses, there is no limit to this acquisition. There is no such thing as enough in the mindset of man.

A timely intervention

This incident happened about 40 years ago, when good men were in the govt looking after the welfare of the people. In the heart of the Singapore River was all the trading activities, and a few rice merchants were forming a cartel to corner the rice market. They wanted to make huge profits by controlling the rice trade and price. The consequence was that the masses, the common folks, would be at their mercy, paying whatever price they demanded for rice. The govt stepped in, ticked them off, ostracised them, and set up Intraco with the main purpose of keeping the price of rice and essential food affordable, not charging at market price and no need for subsidies. Just simple cost plus some profit. No need to explain until face green green and nobody believe any word spoken. The people till now are still benefitting from this timely intervention, and the price of rice did not go spiralling up to a point of being painfully affordable. Those were the good old days with good and selfless people in charge and caring more for the good of the people. They were paid well, but not extravagant. These were the good records of a good govt that is for the people. After all the kpkb in cyberspace, we are having two assurances, one from Chok Tong and another from Mah Bow Tan. How would these turn out? As long as the bidding for land mechanism, market pricing, 'subsidising market price' policies are not changed, nothing will change. The price of properties will continue to spiral upwards. And the new mantra is that micky mouse flats or shoe boxes are good for living, a new lifestyle, and cheap too, at half a million for 400 sq ft. Looks like the goal of a Swiss standard of living has been modified to a Hongkong standard of living. Could we hope for a timely intervention like 40 years ago?

Some pics from Sungei Buloh

These are some pics which I took on a Saturday afternoon at Sungei Buloh last week. The crocodile at the top was taken on the same day. I used to think that the signboards warning of crocodiles were farfetched till I saw this guy at the first bridge after the main entrance to the reserves.

More pics from Sungei Buloh