Singapore's 50 Most Trusted Individuals

The Asian Reader's Digest conducted a poll on 760 Singaporeans and asked them who they trusted most. 50 individuals finally emerged as the top most trusted men and women in Singapore. They include a top judge, a top cop, ambassadors, doctors, businessmen and women and comedians. I did not see the full list but some prominent professionals of eminent Singaporeans did not make it to the list, eg lawyers, bankers and people from the finance industry etc. But most notable was the absence of politicians. I thought, my god, the people have no trust for their politicians. Then I read further and it said 'the general elections have proven the country's leaders already rank highly...' and thus were omitted. I don't know what this statement means. It would be interesting if politicians were also included to give the people an insight into how well regarded they were. Then again it will be quite pointless if we end up with a survey when the top 50 most trusted individuals were all politicians. It will be quite embarrassing to the other professions and individuals. It will be equally embarrassing if one or two politicians did not appear as these are the most honest and highly regarded individuals we can find in our country. Anyone not in the list could be a slap in the face. Another reason for the exclusion of politicians in the survey could be a kind of self censorship. Ranking politicians with the mortals is unbecoming and can be sensitive. Better stay away from controversy. Whatever the reasons, the reason given for their exclusion is the most enlighten one.

More BS in Marina Bay

MBS will be the number one tenant at Marina Bay. It will compete with RWS headon for the gamblers comes April 27. The Marina Bay is going to be an exciting locale. And one can expect more BS to move in and stake a claim to this prime land. DBS is likely to be there, maybe OBS and KBS too. CBS another potential. Then there are the IBS, RBS, SBS, and the UBS. Not forgetting that NBS will also be there. Now, what is NBS, No Bull Shit? Isn't it interesting that gamblers are now hot personalities and being courted everywhere, and some being flown in and driven by Rolls Royces to the resorts! Soon we will be reading more great stories about the exploits of gamblers and how much they made every minute they spent in the VIP rooms. And the greatest gambler of the island will soon come out from this resort in Changi to join the fray. Many Singapore students will write composition of what they want to be when they grow up, 'I want to be a gambler". Now the cool thing is not to be in the company of royalties and politicians but be seen with top notch gamblers.

We never learn1

Everyone seems to be blowing the property bubble and fanning it. High prices are good. We can hedge against inflation and our savings for old age. I don't believe people can be so simplistic. The series of repercussions and consequences are unimaginable when asset inflation leads to asset deflation. During the last financial crisis, many people went bust, bankrupt. Many lost their jobs, many could not service their mortgages, many properties were forced sold, many ended with negative assets. And of course many downgraded. Just because things were looking better, and the property prices have recovered, with some making profits and some lowering their losses, we should continue to blow the bubble. The next crisis can come even sooner than expected and the impact could be worst when the loans are getting bigger. 90% of our people lived in HDB flats. This is their home, the roof on their heads. When HDB flats become an element in the speculative circus of boom and bust, when it busts again, and serious enough, we are going to have many frustrated and angry people. And if they cannot afford to have the roof over their heads, we are going to have a real social problem of our own creation. As we keep feeding the unsatiable appetite of the developers and the speculators, we may want to ask why or what for? Making all those profits for what? To make developers and speculators rich and happy? To make foreigners coming here to swoop up the properties rich and happy? Our main concern, or the main concern of both the people and govt is good homes for the people. Not 'AFFORDABLE' homes that are not affordable. But looking at today's news, the two launches of BTO flats are 10 times oversubscribed, saying that they are indeed affordable. And is there a high demand or the demand is fictitious? Many of these buyers are still frightened that if they can't get one now, the next one will be more expensive. Many needed a home, genuine buyers, but the supply is coming in in drips and draps. If they don't register, no building of new flats. The frenzy to grab anything that is available is hot. Who dares to wait when the mantra is that property prices can only go up and up and away? I really hope that another big financial crisis hits us soon and this time people really learn that playing with people's homes and blowing the property bubble is dangerous and bad. The flat is the people's home and should not be a factor in the housing casino.

Racist director and racist movies

In the Life page of ST today, director Pierre Morel was accused of being racist by casting all his villains as Asians or Pakistanis or Eastern Europeans. His latest film From Paris With Love also have non whites as villians, including Chinese or Vietnamese I think. It is so funny really, to accuse a director for being racist just because he casts the heroes as Anglo Saxons and the badies as non whites. The non whites should be grateful for the roles and the doles he is offerring them. Come to think of it, they should go back to the 50s and 60s when movies were so wholesome and non racial. I particularly enjoy the great movies of how the West were won, with American cavalries always arriving in time to kill the bad Red Indians and save the European immigrants, their families and little children from being slaughtered. And they always have happy endings too, with the Red Indians either shot or fleeing into the prairies or having their wigwams burnt to the ground. Let's have more soldiers and Red Indians movies, more remakes and in grander scales. I am sure no one will complain about racism. And the Red Indian actors and actresses will be most happy with the jobs and doles. Provided they don't cast Europeans as Red Indians.

Is there a property bubble?

The commercial cum residential site at Choa Chu Kang and Woodlands junction fetched a cool $164m yesterday. Two years ago the bid was only $64m and not accepted. What does this tell? Cheap don't sell, no bubble? When is a bubble a bubble? As can be expected, there will be all kinds of definition of what and when a bubble is formed. For the moment, one can expect 90% of Singaporeans between 30 to 40 years and owning a property to be in debt of $200k to $1m. This is likely to be the bank borrowing to acquire their dream home, a roof over their heads. Presumably they are servicing their mortgages at 30% of their incomes. As long as the economy is running smoothly, no crisis or wars, they will have no problem paying their loans. When there is a crisis, two things could happen, one, losing their jobs, and two, property prices plunged. This double whammy will suddenly reveal that their properties are worth so much lesser in value, and they have no income to pay for their loans. Maybe then people will say, it was a bubble. At current prices, most properties are priced way too high and this will give them ample room to collapse when the time comes. The gap between the current price and the value it will settle is another measure of the balloon that has been built in. Inflated prices in good time and realistic prices when people will not dare to splurge. Do we have a bubble now? From $64m to $164m in two years! The developers will keep pushing the limits thinking that they can keep on charging more. And when in trouble, hoping that the govt will help them out so that they will not go bust. In the meantime who is going to help the people who need a roof over the head from having to pay a lifetime for it, at the prices the developers demand? Who is the profiteer or who is causing the price to shoot to the sky? Must be the developer lah.